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 According to the American School Bus Council Website, an average American school bus can travel seven miles per gallon of gasoline (American School Bus Council”).  For our field trip to Farmer Pete’s farm, we traveled a total of 28 miles.  This means four gallons of gasoline were used.  For every gallon of gasoline used, about 20 lbs of carbon dioxide are emitted into the air “NSTA Interactive: Carbon Dioxide Emissions”).  On our trip, we emitted about 80 lbs of carbon dioxide into the air.  This sounds like a very large number, but in the relative scheme of things how does this impact the environment?  For one educational field trip, I believe the environmental cost was worth it.  Making this trip everyday, however, would not be worth the environmental cost. 

I was very surprised to learn that there is a very fine line between organic and inorganic food.  It is very easy for a farmer to grow organically by just buying certain sprays that are approved as an organic substance, but it is harder for a farmer to go through a process of labeling food “organic”.  Farmer Pete explained that farmers must pay thousands of dollars and go through stacks of paperwork and inspections in order to be labeled organic.  This tedious process deters farmers from becoming organic.  If this process were made easier, I’m sure a lot more farmers would grow organically. 

Shopping at the farm stand also made me see how customer demand influences what farmers sell.  For example, Farmer Pete advertised his stand to contain locally grown food.  I was expecting to see only the types of food that he said he grew on his farm, but I found this was not the case.  There were grapes, apples, and other food items that were not grown on his farm.  More importantly, some food was imported from other countries.  It was interesting to see that a food stand advertised as “local” was not fully local food. 

“American School Bus Council.” 23 Sep. 2009. 23 Sep. 2009

            http://www.americanschoolbuscouncil.org/index.php?page=fuel-

calculator

“NSTA Interactive: Carbon Dioxide Emissions.” 23 Sep. 2009. 23 Sep. 2009

            http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/pd/oceans_weather_

climate/media/carbon_dioxide.swf