Mimi Yen: CLAP ideas

Issue 1:
Environment

Details:
I currently have in mind two venues to work on: Chinatown and the Hudson River.

Chinatown’s poor air quality has taken a toll on respiratory health for its hundred thousand residents. Ideally, I would like to find a way to directly improve the air in Chinatown; as of now, it seems that practical measures are geared towards alleviating the health concerns (asthma) associated with the pollution.

The Hudson is heavily contaminated with PCBs (released as waste from General Electric), toxic chemicals that are suspected carcinogens. I hope to formulate a long-term clean-up plan for the river; preferably, the plan will involve many participants, whether they live in the area or not.

Research Links:
http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/hhudson.asp
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/05/0530_hudsonriver.html
http://urbanhabitat.org/node/166
http://www.thevillager.com/villager_371/chinatownstudy.html

Issue 2:
Food and Health

Details:
I’m interested in finding a way to reduce the cost of organic foods. Monetary concerns are a large barrier in shifting away from diets loaded with processed foods. People who are living on a tight budget are forced to choose the cheaper option--even if it means increasing the risk of diabetes (treatment for which is beyond their budget).

I'd also like to do something about school lunches...not necessarily because it tastes bad (it doesn't always) but because it's so unhealthy. Not only that, but a lot of it goes to waste. Maybe there is some way to recycle school lunches?

Research Links:
http://www.grist.org/article/philpott7

Issue 3:
Education

Details: This issue is definitely something I feel very strongly about as its decline is something that is difficult to deny. But, while it seems that there are a billion things that can be done, I'm still unsure of how to even begin tackling this issue. I'm wary of tutoring as it seems to be a more temporary sort of solution. Not sure where to go with this, but I'd like to explore ways to implementing new teaching methods (move away from endless standardized test prep and textbook-cramming).

Research links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/education/10educ.html

*random note: topic titles need to be 10 -200 something characters long

I really like the idea of cleaning the Hudson River! If you ever are in need of help, let me know .
What I'm stuck on is how on earth we will clean the river. Don't they need machines and construction-type tools for that? In which case, how will we get funding? I'm not even sure if unskilled high-schoolers such as ourselves are even allowed to do that.

I don't know how to touch Chinatown pollution, because the problem is just so pervasive, and so habitual. I mean, awareness works, but i figure that the smell of Chinatown is awareness enough-- it seems like it's just a bad habit to most.

On organic foods- again, a toughie. Although we might be able to do something about the school lunch that we throw out-- there is a lot of waste involved. Perhaps we could take that to the food pantry? I know many restaurants do the same. Maybe we could try to convince schools to join that movement as well?

And on education, you might want to tackle a very specific issue on it (for example, more art classes), and then run with that. otherwise, i have no idea .

Thats very interesting that asthma could be related to the air polution. If there could be some way to promote greener ways to run cars, factories and stuff like that in NYC to reduce the air polution?

I have asked what they do with the left over food at my school and they said they usualy save it and recycle it for another day. which is sort of sketchy but i also wonder what they would do with the excess food.. if there could be a way to recycle that food to local shelters possibly? As far as the getting them to serve more healthy lunches, maybe talk to the principal or find a provider that would sell the healthier lunches to the school?

Education could be more fun by implamenting games? even at a high school level, i wouldnt mind playing some studying games to really ciment the information to memory?..

Issue 1:
China Air Quality: I feel like quality of air is not only centered in the Chinatown area but in the NYC area. Albeit the Chinatown area is more polluted than other areas in the city, there are already programs out there that help clean up the Chinatown area.

Hudson: Great Idea! I feel like this would be difficult in the sense that there are many government barriers that you must go through to initiate cleanup not to mention the machines like wendy mentioned. However, this could be a great awareness/research project.

Issue 2:
Organic Foods: Bright Idea! Being in business, I've thought about this similar issue. The problem with decreasing any price of food (especially organic) is that farms have a lot of power over the food market. Organic farms have higher operating cost and therefore must charge higher prices. Perhaps the solution will come naturally as more organic farms are built. Again, this can be a great research project.

School Lunches: This is definitely something you can do! Recycling school lunches is definitely something that can be done in the here and now. I know that in my year, the leftover food from like events we had went to a nyc program that picked up the food. I don't quite remember the name but im sure a quick search would do.
As for healthy school food, you can definitely start a club for that. I know a lot of nutrition clubs out there that have a say in their educational institutions.

Issue 3:
Education: Our educational system definitely needs some life in it. However, you would need to do a lot of policy analysis on our education system to figure out problems. I'm sure that the government realizes this but because of our current political system, education has not been a top priority. This can also be another great research project.

On prep: If you would like to create your own after school program or something to that extent, that would be great.

Thanks to everyone for all the input

I think I'd like to work on food and nutrition.

The health and nutrition plan would definitely be a great one, other than the potentially harmful additives that are stilll APPROVED by the FDA, many of the cheaper foods that we buy are processed and covered in pesticides. Those in theh lower class can hardly afford organic healthy foods because of high rents and a big family to feed. I mean, if I had a dollar, should I spend it on a head of lettuce that won't fill me up, or a burger from the local fast food restuarant? Most tend to opt for the buger because not only is it more convient and saves on gas from cooking the food.
The availability of organic food is also a problem, although some megastores like Walmart are starting to sell organic milk/veggies/meat. There aren't many organic farms that we can get the food from, feeding a cow corn and treating the beef with antibiotics to kill baacteria is a lot cheaper than feeding it grass. The use of growth hormones on chickens also provide a way to faster and a larger profit. However, more and more of these organic farms are sprouting out and people are starting to make healthy choices. Hopefully there'd be one day where the country's biggest meat producer wouldn't be a factory farm.