5/8/08

Breakfast: Orange Juice, English Muffin w/ peanut butter

Snack: Muffin

Lunch:Cheese pizza, POG, Cookie

Dinner: Salad, Water, Pasta

In environmental science we learned about biomass and energy availability at different levels of the food chain. By becoming vegetarian one would be able to consume more energy while eating less.

Food Chain explanation:
1. Producers are plants. They have the ability to use solar energy, carbon dioxide, and water to produce sugar.
2. Animals are consumers. They do not posses the ability to use solar energy to make food, so they must eat other plants or animals. There are 3 types of consumers:
a. Animals that only eat plants are herbivores
b. Animals that eat other animals are carnivores
-Carnivores that eat herbivores are called secondary consumers
-Carnivores that eat other carnivores are called tertiary consumers
3. Animals that eat both animals and plants are omnivores
4. Bacteria & Fungi are decomposers that feed on decaying matter

In a food chain, as energy is passed from one level to the next only a small percentage of energy is transformed into new body mass, the rest is lost to waste or used to carry out life processes. As the energy moves up the food chain, less & less energy is available; therefore, consumers like carnivores, which are higher on the food chain require more animals to get the standard amount of energy.

here is a visual example of one example of a human food chain:
By becoming vegetarian one can eat less, while attaining the same amount of energy. By reducing animal agriculture, we could use the excess grain to feed people in need rather than livestock!

Sources: http://www.vtaide.com/png/foodchains.htm
http://www.sugar.ca/english/images/tradealliances/food_chain.jpg