Human waste on food?

                We all know our crcops are grown using fertilizer, which is either made out of chemicals or animal wastes. But what if I tell you that maybe just maybe the farmer used a different type of waste. What if I say human? That’s right human wastes or as what they’d call it Biosolids. Biosolids are now used as fertilizer in different parts of the world.

                Where do biosolids go? Well our wastes are burned so that there wouldn’t be a build up in our sewers. Why burn it if it could still be re-used? Research has shown that in Ontario around 300,000 tonnes of biosolids are collected each year. Out of 300,000tonnes, 40% of those biosolids are beneficial for our crops; which could cover up tp 15 000 hectares of land. A lot of people though disagree to such thing mainly because of

-Potential health hazard 

-Effects irreversible

-Contamination resulting from accumulation of industrial waste

- Its true composition is unknown

-May contain hazardous 

chemicals

-Possibly transferable to crops 

-Decreases property value 

-Not sufficiently regulated

-Odor

 Obviously these wastes are treated before used. Chemicals that could be harmful to our health and also getting rid of the smell.

Biosolid treatment

A down side to this is when the biosolids are not treated properly. It could cause an awful smell. But as long as the biosolids are treated properly it wouldn't cause any harm to anyone.

 Since we’re all about going green and helping reduce waste in the world, I think that using biosolids as fertilizer is one way to reduce waste.

                Besides farmers, I think that the government should also be interested in this. They could use it to fertilize plants in the park or on the streets.

                Maybe it wouldn’t be so appetizing to others if they knew that the vegetable or fruit that they’re eating was grown using human waste. It has been said that biosolids are far way better than chemical fertilizers.

·         “Reduces the need for commercial fertilizers;

·         Reduces production costs;

·         Improves soil fertility;

·         Enhances soil structure, moisture retention and soil permeability;

·         Adds organic matter that helps to maintain good soil tilth and reduce the potential for soil erosion and runoff.” (OMFRA)

This may be disturbing to some people but I thnik that by using Biosolid as fertilization would help reduce our wastes. It helps both humans and also the environment. 

References and Sources

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/nm/nasm/sewbiobroch.htm

http://www.weao.org/committees/biosolids/2007dEC12-WEAO_BUC/Meerveld.pdf

http://www.sencer.net/Outreach/pdfs/DCSymposium08/Posters/LUbiosolids.pdf

http://tdn.com/news/opinion/article_c286d348-8984-11e0-8b2c-001cc4c03286.html

Bioblogs I commented on 

1. Daniel Maznabi
2. Puji Wibowo

How technology works with our internal system

Society has grown rapidly with in the past two decades. Our development with technology too has been fast to meet our needs. It seems like everyday there’s something new out there. People would put together ideas to create something new to make life easier. To understand our bodies and what goes on inside, technology also becomes our friend.

                As new diseases develop, technology develops. More people come up with machines that would easily detect certain diseases. Technology too helps us learn more about with these new diseases. Different types of scans are used to check different types of diseases. Like the X-ray,  a CAT(Computed Axial Tomography) scan is used to find more than just a broken bone. It’s a 3D version of  an X-ray.  Doctors would use this in cases of cancer, brain tumour, kidney problems and more. It’s taking X-ray on another level.

CAT Scan

MRI Scan

 To get more specific, an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scan is used for more details. It has a more clear imaging and more detailed compared to a CAT scan. It is also does not release harmful substance not like a CAT scan. While these machines are used to check our insides from the outside, an endoscope checks our insides from the inside.

ENDOSCOPE

 It used by doctors for plastic surgery, during pregnancy, to check our ears, nose, urinary track and many more. It works by inserting a small flexible tube like, with a lens on one end and an eyepiece for the doctor.  Since there are more and more diseases are developing we cope up with these by inveting new machines to help us learn and find a cure for it.

As time goes by our Society is in need of more new technology to help us out with our every day lives. It’s not only needed in work, hospitals or schools but it also needed at our homes and everywhere. By taking what is already made and develop It to make something better is how society works today. By taking different ideas and making it into something, like how scientists would take an idea from an older instrument and somehow develop it ( how the X-ray was developed into a CAT scan).

Sources

1.http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/examinations/mriscan.htm

2.http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=bodyct

3.http://www.emedicinehealth.com/ct_scan/article_em.htm

4.http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/153737.php

Blogs I commented on

1. Camela Fejer

2. Marc Gonzales

How to raise a chicken in 40 days!

Do you ever wonder how that delicious home made baked chicken that your mom made came from? Well as the world’s population grows, the higher the demand on poultry, meat and crops (chicken, beef, pork, turkey, corn, etc.). Well companies tried their best to reach those demands by doing it industrial style.
Industrial Agriculture: The industrialized production of livestock, poultry, fish, and crops is called industrial agriculture. Industrial agriculture includes techno scientific, economic, and political methods. Methods like inventing new agricultural machines, adopting new farming methods, creation of new markets for consumption, ensuring patent protection to genetic information, using genetic technology and global trade are used in industrial agriculture. It is using these methods that most of the meat, dairy, eggs, fruits, and vegetables available in supermarkets nowadays are produced. Industrial agriculture is also called as industrial farming.

We all have that ideal farm. The ones with the barn and animals running around the wide field. But the industrial agriculture thinks differently. They do have barn, where they keep all the animals cramped and have no where to run.

How Chickens should be raised. 

How industrial agriculture would raise chicken.

Another fact about chickens is that it would usually take about 12-16 weeks to grow a full size chicken. Since there has been a highly demand on chickens, the industrial agriculture has their own way of growing a full size chicken with in 40 days! Yes with in 40 days. You may ask “how would you do that?” Well the secret to that are anabolic steroids. So now they’re injecting steroids in our food like they were some sort of athletes. These steroids have side effects on both humans and chickens. For us these side effects causes children to enter puberty at an earlier age. While the effects on these chickens are so much more than that. These steroids causes the chicken to grow so fast that the chicken’s body cannot keep up with the rapid growth in result of death. 

5 weeks old chickens with the body of a 12 weeks old chicken

I think that the agricultural industry should find other ways to keep up with the demands, instead of injecting growth hormones and cramming chickens in one small space. Chickens should have the freedom to run and also grow normally. Raising chickens should never be a battle between rural and urban. It should stay the same like how it was before (feeding them the right food, let them run in a wide open space and give them love.)  In result of this are happy and healthy humans and animals. 

Source 1: How to raise chickens the right way

Source 2: Industrial Agriculture definition

Source 3: Anabolic Steroids

Source 4: How to raise chickens

Source 5: Grow a chicken with in 40 days
Comment 1: Camela Fejer
Comment 2: Kendra Geniza

Build-a-baby

What is a designer baby you may ask?

“an infant created by genetic engineering combined with in vitro fertilization in order to ensure the absence or presence of a particular gene or characteristic”

A designer baby is basically a “customized” baby. Parents get to choose the physical traits they want their kids to have. How this is done is by taking out egg cells from the mother and sperm cells from the father. Then each are scanned for any genetic diseases and is removed. It also being scanned on the traits that the parents want and not want their child to have. After all the genetic engineering is done, both scanned egg cells and sperm cells are combined in the process of Vitro Fertilization, fertilizing eggs and sperm cells outside of the body.  

One of the main purpose of a designer baby is for parents to create their customized baby. They can choose which traits they want to pass on to their child. Doctors  can also scan through the possible genetic diseases that the parents might pass on to their child, this gives the doctors to take out those genes that carries the disease.

  

Another purpose of designer babies is for the child to be an organ donor. In the movie “My Sister’s Keeper”, Anna (the cancer patient’s sister) was a designer baby. Her parents created her to have compatible organs as her sister so that if her sister needs an organ they could just get one from her. I think it is wrong for Anna’s parents to bring her to the world and take her rights away. Anna will also have a high risk of have implications in her body since some of her organs were taken away from her. The parents can’t just create another baby to help out Anna.   

I think that designer babies are acceptable in a level that they would only screen out the genetic diseases. This could prevent the ongoing generations to have genetic diseases.  But to make a “perfect” baby I think that it is to the extreme obsession of parents. Parents should just be happy that they’re given a gift.  

Sources:

http://www.bionetonline.org/english/content/db_eth.htm

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/designer+baby

http://www.bionetonline.org/english/content/db_cont1.htm

Blogs I commented on:

Dinah Teston
Camela Fejer

Bycatch & Sustainable Fishing

Lately there has been an increasing demand on fish and other seafood products in the market. But as study shows there has been a huge downfall on the fishing industries. There haven’t been enough sources for fish since the fish population decreased big time. Since the downfall on the fish population many other species that aren’t meant to be caught are also trapped with the other fish. Dolphins, Whales, turtles and such are also caught in the trap accidentally. This is called bycatch, marine creatures are caught accidentally.

           

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) together with Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and Aquaculture Stewardship Council(ASC) will help the fishing industries avoid the bycatch. The MSC had put up standards to the fishing industries in order to obtain their sustainable fishing label for their products. A couple of fishing suggestions that the WWF have put up for low bycatch level are Fish traps  and Jigging .  These are some sustainable fishing techniques were you keep the ones you need and release the other species alive. The WWF also want the fishing industries to avoid getting small fish, marine mammals (turtles, seabirds, etc.), and many more.

           

Each year there are over 30 million metric tons of dead fish caught through bycatch. That is about 25% of all the fish in the world. With sustainable fishing we can reduce this number and also avoid putting species endangered or even extinct. The World Wildlife Fund together with Aquaculture Stewardship Council and Marine Stewardship Council are there to find more new ways for sustainable fishing and also to decrease our negative impact on the waters.

References:

WWF transforming seafood market

Bycatch

WWF bycatch levels

Endagered Sea creatures

Blog comments:

 http://cfbioblog.blogspot.com/
http://biobobombs.blogspot.com/