5.1: Communication, Media, and Social Change

Reflecting on our group project "Plant it Forward," I believe our group has made the right choice for promoting and sharing our endeavor with the idea of planting your own food. We have selected only a few plants and spices, but provide websites and resources for individuals to seek on their own. I think it would be important to add some additional information into our project to give people the perspective of organic food (real food) that our nation consumes. A student at California Irvine provided information on a few, but insightful statistics. Two percent of food distributed and consumed in the U.S. is not genetically modified, processed or have been exposed to harmful herbicides. I think our project can include some relevant data to persuade people to shop and produce food that is healthy.

Also, our project has a website (found at wetpaint.com) to show progress, photos and ideas about cultivating healthy, sustainable gardens as a food source. As we already know, the internet is a resourceful alternative to reaching countless numbers of people. Youtube, facebook and other networking media communities have the ability to connect people to share ideas and experiences to promote social change. I think that our group has covered this area of communication by making our project's mission and objectives clear to users of the internet who may encounter our website.

After viewing the film on genetically modified crops, I became more aware and concerned about the unknown dangers of consuming genetically modified products. Also, our government officials are using their political power to allow such products to be mass distributed, we need to make this aware in our community. This aspect can be brought into our project to persuade people to take a stance against allowing GM products in our market. First, people need to become aware of the issue and then told how they can make a change in our community. We need to foster social change by providing information about groups who are involved in petitioning against GM crops, so that they can feel empowered to join them and feel that by being part of a large group, social change can occur on a community level, and then the state level.