Week 8 Conference Reply #1 - Humans as herbivores

    I am extremely interested in the foods I eat and their content. I eat about 6 small meals a day. One of my meals may consist of only a banana or it may be a piece of bread with a veggie and a piece of chicken breast. I also use supplements to supplement my meals. All this is done to ensure I am receiving a nutritionally balanced diet, that will enhance my physical and mental well-being. In response to the question, I sometimes eat at the top and at others, at the bottom, all in one meal.

    From an environmental standpoint I believe it would be disastrous to the world if humans were able to move to an all vegetarian diet.  Some issues that need to be addressed are the need for even more water supplies than we already have.  As it stands the world is already in a water shortage, and the problem will only become worse as the world's population increases.  Another impact is the need to clear more and more land for agricultural use.  The world has seen the destruction of entire ecosystems in order to produce and find the highest yielding soil.  In addition to additional land use, the farmers using the cleared land will most likely use damaging pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers.  Another residual problem with clearing land is that more land is exposed, possibly causing greater erosion.  An lastly, it is a scientific fact that crops must be rotated and that even using bumper crops between a land's main crop is not always successful in rejuvenating the soil.

    The food chain and the second law of thermodynamics are related, simply put, by the physical fact that at each successive level of the food chain, more energy is lost through the process of respiration.  As energy is lost it can no longer be retained or harnessed within a given system.. According to the 2nd Law, entropy takes place and a general state of disorder occurs as energy is used by higher order organisms.  (I think)

~Matt

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