Mike Clark Essay

Mike Clark is a PhD student in the Forest Resources Graduate Seminar with an agriculture emphasis. Before beginning his graduate studies, he majored in biology. Mike did not go in depth on his credentials or background on agriculture. From his presentation, I concluded that he was attempting to persuade this audience, but I will go more in depth on this later. Mr. Clark’s presentation was split up into two different sections. The first section focused on different types of food (grains, fish, meat, etc.) and used life cycle assessments to see each type’s environmental impact. His research found that meat (mostly beef) had the highest acidification potential, eutrophication potential, land use, and greenhouse gas emission. With these results, Mike showed that consuming grains and plant based food has a lower environmental impact. The second section looked at the different types of food production (i.e.: organic vs. nonorganic) and their environmental impact. Mike compared organic vs. nonorganic, extensive vs. nonextensive beef, and trawling vs. nontrawling fisheries. In organic vs. nonorganic, he found that organic requires more land and has higher acidification and eutrophication potential. Extensive beef

Because of this, I will be focusing on reasons why I’m skeptical about Mike’s research. To begin with, many times throughout his presentation (especially with his extensive vs. nonextensive beef comparison) he mentions the lack of research on the subject. Some of his information had as little as only two studies. Also, Mike failed to identify where his research came from. He displayed the numbers and information from studies but never said who did the studies. Without knowing where the study came from, it is impossible to know if the study is legitimate and unbiased. Also, none of the studies were done by him, meaning he and the audience has no knowledge as to how the studies were