Rana's Surviving Winter in the Dust Bowl Argument

Rana Srouji

Mr. Hammer

AP Biology

4 May 2015

Dust Bowl Argumentation

Over the past years, Oklahoma has been in a devastating state for farming.  We received less than ten inches of rain and the crops did not grow well at all.  Out of what my family has planted we were only able to conserve five hundred bushels of wheat for the winter and five hundred gallons of potable water.  The next time that we will be able to harvest is in June.  Thus, in order to survive this eight month winter in the dust bowl, my family and I must eat our bull, keep the cow alive, feed it, drink the milk, and then eat the rest of the wheat.  The bull would be the first to be eaten for obvious reasons.  According to Table 1, it would consume 46,000 calories a day, and take about 45 gallons of water per day.  Keeping the bull alive would only reduce the chances of survival for my family and I because the bull would consume all of the food and water that we have within a short period of time.  Also, eating the bull would provide us with plenty of protein and fat to keep us healthy and would allow us to reserve the limited amount of wheat that we have for when we run out of meat.  However, the bull meat does not provide any carbohydrates, but since we are keeping the cow alive, we would milk the cow and use the milk to receive the carbs necessary to live.  This will be fine considering the cow produces about 6 gallons of milk per day which is more than necessary for the daily serving size.  However, since only 41% of the bull’s total weight is actually consumable, this means that of the 1200 pounds that it may weigh, we could only eat about 708 pounds and each pound is considered a serving size.  Also, considering that we have about 240 days in this winter, this is not sufficient enough to provide the correct dietary needs to each family member daily.  Thus, once we run out of bull, we could resort to consuming the wheat.  The five hundred bushels of wheat is meant to last eight months to feed the family and the cow, which means it must be conserved and neither the cow nor the family will be able to get their usual servings from it.  This also goes for the water intake, there is only five hundred gallons of water for both the cow and the family to drink from, thus the cow would have to get less than its usual servings from the water as well but the family would get their usual servings of water because humans cannot survive more than three to five days without the potable water.  The cow consumes about fifty gallons of water a day, but it would only get a portion of that amount because if it received fifty gallons, then the cow alone would receive water for only ten days and there would be no water for the family.  Overall, my family would only be able to survive this eight month winter by eating the bull, keeping the cow alive, feeding the cow, drinking the milk, and eating the wheat, until June for the next harvest.