Title: Cows to Kilowatts(2209)
Summery:
In the Feb 2009 edition of Popular Engineering published an article by Jennifer Bogo about Pennsylvania farmer,Shawn Saylor gets government assistance for implementing sustainable practices.
Topic: Sustainable Land Use
Category: Journalistic
What is it? This is a printed magazine article
Publication Information: This article was published in the Feb 2009 edition of Popular Mechanics
Location: This piece came from a print magazine
Accessed: Feb 2009
Support:
Shawn Saylor: Rancher/ Dairy farmer
Pennsylvania Departement of Environmental Protection
These sources work together to give a clear picture of a real life example of sustainable farming. Mr.Saylor, the farmer, handled the dirty work of maintaining the ranch while the Pennsylvania Departement of Environmental Protection (PDEP) gave Mr.Saylor a grant in exchange for taking on the project. While both PDEP and researchers at the University of Texas work to promote sustainable farming practices through grants and research and publication.
Audience and Agenda:
Popular Mechanics has been in publication since 1902 and currently has 9 million subscribers. It focuses on cutting edge science and technology and has a history of taking on controversial issues like discrediting 9/11 consperacy theories. It is owned by, the media conglomerate, Hearst Communications Inc. Hearst Communications has interest and full rights to several newspapers and magazines, including The San Francisco Chronicle and Oprah’s magazine, O. Popular Mechanics seeks engineers, mechanics, scientists and anyone interested in the newest science and mechanics.
Usefulness:
Americans are more concerned than ever about “going green” and conducting sustainable land/farm practices. And this story was written in the thick of this interest, as it attempts to show people applied sustainable farming methods through today’s latest mechanical/scientific technology. Cows to Kilowatts is an article that was written to catch the interest of scientists, environmentalists, farmers, engineers and all others interested in cutting edge mechanics and/or greener farming habits. With this article Ms.Bogo makes the argument, through reporting and first hand evidence, that sustainable farming is very possible and can even be cost effective. One aspect she leaves out is the details to how Mr.Saylor won the $600,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Departement of Environmental Protection. This article serves an effective rebuttal to Michelle Collins’ story in The Sunday Mail in which she implies that organic products are doomed because of their higher prices.
Works Cited:
Hearst Communications inc.
Pennsylvania Departement of Environmental Protection
Filed under: Source Notes
[...] and the ability of future generations to produce food tomorrow because we are hungry today. Jennifer Bogo’s article, Cows to Kilowatts in the Feb 2009 edition of Popular Mechanics is an example of a agricultural [...]