Organic Scavenger Hunt!

Wow! Today was full of new information! I was looking for a job in local markets on the Internet and I happened to stumble on some very interesting information. Did you know that our food takes long road trips before actually getting to us? Arrowhead bottled water alone travels about 2,500 miles to get to Los Angeles, CA from Greenwich, CT. Who thought that the clear, hydrating substance would take such a long trip before reaching you? The bananas in our local supermarkets come all the way from Guatemala! That’s about 2,200 miles away! Imagine walking these distances just to get your servings of fruit! Oh, and guess what…pasta…it does not come from Italy. It comes from Bannockburn, IL. – nowhere near Italy. Because these foods travel so far to get to us the prices are going up! Transporting these items is not free. With the lack of oil there is no gas, without gas the transportation becomes costly and those costs need to be paid. This is why looking for edibles such as oranges, fresh meats, yogurts, etc have now become a scavenger hunt! Organic foods are worth the wait I guess…it sure beats all those frankenfoods. Frankenfoods are all those chemically enhanced goods – this can usually be your meats and poultry. Now that the oil crisis is taking a toll on society many of us are becoming locavores. We are all on the search for a local farmer’s market. There is even talk about starting a community garden. It is about time the community gets together to do something about these ridiculous “treasure hunts”.

SOURCE: RuralAspirations

Just yesterday my mom sent me out to buy some fresh chicken, milk, and bananas. The bananas were not that hard to find but the milk and chicken…oh my goodness! I felt like I was looking for hidden treasure. I went to the corner store that is near my house and that is where I found the bananas. The bananas were not perfectly ripe but they were good enough to buy. They were the usual yellow color with some dark spots on the skin. There was no milk or chicken. All they had on their shelves were napkins, juices, and a small variety of fruits. I decided to go to Food4Less to see if they had milk and fresh chicken. They had neither! I told my mom that we had to go to Superior so we went. Entering the store we saw that they had milk! I ran for it and got a hold of two gallons. With the bananas and milk checked off we went to find some chicken. Arriving at the meats and poultry section we discovered that it was all gone! I was in shock…I never thought it would be that hard to find some fresh chicken! We finally decided to go to Family Farms. We looked around and saw that there were several pieces still there. It was about time! I never thought that I would be so happy to see those raw, pale pink pieces of poultry. It took us about two hours to find only three things! When I would usually have a cart-full I just had bananas, fresh chicken, and milk!

SOURCE: N.J.

http://angelicagonzalez.podbean.com/

The worst is yet to come...

SOURCE: AliciaPatterson

What the heck is happening with these gas station outages?! I walked past a gas station this morning and the line was so LONG! People were mad...saying that there was no gas! If this keeps happening the affects on our society will get worse. Some people have already decided to stop buying gas altogether – no one wants to put up with the ridiculously high prices. (It might get risky for those that want to quit driving). Leaving their cars parked around the neighborhood might be intriguing to thieves. Half your car will be missing before you know it! Can you blame them? These high prices have people taking drastic measures. And you can make sure that those long lines at the gas stations are not going anywhere! Society is not going to get use to these gas station outages any time soon.
The airline problem is not making things any better either. My uncle purchased an airline ticket from US Airways to go from the UK to Denmark. At the airport they told him that he would not be able to board the plane due to complications! My uncle is stuck in the UK! These canceled U.S. airline flights will cause more of an economic effect than anything – especially to those that are away from home. Since flights keep getting canceled people will have to seek to be reimbursed. If they don’t get reimbursed then there goes their money – spent it for nothing. People that are traveling will have to spend money on overnight stays at hotels until they get the “OK” to get on a flight back home. Airlines will also lose money because no flights will be coming in or going out – there are no airline tickets sold. Because of this the airports have less money to spend on jet fuel for the planes. Someone needs to find a solution to these flight cancellations, and fast!
With this current oil crisis I feel very hesitant about giving up different goods and services. I know it is going to happen sooner or later but I am not looking forward to giving up my things. Some goods might not be important but having them has become a good part of my days. The daily goods such as food, water, clothes...those are the things I need! I will not be able to give them up! I am scared to even think about what might happen to our most needed resources. My hairspray is already gone for crying out loud but some changes that I would not mind taking on would be: start walking, give up the face cleansers, get rid of the curling iron, and things of that nature.
I am very worried about losing food, water and power at a time like this! With no hairspray and face cleanser disappearing little by little, who’s to say that the food cannot disappear as well? If the food starts disappearing will that mean that the U.S. will eventually become a third world country? Will it ever get that bad? I hope not! The Department of Water and Power are already hiking up the prices so much that I started looking for a job! I realize that my family needs all the financial help they can get with these gas prices so high and food not being such a money saver either. Other people have made it very clear that losing food, water, and power is the last thing they want. My neighbor just had a baby and she is really freaked out! She is scared that her husband might lose his job and they will not have money to pay for the baby supplies. The baby's needs are hitting their pockets hard! She tells my mom that it's getting hard to find the diapers...so she started using cloth pieces like people did before. My neighbor is scared for her baby more than she is for herself. I can only imagine how hard it can be to face times like these with a baby!
Unemployment is going to make people go crazy! With unemployment already at 12% people might cause a riot! If these layoffs continue people will have a harder time buying the things they need. Resources are already lacking as it is…without a job things will get worse. With layoffs people will become poor and once they hit a certain point of poverty they will resort to looting and stealing the items they cannot seem to buy on their own. The looting will eventually lead to violence and aggression within all the people facing the same oil crisis. I hope it does not get to this point!
My family is going through the many things we buy on a daily basis. We seem to have cut out things that we really do not need in order to save some money. We decided to cut the cable, Internet, and telephone services. We agreed not to buy anymore junk food (including sodas). Sadly, we are limiting family trips as well. The only things we are allowed to buy are the necessities; toothpaste, toilet paper, food, water/milk, etc. In this oil crisis "wants" do not really exist anymore. Money just does not come around as often these days! I decided that getting a job is the best thing I can do. One of the corner stores might have a “Help Wanted” sign posted up. Right now, my family needs all the money we can get and working at a store might give us some more resources to work with as well.

Supply & Demand

SOURCE: Associate Money

I had an interesting day in economics class. We were reading about supply and demand. I learned that supply is how people that want to sell something decide how much of a good or service they are going to sell and at what price they are going to sell them. Potential sellers decide how much of their product they are going to make available and at what price. I also learned that demand is the willingness and ability of people to purchase a product or service. It is when people want to and have the money to buy a good or service. After reading about supply and demand I took a short quiz about oil. I didn't know some of the answers but I tried my best. When I finished the quiz I was shocked to discover that oil production in the United States has been increasing only 2% per year since 1960! I don't know about you but this seems like very little to me. No wonder more and more products seem to be disappearing every day from store shelves! I also learned that even after oil production in an area declines, there is still a good amount of oil remaining in the ground. So let's start digging people! B.T.W. does anyone have a home recipe for hairspray --- I just figured out where I could find the key ingredient.

Uses of Oil

SOURCE: EndOil

Today I was listening to the radio while I was getting ready for school. The announcers were talking about this crazy oil shortage. They were discussing how petroleum is used for so many things these days. By listening in I learned that petroleum is used as many things other than just gasoline and heating oil. Petroleum is used for paints, candles, detergents, fertilizers/pesticides, and more! I never knew how dependent on petroleum the U.S. has become. What surprised me the most was that petroleum is even used on photographic film! It was also surprising to find out that wax is a raw petroleum product. I never would have expected so many things to be made out of petroleum!
Now that we are experiencing an oil crisis it's time to cut down on some of these things. If this oil shortage gets worse then I am going to take it upon myself to make better choices. I will consider cutting down on the amount of detergent I use for my clothes. I think that I am also going to give up painting for a while (at least until things cool down). I am going to do some research to learn more about oil-dependent products. Learning more doesn't hurt. I am going to separate my "needs" from my "wants" and try my best to use products that are not so much dependent on oil. Wish me luck!

Life without hairspray!

This morning I realized that I ran out of hairspray. It's only Thursday and I need some for school tomorrow! I started getting worried. Later, I found money in my wallet so I was able to go buy hairspray on my way home from school. When I walked in to the store I realized that the hairspray was not where I usually found it! I started going crazy looking for it through all the aisles. I finally gave in and decided to ask the clerk for some assistance. I should not have asked because, to my dismay, he told me that they were out of stock and that they will no longer be selling any!! What am I going to do now?! I need hairspray for tomorrow and no one seems to be selling any!!!

SOURCE: eHow