FOOD!

This week, we're talking about food in our environmental science class. We are supposed to choose a food that we really like and do some research on where it truly comes from. I love a lot of different foods, so it was hard to choose just one to write about for the blog. Ultimately, I decided to go with arroz con leche, which is basically just rice pudding but with cinnamon (and sometimes raisins) added to the mix. Arroz con leche is a delicious dessert that can be served warm or cold, and it is one of my all time favorite foods. But, what does it take for me to indulge in this dessert? What is the exact process? And how much impact does this exact process have on the earth? Well, this blog will be about bringing those answers to light. 

There are only four simple ingredients that are required to make arroz con leche: rice, milk, sugar, and cinnamon. My boyfriend's mom makes my favorite rice pudding, and those are the ingredients she uses. Although as a whole, this food comes from my boyfriend's mom's kitchen, each ingredient comes from different places. 

• Milk: The milk used in this recipe is usually whole milk and it's usually just the store brand from Ralph's or another popular grocery store. I found out that the milk itself does come from California. On the label it says, "Real California Milk" so I researched this and found Real California Milk's website: http://www.realcaliforniamilk.com/dairy-farms/ . On their website, they have several videos and pictures that display their farmers, their cows, and their farms, and all of these seem to be good. They do not have too much information about transportation, or farming practices, but they make a huge deal out of being local and being family owned dairies. The environmental impact may not be as bad in the milk area, because however the milk is being transported (presumably by automobile/truck) it is not coming to me from out of state. They also have a section about being "greener," because they recycle water, and they use solar panels and other sustainable methods for energy.
• Rice: Next is the rice-- the key ingredient. The rice that is usually used in this recipe is Blue Ribbon Rice. This rice was a bit harder to find information on, and their website was much more vague. They did state that their rice is grown in the U.S. which would already greatly reduce emissions from transportation than if it was from overseas. As far as how the rice was farmed, there is really no information that I could find, but I am assuming, since Blue Ribbon is bigger business, that it is processed in more factory-like conditions, and not as much care is put into it. I know that the way rice is grown, it does use a lot of water, because it is flooded. So that is something to take into consideration as environmental aspect as well.
• Sugar: The sugar that is typically used for this recipe is C&H pure cane sugar. After doing some research I found that sugar cane was shipped from Hawaii to San Francisco to be processed by C&H in California. The C&H in the brand name stands for California and Hawaii, because of the long history of the sugar business between the states. However, the factories in Hawaii have shut down due to sugar prices dropping, meaning the sugar cane has to come from elsewhere, like Brazil or Vietnam. The environmental impact of this change will be much greater than if the sugar continued to come from Hawaii.
• Cinnamon: The final ingredient, and the one that makes arroz con leche so delicious, is cinnamon. The cinnamon used is whole cinnamon sticks that are typically bought from the grocery store, Cardenas. After researching it, I learned that most cinnamon comes from Sri Lanka, and some comes from Indonesia. I am not sure exactly where the cinnamon we use comes from, because the packaging does not include and info about it, but I researched the general farming practices for cinnamon. In Indonesia, families will often work together to scrape the bark off of the trees that cinnamon comes from, so it does not seem to be harvested by means of any large corporation. However, it does have to travel far to wind up in California which will cause a great amount of emissions from planes, boats and trucks.

Although this dessert probably is not the healthiest, it is not extremely unhealthy. Most of the ingredients are processed very little, and there is not an overwhelming amount of sugar in the recipe. It does contain 60% carbs and 25% fat, so it is probably best to have in moderation. Arroz con leche is one of my favorite homemade foods and it was really interesting to learn about where all the individual ingredients come from and the impact that they have on the earth.

sources: 

http://www.realcaliforniamilk.com/our-community/

http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/01/19/crockett-last-hawaiian-sugar-ship-bids-historic-farewell/

http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/25/capturing-the-cinnamon-harvest-in-sumatra/

https://scienceleadership.org/blog/arroz_con_leche

picture: https://www.onehappyhousewife.com/instant-pot-arroz-con-leche/

gif: https://www.google.com/search?biw=1436&bih=705&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=g2P5WaPhMJi2jwTG-5D4Aw&q=twinkling+heart+gif&oq=twinkling+heart+gif&gs_l=psy-ab.3...67446.75594.0.75748.29.25.4.0.0.0.138.2759.0j23.24.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..1.24.2442.0..0j0i67k1j0i10k1j0i30k1j0i10i30k1j0i10i24k1j0i8i30k1j0i24k1.104.FQ7vRFixBL0#imgrc=cSQLsoZW2GEloM:

BOTTLED VS. TAP


Our blog post this week centers around the pros and cons of bottled water versus tap water. I was really looking forward to doing some research on this topic, because I feel that it's a topic I still don't know too much about, but I would really like to learn. I drink water from plastic bottles pretty regularly, and I always feel guilty about it, because I know there are a lot negative impacts on the earth that come with using plastic bottles. I did some research to find out exactly what those negative aspects are when using plastic
bottles, but also what some positive aspects are, which I also researched for tap water.

I live in both Riverside and Eastvale, but I decided to look at the water quality report for Riverside, since I go to school there as well. Our area receives its water supply from groundwater. The groundwater comes from the San Bernardino Bunker Hill Basin and the Riverside Basin and the water is treated before it is distributed. After reading the water quality report, I learned that both tap and bottled water can be susceptible to contaminants, since they both come from outside bodies of water. These contaminates can include: viruses and bacteria, salts and metals, pesticides, organic chemical contaminants, or radioactive contaminants. Even though there could be trace amounts of any of these substances in our water, the city does enforce regulations on exactly how many contaminants are allowed in water that is distributed for human consumption.

The federal agency that is in charge of tap water/drinking water is the EPA and the federal agency that is in charge of bottled water is the FDA. It seems to me that the EPA is stricter with their regulations when it comes to tap water, and they also place more emphasis and keeping the public educated on what is considered to be safe drinking water. The FDA does not go as in depth with all the different kinds of contaminants and keeping the public informed. However, both agencies do place a heavy emphasis on making sure the water is safe for human consumption.

As I stated above, I do use bottled water very often; plastic bottles are viewed as convenient, and I can see why this is so from my own personal experience. However, there are a lot of environmental

factors that emphasize the drawbacks to using plastic bottles. They do contain harmful chemicals (BPA and Pthalates) which are not only harmful to the environment, but also to the people who consume water from them. Plastic pollutes the ocean and is eaten by sea animals, which is definitely harmful to marine ecosystems. Overall, plastic is long lasting and hard to get rid of, so it is a very prominent pollutant, which is probably the biggest drawback to bottled water.
And for these reasons, I do plan on purchasing a Nalgene bottle ASAP!








SOURCES:
water quality report (Riverside, 2016): http://riversideca.gov/utilities/pdf/WQAR2016_web.pdf
EPA regulations: https://www.epa.gov/dwreginfo/drinking-water-regulations
FDA regulations: https://www.fda.gov/food/resourcesforyou/consumers/ucm046894.htm
tap picture: http://watersofteneradvisor.com/best-water-filter-pitcher-reviews/
bottle picture: https://www.water-io.com/

SIT QUIETLY

 Hello again! This week, the blog post is all about being absorbed in our surroundings. I was really excited to do this blog, because it gave me an excuse to escape from my responsibilities for a little while, and it just allowed me to just sit and relax for a bit. The assignment was to go outside somewhere, whether it be our front or back yard, or the park, and sit quietly for at least twenty minutes. Although it was relaxing, it was not exactly complete “down time.” As part of the assignment, we did have to keep track of all the different things, biotic and abiotic, that we saw while outside. I decided to go to one of my favorite parks near my house and sit in a grassy area under a relatively large tree. I originally wanted to come to this park around the time when the sun sets, but time limitations came up and I went at 3:00pm. The weather was roughly 75 degrees, and even though the sun was very warm, the shade from the tree made it really nice and cool where I was sitting. It was the perfect weather to go out and do my sitting.

At first, I was not seeing a whole lot of “things” around me, but as I began to sit for longer and longer, I started to notice more life around me. The first biotic factors I noticed were people, I saw a good amount of people walking by, sitting, or riding bikes. I also saw a lot of different plants and trees; most seemed to be planted there purposefully, but some were growing wild. Among these plants I saw large amount of shrubs, most of which didn’t look familiar to me. I also saw some plants that I was able to identify with my Wildflowers of Orange County and the Santa Ana Mountains book that I used for my Botany class last semester. I saw a plant which I knew was part of the sage family, but it was hard to tell, because a lot of the plants were dried up. Looking at the book, I believe it might be Purple Sage, or possibly Pepper Mint. I also saw a shrub that was covered with bees that I believe might have been part of the Rosaceae family, and I think it looks closest to Ribbonshanks (or Red shanks). Another plant I saw a lot of (pictured below), seemed to be more ornamental, and it looked like a hybrid of a Monkeyflower, which is in the Phrymaceae family. After looking at the book, it looks closest to Fremont’s Monkeyflower. 

One of the most obvious relationships I observed from the plants was the mutualistic relationship between the bees and the flowers of the shrub. The bees received nectar from the plant, and in turn, the plant was pollinated. Also, I noticed that a lot of areas of the park were very dried up and dead, so it’s possible that secondary succession could take place in these areas, or may have been already taking place.

I also observed a lot of animal and insect life. Some insects I saw were dragonflies, butterflies, small flies and gnats, ants, and pill bugs—which, after googling them, are apparently not even insects. The animals I saw were squirrels, dogs, small birds, and some sort of predatory bird that may have been a hawk. I did not see a lot of interaction between the animals or the insects, but I did notice that a lot of the tiny flies I was seeing were in the grass, which may mean that some of them eat the grass, causing them to be primary consumers, since the grass is a producer. Also, the hawk is a secondary consumer or higher, depending on what it eats, but it could eat something like a squirrel, which would make their relationship between one another predation. Also, after doing some research I found out that dragonflies will sometimes eat butterflies and other insects, which would give them a predatory relationship as well. The birds and the predatory insects I saw could be in competition for food in this area, because they both eat similar insects.

Some of the abiotic (or nonliving) factors that I observed were rocks, a lot of woodchips, structures—like houses, lampposts, sidewalks, walls, playgrounds, and benches— dirt, and some small amounts of water. While I sat in the park, I really was among an ecosystem, which is defined in the book as, “All the organisms in a given area plus the physical environment in which they interact” (179). It was an overall really nice experience, sitting and observing inside of my “sphere.” After about thirty minutes, I found myself not wanting to go back home and not wanting to face all my responsibilities. I plan on sitting quietly more often after this assignment.