Category Archives: Food Redux

MML Food Redux GMO Lab Report

May 30, 2013, by MML

In my Food Redux class we created a report on GMO’s and our position on it being open to the world. The process of creating this paper was not as hard as I expected. The only reason that I’m saying this is because all the information I found online are against GMO’s so it made it easier to write the report. One thing that I learned creating this report is that Monsanto is a powerful company that controls 86% of corn crop around the world. One thing that I’m most proud of in this report is probably my graph that I worked very hard on to show you guys how much corn cost that are not organic in the US are going up. Please view my report below for a great GMO experience.

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GMO is a genetically modified organism. Plants or animals created through the gene splicing techniques of genetic engineering. This experimental technology connects DNA from different species creating an unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacterial, and viral genes that cannot happen in nature or in traditional cross breeding.

 I feel like GMO’s are a health hazard to humans, animals, insects, etc. GMO’s leave toxic residues in our body causing digestive problems and immune system disorders. Overall, in my opinion I feel like GMO’s are a big harm to our body and should not be left on the market unknown especially containing dangerous side effects.

I prefer organic seeds over genetically modified seeds because they are much healthier for you body. They also contain more nutrients that are not affected because there are no chemicals injected. Even though they could take twice as long to grow, they are much healthier and in my opinion taste better.

“I rather eat meat that comes off my farm rather than another farm because I don’t know how other animals are  treated on that farm.”

-(Big Bowl Farmer) Marc Bernard

Source of my dataset.

https://www.agriculture.com/news/crops/what-will-it-cost-to-raise-your-2012-cn_2-ar23067

 Cost to Produce Corn

Time frame of my graph (year).

2005-2010

The graph percent change helps me explain my argument in multiple ways. One way it helps is that it shows how much organic corn has gone down and it also shows how cheap it is compared to genetically modified corn. Another way my calculations help my argument is that it shows how much corn costs have gone up in the US even though they contain GMO’s.

My graph also helps my argument because it shows the peak point of how much organic corn cost in hungry and it shows you how much it has gone down since. My graph also shows how much corn used to cost in the US, and it shows that the cost of corn in the US is on the rise.

Vocab/Concept 1:

Hazard

Vocab/Concept 2:

Health

Support your position with 3 arguments.

Argument 1:

Harmful Effects: Food allergy, increase toxicity, decrease nutritional value and antibiotic resistance.

Argument 2:

Product Cost: Product cost has gone up since the starting point of production for genetically modified corn.

Argument 3:

Monsanto: The company create harsh pesticides that are designed to kill everything natural they touch. The most popular, which is called “Round Up”. The company then creates GMO’s that are unaffected by this specific poison so that farmers can blanket their field and kill weeds, pest, and everything else. They now control 93% of the soybean, canola seed, and cotton crops. They also control 86% of corn crops.

I feel like my ethics towards non GMO’s  is a normal response for someone that is against it. I also think it’s a responsible response because non GMO’s are not only healthier but cause no effect to your body that in any way harms it. I feel like GMO’s are not needed in this world. We have lived without them in the past, and tells me we can do it in the future.

It makes sense to feed the world, I’m not against that. The one thing that I am against is feeding the world posen that cannot be taken back. I feel like some farmers that plant GMO’s are trying to help and feed the world, but they are not doing it the right way.

References

“Costs Rise for 2012 Corn Crop.” What Will It Cost to Raise Your 2012 Corn Crop?N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2013.

“Daily Kos.” : Monsanto: A Beginner’s Guide to the World’s Most Dangerous Corporation. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2013.

 

Organic Vs. GMO

May 30, 2013, by JM

Before you get into this, I would like to warn you that this is a rather opinionated topic that I have written & spoken about for our food oriented class. What we were asked to talk & write about was whether organic farming or GMO farming where better alternatives for an ever growing food system. When I was done, I was proud of being able to find a huge amount of resources to support my opinion on organic farming. I learned a lot about the genetics of plants and how genetics effects all plants. I hope you decide to continue reading this article and that you enjoy it.

 

Persuasive Speech

     224 years ago… The United States of America were born! For more than 100 years we had grown all crops organically until the birth of the current era. The era  Genetically Modified Organisms also known as GMO’s. GMO’s are organisms whose genes have been changed so that they have a different phenotype or so they can withstand different conditions. Sometimes both.

     I am here to state my opinion on GMO’s so lets get into it. I believe that GMO’s are not such a great alternative for providing food because they just aren’t guaranteed the safest way of producing food. Allow me to elaborate.

      GMO’s are usually made into a monoculture which then creates more diseases that animals & plants both suffer from. This happens because monocultures make it easier for new and stronger disease to construct themselves. If the food source is depleted, then the consumer can also be depleted.

     From listening to the a genetic scientist we met yesterday, I find that changing the genes and genetics of the entire organism to change a single outcome in it (such as pesticide resistance) by eliminating a recessive gene, can change the entire result of how many nutrients we are actually getting from the GMO. Some of the nutrition in the modified food could be gone do to “modifying” it. What is the point of buying the “nutritious” food in the first place if its missing the nutrition your looking for in it?

      I also found due to the work on the farm that Big Bowl works with that GMO foods are not always proven safe to eat. Half of the GMO’s that are grown and sold in the US have not been tested to see if they have long term effects on the things that eat them. Here is a quote: “GMO’s are made to be sprayed with pesticides. These pesticides harm bees and bees are essential to the process of producing food,” said Farmer Mark. This just proves to you that by using GMO’s and pesticides you are doing more harm than good.

I believe that growing and farming organically is the best way to farm because it doesn’t do any damage to the environment if you do it the right way. I feel that it is also the best way to farm because in the long run, you will save more money than buying things to produce huge amounts of GMO’s! When producing huge amounts of GMO’s to make more money, you have to buy more land, bigger machines to harvest it on, more pesticides, and you have to spend money on buying seeds every year because all of the seeds are patented, which makes it illegal to save them. With organic, you don’t need as much land, can find natural ways to prevent viruses and pests from harming the crops, and you can save seeds! You can save money, your health, and others health also. You become a superhero.

     Also by more countries growing all organic, it shows that they have healthier people living in them while everyone still has enough food to eat. For example look at this graph I made. I decided to look at two countries were they grow all organic. I decided to look at Switzerland and Italy. If you look at Switzerland, the only grow organic is working pretty well. Look at the yields of corn from the years 2006 – 2007. That is a 20% increase in production of corn! That is incredibly high especially when you take into account that they can’t use pesticides that are not organic also. This shows that it is possible to produce enough food to feed the growing amount of people in the world while still growing food that is healthy and that we know is safe to eat.

     Thank you for allowing me to voice my opinions and I hope I have made an impact on what you were previously going to vote on. Have a nice day and stay fresh like my crops.

Essay on GMO’s by AH

May 30, 2013, by AH

In the last unit of Food Redux, we had to choose between if we like GMO or were against GMO’s. We learned about our food through the eyes of a seed-saver, using your taste as well as your knowledge of genetics to make decisions about the food you would like to grow. I learned a lot about why GMO’s are bad for us, other reasons why it is in our food, and to give our argue meant if we want it in our food or not. I am proud of putting this powerpoint together, doing research, learning the different backgrounds about GMO’s and why they have so much impact on the food we eat.

Here is my PowerPoint. Hope You Enjoy it !!!!

Food Redux Action Project 3

MML Cupcake Trial

May 13, 2013, by MML

In my Food Redux class I wrote a lab report on substituting leavening agents for baking cupcakes. While writing this paper, I learned that it is not so hard to substitue a leavening agent with another ingredient  but some ingredients do affect the taste of how it turns out. In my lab report I have graphs that show different heights of cupcakes with the leavening agent and without. I also have charts that show the units of how much of each ingredient we used. But overall, I would have to say that my favorite part about this lab report was actually baking and eating the cupcakes. I would have to say the one thing that I am proud of is actually making the cupcakes without it’s leavening ingredient  Please view my report below!

————->MML-EAT-AP2-Lab-Report (1) <—————–

To Change a Recipe

May 13, 2013, by JM

This post is about a project from my food math & science class. We were learning about chemical reactions and leavening agents and in order to prove we learned something about these topics, we were given the task of taking a recipe and changing the leavening agent in it to create a new recipe and to see if we new what we had been learning. The thing I am most proud of in this project is finding a basic cooking ingredient and an acidic cooking ingredient to put inside of our new recipe. I learned a lot on how to convert units of ingredients and also a lot about pH and the different reactions it can cause in object. Keep reading to see my lab report!

Title:

A New Leavening Agent

Justin Martinez

Partners: BKJ, MY, CD

Food Course

May 6, 2013

1. Introduction/Purpose (1 paragraph)

We started off learning about chemical reactions in food. We were taught about leavening agents and how they are caused by reactions of acids and bases. We were then given the task to find a way to substitute a leavening agent in a particular recipe. This lead me to my research question and objective. I decided to choose apple sauce and olive oil because applesauce is acidic and olive oil is basic which allows the leavening reaction to occur due to the swapping of hydrogen ions.

2. Objective/Research Question

What happens when you create a new leavening agent for a previous recipe?

3. Hypothesis

If I make a leavening agent with applesauce and olive oil, it will react because olive oil is a base and apples are acidic.

4. Materials (List all ingredients and tools, including your substitute leavening ingredients)

Apple Sauce (acid)

Olive Oil (Base)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup all purpose flour

7/8 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup of milk

5. Procedure

For Control Group:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Grease and flour a 9×9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.

3. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.

5. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well.

6. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth.

7. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

8. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

For Experimental Group:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Grease and flour a 9×9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.

3. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.

5. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well.

6. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth.

7. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

8. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

6. Data (include data obtained for control group and experimental group)

 

7. Graph

 

This chart is made to show the differences of height in the cupcakes due to the different amount of acids and bases we put into the cupcakes. The blue one is the first experimental cupcake, the red is the second, orange 3rd, green 4th, purple 5th, and blue is 6th. The pink one is the control group that we were comparing all of the cupcakes to.

8. Calculations/Recipe in Metric

 

9. Conclusion

 From this experiment I learned so much. I learned what a leavening reaction and that was what occurred (and what we hoped would occur) in our cupcakes. Leavening reactions are reactions that cause are to be released inside of cupcakes. Although we had hoped to have this reaction occur in our cupcakes by using Olive Oil and Applesauce, we actually did not end up having any leavening reaction in the cupcakes while baking. I believe that the experiment was a failure yet that from this failure we learned that olive oil and applesauce do not have a leavening reaction. I come to this because our cupcakes did not rise at all and they did not have any air in them. If I were able to make a change in order to make the results of this experiment turn out better, I would search for a replacement of the acidic and basic ingredients.

 

Lab Report by AH

May 11, 2013, by AH

In the second unit of Food Redux, we learned about the Ph scale and to see what it is used for measuring the scale of food and to see if it is acidic or basic. We had to create 2 different cupcake recipes. We had substitute for new ingredients to a cupcake recipe and to see how the cupcake would turn out to be? I learned how foods are basic and acidic and how to recreate a cupcake recipe. I am proud of putting together a lab report, learning how much ingredients we needed to make the cupcakes, creating a graph of how high the cupcakes raised and turn out. I had fun working in our groups trying to make the cupcakes and tasting the different ingredients we added into the cupcakes.

Here is AH’s Lab Report results

Rooftop Garden

April 26, 2013, by JM

This is a garden but not your average garden. This is a plan for a garden that has 5 different kinds of plants (bulbs, fruits, roots, tubers, etc.) and has 10 different object that can be grown in it and that are good and healthy for you. The purpose of this project was to see how planting a garden can help you be inspired to eat more healthy and to see how planting your own food can help change the world. I learned through this project how to design a garden and how to plant and grow certain foods. I am proud that I was able to complete the project even though it is not on time. It was a lot of fun. Check out my Prezi below to view what I did and I hope you enjoy!

Garden Drawing by AH

April 17, 2013, by AH

In the first part of Food Redux, we dived into the web of life to explorer and to learn what soil is made of, how the seasons affect our food and take the role of a farmer to design a garden. We learned how to make a table of food and to see what we would include in the garden drawing, see which months each food grows from, calculate the height, length, and width. We also had to do a drawing of our garden including our different foods and to see what we would include and to see what the final product would turn out to be.

Here is my Powerpoint on my garden.

Food Redux PP Action Project 1

Food Redux – AP1 – MML Garden

April 17, 2013, by MML

In my Food Redux course, I created a garden that shows foods that we have researched on. My favorite part about this project was drawing my garden and figuring out when they are planted and harvested. The hardest part about this project was finding all of the crops and making sure they fit in my garden. One main thing I learned in this process is to make a garden because I’ve never gardened in my life. I would have to say I am most proud of my drawing because I feel like it really represent the idea I had in my head. Please view my Prezi below and check out my garden!