Event Blog: Charleston Farmers Market

The events that I went to and still continue to go to is the Charleston Farmers Market in Marion Square. The farmers market has become an every Saturday routine since I came to Charleston. The Farmers Market doesn’t only have the best vegetables, fruits, and meat but it has a whole bunch of other things like artwork and crafts.

The Charleston Market is the go to place to get any local product. I believe it is very important to buy local because you are helping the livelihood of farmers in our area and also helping the environment due to lessening the traveling the products do. I wrote about this in my first blog but the market has helped make it easier on me to keep my promise to try my hardest to eat local and healthier.

The people at the market are a major positive as well. You can meet so many nice local people who have helped me to eat healthier by giving me recipes and tips on how to cook different healthier ways. I also think it is really important to thank the farmers who produce the food for our country, because with out them most Americans would not have access to the food we have today. The people at the market also tell me where I should eat based on who has the freshest foods and just tips about living in Charleston in general.

The food at the market although sometimes more expensive is unbelievable. It always taste so much better than store bought produce. The fruit is always fresh a juicy, the vegetables always taste fresh and the meat is farm and grass raised unlike most meat today as we learned in the documentary “Food Inc.” Although I do know that meat isn’t a necessary part of my diet I do have it occasionally usually only from the Charleston Farmers Market and local farmers.

This event lines directly with almost everything that we have talked about in class. The Charleston Farmers markets help reduce my ecological footprint in many ways. It has taught me how to eat healthy so I do not have to endure heart disease hopefully. It has allowed me to help support local businesses and farmers, which helps Charleston economy as a whole. It has exposed me to more organic products, which allows me to support farmers who do not use harmful internal pollutants. It has also help me to keep up with my goal I posted about in my first blog. The Charleston Market in Marion Square has changed my life and I do believe that it has changed other peoples as well. It is an event that helps me tie together the things I have learned from the make up and effects of micro-plastics to the importance of supporting businesses that operate with the triple bottom line mindset.

Most people have heard of the wooly mammoth, saber tooth tiger, or the dodo. Science education, even from a young age has made sure of that their existence is known and some may have seen fossils of the beasts in a museum. These creatures roamed the Earth thousands of years ago when our species was just getting started. Today, they are long gone but science and modern technology is beginning to question that reality. In the conservation biology class I am currently taking here at the College of Charleston, which I highly recommend, we had to select a book to read to broaden our views of conservation and our environment. The one I chose was How to Clone a Mammoth by Beth Shapiro. In Shapiro’s book she explored the new science of de-extinction, which is essentially resurrecting animals that no longer exist. While I will not spoil the excitement of the end, the author did however delve into the fascinating aspects of bringing back mammoths; the means of either cloning or gene editing in elephants to make them mimic mammoths as a key part of the process. She also closely examines the ethical questions and the potential environmental impacts that would come with reintroducing an extinct animal into the wild. Shapiro argues for de-extinction in the name of restoring or reviving ecosystems such as the arctic tundra with the reintroduction of mammoths. Hypothetically if this feat of bringing mammoths back was successful, then they could potentially stop the melting of permafrost by packing it back down. The author also notes that she does not believe that a resurrected species be displayed in a zoo for tourism like some kind of trophy. This species coming back from the dead would theoretically provide great ecosystem services both culturally and environmentally if the feat could be achieved. However, there is the question of whether this is morally right or wrong. If we have the technology and the science to bring something that we helped go extinct back, should we? Shapiro wrestles with this question throughout the book asking the reader what they think. After reading, I contemplated this question myself. I personally concluded that it could not hurt to try. I believe that the worst-case scenario is that the new species just dies out again, but if it succeeds then humans could utilize this to save other ecosystems that we as humans depend on. I see this new biological technology as a tool for good and it gives me hope for the future. With all that said and done I really do encourage people to pick up this fascinating book in their spare time!

Source: Shapiro, Beth. How to Clone a Mammoth: the Science of De-Extinction. Princeton University Press, 2016.