Agriculture - Blog 5

Southwest Florida has been great additions to not only help the environment, but to help the people living in these environments.  In 1981 ECHO was created to help people eat foods grown out of the ground in an effort to end hunger.  ECHO is based on a 50 acre farm that has conducted research to figure out ways to grow nutritious foods in difficult areas.  ECHO uses a variety of technologies and techniques to grow the plants: raised beds, wooden trellis raised up, growing on slopes and using rocks to hold soil back.  ECHO is focusing on both international and places in the United States and what was interesting and heartbreaking to hear was how children in Lee County, Florida wouldn’t eat their next meal once they left school on a Friday until Monday when school would resume.  ECHO has done a fantastic job educating people like you and I of the possibilities of growing edible plants in any environment with the techniques of growing in difficult areas. 

In Robertson’s textbook it talks about Fast-Food Food Deserts and says, “Food security is defined as having access to nutritionally adequate, safe, affordable, and culturally acceptable food on a daily basis. People in low-income urban neighborhoods are particularly at risk because they may not have access to healthy foods…” (pg. 244).  In the YouTube video for ECHO, the woman talking says something very similar to this statement and that is why ECHO is working so hard with international farmers to educate them on ways to grow plants that are not only healthy for them to eat, but for the village they need to feed as well.  ECHO has made a large impact since 1981 to help world hunger by teaching ways to grow plants that are safe for people to consume in difficult parts of the earth that could be difficult to grow.  

Urban Experience - Blog 4

Babcock Ranch is the closest thing to a perfect town with their goals, aspirations and soul.  You asked a valuable question: “How does the design of the town help residents to create a sense of place there? Why is that Important?”.  Everyone that lives in this town all share the same common goal, which is to live with preservation and to leave a legacy that it is possible to treat the land you live on in an environmental way to be an additive to future generations.  The design of the town presents a sense of unity and that everyone is there working together for a common goal.

The initiative for this entire town to use only solar power energy will help slow down climate change.  All energy used during the day is powered by solar energy and then once it gets dark out and nighttime begins then the energy shifts to using natural gas.  Florida Power Line (FPL) has been working with Babcock Ranch and has supplied over 350,000 solar power panels.  According to our textbook, “Grants from utilities, government programs, or donors may be available to help funding… [solar panels] evaluate not only the potential for emissions reductions but also financial costs and payback period” (p.82).  The use of solar panels reinforces Babcock Ranch initiative to build a town right from the very beginning and to preserve the environment surrounding the town. 

It is important for a town to provide a sense of place when you go there to visit or live there because unity is everything.  You want to feel like you belong and that the work you go through in life is meaningful and that is Babcock Ranch in its entirety.  Everyone that lives there works together and the diversity present in this town show how important it is to take care of your neighbors. They all treat the environment with pride and will leave the legacy that it is possible to live a full life while keeping you, your family and friends and the environment safe.

Marine and Coastal Field Experience - Blog 3

Every weekend my fiancé and I get on our jetski and find an adventure!  This past weekend we decided to launch our jetski at the Cocohatchee River Park boat ramp and we rode through the channels to Lover’s Key.  On our journey through the channels we came across so much wildlife, it was amazing!  The first thing I noticed that stood out was all of the mangroves.  I believe the mangroves in Wiggins pass are black mangroves and they were everywhere.  It was low-tide when we first went out, so we were able to see the roots very well.  While riding in the channels we saw so much life from the birds up in the sky to the manatees and dolphins in the water.  In Roberson’s textbook we learned about biodiversity, which describes the biological diversity of genes, species and ecosystems.  The more biodiversity there is in an ecosystem the more stable it will be.  When I saw all the different forms of life surrounding the channels it just showed how all these different animals and life forms work together.  In the estuary we saw a couple manatee for a brief moment but it was such an amazing moment.  From my experience I feel that the manatee stay pretty close to the channels floor and will only come up for a brief moment, but dolphins like to make their presence known!

Once we arrived to Lover’s Key we beached our jetski and walked around.  On the shoreline of the beach I sunk my hands into the sand where it was still wet and lifted my hands out of the sand and saw a large amount of tiny coquinas.  It is so interesting to watch the coquinas as they dig into the sand once they’re washed up on the shoreline to hid from birds so they don’t get eaten.  The coquinas made me think of a sentence in A Sense of Wonder, “For me the sight of these small living creatures, solitary and fragile against the brute force of the sea, had moving philosophic…”.  Although the author is talking about the crabs I feel the coquinas have a similar story because they are so small but they contribute to the large ecosystem of oceanic wildlife.  While walking along the shoreline at Lover’s Key we saw a mini forest of what appeared to be live oak that ran along the coast.  I go on these jetski adventures every weekend but had never paid such close attention as I did on this last one.  It had never crossed my mind all of the different species in the channels or ocean that all work together to make the ecosystem strong and stable.  I definitely recommend spending an afternoon in a kayak, jetski or paddleboard going in these channels because there is so much to see and learn!