Monday
Today I had a meeting with the other interns, Here, Holly Porter from the Delmarva Chicken Association. It felt especially relevant since I have a background in poultry.
I think these sort of things actually make me question the production of meat for human consumption.
Ethically, there are a lot of concerns with meat production because you are obviously harming a lot of animals. And some consumers do worry about how that process may affect livestock. But America eats a lot of meat. To compensate for demand, a lot of resources are pumped into these industries to produce a lot of product with little expense. If people continue buying, then the industry grows as a result.
Holly Porter actually managed to discuss a lot about the farms in Delmarva. She is interested in having people physically come to farms and see how it's made. Having that sort of experience can broaden your knowledge on how food is delivered to your table.
I would say for now, I want to try and limit meat when I eat. Not only for health, but for the ethics behind it. Even relying on something like eggs or dairy is not perfect since you still have to rely on animals. But it's still something I want to think about doing especially when I think about all the food waste that occurs in the US.
Tuesday
So today I focused on reorganizing data from last week's panel (7/11). Because the data was not organized properly, it involved a fair amount of copying and pasting. When a sample is tasted, we essentially treat it as its own "event." So some aspects of the data may be redundant such as gender or age.
As you can see I am not excelling right now.
In a way, it can actually be pretty meditative. Maybe not the analysis, but definitely the coloring and moving of data sets. I don't have free excel though so having ads pop up throughout the file can be a little annoying.
I ended up bagging up some of the old fruit. It's not good to eat anymore so instead they will be used as food dyes for some 4H project. It's a great way to minimize wastefulness.
Wednesday
It's Wednesday and I am at the Somerset Office today. One of the big projects is trying to focus on designing the soil kit. But it's going slow. Especially because this is a little out of my expertise. I do have experience in chemistry. But communicating that idea to farmers and ag agents in a simplified set of instructions can be quite complicated.
I've also started thinking about a tabling event for the Somerset County fair. It looks like I will be tabling alone though. Hopefully it won't be too hot on the 26th.
Thursday
I ended up picking a lot of berries this morning. At least 7 different kinds to test them. Today I mostly tested them for weight and sugar content.
To do this I took about 30 berries and weighed them using Haley's baking scale. Then I take the weight and grams and find the average mass for each berry.
To look at sugar content, I blended the berries so that it formed a kind of paste. Certain berries may have a very thick texture. In particular, these berries are hardest to work with because they are difficult to observe using a refractometer.
If you didn't know a refractometer is this special device below.
Actually, I have used this type of instrument in biotechnology last year. There are mirrors that detect how much a substance refracts light. Here are the results below.
Just some of the data that I collected. Certain varieties have different masses and sugar levels.
Friday
It was pretty chaotic today. We ended up collecting blackberries for another taste panel. In addition, I started to plan deeply with Sarah and Haley for the next 2 weeks. Since the internship is about to close we are trying to get a lot of projects in.
Looking at the next few weeks a lot has got to be done ranging from the soil kit to the literature review. I am excited to check out... "Commodity Classics"?
Otherwise, we are looking forward to completing the last (?) taste panel on Monday.
Here is the question for this week.
"Reflecting on your experience this summer, how could you apply the skills and knowledge gained through your UMD Extension internship to help farmers and communities adapt to economic and environmental challenges? Tell us about your week and any motivations you may have for your continued education and future career in Ag."
Recently, someone stopped by the office who wanted to get into farmer. Now, considering that a lot of USDA funding for loans has currently been frozen, it can be hard for aspiring farmers to enter this industry. I think I would like to reference my experience living on a farm as well as my extension resources to help guide people who are interested in this line of work.
This would require gaining an informed perspective on USDA and other agricultural initiatives implemented by the government. In addition, monitoring the current political situation and learning from other farmers is a crucial part of networking and being able to leverage experiences between individuals.
After last week, I am starting to really consider entering extension. Since grants are hard to come by, I am planning to enter part time until I can find more hours later. Since the internship is coming to a close, I want to start going deeper into my network.
Its a method that is sometimes successful, but here you can check out my LinkedIn:
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