#2a: Film Series: Program Questions in Scenes and Overview

Ive chosen minutes 11-14 of Unbroken Ground A New Old Way to Grow Food. I’m titling this scene “the science behind grain” in order to explore program question what representations of terrior and meroir are most compelling and why? If the class will look at these components of my scene from Stephen jones defining wheat, Brigid Meints discussing” that the more corporate that plant breeding becomes the less varieties we have available to us in the less genetic diversity” we have with wheat, Stephen talking about hybrid apples, and Bethany explaining breeders in the past and how they are driven by conventional farming practices. This 3-minute scene compelled my learning about what representations of terrior and meroir are most compelling in this scene by explaining how some of the wheat industry uses such different practices and new ways to keep or manipulate the grain for my audience to really experience what I learned about the compelling terriors and meroirs are in the scene.

I chose the film “How Grains Domesticated Us”. Minutes 42-45 In order to explore the program question “Where and how do people raise the food we are highlighting?”. The components of my scene I would like to focus on is especially in the beginning where he’s discussing the metronomes that coordinate the activities of hunters and gatherers used along with fire, fire allowed places to become denser which increased the domestication of grain and increased the labor needed to grow and cultivate the grain, he also discusses how the fire made the hunter- gatherers more attuned to domesticating grain. At min 44 he begins to talk more about fixed field farming and how only a few crops became more narrow and simpler on the hunter- gatherers diet. This scene compelled my learning about not only the domestication of grain but the fact that fire allowed the domestication of grain to happen for my audience to experience what I learned about where and how people raise the food we are highlighting.

Wk 3:  Grains

Program Guest: Aba Kiser, Project Manager, WSU Food Systems and an organizer of the COVID suspended annual Cascadia Grain Conference.

Wk 4:  Grains

#2b: (un)Natural Histories

https://canvas.evergreen.edu/courses/3605/modules/items/330401

  • Grain planted between narrower beds or between individual rows may suppress the growth of vegetables or flowers.
  • Drip lines might be damaged by mowing or foot traffic, and furrows are difficult to maintain in a thick stand of grain.
  • Allelopathic compounds are exuded from the roots of living grain plants, and are produced temporarily by the breakdown of grain roots, leaves and stems. Also, fungi and bacteria that decompose tilled-under grain plants utilize nitrogen, making it unavailable to the next crop until decomposition is complete. Mature, dry, brown plant material requires more supplemental nitrogen for breakdown than young, succulent, green plant material

#2c: Regenerative Agriculture

  • Grains are classified by their flowering and heading habit as spring, winter, or facultative. Spring grains are planted in the spring and produce seed heads later in the same growing season. Winter grains (also called fall grains) are planted in the fall and overwinter as small plants that resume growth in the spring and produce grain in the summer. Winter grain plants require vernalization (prolonged exposure to cold) before they can flower. Facultative grains share the flowering habits of both spring and fall grains, and will produce seed heads whether planted in the spring or fall.
  • The cold hardiness and vernalization requirement of winter grains makes them uniquely suited for use as green manures or ground covers.
  • grain plants that don’t survive the winter still hold the soil in place and provide organic matter to till under. Local Extension offices or farm supply stores can provide information on which winter grains are best adapted to a given locale.
  • If winter grain is planted in the spring, the plants are not vernalized and thus will not flower—or will flower so late in the summer that little or no viable seed is produced. This trait makes spring-planted fall grains ideal for situations where a temporary, non-reseeding cover crop is wanted.

#2d: Case Study Tasting Research: Grains

Photo by Nakiah

Photo by Nakiah

#2e: Stuckey’s Taste Book Experiments

1) What spices did you decide to bring to this week’s experiments?
• I chose turmeric, and garlic powder

2) What is a fond memory that you have associated with a specific smell?
• With the garlic powder it reminds me of when my mom used to cook and would use (what seemed like) bottles on bottles of garlic in any meal she cooked for us kids.

3) What is an unpleasant memory that you have associated with a specific smell, that you are willing to share?
• The garlic powder definitely gives me a bittersweet feeling when I smell it. It makes me miss when my mom would make us big dinners as a family.
1st Experiment:
4) Did you find that you could easily differentiate between the smell of your spices? Do you think this is the case for all spices?
• Yeah, I chose different spices. No I don’t think it’s the case with all spices

5) What about when mixing them up and trying to tease apart the individual spices – did the smells mingle together or was it two distinct smells?
• The garlic powder definitely overpowered the turmeric and that was all I was able to smell.

6) Were there any smells that surprised you when you opened your eyes and saw what spice you had been testing?
Not really, I grew up around a lot of different spices so the smells are something im used to

7) What are your thoughts or takeaways from the Enzymatic Aroma Chart from Nik Sharma’s Book, The Flavor Equation? Do you draw any parallels between what you just experienced in the 1st experiment?
• There is a lot of different types of flavors and aromas when it come to different spices.

• 2nd Experiment:

8) How did this experiment differ for you compared to the 1st experiment? Any of your spices stand out to you?
• I chose basil and thyme. I was able to smell them both rather than just the one spice because they were both strong and dried.

9) Between fresh and dry spices, which would you expect to have the highest amount of naturally occurring volatiles?
• Definitely dry
10) Imagine sitting down to a big bowl of hot soup, explain to me what you visualize is happening to the volatiles as they are leaving the soup and begin meeting your body.
• The heat and liquid of the soup reawakens the volatiles in the spices and gives it a stronger taste
11) Once you had tasted your spices at the very end of the lab, were you able to differentiate between the interactions between your nose, mouth and tongue that take place to bring you the full picture of flavor?
• Yes for the most part
Overall:
12) And lastly, my favorite question, what are some personal reflections that you had while going through these experiments?
• While doing this experiment it reminded me of what my kitchen as a child would smell like a long with the mess that can happen when you spill spices

#2f: Sustainable Entrepreneurship

  • the export market is critical for the U.S. grain industry, accounting for 21 percent of annual feedgrain sales. Adding livestock exports, or “grain on the hoof,” pushes the percentage even higher.
  • Corn producers export 20 percent of their production and grain sorghum exports account for almost 50 percent of production
  • Food processors’ demand for trait-specific crops derives from the need to improve production and processing efficiency, reduce costs, or enhance product value. General Mills, for example, now procures variety-specific wheat and oats, relying on contracts with a network of producers and cooperatives in several States. Warburtons, in the UK, has established contracts with Canadian wheat producers to deliver variety-specific wheat
  • Biotechnology has also influenced grain markets indirectly—by yielding products (e.g., enzymes) that increase demand for specialty grains. For example, development of new genetically engineered enzymes has expanded corn processing, enabling the corn wet-milling industry to produce starches tailored to specific industrial and food uses (Hicks et al., 2002). This, in turn, has increased demand for trait-specific corn types such as waxy and high-amylase corn. Also, corn fiber is being investigated as a source of biobased industrial products, nutraceuticals, functional food ingredients, and biofuels. The current push to use crops for biofuels production, particularly from cellulose, is likely to spur the development of genetically modified crops with desirable cellulose characteristics to facilitate more efficient cellulose-to-ethanol conversion.

#2g: Climate and Resilience Event Series/Seminar

#2h: Foodoir: Your Story of Tasting Place

“Even so, why can’t I do what others have done– ignore the obvious. Live a normal life. It’s hard enough just to do that in this world. But this thing (This idea? Philosophy? New religion?) won’t let me alone, won’t let me forget it, won’t let me go. Maybe. . . . Maybe it’s like my sharing: One more weirdness; one more crazy, deep-rooted delusion that I’m stuck with. I am stuck with it. And in time, I’ll have to do something about it. In spite of what my father will say or do to me, in spite of the poisonous rottenness outside the wall where I might be exiled, I’ll have to do something about it. That reality scares me to death. ” (33)

Reading this quote it brought me back to being a kid and wishing I had a normal life. Having to start my childhood in poverty and in a big family as the youngest I grew up really quick due to having to take care of my mom due to her cancer diagnosis when I was 7 till I was 14 and sadly lost her battle with it. Growing up without parents made me terrified of the reality of the world. But not wanting to get stuck in the delusion of my childhood and stuck in a cycle of helping people and putting myself last, which as an 18 year old I still find myself doing at times in order to protect myself. Writing about my family kind of freaks me out if i’m being honest. I’ve never been proud of where I came from but im happy with how much i’ve grown and where i’m going in life.

#2i: Bibliography 

  • https://www.farmprogress.com/challenges-opportunities-face-grain-industry
  • https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/45729/11887_err35_1_.pdf?v=0
  • file:///C:/Users/cash%20america/Downloads/Butler,%20Octavia%20-%20Parable%20of%20the%20Sower.pdf%20(%20PDFDrive%20)%20(4).pdf