Overlook Farm
Today was our first full day of work on the Overlook Farm. We
awoke to a freezing bunkhouse and we all literally raced to get dressed
as soon as possible! Chores began at 8:00am and we pretty much got
dressed and went out to the barn. At the barn we were greeted by four
llamas that were guarding the entrance to the door. After pushing past
the llamas we discovered a whole bunch of farm animals that we might
not have been used to on a farm in Michigan. While there were
traditional animals such as goats, chickens, donkeys, ducks, sheep and
cows, there were also two water buffalo, an alpaca, four llamas and a
camel! Farm chores consisted of giving each animal group their
allotted amount of hay and water and of course petting and playing with
the animals. It was a new experience for many of us. Ann Armbruster ’08
was the first to feed the goats and had quite a shock when she climbed
into their pen. One of the goats, who we affectionately referred to as
Satan the rest of the week went up to Ann and reared her in the back
giving her quite a surprise. After that it was quite entertaining to
watch whomever had to feed the goats.
After farm chores in the morning and various work projects
around the farm, we had our first educational session. At this session
we predicted how much of the world’s population lives in North America,
South America, Asia/Australia, Europe/Russia and Africa. We had 100
green buttons to spread around a huge sheet that had a drawing of the
world on it. Each button represented 1% of the world’s population
(which is at approximately 6.3 billion people). We thought about it for
a little and decided that Asia, Europe and North America would have the
most people and split up our buttons between the different continents.
After predicting that North America had something like 18% of the
world’s population, South America with 12% and so forth, we were told
the real numbers. In reality North America contains 5% of the world’s
population, South America has 9%, Africa with 13%, Europe/Russia
contains 12% and Asia/Australia has an enormous 61% of the world’s
population. We then received another 100 blue buttons to spread around
where we thought available food was located. Again we guessed, but with
the population facts and prior knowledge we came somewhat close. In
reality, North America contains 30% of available food, South America
and Africa each have 5%, Europe/Russia contains 45% and Asia/Australia
collectively has only 15% of the world’s available food. This means
that in North America each person would have 6 plates of food, in South
America each person would have half a plate of food, in Africa each
person would have a third of a plate of food, in Europe/Russia each
person would have 3.75 plates of food, and in Asia/Australia each
person would only have 1/4 of a plate of food. Essentially, a North
American has 24 times as much food as an Asian/Australian.
Some causes of this unequal distribution are due to overpopulation, economic and political policies which create inequity, over consumption by the wealthy, the lack of education by the poor and the wealthy, poor economies, poor land, politics, and the development of corporate globalization which exploits people and the environment.
Every minute, 24 people die from hunger and hunger related causes.
From top to bottom: Lexis Boothby-Shoemaker '06 shows off her many layers of clothing to go out and do farm chores in the barn; Ann Armbruster '08, Lexis Boothby-Shoemaker '06, Dave Blandford, and Janet Van Zoeren '06 outside of the Overlook Farm barn; two of the four llamas that Overlook Farm raises; Janet Van Zoeren '06 carries a bale of hay from the hay barn to be fed to some of the animals.
Photos by Kate Bruder
