By Sally Taylor

When thinking about natural disasters, our minds usually turn to images of floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and the like that create a pretty good show while they are devastating the countryside and people. Reports about the damages caused by such disasters will sometimes give a fleeting mention of crop destruction, but you don’t hear much more about agricultural disasters until you get to the supermarket and see increased prices for some items.

Irish Immigration
By Eric Morris

The population of the Irish in America ranked second to the English during the colonial period. Many early Irish immigrants were Scotch-Irish and were quite influential. These immigrants moved out of Ireland due to religious conflicts, economic conditions, and lack of political independence. Immigrants moved to America with the hope of land ownership and greater religious freedom. Economic and religious reasons were the main cause of motivation for immigration.

It is easy to believe that technology has helped everyone. We live such comfortable lives, after all. We really benefit from an almost remarkable level of abundance and convenience. Even middle and working class people tend to have plenty to eat, good sources of transportation, and a wide variety of recreational activities that are not available in a lot of the world. We work longer hours than we used to, but we still do have plenty of recreation time to unwind.

By: Tim Johnson

Organically Grown Fruits and Vegetables - Can Organic Help Eliminate World Hunger?
By Connie Ragen Green

Many people prefer to have organically grown fruit and vegetables for health reasons. They wish to avoid the potentially harmful chemicals and pesticides that are used in agriculture all over the world. An interesting outcome of this discussion is that changing over from traditional farming to organic could help to eliminate world hunger.