M01- Getting to Know Me: Akshat Rajan

Hey guys! My name is Akshat Rajan and I’m a senior at Penn State University Park, majoring in Biology-Neuroscience. I will be graduating this May.  While I’m in State College during the semester, I currently live in Princeton NJ right by the university. I was born in India and briefly lived in Singapore and Canada, before settling down in New Jersey for the past 12 years. I’m involved with THON here at PSU and a member of the Ultimate Frisbee team. I love filming and photography in my free time. I plan on becoming a physician and will attend medical school after I graduate from Penn State. I plan on taking a gap year before that so I will be entering medical school in the fall of 2017.

This geography class interests me since I would like to learn more about the environment, environmental sustainability, and the mutual relationship between Earth, the environment, and geography. I’ve traveled and lived in many parts of the world, and  seen the way different countries respond to their respective environment and geography and would love to learn more about these topics in a better organized manner.

A big issue in geography right now to me is food and crop maintenance. This not only involves preserving land with fertile soil for farming, but also the preservation of crops. Pollution as well as frequent pesticide use has led to many crops developing pesticide-resistant and antibiotic- resistant organisms present in soils. This has increased the burden placed on farmers to ensure and satisfy safety protocols with their produce. Pollution from the construction of cities and buildings have made farm lands more desirable and expensive. Many farmers who have run their farms from generation to generation are finding that it is more profitable to sell their land to the local township rather than to sell their produce. Since everyone is eager to buy land to build more houses and commercial buildings, it is rather enticing for farmers to sell their lands. Another issue in food production is with overpopulation and therefore a higher demand for certain produce. Foods such as fish and shark are greatly over-harvested in coastal regions by the water. Many of these produces are shipped internationally, with barely any produce remaining in the origin location. Better regulations must be taken to ensure produce is spread about the world evenly.