HW#11

            Over the course of the past week I decided to take on the task of actually putting my knowledge about our food industries and the remaining food companies that are still natural to the test. To accomplish this I decided to become a vegetarian for the week. In doing this, I had to stop eating meat any products with meat inside of it. To make it a little lighter on myself I was able to eat eggs and fish as well as dairy products.

           During this week, I began to feel the difference in my energy and the way I felt physically. When I noticed this nice change, I began to wonder how our society might be different if everyone ate in a healthier way. The effects of this change would undoubtedly be positive for our health as a community, but would greatly affect the money that our government makes because of how dependant it is on the approximately 134 billion dollars that the public spends on fast food annually.

           Having an opportunity to experience the difference first hand, greatly affected the way I believe we should approach the changes in the food industry if they ever happen. At first I felt as if a drastic change was necessary to show the public the correct path. After this short week, I realize that being a vegetarian or a vegan is very difficult because of the money that it calls for. These expenses, in my case, ended up being around 150 dollars for an entire weeks worth of food for one person. Other people in our community such as low income families may not have as much money to spend on expensive food and they may have more mouths to feed. A situation such as this makes it difficult to spend more money than they really feel is necessary. This mind set and financial situation practically pushes them towards fast food and other foods that are inexpensive to purchase.

           Understanding the difficulties in changing the way we eat is the first step in making a difference. Although the natural foods are more expensive we need to find a way to make it more accessible to all of the socioeconomic classes.

HW#10

            Food Inc. focuses on the major food corporations that process meat, vegetables and supply fast food restaurants. The movie’s intention is to show the audience the secrets and the lies about how our food is made and where it comes from. Some specific parts show us the production of the food and the corruption of the people who run these companies as well as those who inspect mandate the promotion of these products. Within this, we learn a lot about the conditions that animals are “raised” in as well as slaughtered. A couple of the most important focuses is the overproduction of food for a very low price that only benefits the supplier and the filth that we are being fed on a daily basis without have the slightest idea where the food came from and the process of it getting to your plate.

           For myself, I feel as if watching the movie gave a certain level of detail that the book cannot give and vice versa. On one hand, having a visual gives you an exact image of what happens while the text leaves the image to your imagination but also gives you immense details that you may not pick up from the image. 

           After having read Fast Food Nation and watched this movie, I have reached an impasse in which my former ideology and the new are being pitted against each other. Having been raised eating meat and hamburger from fast food restaurants, it is difficult to imagine myself taking the extra step to eat a lot healthier and a lot harder to see myself not eating meat in any way. But having seen where the food comes from and the dreadful environment in which it is produced makes me never want to eat meat again. These two opposing ideas now hang over my head whenever I decide what to eat and force me to look past the façade of our industries and become aware of the lies we are told.  

 

HW#7d

Chapter 9:

Is somewhat of an eye opener for the general public, aside from continuing to focus on the dangers that workers in meat packing factories are exposed to, it unveils a new dangerous, dirty, and ultimately unhealthy side of the food factories. Using the E. Coli bacteria as a basis for all of the food poisoning cases I looked at, I looked deeper into how these viruses and bacteria get into our food and spread halfway around the world in days. Mostly paying attention to the cases of children infected by many different strains of bacteria, I began to question how these tainted foods get into the public. In short, the major companies usually hide these violations or falsify papers stating that everything has been checked and is “healthy” for human consumption.

·        After having been exposed to the raw truth first hand, how did that affect you eating habits?


Chapter 10:

Focuses on Plauen, Germany and its changes in history. Beginning with its very industrialized factories that crumbled soon after World War 2 began. After being a very lush and green landscape populated by thousands of people as well as the first to become a completely “Jew-Free” city under the Nazi rule, it became deserted after the rise of threat of bombing by the Americans became apparent. After being very disliked by the rest of Germany and the fall of the Berlin wall plans to build McDonalds soon arose as a result of the new freedom. I wrote the rest of the chapter to build on the ideas I present at the beginning of the chapter to express the changes McDonalds has made in the rest of the world such as Japan and over 120 countries.

•    "If we eat McDonalds hamburgers and potatoes for thousands of years, we will become taller, our skin will become white, and our hair will be blonde.” 

Epilogue:

For the epilogue I decided to look at one of the nice sides of the food industry which may very well be in danger of being shut down because of the threat it poses to the other companies that do harmful things to their meat. Sidetracking from the topic of food, I also mention the new tactics that some people who believe we should be healthy are taking. This Idea is was most commonly referred to as “new urbanism” which ,meshed together the idea of a city landscape with natural elements such as parks and open space to encourage more healthy people. I relate all this back to the problems with the food industries that feel this proposition of eating all natural food is ridiculous but only because they may lose money or even worse, their company. Much like some of the people in the city may feel that new urbanism may pose a threat to their profession. I also talk about the psychological approach that the food corporations have been taking to increase their number of consumers such as the advertisement to young children, persuading them to buy food because they can get a toy with it or there is a small playhouse within a fast food restaurant.

·        “Nature is smart as hell”

During these three years of collection data and interviewing people, did you ever feel as sense of hopelessness because of the level of corruption within the government and food corporations?

Did you ever almost give up?

Hw#7c

                 I wrote Chapter 8 as a means to shed light on the current working conditions of the workers in meatpacking factories. These conditions include harmful gas inhalations and operating around dangerous machinery and tools. Not only are these the leading causes of injury for thousands of workers each year, they are completely ignored by the managers of each of these factories. The most common excuse for no workers compensation or bosses that are completely unaware of all of the accidents occurring is immigrants. Most companies claim they do not know they are hiring undocumented illegal aliens for a minimum wage which gives them the upper hand when dealing with injury cases because a Non- United States citizen cannot take anyone to court.

“They used me to the point where I had no body parts left to give,” “Then they just tossed me into the trash can.”

• Where there any moments when visiting the meat packing factory that you were asked to leave or that you almost left because of what you were seeing?

HW#9

                  In Freakonomics, correlation vs. causation is often the focus of the many examples we are given about our modern day societies and the oddness within it. One of the first examples we are introduced to is baby names. Some believe that certain names will lead to a child having a rich and successful life or a poor and unfulfilling one. More often than not, the ethnic background of the name is the basis of the assumptions that people make of the person. One specialist conducts a test in which two resumes are handed out but one has a common “white” name while the other is a common “black” name. According to the results of the test, the difference between the callbacks for interviews is substantial thus proving that different names do have a certain impact on the person who carries it. The other specialist only bases his findings on statistics and a story.

                A young, black mother accidentally names her daughter temptress under the impression that she is naming her after an actress. This small mistake unwillingly leads her daughter into a life of promiscuity and theft as well as jail time; but is the name or the economic and social situation to blame? This doctor claims that the name may have had a somewhat insignificant impact, but the real culprit is the situation that person is in. These two very different specialists are operating under different ideas. One argues that names are mostly if not completely responsible for your future while the other figures that the two are very loosely related. These two opposing ideas are correlation vs. causation because of the different because of their differences in explaining the connections between names and their possible consequences.

              For the majority of the movie, Steven levitt and Stephan Dubner heavily rely on data and facts to prove their hypothesis on how things work in our society and the relationships between everything. All of the examples they give us are always backed up by “the numbers” and the “data” that we never really get a look at. This concealed data holds all of he information that this movies runs on as well as its credibility as a source, but what sets this movie apart is its irrefutable ability to make you wonder about what else we don’t know as well as the oddness of our society. These questions posed by Mr. Levitt and Mr. Dubner not only influence the audience to thinks deeper about what goes on in our lives but it also asks them to make connections and ask more often about why something’s happen and the reasons behind it.

                  At most, Freakonomics challenged me to take a look into our culture as well as the dominant discourses in our society, it asked me to question our methods and figure out how we got to where we are now and why we are here. I completely agree with the ideas that Stephen and Steven have because it allows me to look at things differently. Instead of looking at the physical, the outside layer of what we see and hear, we should be looking at the basics and connections. This new form of looking at things is much like us looking at our dominant discourses in why we eat the way we eat and how that affects us. This technique should be applied to our finding the truth about the food industries and the methods used in making our food. Not only should we make every effort in knowing the truth about our own culture, we should expose it for what it really is and attempt to start from the beginning.

HW#8

HW#7

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Introduction:

In the Cheyenne Mountains there is an isolated military/intelligence base that centers on our nation’s security as well as the rest of the world. Despite it being very remote, the main source of food comes from “accessible” fast food restaurants in the general area. This is one of several examples in this book about our culture and how it connects to the fast food industry. I will talk about the civilization of the American culture and how our history and success as a country seemingly culminates in the fast food restaurants we so deeply rely on. I will also focus on our ever shifting need for sleeker more innovative machinery and its evolution and the keys to success that these corporate giants followed.

“And should Armageddon come, should a foreign enemy someday shower the United States with nuclear warheads, laying waste to the whole continent, entombed within Cheyenne Mountain, along with the high-tech marvels, the pale blue jumpsuits, comic books, bibles, future archeologists may find other clues to the nature of our civilization- Big King wrappers, hardened crusts of Cheesy Bread, Barbeque Wing bones, and the red, white, and blue of a dominos pizza box.”  

• How long did it take for you to ask yourself what am I eating, why am I eating it and how did it get here?
• What made you choose the Cheyenne Mountains as a focus in the introduction?
• What other locations did you consider focusing on?

Chapter 1:

Around 1945, Carl N. Karcher who could be considered one of the United States founding fathers of fast food was just kick starting his fast food business. Around this time many other fast food restaurants were just opening up and starting to become well known. Not only did this ideology of starting up a nice family restaurant sweep the more western parts of the nation, it came with the new era of “modern transportation”, including cars and buses. These changes soon became our new American culture and gradually made its ascent to becoming the more common way of life in the United States.

“The McDonalds brothers’ Speedee Service System revolutionized the restaurant business. An ad of theirs seeking franchisees later spelled out the benefits of the system: “Imagine- No Carhops- No Waitresses- No Dishwashers- No Bus Boys- The McDonald’s system is Self-service!””

• How do you feel your life was affected as a child when the fast food business started expanding?
• Seeing the evolution of the fast food industry must have raised some sort of questions like why are they making this financial move or releasing this type of product.

Chapter 2:

Will focus more on the socioeconomic aspect of the fast food franchise and how its primary targets are children who according to several studies are very easily influenced by the TV that they watch daily and are more susceptible to the lies of the media. Not only are children lured to these restaurants by promises of toys and bright colors, low income families from the mid 1900’s to present day are also brought in by the cheap prices and good tastes. Not only are these constant goals for the companies to reach, they are basic standards for manipulating the public and exploiting the innocence of the children by showing then cartoon characters that eat these foods and act certain ways. An example is Ronald McDonald and the reasons why he was created. During the time when the McDonald’s franchise was doing well but needed to broaden its reach, Ronald and the rest of the McDonalds gang was created in hopes of reeling in kids of certain age groups as well as catching the attention of the rebelling teenagers at this time.    

 “The bulk of advertising directed at children today has an immediate goal. “It’s not just getting kids to whine,” one marketer explained in Selling to Kids, “It’s giving

them a specific reason to ask for the product.””

• What do you think the fast food corporations would be today without the help of marketing to children and audiences of younger ages?
• Do you have any specific memories of Ronald McDonald or other mascots for restaurants?
• If so, what do you relate them to?

Chapter 3:

Takes a deeper look into the people working at the restaurant. Teenagers are a more common decision when hiring new employees because they come cheaper and are basically inexperienced enough to be taken advantage of. Not only are the majority of students that come from low income families working in fast food restaurants, it is becoming a rite of passage in the American culture. This chapter focuses on what I believe is the overworking of innocent students and the unjust treatment and conditions they are forced to work under. Not only do these jobs physically and mentally tire these students, it often puts them in danger of robberies committed most frequently by disgruntled employees.  

“Did somebody say McUnion?”  “Not if they want to keep their McJob.”

• Were you ever working in a fast food restaurant? Or did you come close?
• In the process of interviewing workers, was anyone reluctant in answering your questions?