Currently, I'm wading through students' bids for research topics, controversial issues for argumentative/persuasive writing. I'm surprised at the duplication, especially when I warned folks that no two students would have the same issue approved. I find this bizarre, for it seems to me that everything has its controversy.
Lately, I've been exposed (via NPR, check it out) to several issues related to food and fuel. For example, we acknowledge being petroelum dependent, yet we do little/nothing to alter our lifestyles (still drive SUV's, still not supporting alternative energies, still shun public transportation, etc...). AND, more importantly, we seldom reckon with underlying uses of energy...I heard that 20% of our nation's energy needs are spent in the transportation of food products. The source suggested analyzing our own cupboards and refrigerators. They cited Iowa as an example: more than half of the average consumer's food was brought 1500 miles or more in order to show up on the table in Iowa. That is exceptionally silly, since all of the food products could (in season) be readily available locally, for Iowa is , of course, a fertile and productive region.
So what gives in Iowa? What grows in Iowa? Corn. Not ears of corn ending up as 'corn on the cob,' either. Most of the corn produced in Iowa is processed into....drumroll please...high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Runner up for corn usage? Feeder cattle. Both HFCS and feeder cattle are horrificly wasteful, in terms of the amount of corn needed to get results. The ratio is something like 10 bushels of grain to yield 1 pound of meat. (That, in itself, is another issue--the way western diets are so meat-centered and thusly wasteful.) Those Iowa corn farmers are not often the hayseed, overall wearin' individualists we once knew. They are becoming large corporate enterprises with names seldom demonized: ADM, Monsanto, etc.
I operate a billing service for natural gas used in irrigation. I know quite well that it takes a good deal of natural gas (ie petro-resources) to water the corn that is then squandered when produced. It is not uncommon for a farmer who has only 1-2 circles of corn to use--get this--$100,000 in natural gas in a SINGLE MONTH. That figure is not even considered above, when I cited 20% of energy usage going to food transportation.
...so, what I'm saying here (in a fashion not to be modelled by my student readers) is that we are wasteful, of course, but more importantly, we are not mindful of our waste (in either petrofuels or food value). The media has our attention fixed on pump price, but there is much, much more to consider. Once one cocks a suspicious brow at the reflection, it is both painful and difficult to accept. "Oh, it's those rich oil barons." is much more simple than, "Oh my, it's me!"
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Maybe I'll just tuck related issues as attachments to this Issues posting...I will with this one anyway, at least until I learn how to do that "fold" thing where only a portion of an entire blog entry shows up...
I was wasting time watching television. Saw a commercial that made the claim: You may not be able to get more sleep, but with xxxx you can get better, deeper sleep. This is to say, you don't have time to do what's right and good for you, so here's yet another way for consumerism to allow you to buy your way to another intangible.
Don't have time to sleep? Yes, our careening nation has been sped up to the point most people only get 6 hrs of sleep. The solution? Buy that mattress.
Ahem! Some of the most introspective, peaceful, contemplative, adjusted, people I know sleep on a GRASS MAT. That, AND they acknowledge it takes time to sleep. The ticking of the clock has no meaning in a system focused on quality rather than efficiency.
I need to do another time study on myself, for I figure if I was once ready to shell out $5000 for a bed, so I could get more out of my limited time, then I should value my waking time that much or more. I just did the math, and using that bed company's quality/cost ratio (figuring the mattress to last 5 years) every hour is worth $2.19.
What's an hour worth on your economy?
I had a name brand mattress once. It didn't make me sleep any better. the only thing i've found thus far to make me sleep any better is anything with the pm in it. Which is horrible. but when you've been diagnosed with ADD and ADHD alls I can do is think before I go to sleep.
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