Food Assignment #8

Within the past week in class we have been watching "Unser Taglich Brot" (our daily bread) and "Vroom! Farming For Kids," discussing where the food we eat comes from. Also shown in "The Meatrix" 1, 2, and 2.5 and the article "Industrial Food is Cheap," the general American way of food is uhealthy and cruel to Animals and plants.

We've seen in "Vroom!..." how farming has been industrialized. Extreme machines are used to pick crops and tend the farm where there is little work for a lot of food meaning lots of profit. Meaning replacing people with machinery used by fossil fuels polluting the air as said in the article "Industrial Food is Cheap." Also stated in this article, because farms tending animals incompetently, the manure (12 million pounds of it) is not being taken care of and is leaking into rivers causing water pollution. This article's main argument is that Industrialized food is NOT cheap because although it is cheap in money, in the long run it affects the planet and all the hormones used affects us Americans who eat the food leading to risk of diseases. And in "Unser Taglich Brot" what is done to animals for our convenience where pigs, chickens, and cows suffer from this immediately, us humans have to face health problems and pollution problems. Whereas, if we eat organic food, although it is expencive money wise, it eliminates the use of chemicals devreasing the risk of diseases which helps us in the long run.

Shown in "The Meatrix" series, the "Family farm is just a fantasy," animals are not being treated like the ideal farm, raising their animals with care. The animals in industrialized farms never see sunlight or even touch ground, they are kept in small tightly confined cages to then be killed and slaughtered, 5000 cows are slaughtered per day which makes me wonder, how much of it do we actually need? before industrialization took over the food system I would assume that people did not have access as much to eat as we have today so how much is actually necessary? Where do we cross the line of producing too much food or not enough?

Food Assignment 7

one of my favorite dishes is new england clam chowder from a recipe that my mom got from cooks.com:

1 can 51 oz chopped clams
4 slices hickory smoked bacon, minced
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp flour
4 med potatoes, peeled & diced
3 cups milk or half & half
3 tbsp butter
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp dill
2 tsp dried parsley
2 bay leaves
salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste

Drain clams and reserve juice. In a stock pot, bring clam juice, potatoes, and bay leaves to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender.
In a seperate, heavy bottomed kettle, saute bacon, butter, onion, oregano, and parsley over low heat. Do not allow to brown. Add flour to make a roux and continue to cook for several minutes.

Add the hot clam stock through a strainer, a cup at a time, and whisk until smooth. Add the remaining potatoes, clams, and stock and bring to a simmer.

Add the milk or half & half, black pepper, and dill weed and return to a simmer. Add salt, if needed. Serve at once with oyster crackers.

Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

In Pollan's book, he addresses the point that Americans are easily convinced when dieting. I think the reasoning is because the not all American are experts on food, so when someone who claims to be an expert says something, most will believe what they say, similar to the bith unit, those of use who are not doctors will assume that everthing the doctor says is best, is the best for you but is really not. Because we are not educated enough about these things that we face in our everyday lives, we turn to the "experts" who tend to generalize for the entire population. When the food expert says this diet is good, I don't think that necessearily means it is good for everyone because everyone has different reactions to different foods so they are forced to generalize for everyone. Similar to doctors, they may not look into every birth case closely so they rely on c-sections as a general overview of how to deal with pregnancies. Most follow the crowd when it comes to food fads. My family pays attention to nutritionists and chefs.

Grocery Store and Habitual Food:

In my house we have a variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains, and nuts that I eat in a typical week.
Fruits: Oranges, mangoes, blueberries, tomato, pepper, peaches, plums, pears, banana
Vegetables: Strawberries, lettuce, cucumber, broccoli, potato, corn, mushrooms
Grains/Roots/Nuts: Beans (black, red, white, lima), white rice, peanuts, macadamia, cashews, almonds, wheat rice, onions

Grocery stores tend to push foods that taste or look good to the consumer meaning food with sugars, salts, and fats, these are the general ingredients in products that people seem to like to eat. Or even fruit that looks most pleasing to the consumer. In the snacks aisle the chocolate chip cookies were at eye level for customers to see while the saltine crackers were at the bottom. And in the fruits and vegetable sections the fruits had to look shiny, colorful, and appealing.

As a child my parents raised me to eat and try a new foods for meals and snacks. Now, since I've had that experience with various foods the way I eat now I am not a very picky eater I have lots of foods that I like or am open to try if I haven't already. Other eating habits I have now that I've noticed is that I don't eat breakfast everyday, I don't think it is because of my habits as a child because when I was younger my parents made sure I would eat breakfast but now that I am responsible for my own breakfast and getting myself to school, I just get lazy and don't make the time to eat breakfast. But I always eat lunch and dinner sometimes with snacks in between because that is how I was raised.

May Day

Because May Day is having to do with, socialism, communism, and anarchy, America avoids it entirely. I think it just goes to show how we're so brainwashed to shiver at the thought of communism, frown upon at the idea of socialism or think badly of anarchy when most Americans probably do not even understand the real ideas of socialism, communism, and anarchy because the propaganda tells Americans that communism is evil, or a country like Cuba is evil because it is socialist. Its hard for Americans to think for themselves when their views and influences are one sided.

I think it is interesting how Americans do not celebrate May Day with the rest of the world, the U.S. had to have their own labor day in September as to not associate themselves with socialist/communist/anarchist countries or their enemies. And it is also interesting how the media is completely dissmissive of May Day and the fact that this day benefitted all working class people. It probably is not very surprising because media being run by upper class, against communism because that means less money for them, the benefits to the lower classes has no affect on them.