HW #11 final food project part one

For the assignment my partner Jay and I decided to make fliers and pass them out to people. This, overall, turned out to be quite effective. Unfortunately, there were many people who were simply not interested and paid no mind to us, however there were many who were willing to grab a flier. At first we were simply giving them out which was not all that effective. Then we began to have brief verbal engagements with the people, which proved to be much more helpful. We were very polite, which made people more willing to take the fliers. Eventually we developed a catch phrase, ‘know what you eat before you eat it” which worked especially great because we were handing them out during lunchtime.

            There was a certain group of people that stood out when I was giving out the fliers. A group of Caucasian men were walking and I engaged them attempting to give them the fliers. I told them that they could learn a lot just by reading it. Three of them said no but as the last one walked by me he grabbed one. Jay and I lingered in that area for a few minutes giving more out. When we decided to walk up the block we saw the man and the rest of his friends gathered around him, intently reading the flier. This made me feel very proud since it seemed to actually have an affect on them. They may actually make a difference in their diets and further spread the word.

            I feel that this process went very well overall, however there are a few things that we could have done differently. One of the better things that we did was with the timing. Being that we handed them out during lunchtime there were many people out and they all had food on their mind. A major con may have been that we did not provide area for further investigation. Some people may have been interested in learning more about the food and what is really in it. Had we given the names of the books read in class (Omnivores Dilemma or Fast Food Nation) the movie, Food inc., it would be easy for them to learn about the food.

            Aside from this, I attempted to be a vegetarian for one day. This did not work nearly as well. During lunchtime that day, my friends and I walked by a Kentucky fried chicken, making my desire for meat all the more. Fortunately I was able to resist the desire and settle for pizza. Unfortunately, dinnertime was a whole different story. I am a person that normally has a very large and appetizing (not that vegetables are not appetizing) dinner. As I arrived home I learned that my stepmom would be making dinner, rice, beans, and chicken. I told myself that I would not eat it. I said that I would have soup instead. I did in fact have that soup, but it did not full me. Shortly after, dinner was ready and I needed to have a full meal before I went to bed. Basically, it would be very difficult for me to go meatless permanently, if I could not even do it for one day.

Food inc response

Do not allow the big time food companies/industries to continue this way. They control the entire countries diet. By denying people as much information as they can about what they are feeding us, they are able to keep most in the dark so few have any incentive to make change. Do not allow this to continue happening. Make a difference by knowing about what you eat. If people are knowledgeable of what they are eating they will be willing to make changes in their diets. This is the key. Do not allow these sometimes even deadly foods to continue being fed to us. Make a difference.

The movie and the book had many similarities and differences. Generally the book was much more specific and detailed; spending more time on topics/ideas while for most things the movie was relatively brief in its explanation. Although this is true, the movie made the information much more pleasurable to obtain. While it is good that the book was very detailed it sometimes stayed on a topic for a bit too long. The movie was very concise. The movie also gave a much more interesting representation, being that it was able to visually show what happened in the slaughter houses and what the animals were really living like.

I defiantly preferred the movie over the book. The visual representations were much more helpful in keeping me interested and understanding what harsh conditions there were for the animals. Going back to the précis, it mentioned that the people in America are not really motivated to even care about what they are eating. This is very interesting to me because I feel that if I was someone that had issues with my health that would be one of the first things that I would look into. Doctors and other experts can simply tell you what is good and bad but knowing what exactly you are eating, to me, will be the most helpful information. This is especially true when you can easily make small changes that make a big difference from knowing these things. I even have peers that, just by watching the movie, are motivated to make changes in their eating styles. I think the main feeling that I get from the movie was disappointment more than anything. Many may be feeling sad, mainly for the animals, and while that may true, I think that animals live their lives to be eaten. It is part of life, so while I am sympathetic towards them, it was going to happen eventually. I am mainly disappointed that people can consciously have those living conditions for the animals, knowing that they can easily pick up diseases that way. They are consciously willing to risk giving life threatening diseases by them doing that. That was the most disappointing thing that I saw, especially when examples like the young boy, Kevin, who died at age two. Even after his death the company continued to distribute the poisoned meat, putting even more people’s lives at risk.

7d

Chapter 17

Modern day Americans take animals for granted. We undermine their values in our lives and basically use them simply for food. Although many may view that as a natural part of life, it is not very natural to have them drugged up standing ankle high in their own manure. The cruelty we show to them is unfair. According to Peter Singer, animals should be treated just as well as humans are. They deserve better.

"If possessing a higher degree of intelligence does not entitle one human to use another for his or her own ends, how can it entitle humans to exploit non-humans for the same purpose?" (Pollan, 307)

“The stunner has a pneumatic-powered ‘gun’ that fires a steel bolt about seven inches long and the diameter of a fat pencil. He leans over and puts it smack in the middle of the forehead. When it’s done correctly it will kill the animal on the first shot.” (Pollan, 330)

This chapter made it very clear to me the way the animals have simply been tools to humans. Sure we have our pets but who has a pet pig or cow? We genetically modify them and use them as food. We even use them to get rid our excess things like corn, which is the source for why what we are doing is even an issue.

Chapter 18

For some odd reason hunting seems to be something that many kids desire. Just the thought of having a gun in your hand, that feeling of superiority, is something to want. Being that I have no experience with hunting Angelo, who is a very experienced hunter, trained me. It was quite difficult for me and even after the training and getting my own gun, I was still a bit uneasy. After succeeding in the hunt I felt an overwhelming joy. I was very proud of myself.

“I enjoyed shooting a pig a whole lot more than I ever thought I should have” (Pollan, 337)

"So much of the human project is concerned with distinguishing ourselves from beasts that we seem strenuously to avoid things that remind us that we are beasts too" (Pollan, 357)

At first I wondered how he could be so pleased with killing a pig himself. After putting myself in his shoes and attempting to understand his joy, I concluding that he was not joyful of the idea that he killed the pig. It was more of a feeling of accomplishment, since he had succeeded in essentially becoming a hunter. Still, I wonder, what does he really accomplish from this?


Chapter 19

Now that the meat part is complete it is time to hunt for the mushrooms. Many will think that mushrooms will be easy to simply be gathered, but as a person that has minimal forest experience, this is an extremely difficult task. It is also important to be careful of potentially poisonous mushrooms. In addition it was difficult to have someone assist and escort me through the forest to hunt. After all of these things happened, I was satisfied with the result and was proud to have succeeded.

"Morel hunting didn't sound like much fun, more like survival training than a walk in the woods. I crossed my finger that Anthony was just trying to scare me and set my alarm from 4:30AM, wondering why it is all these hunting-gathering expeditions had to big at such ungodly hours."  (Pollan 379)


Chapter 20

I decided to prepare a mean for my friends and family using all of the things that I personally hunted down. While the meal was not the greatest any of us have had, I found it great. Not because of the taste, but the sense of satisfaction that I gained from having done literally the entire meal by myself.

"No, little if anything about this meal was what anyone would call 'realistic'. And yet no meal I've ever prepared or eaten has been more real" (Pollan, 392)

"It occurred to me that the making of this meal, by acquainting me with these particular people, landscapes, and species, had succeeded in attaching me to Northern California, its nature and its culture both, as nothing I'd done before or since.  Eating's not a bad way to get to know a place" (Pollan 408).

Pollans ability to literally complete the entire meal, from start to finish, really impressed me. From reading other blogs, some felt that he was “overly sentimental” (Casey Smith), however I felt that he deserved to be emotional. One thing I wondered prior to the eating, was if he would actually be able to eat the meal, even after having seen all of the things while they were alive.  

HW #7c

Chapter 11
In this chapter I tell my readers about the animals on the farm. I explain how they all work together and help each other, how everything on the farm is interconnected. A good example of this would be how the animals eat the grass, which is for them but then when they produce their manure on the grass, it helps the grass. The manure fertilizes the grass.

Chapter 12

In this chapter the main thing that I want my readers to understand is the process the animals, in this case the chickens, go through in the slaughter house I also focus on clarifying that not all slaughter houses are all that dirty, some are, by slaughter house standards, clean. By this I mean that the animals have their waste disposed of naturally, into the grass and they live life freely. Many readers will likely be interested in knowing that the killing of the animals is inevitable, however it does not always have to be cruel towards the animals. This is evident in the full lives that the animals on grass farms live as opposed to those fueled primarily by the corn.

Chapter 13

The primary objective in this chapter was to make it clear that local markets or grass farms value quantity over quality. This does not apply to farms or slaughter houses that pay little or no attention to how the animals are actually treated and the lives they live. On grass farms the animals live full lives. This connects to the big picture because although consumers like to spend the least amount of money, this is their downfall. It will intrigue people to know that modern day Americans spend below ten percent of their income on their food as opposed to as recently as the 1950s where up around twenty percent was spent on food. Clearly, people just do not care as much about what they are eating.

Chapter 14

In this chapter I focus on my experience with chicken post being the person to do the dirty work. After killing the chicken, then plucking and even gutting them myself, I wondered if I could handle the eating. I also wondered if the way the chickens were raised, naturally with grass, would actually affect their taste when eating them. After preparing a meal and eating, my family, friends, and I all agreed that the food was delicious. Many would be very interested in finding the correlation between the happiness of the chicken during its life to its taste after.

Freakonomics

The film, “Freakonomics” has several tactics in which the protagonists go about their investigations. One way is by interviewing people in an attempt to understand a more hands on perspective. In doing this they sought out a way to attain the truth from the people who experience the issue themselves. This tactic was used in the sumo section where the tried to figure out if there was cheating in sumo. By interviewing former competitors, one spoke up and admitted that there was indeed cheating going on in sumo, where some matches were rigged.

            Another tool was analyzing statistics in order to uncover the truth behind things. In doing this the protagonists were able to discover how athletes cheated. Although the interviews were very helpful in the exposure of cheating in sumo wrestling, these interviews would not have even been conducted if the statistics were not analyzed. The protagonists looked at the stats and saw that when a fighter had nothing to lose but his opponent was essentially facing elimination, the underdog won roughly 75% of the time. This stat was used to help prove the conspiracy that matches were being rigged.

            Another tool that was used to make conclusions was to conduct experiments. This was done twice in the movie. First, the protagonist sent out several job applications that were exactly the same information; however the names varied, which was the goal of the study. After a while, replies were received, however they were not quite fair. Applications that had names more commonly found in African Americans, such as Deshawn, received replies later than those with names found in white people, like Todd. This study was able to prove that your name may impact your likelihood to receive a job, depending on how you go about it. This investigation was more conclusive than the second, where the results were not very drastic. The study was about bribing students to improve academically. The students were offered money to improve their grades, but unfortunately, less than 10% of the students that were failing improved to passing grades as a result of the bribery.

            The authors mostly rely on statistics and the experiences that people have. This is because they found these sources most reliable, which they were based on the movie. By looking at stats and the experiences of a former athlete, they were able to expose an entire sport of cheating. This is an especially great achievement when realizing the true significance of the sport to the people of Japan. Aside from the entertainment and money, the sport has much tradition behind it.

            I agree that Freakonomics serves as an inspiration and good example to our attempt to explore the "hidden-in-plain-sight" weirdness of dominant social practices. This inspires me because I found it very interesting and was impressed by the insight in their investigations, especially since they investigated such uncommon aspects of life. I never would have expected that a persons name would have such an impact on their success in life. Although a professional stated the name itself was not important, the part where the applications were sent in and the replies were much later in those with black names still was a surprise to me. I found that very interesting and was very disappointed that racism is still around today. In investigating food, it may be possible to make interesting revelations by following the eating habits of two people with roughly the same weight, with relatives (primarily parents/grandparents) that have roughly the same weight, that are physically active roughly the same amount, and that are roughly the same age to observe how they gain/lose weight.

HW #7b

Chapter 6

            I wanted my readers to understand why we have the health problems that we have. The reasoning for things like obesity and diabetes is that there is such an overpopulation of corn. As a result of this excess corn, there is a need to find ways to get the corn consumed, which is when it gets processed. After this, the corn is a great source of energy in more ways that one, be it in chicken nuggets, soda, or nearly anything. The fact that it provides so much energy makes people desire these things and since it has the energy, it has lots of calories. This is why health is now such an issue.

Chapter 7

           

            I wanted my readers to understand how modern day fast food works and how simple it is to have a full meal for a low price. To make this clear, I simply explained a day where my family and I each had McDonalds for lunch. The interesting part of this was the way that McDonalds is able to deceive their customers by having healthier meals on the menu, like a salad. By doing this they seem less unhealthy overall.

Chapter 8

            In this chapter I explained to my readers the basics, and some more, about grass. Grass, like corn, plays a huge role in our lives.  Also like corn, it is often consumed by animals, which we consume, therefore it is important with us as well. It is interesting how the grass, like the corn, evolves. As the animals eat it and even walk on it, it thrives and grows back just as easily. This is how the grass is very powerful in its own way.

Chapter 9

            I want my readers to realize what organic means and what it means in products. When things are being sold, they may be advertised as organic, however they may not actually be. Just because it says it, people often believe it but it actually is not. There may be ‘organic’ milk but the cows are actually fed milk from machines that are somehow considered organic. This is somewhat confusing to me.

Chapter 10

            In this chapter I want my readers to understand grass on a more detailed level. They need to understand the significance of grass and why farmers call their farms grass farms. To achieve this, I explored a farm and went into detail with how all of the animals consume grass therefore the grass allows the farm to function properly. Without it the animals will struggle to eat properly, which is something that will likely interest my readers.

hw #8

The plant growing was pretty new to me. I never really grew anything with all of the responsibility; however I have grown simple things like flowers before. I have never grown anything edible. This was much easier than I expected, simply needing to water the sprouts on a daily basis. In doing this I realized that the world can be very difficult. While growing this the whole time I was thinking that this would not be very pleasant to eat. This made me think about people who have much less to eat and do not have a choice in what they eat. Also, it made me realize how difficult farming can be. Although it was pretty simple for me, I noticed some of my peers with much less impressive results as their plants withered. This showed me how a simple mistake like forgetting to water the sprouts for even a day can mess it up. The process may be seen as magical in the way that the sprouts grew so quickly. It may also be sacred, being that people have been growing plants to eat for years; however I did not find this process even the slightest bit unpleasant. Upon eating the sprouts, they were not nearly as distasteful as i had imagined based on their appearance, smell, and my overall preference for foods that are not vegetables. In fact, I found the sprouts quite tasty, much like lettuce in my opinion. I tried them alone at first and then with a hamburger when I got home, which was very satisfying. Overall I feel like this was a fun process.  

hw #7

Intro/Chapter 1
          
In this novel I will be informing you, my audience, of several aspects of health including how corn plays a role in our lives. Corn is in everything. Nearly everything that we consume contains some form of corn. Even looking at history corn allowed humans to survive.  On pager 27 the author stated that, “Corn’s dual identity as food and commodity has allowed many of the peasant communities that have embraced it to make the leap from subsistence to market economy” (Pollan, Michael). This quote is basically saying that corn basically allows the world to go around. It allowed the economy to function in the past.

Chapter 2

            The process of corn is not al that simple either. There is a lot of very careful work that goes into making corn. On page 32 the author stated,  “Deviate from the line and your corn rows ill wobble overlapping or drifting away from one another” (Pollan, Michael). Clearly corn is not as simple a thing to do as people may seem. A lot of work goes into its creation.

Chapter 3

I want you all to understand the process that the corn goes through before it is sold. Not just that but the history. People first realized what corn was in the 1850 and then from there began using it exclusively. Corn was also somewhat sacred to the Mexicans. If there was corn on the floor it was like a sin. “If they saw dry grains of maize scattered on the ground, they quickly gathered them up saying… If we should not gather up, it would accuse us before our lord.” The Mexicans did not want to waste the corn, they thought it disrespect to the lord.

Chapter 4
The main thing that I wanted my readers to get from this chapter was to understand all that the corn goes through and how it connects to other things. I explained the normal life of a typical animal, a cow, as it is prepared to be slaughtered for food. Corn connects to this because being that there is so much con and it is so easy to make lots of, farmers force cows and other animals to eat it. I found it cruel and feel that most readers would be interested in knowing that even creatures like fish, who do not even eat corn at all, are being forced to do so just because it is cheap for the farmers.

Chapter 5
Readers who read this chapter are learning about how corn affects its consumers. It is a starch so it may put some pounds on us. I also inform my readers something that i found very interesting. Although it may seem like we control the corn, it may control us in a way. We help it by consuming it on such a high level. In this way, we eat corn not for ourselves, but for the corn.