I have to admit, waking up on the day of our first field trip was a bit of a struggle. As I lay there in bed, still exhausted from the night before, I asked myself what I was getting up for, and if it was truly worth more than a couple more hours of precious sleep. To be completely honest, my first thought was no, and that sleep was more important; but after taking my grade into consideration, and giving myself a short pep talk on becoming a changed man who takes care of his responsibilities, even if they may be a little unappealing, I rolled out of bed and prepared myself for an unknown adventure.
Within 2 minutes into the tour of the FGCU Food Forest, I had already applauded my decision to get up and attend the field trip. Although I actually enjoyed my experience with both parts of the field trip, I must say the Food Forest is what really fascinated me the most. The first thing that really interested me about the Food Forest was the design of the whole thing. Walking up to it without a guide, someone might look at it and just see a nonuniform cluster of trees and plants with no real organization to it; but after hearing the explanation behind the design and how its actually a very intricate permaculture that promotes healthy growth of the different species while fighting off disease and other natural predators, I was extremely intrigued and impressed. Another mini-permaculture that I found to be really cool was the herb spiral. The herb spiral is basically a trickle down system where the plants that require the least water, such as rosemary, are at the top, and as the spiral moves down, herbs and other flora the require more water are planted in an order so that they can get a sufficient amount of water and nutrients as well. I personally thought that the design of the herb spiral was a very creative, innovative, and efficient use of space.
Not only was the permaculture of the Food Forest very cool, but many of the actual trees and plants that grew within the forest were as well. One that I found particularly fascinating was the Moringa tree. During the field trip I learned that studies have shown that the leaves of this tree can have a very positive affect on treating arthritis in humans and pets. Professor Mendes actually mentioned a friend of hers who started treating her dog with Moringa leaf extract, and saw a huge amount of progress in her dogs energy and playfulness. This directly impacted me because my dog suffers from severe arthritis that has critically affected her motivation to be active, and I would love to try anything I can do to help her feel better. However, arthritis treatment is just one of the moringa plants long list of enormous benefits. According to treesforlife.org, a serving of moringa leaves has 7 times the Vitamin C of oranges, 4 times the Vitamin A of carrots, 4 times the Calcium of milk, 3 times the Potassium of bananas, and 2 times the protein of yogurt. I honestly found it to be absolutely incredible that those tiny leaves could produce such amazing nutritional value; and we're growing it in our own backyard at FGCU!
Here at FGCU we take pride in our mission to practice and promote sustainability. The Food Forest and Cypress Dome reflect positively on our mission statement because they're both virtually self-sustaining systems that greatly benefit our environment and community by producing natural food sources, shelter, ecosystems for diverse flora and fauna, and other non-material and material needs. Like we learned in the in-class lesson, without sustainable environments we would not be able to build societies, and without societies we would not have an economy; the Food Forest and Cypress Dome are perfect examples of sustainable environments that aid in the production of society and economy.
The lack of knowledge that I had about these types of permaculture and sustainable environments was a perfect example of the so called "Nature Deficit Disorder" that too many people in our modern societies are facing each day. Like I said before, we literally owe our entire economy to our environments, yet no one really seems to acknowledge that or even really know anything about it; to put it simply, we are ignorant. However, by spending just a little bit of time outside each day exploring and learning new things, Nature Deficit Disorder is something that can definitely be overcome for most people. In the text there was an article about some boys who spent a few months in Alaska as punishment due to some trouble that they got into with the law. Naturally, when they first got there and were faced with freezing climates and little to no sunlight, they were unhappy to say the least. But after their exposure to this environment for an extended period of time, they learned to respect it and appreciate it, some to the point where they actually didn't even want to leave when their punishment was complete. Although not as drastic, my experience with the Food Forest and Cypress Dome field trip was comparable in the sense that originally, partially due to Nature Deficit Disorder, I did NOT want to get up and go; but after getting out their and trying something knew, I was extremely pleased with the experience I had and the new and beneficial knowledge I gained.
The benefits of the leaves of the Moringa
An example of an herb spiral similar to the one at the FGCU Food Forest
