Ocean Forecast Expanded + Food Forecast

Expanded Ocean Forecast

I intend to use Kadi's piece from last Monday as inspiration for the expanded ocean forecast. She did a really good job at drawing! Her work of the fish wind chime with sea shells reminded me of when you walk down the beach and see fish washed up on the shore among the sand and sea shells. Although it was made out of paper, it also made me think about the sound a wind chime makes and how it can make people more aware of their surroundings.

It also reminded me of a pretty graphic picture I saw of a dead bird washed up on the beach that had basically exploded because of all the plastic it had eaten since it mistook it for food. I intend to expand my forecast on how animals are affected by the plastic in the ocean.


Food Forecast

Last night when I made dinner after finally convincing myself to eat something, I decided to make rice. I've never really put much thought behind rice before, even though it was a food I would eat on a regular basis growing up. The more I thought about it as it could relate to this forecast, the less trivial it started to seem. Rice is a very common staple food across multiple cultures; it's found in all regions of Asia, Europe and the Americas- thanks to colonization.

Rice has been around for thousands of years, feeding trillions of people since it's discovery. In an age where new food inventions are constantly being introduced into the market, becoming more processed and unnatural, getting 'back to the basics' with food staples such as rice has become a solution towards relieving world hunger.

Genetically modified crops such as rice has also become an attempt to relieving world hunger. Since more than 3.7 billion people have an iron deficiency, enhancing rice with more iron is an effort to lessen that number. As mentioned in Lucie's forecast on GMO's however, the development of tumors has been a consequence of putting them in our crops and in our bodies.

What if rice became a way to not only stop world hunger, but also be a source of income for the unemployed? Rather than sending third-world countries packs of rice for hunger relief, we could develop an organization within countries such as Haiti to plant fields of rice crops for people to harvest, teaching them skills and giving them opportunity. That way they are not only fed, they have the opportunity to provide for their family and afford a more balanced diet.

This would be started in the United States first, in the effort to help solve our own hunger and labor issues before we set too much of a capitalistic precedent on other countries. This also makes me consider who would actually be employed at these organizations, and I can't help but think it would more likely than not be illegal immigrants. Although controversial, it could have the potential to be beneficial for both parties.

Questions
Do you see this as a problem or a solution?
If you see it as a problem, how do you see it becoming a solution? Or vice versa?
What would be an alternative to GMO's?


Articles
Impact- Stop Hunger Now
BioTechnology: Putting An End To World Hunger