Moodle Sucks and Agriculture.

To begin, I'd like to apologize for having such a long break between posts. Apparently, exams, essays and sleep can do that to a person. I'm a little frustrated with myself about that, and a few other things, but I guess that's life eh?

Moodle. Internet assignments are honestly going to be the thing that kill me in college. This week, for example, I had an assignment due to a forum by 5pm on Wednesday. Being smart, I finished it Tuesday (smart/ still procrastinating) but decided to double check it on Wednesday before posting it. Wednesday, 5:10pm rolls around, and what did Miss Hannah forget to do? Post her forum. That's right. This smooth chick definitely lost 20 points (full credit) on an assignment that was finished because it's posted at 5:10. This week... is definitely not my week. I wish that were the worst of the problems. I try not to miss classes just because I over sleep.. but this week.. I did :/ I missed my 8am Tuesday, and I really enjoy it. Today, however, I woke up, went to my classes and got caught up on all my late reading assignments and got ready for next week by finishing my weekend homework... all in 3 hours at Duluth's Starbucks. Shitty week is hopefully only to go up from here.

I've learned.. through various readings and getting my feet wet a bit in high school that I really really enjoy talking about, learning about, and looking at soil. SOIL.
It's silly to you, probably, I mean... it's so trivial. Soil is dirt. Dirt is brown and squishy. Bugs live in dirt. Ick. SOIL is organic material on top of minerals and rock. SOIL is what gives life to crops, trees, and beautiful flowers. Essentially SOIL gives us life.
I love it. I absolutely positively love soil.

I'm sorry if you're thinking.. what is this babbling lady talking about soil for.. WHO CARES??

Me :] I'm the one that likes soil. I like soil because soil plays a huge role in agricultural practices all around the globe. WOAH. Wait a second.. I'm actually talking about something related to geography. Oh man. Mark the date. Hannah officially stopped rambling about the random happenings around the school..

Agriculture is necessary to sustain life.. but at current population growth rates, we can't possibly expect to grow enough food to feed all the people we're making (for lack of better word). Worse yet, is that productivity of soil isn't possibly going to be able to keep up with  population levels if we don't start using more sustainable methods of farming. There are several options that need to be looked at, such as crop rotation, integrated uses of pest control and nutrient control (meaning not too much of one type of control.. too much of anything is bad.. in this case not only for the soil but also for human health and ecosystem health), no-till farming, and erosion preventative crop structure.

Number of people increases --> amount of food needed increases --> pressure on ecosystems increases--> soil degradation increase.... --> amount of food produced DEcreases..

I like soil. I like worms, even though earthworms are invasive (fun fact). I like bugs. I like plants. I LOVE trees. Finding better solutions to reduce our ecological footprint doesn't only lie in more sustainable living within our homes... but even bigger and deeper problems.. Instead of focusing ONLY on the things we can see.. we have to remember what lies beneath our feet.

Always,
H.Eilene


photos courtesy of:
http://sustainableswcolorado.org/sites/default/files/images2/agriculture.jpg
http://chiotsrun.com/2009/04/28/the-balance-of-nature-growing-soil/