After taking an AP English class my senior year of high school and enjoying writing in general, I tend to be very picky when it comes to the information that I use and the sources that I get that information from. Writing so many papers the past few years has made it easier to determine what sources are reliable and those that aren't. For example, Wikipedia is very helpful, however it can also be edited by any person, so therefore it isn't always truthful. Sources that come from the University library or another library's online site. In order to find the sources that I need to use I read the topic first, then decide how I'm going to write it, and what it is that I plan on writing about. From there, I usually google information on the topic and then continue my search in a more reliable search engine like university search engines or google scholar. I also look for sources that have been peer reviewed or were published by a reliable person/publisher. I usually try to write about things that I am also familiar with so that I can have my own input in the papers and not have to quote my sources throughout all of the paper.

I'm generally an organized person, so it's very important to me that my papers flow and that things go in order. So once I've found my sources and the information that I'm using I write down the specific quotes that I plan on using or highlight them on a hard copy of the source which makes it easier to decide where in the paper I plan on putting the quotes. After writing the paper I tend to go back through and check that it does flow well and my quotes and information makes sense. I like to use multiple sources so that I know the information I'm using is correct and not a skewed opinion. From there I decide which sources I used the most information from and cite every source that I use, and toss the ones that I don't. At first the WSU online library system was pretty confusing, but using to find reliable sources has gotten easier, and it really is beneficial.

In the future, to improve the reliability of the sources I use, I plan to check more into their publisher and how much peer-revision they've been given. I also plan to try to use more hard copies of sources like actual books or articles, not just pages that I've found online.

Norman Borlaug article

This article by Norman Borlaug goes right along with the theme of food so far this semester, with Food Inc., The Omnivore's Dilemma, and all the talk of corn. This article also supports genetically modified foods or alternatives to what we have to work with today. Between the video, the book, and this article we've seen a multitude of ways that we can improve what we eat, but we've also looked behind closed doors on the food industry and seen the negative side of things. This article refers specifically to genetically modified foods and crops like cotton, maize, and potatoes. With the always increasing population and higher demand for foods we've been forced to keep up with society leading us to new technological advancements that can help us feed over 8 billion people.

However, these advances in science may not be able to be used to their full potential because of the amount of anti-science followers and those choosing to eat naturally or organic. Although being able to rapidly grow livestock and crops can be a positive aspect, there are those people out there who see it as inhumane and unnatural, which in a way it is. Being exposed to all of the elements of food in this class has really got me on the fence about what I support. Although I love steak and chicken, I now know the dreadful process that a living animal had to endure just so that I could enjoy eating it at the dinner table with my friends. However, becoming a vegan or being more selective in the way I eat isn't really an option for me at this time in my life. But if making advances in science will keep food on our tables and prevent us from starving, then how can I not be for it?

Ch. 15,18,19,20

At the beginning of the book Pollan asks the question, "what should we have for dinner?" By the end of the book he has explored multiple aspects of how to answer that question in the healthiest and most efficient way possible. In the end he decides that by hunting, gathering, and preparing the meal himself it would be the best way to avoid the supermarkets and spending a fortune on groceries like most people do weekly. In a way I have a newfound respect for Pollan for choosing to forage for his meal, but I know that I probably wouldn't be able to be successful were I to attempt to do the same. I've always lived in a city and have never needed to forage for my own meals. My mom has always been the one to make a well-rounded meal for dinner every night and keeps the pantry stocked full of options. However, we rely heavily on the supermarket for all of the items we keep in the kitchen, and fast food restaurants when our schedules conflict.

In this last section of the book Pollan talks about the different foods that we can gather from nature and how difficult that can be. When hunting live animals there's always the potential that they can get away, and when gathering plants of fungi, as discussed in chapter 19, there's always the chance that they could be poisonous. Relying on nature today is also hard to do because of the limited amount that is left. Had we not become so industrialized over the years maybe the supermarket and food industries wouldn't have become such an essential part of everyday life and people could still live off of the land that we continue to destroy with the way we choose to live.