Each category that we
had to pick from, and the animal, vegetable, and mineral, actually worked out
really great when I had to find resources. Because I was close by the library,
I was able to make my way up and find the books that would be very good resources.
I was able to find each category and a book that corresponded with what I was
looking for so I could find what I needed to know about each. There were
definitely more books on chicken than the other two, but I was still able to
find a book for each that gave a lot of great information that made me
understand more of each animal, vegetable and mineral. For this assignment, I
chose chicken for the animal, peas were the vegetable, and topaz was chosen for the mineral.
Animal:
Chicken
I chose
chicken for my animal because chicken is the main meat that I eat. Whenever I
go out to eat, or eat at home, if chicken is an option then I will eat it.
According to Smithsonian.com, the origin of chickens, "Were discovered,
according to legend, by the side of a road in Greece in the first decade of the
fifth century B.C.," which definitely shows that chickens have been around
for a very long time. Because animals were on the earth, even before humans,
this definitely makes sense. Who knows if the chicken was around before we
actually were on the earth, but from the record of man, they didn't come about
until that fifth century B.C. This is quite amazing because we don't realize
how long something has actually been around until we actually look up that
specific information. There are a lot of
reasons why I chose to have chicken as my animal. After reading more about the
chicken, I realized that there is a lot about the chicken that I don’t know.
For instance, the fact that, as Striffler says in Chicken: The
Dangerous Transformation of the Dangerous Food, “At the Millennium, the
average American was eating over a hundred times more chicken than a person was
eating on the eve of the Great Depression,” (32) showing that the chicken has
had a dramatic change over the many years that people have been eating it.
Striffler does a lot of research on how the chicken has changed, including
within fast food, and how it is not always the best choice for us to eat.
However, chicken still, “has been transformed into the most studied and
industrialized animal in the world,” (Striffler, 15) representing that the
chicken has a great influence on the meat industry which is why there are, side
by side, burgers and chicken sandwiches. For me, I still love chicken and whenever
I go anywhere I will still get my chicken. I will, because of the information
that I have learned, choose my chicken choices more wisely.
 |
| Chickens come in all sizes and shapes. This one represents one of many. |
Vegetable:
Peas
For this
particular part, I am not a huge fan of vegetables and I will definitely admit
that. My favorite vegetable is the tomato and there is debate on whether or not
tomato is really a fruit or a vegetable. Other than tomatoes, it takes a lot
for me to want to eat vegetables. I especially do not like peas. However, the
reason I took an interest in the peas, was during a recent family reunion, my
family and I took time to shell peas from my Grandma’s garden. I wanted to
learn more about peas because I was watching them come from a garden instead of
out of a can.
 |
| Peas come in a shell and you have to break the pod open to get to the actual peas. |
From what I gathered
from Genetics and Breeding of Peas, was that wasn’t a specific time
in when the peas were first found, but during the “Early Paleolithic Age [and]
Neolithic Age” (1) was when men would have been known to work within the early
stages of agriculture. However, the first recording of the peas was in 1935
where there were “eight major centers of origin of cultivated plants” (2) which
made it seem like peas would be a part of it, but they weren’t really narrow in
which they discussed the peas origin. This was probably the hardest I had with
finding an exact date, but still gave me a lot of information. I did, however,
find a lot of information on peas that I obviously didn’t know otherwise.
For the
most part, I find peas that come in the can and not in the garden. But I wanted
to see if there was a difference between canned peas and getting the peas
straight from the garden and if that would affect
their nutritional value. I had a hard time finding a particular
article that related the canned pea to the fresh one, however, there was some
information that I found that discussed what any canned food versus the fresh
one might be like. I understood that canned
peas still have a lot of the same nutrients as garden grown, but the biggest
difference is a lot of the time when they put fruits and vegetables in cans,
the companies that produce canned foods will add extra sugars and salt (sodium)
to keep them better preserved. From Livestrong.com comes the statement,
"One drawback to canned fruits and vegetables is that manufacturers often
add salt to enhance the taste and help preserve the food so it can be sold and
stored for longer periods of time," this statement makes sense, because
unless we ourselves add the additional salt and sugar, we are getting a lot
different intake from the can and from fresh produce.
When we did shell the
peas from my grandma’s garden, I found that I had a better liking to the peas
than the canned peas. This makes sense because they are fresh and are not set
in a lot of sodium and contained over long periods of time. However, studies
have also found that the canned fruits and vegetables are not necessarily bad
for us, they still pack all the nutrients that come with fruits and vegetables.
The difference here is that the more salt put into the cans to prevent them
from going bad, is the part that is worse for us. With this in mind, I think it
is important to be aware of this, but not to be afraid of it. We can still have
canned foods, we just need to have them in moderation to balance everything
out. I’m not sure if I will switch over my diet and start eating more
peas, but I do have a lot more appreciation for them because of what it takes
to produce and how many people do enjoy them.
Mineral:
Topaz
I am not
too familiar with many minerals, but I have always enjoyed topaz it’s beautiful
color. I enjoy having it in jewelry, even if it’s fake, because of the way it
looks.
The first thing that I
found out, that I didn’t know before, was that there were many different colors of topaz that can also be cut into many different shapes to fit all kinds of jewelry or displays. I honestly thought that there was only one and the color is that
light blue color. However, a lot of this came from the fact that I don’t always
think about different kinds of minerals, but also, people have been doing
studies on minerals for decades. One thing that Hoover mentions in Topaz was,
“Whenever one begins to examine the history of gems…the study must be based…on
relatively few (if any) examples of reliably dated examples, plus surviving
literature,” (1) telling that there are specific ways to work with the minerals
and scientists really take a lot of time and energy studying the process and
outcomes of minerals. Topaz was kind of like peas where I didn’t know a ton of
information about it, but a mineral that I have always liked. There are many
amazing attributes to topaz, one being, “Topaz is unique among the gem
materials capable of being faceted, with the exception of quartz, for the
considerable size of its crystals and for the large flawless gems that have
been faceted,” (Hoover, 21) with this, I was surprised how highly topaz is looked at and how often people use it. There are many minerals out there, depending on what you are looking for, and in general, that make up parts of the world. I was highly intrigued by the genetic property that is topaz and what it takes to use this mineral. Although this particular mineral is not the first one you would think of when you picture a mineral, for me, most of the time, I will picture something like sand, but more as a gemstone is what you would think of for topaz. However, it was amazing to really understand all types of minerals, since topaz was under that list, and just what they are used for.
My biggest thing now, would be, to find all the different colors of topaz when actually looking at jewelry. If, and when, I happen upon a jewelry store, I really would like to see if there are pieces of jewelry that are used, with topaz, that represent all the various colors that come with the gem. We don't often think about how the minerals are always used, so it would be really neat to see what the possibilities are, and what people have been able to accomplish with it.
My biggest thing now, would be, to find all the different colors of topaz when actually looking at jewelry. If, and when, I happen upon a jewelry store, I really would like to see if there are pieces of jewelry that are used, with topaz, that represent all the various colors that come with the gem. We don't often think about how the minerals are always used, so it would be really neat to see what the possibilities are, and what people have been able to accomplish with it.
 |
| This picture shows the vast colors that topaz can come in! |
Works Cited:
Striffler, Steve. Chicken: The Dangerous
Transformation of America’s Favorite Food. New Haven and London; Yale
University Press. 2005. Print.
Hoover, D.B. Topaz. Oxford;
Butterworth-Heinemann. 1992. Print.
Khvostova, V.V. Genetics and Breeding of
Peas. Springfield; Oxonian Press Pvt. 1983. Print.
Adler,
Jerry, Lawler, Andrew. Smithsonian. June 2012. Web. 13 July
2015.
Impatenco,
Sara. Live Strong: Nutrition Difference in Canned vs Fresh
Produce. 14 Feb. 2014. Web. 14 July 2015.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/260270-nutrition-differences-canned-foods-vs-fresh-produce/
Pictures:
*All found through google; all were related to a website so didn't have a particular author.
http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9881
http://www.gemstones-guide.com/Topaz.html
http://www.smoothfm.com.au/article/peas
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