This is a picture of the middle school I attended for three years. I was compelled to take this picture after remembering all the seagulls I always saw swarming the campus' grassy fields. They were especially aggressive during lunchtime, when all of us kids would accidentally [or purposefully] drop food on the ground. It was both scary and entertaining to watch the seagulls swiftly swoop down and snatch the crumbs off the ground in a matter of seconds. It was a tough game of survival of the fittest. In some ways, I feel like living in a commercialized society has produced “seagulls”—-people who are not very self-sufficient, dependent on what is dropped in front of them to survive, having to grab what’s thrown before others take it away.
This picture of a great grassy field is something that is commonly seen throughout the rest of the city of Alameda. Bay Farm Island of Alameda used to be known as “Asparagus Island” because it was composed of farmland with asparagus as the principle crop. However, it is made up of a large golf course, many suburban housing developments, many office buildings, and a small shopping center with one Safeway. The numerous lawns of grass, trees, and bushes on Bay Farm Island reminded me what we talked about in class on those being an idea of a prestige image. They weren’t naturally grown on the island and they require lots of maintenance. What would happen if food was instead grown on those areas? Then we wouldn’t have to rely solely on the one Safeway in Bay Farm to survive…
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