Agricultural Science: Agriculture in Amsterdam

In 2014 I was fortunate enough to travel to Amsterdam for my husband's work. We visited Zaanse Schans while we were there. According to the Dutch Website: "The Zaanse Schans is a residential area in which the 18th and 19th centuries are brought to life. Stroll past the bakery museum and enjoy the smell of fresh bread, or take a look at the warehouse where clogs are made. You should be sure not to miss the cheese factory, pewter foundry and the various windmills. The Zaanse Schans is a unique part of the Netherlands, full of wooden houses, mills, barns and workshops. Make a cycling or sailing trip, browse the shops or treat yourself at the pancake restaurant. A day out at the Zaanse Schans in North Holland is fun and educational."

Agricultural Science: Silver Spoon Anime

Well, you probably didn't see this coming, did you? An anime? How professional is that? In this case, very. Silver Spoon (Gin no Saji in Japanese) is probably one of my favorite animes. Other than the fact that it's a fabulous manga-ka (artist), the anime adaptation of the manga books is great and the entire theme is agriculture, which doesn't show up much in anime.

Environmental Science: Boyd Hill Raptor Demonstration at Weedon Island

I was fortunate enough to go to Weedon Island to see a Raptor Demonstration by Boyd Hill Nature Preserve. They brought ten different raptors to show and talk about including a bald eagle, turkey vulture, american kestral, barred, screech, and great horned owls, red tail and red shoulder hawks, and a falcon. While most of the information they discussed I already knew, one of the interesting bits that I didn't was that Kestrals can see in the UV spectrum and often hunt mice by following their urine tracks! Eww but kind of cool too. Another bit of info I didn't know was that hawks don't typically grab their prey, they punch them with their closed talons, then follow them to the ground where they kill them by biting through their spine.

Agriculture as Propaganda

In WW2 especially propaganda pieces came out showcasing everything from corn and fish to dig your own and backyard rabbit keeping. Here are some that I've found over the years that are either awesome or depressing depending on how you see them. I especially love the School Land Army posters.

Animal Science: Genetically Engineering the World

Goats on a Berkeley hill in Ca.

Genetically Engineering the World

Genetically engineered plants and animals are those that have had their DNA changed by man-made processes (also known as biotechnology). Historically, humans have been doing this for thousands of years by breeding plants or animals that had certain desirable traits together. Gregor Mendel became famous in 1866 for breeding different types of pea plants through observing how their genetics changed from parent to child (O'Neil, 2013). These hybrids laid the foundation for genetic engineering.

Animal Sciences: Meat Consumption

Meat consumption in the US is excessive. According to the World Health Organization between 1997 and 1999 Americans ate twice the amount of meat than the rest of the world (World Health Organization, 2017). Meat consumption is likewise shown in our book as being 27% of the total food energy in the developed world and 17.2% in developing countries (Damron, 2013). While countries like India and Somalia, where religion excludes part or all meat consumption, obviously account for a much smaller amount of the overall count than more liberal industrialized countries like the US and China, areas in Africa and South-East Asia are the lowest consumers of meat according to the FAO with India consuming only 7.1 lbs of meat per person per year vs. the US with 270.7lbs (Barclay, 2012). The discrepancy in usage can come from religious practices, agricultural growth and cost of new technology implementation, historical divisions amongst casts or socio-economic groups, preference in using animals for draft power instead of food, etc. In countries where animal protein is not utilized as much, alternative protein sources such as beans, legumes, soy, and peanuts are used to supplement the dietary needs. These countries also show an increase in milk consumption. For example, Somalia, a predominantly Islamic country, consumes roughly 7% of its diet in meat and 24% in dairy and India, a predominantly Hindu country, consumes only 1% meat and 8% dairy (National Geographic, 2017). In many countries there is a stigma on animals as food sources due to religious beliefs, however, one can look back and many times find that the religious constraints were from a time when refrigeration or preservation methods were unavailable or set down in places where a large portion of the populace had a genetic anomaly that made them ill from the food source, such as many Asians being lactose intolerant; there would, of course, be a smaller dairy consumption in these areas.

References

Barclay, E. (2012, June 27). A Nation Of Meat Eaters: See How It All Adds Up. Retrieved January 11, 2017, from National Public Radio: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/06/27/155527365/visualizing-a-nation-of-meat-eaters

Damron, W. S. (2013). Contributions of Animals to Humanity. In W. S. Damron, Introduction to Animal Science (p. 9). Upper Saddle River: Pearson.

National Geographic. (2017, January 11). What the World Eats? Retrieved from National Geographic: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/what-the-world-eats/

World Health Organization. (2017, January 11). Nutrition. Retrieved from World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/3_foodconsumption/en/index4.html

Animal Science: Digestive System Differences

Potbelly pig

The differences in digestive features between horse, cattle, and pigs comes down to compartments. There are four types of animal digestive systems: monogastric, avian, ruminants, and pseudo-ruminants (CAERT, Inc., 2016). For this question I am focusing on all of the above except avian.