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Sustainable Farming: #Trending?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 06:48:36 -0500

Industrial Farming has been the dogma America has lived by for about the past 60 years now. This principle has caused several problems with the environment we now live in. These problems range from increased greenhouse gases to overuse of water to excess nitrogen. The solution to this problem is to start practicing sustainable agriculture. Sustainable farming is to practice farming within the means of land that is being farmed. The hardship that this movement is facing is gaining support for the movement and informing the public. However, this task has become easier in recent years because of social media websites such as Twitter.

There are several major problems with our current food system right now. The biggest problem of our food system is land transformation. Land transformation destroys natural habitats, changes the climate, and produces mass amounts of greenhouse gasses. Second, our monoculture or single crop style of farming has eliminated the biodiversity of the land and eradicated most of the top soil in places such as the Mid West in America. The use of monoculture also weakens the natural ability of animals and plants to fight diseases, because they can’t rely on each other for natural protection. Third, the overuse of industrial fertilizer made from fossil fuels has increased green house emissions and caused excess nitrogen to run off into our rivers and oceans. The runoff then creates dead zones at the mouths of hundreds of rivers around the world. Sustainable farming can fix all of these problems, because it uses the Earth’s natural ability to eliminate disease, fertilize the land, and provide more food than monoculture farming. If managed correctly, sustainable farms produce more per acre than an industrial farm, because of the biodiversity of each acre of farmed land.

There are many organizations where you can learn about these practices. There are four different groups I follow on Twitter that pertain to sustainable farming or sustainable agriculture. The first group I followed is called Civil Eats which according to their page is, “A site that promotes critical thought about sustainable agriculture and food systems as part of building economically and socially just communities.” Another group I’m following is First which, according to its twitter bio says, “Farming First is a global coalition calling on world leaders to increase agricultural output in a sustainable and socially responsible manner.” A third group I’m following is Farm Forward, which is run by Ben Goldsmith. Also according to its bio on Twitter, “Farm Forward works to promote conscientious food choices, reduce farm animal suffering, and advance sustainable agriculture.” The final group I decided to follow on Twitter is Earth Eats. Which, according to its bio is a, “Podcast, public radio program and blog from @wfiu. Tweets about local food, food safety, policy, sustainable agriculture, environmental news and recipes.”

Civil Eats is an organization that generally informs people of the politics of sustainable farming. For example there’s a tweet that talks about meat reform, “Now on Civil Eats: Killin the Competition: Meat Industry Reform Takes a Blow.” More recently, the page has been focusing on the Occupy Wall Street movement. More specifically, the Occupy the Food System part of the Occupy Wall Street movement (http://civileats.com/2011/12/12/occupy-the-food-system/). Farming First’s page (https://twitter.com/#!/farmingfirst ) has tweets that focus on the future of sustainable farming and where in the world it’s possible to improve. For example, “New post: How to build the resilience of African smallholder farmers in a changing climate.” Farm Forward (https://twitter.com/#!/FarmForward ) is a Twitter page run by Ben Goldsmith. His page mostly focuses on happenings in the food world. For example, “Caught On Tape: McDonald’s fires its egg supplier after undercover video reveals farm cruelty and food safety concerns.” Lastly, Earth Eats (https://twitter.com/#!/eartheats ) uses its page to inform people about different ways to practice sustainable eating habits for if you aren’t a farmer. For example, “Who needs a yard: Container garden sightings in Philadelphia http://bit.ly/rsjRdp” or, “12 great winter #beers you have to try: http://bit.ly/tsFfuY.”

All these twitter pages have websites behind them devoted to the practice of sustainable farming. Each one provides a place to learn and to help implement sustainable farming practices. They also help with bringing awareness to the movement. For example, Earth Eats’ Twitter page has almost 100,000 followers! Also Civil Eats helped bring awareness of the impossibility of industrial farming to Wall Street through Twitter. All this education and the organization of these events would have been much harder had it not been for social media.

Amy Winehouse Storify

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:35:36 -0500

pearsoam:

<script src=”http://storify.com/pearsoam/amy-winehouse.js?template=slideshow”></script><noscript><a href=”http://storify.com/pearsoam/amy-winehouse” target=”_blank”>View the story “amy winehouse ” on Storify</a>]</noscript>

I never really payed attention to Amy Winehouse, so it was nice to finally learn about her life and why there’s such a huge following of her life.

MacRumors Presentation

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:31:00 -0500

MacRumors Presentation:

finnt:

I couldn’t get the embed feature to work so I just posted the link. Get ready for a nerdy presentation Tuesday.

This is a pretty sweet site that I will now be using to find out about anything mac. Thanks!

Storify Presentation

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:27:15 -0500

coltonlenz:

I thought it was really cool to see how big of a community track and field has, since it’s not a very talked about sport.

CERN storify

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:17:13 -0500

davidburlet:

The presentation was really good. I’ve read about it in novels before but I’ve never actually learned about it. It was a very interesting presentation.

Storify

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:11:39 -0500

kosmas111:

I do have a Pottermore! I was sorted into Ravenclaw.

briannefyw111:

kosmas111:

Ok, so I think the first link didn’t work. Here it is in slideshow format!

http://storify.com/ZoeKosmas/harry-potter/slideshow

Do you have a Pottermore? If so, what house were you sorted into?

Harry Potter basically was my childhood and I’m super glad to see that people are keeping it going. Having the story turned interactive online is really awesome way to perceive a story. good presentation!

osman3590: Storify: The Sartorialist I thought your...

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:07:13 -0500

osman3590:

Storify: The Sartorialist

I thought your presentation was really cool. I wasn’t there in class but I just went through it now and I’m sorry I missed it! This blog is really cool because when I think of a fashion show I think of really out there designs that aren’t plausable for every day life. This blog is a lot different in the fact that these are actual fashions of everyday life and people can actually make these happen!

Longboarding Storify

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:01:19 -0500

Longboarding Storify:

I thought it was really cool to see that there’s such a huge community for all different types of board sports. Especially longboarding, because it seems to me one of the more obscure and dangerous board sports out there.

heyimgeoff: briannefyw111: heyimgeoff: Storify presentation...

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:56:24 -0500

heyimgeoff:

briannefyw111:

heyimgeoff:

Storify presentation for How I Met Your Mother!

Your presentation was really interesting. I have never seen the show before, but it seems really funny. Now I’m curious. What will be your next show-related purchase? Perhaps the suitjamas?

is that a serious question? of course I’m gonna get suitjamas DURH!

First off I looove How I Met Your Mother. Second I think it’s freaking awesome that you have the bro code and the play book. Third, the hot crazy scale is my background right now. Fourth I have two of barney’s motivational posters as my background on my ipad right now. Fifth I think it’s awesome that you’re writing a paper about barney. That’s it.

mitchkampf: storify test It was really cool to see how social...

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:47:11 -0500

mitchkampf:

storify test

It was really cool to see how social media on tv shows can actually translate into real life social media networks!

Nick Denn: Tiger Woods

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:40:15 -0500

Nick Denn: Tiger Woods:

denn111:

Tiger Woods…back! http://t.co/H1J2MNId

fcsfinest1

December 5, 2011 2:54:26 PM EST

Reply Retweet

Birdie birdie feels pretty damn good. Fans made it feel better than great.

Tiger Woods

…

I thought it was cool to see that Tiger Woods is still appreciated for his talent on the golf course even though his personal life is a mess.

briannefyw111: MBTI Storify I liked your use of the video to...

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:35:06 -0500

briannefyw111:

MBTI Storify

I liked your use of the video to show us what the test was all about and that you addresed some of the points critics had brought up.

"http://storify.com/Jake_Goll/how-social-media-affects-the-airline-industry It was really cool that..."

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:30:01 -0500

“http://storify.com/Jake_Goll/how-social-media-affects-the-airline-industry
It was really cool that you use the sites you’re doing your research on. It’s awesome that it’s such a personal project for you.”

- Goll’s Mind: Airline Industry Storify!

All-Access Mom Storify

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:15:49 -0500

All-Access Mom Storify:

cmchurchill:

So after watching this, are you more in support of McDonald’s food industry? Or do you think that this is (as I do) corporate propaganda so that these mom bloggers will say positive things about McDonalds and therefore more people will go and buy from them? For even if they only go there ‘once in a while’ (because they believe the food is grown and processed more healthily), that still adds a considerable amount of consumers (probably predominantly mothers who read these women’s blogs, and will thus bring their children/families there).

I liked how you showed the blogs of mothers from Canada instead of focusing on mothers in America. Really shows how mothers around the world are thinking about the same things.

Storify Presentation

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:50:32 -0500

Storify Presentation:

Hope it works!

Presentation for 11/17/11

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:33:18 -0500

ezracoughlin:

Good-evening. So, I just finished my Storify presentation and I’m not actually sure if it worked or not. I may have linked it but I can not figure it out at the moment so it will have to do. Sorry for any inconvenience.

So I’m not really sure which one of these is your presentation cause none of them seem to be working, but i’ll go with this one. You showed us a lot of sweet pictures today and I was wondering, what communities or websites do you follow where people talk about their catches?

cmchurchill: Here is my Storify presentation about the...

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:28:58 -0500

cmchurchill:

Here is my Storify presentation about the popularity of each regeneration of the Doctor. Hopefully it works! :D

The videos were a really good way to quickly get accross what the show is about. Good stuff!

Gunnar: SB Nation: The Sports Fans' Blogging Network

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:26:14 -0500

Gunnar: SB Nation: The Sports Fans' Blogging Network:

gunnarsolson:

SB Nation has a couple of features that make it extremely attractive to its users and potential users. This is why it is one of the top 10 sports news sources in the world.

Firstly, we have a few tweets. These three tweets mention SB Nation in them which is how I found them. They…

I liked your use of the tweets to show how SB Nation goes more in depth than your classic sports tv show like sports center.

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:14:09 -0400

Linkedin:

Recently I’ve beeen hearing about this website called Linkedin. I decided to check it out and it’s pretty interesting. It’s pretty much a career building website. The connections are a lot more proffessional and it’s definitely a different service than any of the social media sites i’ve seen. Check it out!

Are Young People Better at Social Media?

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:25:24 -0400

Are Young People Better at Social Media?:

This was an interesting video I stumbled upon on my other twitter account that was tweated by men’s humor. Didn’t expect that! Anyway its pretty interesting. I think that the people “wiser in there years” have found it necessary to become well versed in using social media to stay with there jobs. Whereas younger people are taking knowledge of social media for granted, therefore, not learning as much about it.