Sources....

What sources I use for papers depends on what kind of paper I am writing. For most of my papers, if there is no source requirement such as a scholarly source, I use Google. Also if there are books that relate to my topic I will use those. I will usually start with books if I am using them because I know the information in them is reliable and will add to my paper. After I retrieve information from books, I go straight to Google. The reason I do this is because Google gives such a wide range of websites, and always has something on any topic I am writing on. Google has been a site I have used my entire writing career and it usually works out great, so I’m keeping it up, don’t fix what’s not broken. The problem with always using Google is the same reason why I always use it, which makes it a controversial site to use. The problem is that it gives so many sites to choose from. I could be looking at a site written by a scholar who knows a great deal on the subject, and I could be looking at a site made by a college student no smarter than me, and I would never know. Although sometimes I do check the author and look through the site to check how reliable it really is, this is how I choose which sites to use in the final draft of my paper. The issue of where to use sites depends a lot on the paper, I like to mix it up throughout my paper so it doesn’t appear that I have mostly used one site for my entire paper. I just put quotes in my paper wherever they fit best, that’s my strategy. The best way for me to improve the sources I use is to check for reliability. Check out who the author is and see if they have written anything else on the subject, eventually I will find out if they are reliable or not. Also I could check out other websites like library websites instead of constantly using Google. Overall I feel as though I do pretty well with finding and using sources, but there’s always room for improvement.

Norman Borlaug Article

This Norman Borlaug article is about using genetically altered crops to stop world hunger. Many people believe that altering crops such as maize is wrong and makes the food completely inorganic or even unhealthy. Although altering food may change it a little bit, the positive affects this biotechnology has on our world outweighs the fact that the food is not organic. Many people in America may not feel this way because the majority of Americans do not face problems like hunger or starvation, but the fact is there are millions of starving human beings around the world. This number is large, but genetically altering crops makes this problem much more manageable, without these crops there would be millions more suffering from starvation. Another problem is that the Earth’s population is expected to reach 8.3 billion by 2025, and without genetically altered crops, there would be no way to feed this many people. Personally I was already in favor of genetically altering crops, but after reading this article it has made me realize how important they really are. My stomach may not feel the impact directly, but our world would be extremely different without them, and that makes a difference in every ones life.

Chapters 18, 19 and 20

The final three chapters from this book talk us through Pollan’s experience of hunting pig, picking mushrooms, and gathering a complete meal for himself. This way of life is called hunting and gathering, and it’s the way humans survived before industrialization. Although this way of obtaining a meal was obviously a lot tougher for Pollan then stopping at McDonald’s, he talks of the experience as satisfying and self rewarding. The opportunity to gather a complete meal for himself, and an awfully healthy one at that, was an experience that not many people get these days.
Personally I would never want to live in a hunting and gathering society, or ever have to find a complete meal for myself in the wilderness. Industrialization today has made it possible for us to get a meal in five minutes without even stepping out of our car. And although there are some negatives to this, I believe the positives outweigh the negatives tenfold. I often don’t make myself a meal at home because I am too lazy to cook it, but Pollan’s gathering experience has taught me to greatly appreciate how little work I do to get a quality meal in the world today.