Read 'n' Seed 5: Fourth Quarter and Final Review of Hope's Edge, The Next Diet for a Small Planet

In this section I read Chapters 10 and 11.

In chapter ten the author and her daughter traveled to their last destination, Wisconsin. During their stay in Wisconsin they stopped at many farmer's markets and found out that Wisconsin is home to one of the country's largest farmers market. I found this to be a good surprise when I read about it. I wouldn't assume that anywhere in this area would have a farmers market so large mostly due to the fact that the growing season isn't that long in this area. Although I was glad to read this, I was also disturbed by the fact that on average Wisconsin loses three family farms a day. This is mostly due to the fact that they are not efficient enough to compete against the corporate farms in the area. They are closing down these farms everywhere and replacing them with fast food chains like McDonalds. There are now over 26,000 McDonalds in over 119 countries. Local farmers in the Wisconsin area are working together and selling their crops to those in the community. These farmers offer better and more diverse crops to those in the community.By selling them straight to the community they are eliminating the middleman which is allowing the farmers to actually make money. This is starting what is being known as the slow food movement, to try to move away from fast foods. Not only are they getting people away from fast foods but they are also encouraging them to grow organically which is better for the consumer and the environment. The organic market is growing by 20% each year and is continuing to grow with the slow food movement. I think this movement is something that we need in America because we are way to dependent on fast food and using chemicals to grow our food. We can all help get this movement going by making an attempt to by more organic food. Remember what was said in class, we vote with our dollar.

In Chapter 11 the author goes home and begins to work on the book. One important thing that the author learned on her trip was that we need to learn to take action. We can just sit around waiting for someone to start changing problems for us. We need to actively participate in making change ourselves. She also came up with 5 liberating ideas:

1. Scrap scarcity scare, realize abundance. We need to start seeing that we have an abundance of food and that there is no scarcity of food. Instead in some areas of the world there is so much extra produce that they are just throwing it away. We need to start wasting and use our resources the right way.
2. Laugh at caricature. We see ourselves as selfish and materialistic people. Studies have shown that we human beings need connections in our lives We can't just survive on our own because there is a need to connect with other people. We need to let go of the notion that we are selfish and embrace the need for connection with others
3. Put tools in their place. We have come up with all this new technology so why don't we use it in a way that would benefit us. We have the market and technology and we need to turn them into tools that we can use.
4. Discard dissection, solve for pattern. We have the tools to best get what we need now we just need to use them.
5. Bust free from "isms". We need to reestablish value into our markets

It's not easy to change and most people fear change but change can be an important thing. Each dollar we spend is a vote for the world that we want. 

This entire book was about the author and her traveling to look into the food crisis around the world. She learned a lot about what people were doing to help the environment and themselves to better survive.

I learned a lot of interesting things while I was reading through this book. I learned that we need to change even when we don't want to. If we all work together to each do one small thing to change for the better of the environment and ourselves we can make a real big impact. The second thing that I learned was about the amount of chemicals we were using to grow our crops. I knew that chemicals were being used to help with the growing process but I was not aware that we were using that much to help grow our crops. It's almost sickening to know that we are using that much. The third thing I learned was about the Green Belt Movement. Learning that one woman struggled to put it together and wouldn't stop no matter how bad it got for her was really motivating for me. Because of what she did, Kenya is now a better place to live.

I really do recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about the food shortage. Not only that but to hear about other people's stories and their efforts to improve their lives and their own environment should be reason enough to read this. I really enjoyed reading this book and I got a lot of information from it as well.