Figuring out what I want to focus on for my next three years of study in ENVS has been a longer, more difficult process than I had imagined. There are just so many interesting topics under the general field of Environmental Studies that it has been an adventure just to know where to start. Sorting through my passions and research, I am starting to get a few ideas.
First, food and agriculture. I love food: eating it, making it, whatever. It’s great. But there’s also a lot of different angles and exciting things happening in this field. I could research the immense and ever changing fast food industry and see how it relates to problems such as food sovereignty and food deserts. Something else super interesting is how agricultural methods are being innovated constantly to become more productive, healthy, and sustainable. This includes GMOs, pesticides/ herbicides, and innovative practices such as prairie crop strips, vertical farming, and in vitro meat. Any of these could be super interesting ideas that could be a whole concentration.
Another area of interest for me is in the field of urban and built environments. In particular, city planning is something I find fascinating. Here, in the Pacific Northwest at least, there are cities surrounded by miles and miles of suburban sprawl with park areas set aside for “nature areas”. How did our cities end up like this? Condensing the suburbs would be great for energy conservation and fostering stronger communities. I would like to see if this is still possible for America or, at least, for still developing countries.
Ideally my concentration would also tie in my proposed minor in Chemistry and the studies I have done this past year related to sustainability. If I had to choose right now, I would probably propose GMOs as my concentration because they seem to fit into a lot of the things I’m into. More thought and research is still needed.