Samuel Bettlach- Source 4

A)    This fourth blog post is leading me down my whole definition of what conservation is really meaning in this paper.  Conservation I believe can be more then just the animal that is being hunted.  This is stepping into a whole new idea, I would like to investigate hunting as a means of attaining meat and contrasting this with meat coming from a farmed cow, pig, or chicken.  I would like to see what hunting does and can do, instead of factory farming.

B)    Horrigan, Leo, Robert S. Lawrence, and Polly Walker. "Abstract." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, May 2002. Web. 08 Oct. 2015.

Summarize:

This article is much different then some of the other articles that I have used.  There is no real tie specifically into hunting within this article.  The article goes about talking about the problems and issues that surround industrialized farming.  The sustainability of farming is put into question, seeing that fertilizers and other harmful items to the environment are used in many farming practices.  The article then mentions and hits on points of how land, water, and biodiversity are mentioned as subtopics within the article.  The one subtopic that seems to be the most pertinent to my total thesis is when the article brings in a piece on industrial animal production.  The other pieces are important to get background on farming principles, but animal production is where the connection with hunting lies.  The animal production in farming is commonly associated with factory farming where animals are crowded onto small pieces of land where they produce an exorbitant amount of waste.  The article claims, “5 tons of animal waste for every U.S. citizen”.  In order for continual farming in these small concentrated areas, many farming practices have needed to be implemented. The implementation of slatted floors can result in skeletal deformation of animals.  Also, these floors are slatted to allow manure to be easily cleaned from stalls, but this manure just builds up and becomes an extreme hazard to the environment.  The article continues on about other forms of farming and its downfalls.  Diseases and harm to the humans that consume the produced meat and agriculture products are noted.  Finally, we get a notion from the writers that something must be done as a sustainable method for these problems in industrial farming. 

Think:

Many new ideas started spinning in my head while reading this article.  I think the biggest thing is the idea that hunting can be a viable solution for many over meat production. Specifically, I believe that this article is very enlightening on the very problems that are occurring on these industrialized farms.  I do not believe that all production of animal meats are done poorly.  Out there, there are farms and places that farm crops and livestock appropriately and produces meats in the right way.  I think there is little justification to how some of these animals are farmed.  Not only the treatment of these animals, but their environmental impact is a huge burden at times.  Form this article, and my common knowledge, there really doesn’t seem to be that many pluses to large animal farming, besides cheap meat.  The environment is being hurt through the large waste dumps of these farmed animals, and a reduction of animal production could aid in solving this problem.  Similarly, there are diet and disease problems with consuming some of the meats in our supermarkets.  This source makes me think about hunting as a conservation method for the environment and human conservation in these same ways.    

Synthesize:

This source just puts a lot of ideas in my head about the difference between hunting and animal farming.  Animal farming can be a real hurt to the environment and at times even humans.  So hunting can be brought into this conversation.  Hunting for meat instead of consuming meats from a grocery store can do many good things?  Obviously there are the potential problems with hunting that I have gone into a bit of detail in the last posts about.  The best connection to other sources I have read isn’t direct, but there are some shared ideas.  Hunting to save animal populations, hunting a wild animal can be safety and protect animals that are being farmed also.  There is a tradeoff here that I think needs to have light shed on it.  Socioeconomics of hunting is also a place where this article can tie in.  The cost of meats in stores, is in many statists that I have seen, are much higher then that of meat that has been processed from an animal that a hunter has harvested.  The socioeconomics of hunting, it effects the community, in specific in this instance, the people.  The hunters can really save money, and this money saved could then be put back into animal and habitat conservation.  It might be a long trail to follow, but I think it is logical. 

Question and Plan:

So there is potential for environmental problems with hunting, and problems with much of the meat that we get from the grocery store.  Where does this leave us?  I think that is where I sit, I really am just on the fence about whether hunting for meat or animal production is the best.  After my research so far, it is hard for me to say if hunting meats is better then going to the grocery store.  One thing that I do think I get, is that hunting brings in safer natural meats.  There are obvious questions still looming about this subtopic like is an increase in hunting really going to change the practices of the large industrialized farms?  There are some negatives here, that I think could be neutralized with hunting, but I don’t know if that really gives me an answer fully about hunting as a conservation method.  It can potentially conserve domestic farm animals and help the environment, so is that all I am looking to see? This question needs to be placed into more connection with y other subtopics to see all the possibilities.