Hawaii food Production
Food production was at an all time high before foreign contact. The arrival of foreigners turned our functional and working systems into chaos. With the arrival of foreigners, mostly rich, they bought much of the land in Hawaii. They then used the land to create plantations. These plantations sent the economy in Hawaii booming. However, only the white plantation owners were making money, none of the Hawaiians. As our culture, land, and people were slowly taken over, Hawaiians slowly lost their lives of working systems and sustainability.
Cycles
Carbon Cycle
Carbon dioxide is present in the atmosphere. Plants absorb the carbon dioxide and sunlight in the photosynthesis process. When the plants die, they, with the carbon are decomposed into the earth and turned into fossil fuel. The carbon dioxide is returned through the atmosphere through respiration, the decay of dead organisms, and the burning of fossil fuels. The carbon cycle regulates the Earth's global temperature and climate by controlling the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. |
https://eo.ucar.edu/kids/green/cycles6.htm
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Oxygen Cycle
Oxygen in the air is breathed by humans and animals. Once they exhale, they release carbon dioxide into the air. Plants absorb the exhaled carbon dioxide and light from the sun to produce food through photosynthesis and release oxygen back into the atmosphere. The cycle occurs over and over after this. The oxygen is key to life on Earth because humans and most organisms require oxygen to survive. |
https://byjus.com/biology/oxygen-cycle-environment/
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Nitrogen Cycle
In the nitrogen cycle, special bacteria convert the nitrogen gas to ammonia which the plants use. During nitrification, the ammonia is converted to nitrite ions which the plants take in as nutrients. After all living organisms have used the nitrogen, decomposer bacteria converts the nitrogen-rich waste compounds into simpler ones. The simpler nitrogen compounds are then converted back into nitrogen gas and released back into the atmosphere by the other bacteria. From there, the cycle begins again. All plants and animals need the nitrogen cycle to be able to absorb the nitrogen to make amino acids, protein, and DNA, as it can not be used from the atmosphere. |
http://astarbiology.com/edexcel/the-nitrogen-cycle/
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Systems
All systems affect each other. Each component in a system affects the whole system. Without one part, the system still may be functionable but it won't be at it's optimum level of excellence. The world is made up of so many systems. Small systems that affect big systems, and big systems that affect even bigger systems.
Food Journal Analysis
Out of the food I ate for 15 days, nothing was locally sourced. 4.8% of the food I ate was organic and the rest was non-organic. 14.3% was not processed but 86.7% was.
My data aligned right with the overall class trends. Most of the class had the same data. The overall class trends were barely any locally sourced, organic, and non-processed food. |
Food production responsibility
We can be more responsible for our own food production by taking it into our own hands. We can plant and grow a couple of plants that we can use as food in our meals and diets. Steps we could take to being more food secure on our island is each family/home building a small garden in their yard with at least one or two edible plants that they could slowly introduce to their meal plans and entwine with their food, so that maybe one day they could eat meals all grown by them, and live self-sustainably. As the next generation, we have to realize that nature has limits. We have to protect and take care of the natural resources we have now. It's our responsibility to preserve nature and the earth for other future generations to experience the pleasure and beauty of it also, as we have. One day, the world is going to run out resources and it's the ones who can feed
Our growing system
Me and my group has been assigned an aquaponics system. We feed the fish. The fish poop and is basically food for our plants above in the bin. The plants absorb the nitrogen from the fish. The plants absorb the carbon dioxide in the water breathed out from the fish. The plants also filter the water for the fish to have cleaner water. Then photosynthesis occurs, so the plants transform the carbon dioxide into oxygen which travels in the water, down to the fish.
We are growing kalo, pineapple, awa, cauliflower, kai choy, peppers, sugar, and fish.
We are growing kalo, pineapple, awa, cauliflower, kai choy, peppers, sugar, and fish.