Crop rotation: Crop rotation is when the same land is used to crow different crops. When you grow a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area, it gets rid of some pathogens and pests that often occur when one species is continuously cropped. Crop rotation is a method used to maintain soil fertility and structure.
Fallowing: Fallowing is when you plow your field, but leave it unseeded for the growing season. The process of fallowing can be left for a couple of growing seasons. This lets the nutrients get back into the soils, and also gets rid of pests.
Adding Compost or Manure: Compost and manure are decaying organic matter. Manure must be aged for 6 months to a year because if applied immediately, it can burn or cause illnesses to your plants. Using compost and manure attracts earthworms which help fertilize soil/loosen up soil to help plants grow better. Compost and manure also help add more nutrients to the soil, making it even more fertile.
Inter-seeding Grains and Legumes: When planting grains and legumes between the rows of your other seeds/vegetables/crops is a good choice. Grains and legumes retain moisture in the soil so the water doesn’t just sink the bottom of the crop. This would also be good incase there was a short drought because the crop would be able to use this retained moisture just in case. Also, you would not have to water your crops as much, because there would be enough moisture in the soil already.
Mulching: Mulching is using any loose protective covering on your crops. This is spread on the ground around plants to inhibit evaporation and weed growth, control soil temperature, enrich the soil, or prevent the dispersal of pathogens. It may be organic material such as leaves, peat, or wood chips, or inorganic material such as plastic sheeting. Mulching is also good for protecting your seeds/plants in the winter or your area’s climate.
Tree harvesting using a shelterwood system: A shelterwood system is when a chunk of the mature trees are taken out, so the younger trees, that were “sheltered” underneath them, can mature and grow. There are various types of tree harvesting shelterwoods being used world wise. Some of these include uniform, strip, group, irregular, natural and nurse-tree. For example, the group shelterwood system involves only cutting down trees in a small group. 20-40% of the trees are cut down, 10 years later, they cut down some more trees, but by this time, the other trees that were cut down are more mature. Lastly, they will cut down the rest of the trees another 10 years after, so all the more matured trees will be sheltering the smaller, younger trees. Please look at this picture to gain a better understanding:
1. Have you ever fasted? If so, how did it feel?
No, I have not fasted. Before I came to Dryden High school, I went to a highschool called “All Saints”. This was a religious school, and as part of their religion, once a year, for whatever event, they would fast. I choose not to participate in this even because I thought it was irrelevant and stupid.
Do you feel everyone has the right to a healthy diet?
Yes, everyone has the right to a healthy diet, but also the right to food. If you have the resources for food, home-grown or store-bought, you can choice to eat healthy, or not. It is all up to you and what you want to put in yourself. Now of course, not everyone has the resources to food, such as countries suffering from poverty, but they still have the right to a healthy diet. This would be hard to obtain though, without any food, for what ever your reason is (money issues, cost, poverty, etc). I have a personal example. In grade 8 and 9 I gain a lot of weight because of my poor eating habits. I have always been some what over weight, and bigger than everyone else. In grade 10, I decided to change my eating habits (eating too much, eating at night, eating take out, etc) to lose weight and to feel better about myself. From March 2009 in grade 10 till June 2009 in grade 10, I lost 40 pounds! This was all done by just changing my eating habits. I have made a really embarrassing comparison of myself in grade 10, and my self now. Here it is:
These are the videos I have found for farming practices I was unfamiliar with:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rG3SBQYOms&feature=fvw
Zack Savage 