HW 26- Looking back & forward in our unit

-Over 50 million citizens in America today are living without health insurance.
-Of the people that do pay health insurance companies to pay for their medical needs, a large number will be rejected payment due to something like pre-existing conditions or the excuse that the treatment is merely "experimental."
-In countries like Canada, England, and France, all the citizens are provided with universal, free health care.
-The incentives of the health care system that is utilized my America today are to make sure less care is distributed to the people who need it in order to maximize the profit for the health insurance companies.

The source that has been the most helpful for me so far this unit has been the movie Sicko, despite its extreme bias. Although Michael Moore clearly has his own opinions and represents them much more than the opposing side in his movies, the amount of evidence for his side that he was able to present was too much to ignore. I enjoyed reading the book Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, but it didn't necessarily educate me that much in the area of the dominant social practices that the United States embraces when it comes to illness and dying. However, the book did represent a situation of an extrodinary social practice, which was the way that Paul Farmer would treat all of his patients as well as his strong motivation to make a difference.

I think that one important question that we should explore is: what are the negative aspects to the health care systems in places like Canada, England, and France? In Sicko, Michael Moore does a very good job of emphasizing what is better about the socialist health care system in those countries than the system we are operating on today, but no system is perfect, so I think it would be a good idea to explore its flaws as well. Another question that might be worth looking into could be: When did the incentives of our health care system truly become to benefit the insurance companies at the expense of the people? I know that in Sicko, it was stated that when Nixon announced his new policy is when our health care system became corrupt, but what if it was actually before then?

HW 25- Response to Sicko

Summary:
The incentives of the current health care system in America are not meant to benefit the people, but they are only to help the health insurance companies make more profit by reducing the amount of care that the people recieve. There are millions of Americans in this country who do not have any kind of health care, and for many of the Americans that do have health care, it is hardly ideal. Insurance companies will charge huge sums of money for operations and treatment, and they will sometimes even deny patients the care that could be necessary to save their lives because for reasons like that the treatment is simply "experimental" or the fact that the treatment is so expensive. In many countries around the world, such as Canada, England, and France, health care is free of charge, including almost all the treatment and medication that the patients need.

Evidence 1: A recording of President Nixon's conversation with his chief advisor was revealed during the film. One of the things his chief advisor said was, "All the incentives are towards less medical care." Nixon responded by saying something along the lines of, "Well that sounds pretty good." This piece of evidence is essential to Michael Moore's point saying how the health care system is really just set up so that the people get less care and the health insurance companies made more money. It supports the idea that this is a corrupt system, that benefits the rich and harms the poor and middle class.

Evidence 2: Canada and Britain have something called socialized health insurance. In America we have a socialized education system, but only independent health insurance companies. All the doctors in a socialized medicine system work for the government, and the one that was interviewed in the film was living in a million dollar home and making over 100,000 dollars a year. The both the English and Canadian health care pays all the expences for care and treatment of its patients. This evidence supports the point that the health care systems outside of the United States have proven to be extremely effective, and are doing a much better job of making sure the people actually get care. At the same time, it also proves that working for the government is not such a bad thing, considering the amount of money that the doctors in Britain are getting paid and the satisfying moral aspect of the job that actually allows the doctors to treat all the patients that come to see them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aZnlElJZpA
In this video, Nixon states that the doctors would be working for the patients rather then the government under his plan. However, how can the doctors work for the patients if they aren't even being allowed to treat them because of the restrictions that the health insurance companies are forcing on them? Also, what is so bad about doctors working for the government? People seem to be so afraid of having the government in their life, but by choosing to run health care this way, the government is choosing to not allow millions of people to get the care that they need.

This movie truly did open my eyes. Although I had my doubts at first, especially because Michael Moore seemed to be contradicting himself at times as well as the way he seemed to dumb himself down so that the American audience could relate, the amount and quality of the evidence and studies that were conducted was extremely extensive. I had always known that there were many terrible policies in this country, and that many of them were doing harm to the citizens (especially those who are less fortunate) instead of helping them. However, I honestly never thought that the system would have been specifically created with the intentions of making sure less and less people got the care that they needed just for the sake of the profit of the health insurance companies. My previous viewpoint on the situation was that I took the terrible health care system for granted, which is pretty easy to do when you (like myself) are one of the lucky ones who has health care that pays for most of your medical needs. However, after really taking a look, it is clear that the policies in this country truly are corrupt, and that the word is not merely an exaggeration. The most important excerpts of the movie in my opinion were the ones that showed us how bad our own health care companies are treating the people that pay them to take care of them, compared to the health care that ALL the citizens in Canada, France, and Britain are recieving. The most crucial idea I have specifically for my future after watching this movie is that I am now seriously considering moving out of this country, because it feels like the expense of living practically anywhere else in the world other than America is much less.

HW 24- Illness and Dying Book Part 3

The book that I have read for the Illness and Dying unit is titled Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. It was published in 2004 by Random House Inc.

Precis: Paul Farmer grew up in a less than ideal family situation, relocating multiple times in addition to other struggles. However, he was very gifted and intelligent, and ended up attending Harvard Medical School where he studied to be a doctor/anthropologist. Unlike typical doctors, (and people in general, actually) Farmer embarked on his image to do good by commuting from Boston to Haiti in order to treat infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, during his time in medical school at Harvard. At his hospital in Cange, Haiti, Farmer offered free health care to any Haitian who needed it... he even formed his own organization called Partners in Health, which helped out with Farmer's mission by attempting to raise money for those who could not afford treatment or medication. One of the important players in the organization named Jim Kim offered to take the organization to Peru with a friend of Farmer's named Jack, who was a priest. Although, unfortunately Father Jack loses his life to a strand of Multi- Drug Resistant TB, the programs in both Haiti and Peru did an amazing job of providing care for those who would normally not be able to recieve it. This resulted in Farmer expanding the Partners in Health organization to Russia. The work that Paul Farmer has done in the field of medicine is the opposite of what we see in the current system today, and the way he treats his patients as people is a passion that would be amazing if all doctors could share it.

Gems:
"He was like a compass, with one leg swinging around the globe, and the other planted in Haiti,” (Kidder, 260). It is amazing how someone with so much success in a much more fortunate country would abandon their selfishness in order to help the people who really needed him. The man really is portrayed as a saint in the story.

"But Farmer seemed worried about the expense, and perhaps the precedent, of a medevac flight. He'd written back, 'Serena, honey. please consider the possibilities." (Kidder, 270) This quote seems to suggest that Farmer is actually implying that the cost to help these people is too great, and that their lives are not worth it! That doesn't seem like and idea Paul Farmer would have at all.

"Because, A, he's a human being, and B, because I didn't know he couldn't be treated, and C, why shouldn't he have a comfortable way to die, why shouldn't his mother have a private room without flies on her face to grieve in? Can we not have him in a place where people are trained in palliation? Isn't palliative care important?" (Kidder, 277) This quote pretty much describes the core beliefs of Paul Farmer on illness and dying. I couldn't agree with it more.

Thoughts:
When I first started reading this book, I read a quote from one of Doctor Farmer's patients saying that Farmer was a "fuckin' saint." When I first looked at it in the beginning of the book, I had my doubts. After all, treating a few patients like they are actually people shouldn't make you a saint, it should just make you a caring person. However, by the end of the book I have realized that the things Paul Farmer did for people are practically inhuman in how selfless they are. He treated all the patients he came across, and not only that, he treated them as if they were his closest friends. This kind of behavior was especialy suprising to hear about because he did not have the greatest childhood; its not like he started out with an advantage, he had to work his way to the top and from there, he gave it all back. His policies on medicine seems to be the opposite of what the United States has embraced today, and it is something that everyone can learn from.

HW 23- Illness & Dying Book Part 2

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. Published 2004, Random House Inc.

Precis- Paul Farmer is continuing to make his trips between Cange and Boston, but the grip of the military on Cange was getting tighter, which did not sit well with Farmer. He began sneaking thousands of dollars into Cange for anti-violence campaigns, as well as disrespecting soldiers. Farmer was eventually banished from Haiti for his actions, and established a permanent headquaters in Cambridge. He now began to look into a new disease, Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, otherwise known as MDR. In fact, it was when he lost an old friend to the disease in Peru that sparked his passion to cure the disease. His friend was a man named Father Jack, a priest who had allowed Paul to stay with him in his church while he was still attending medical school in a dangergous neighborhood. Not too long after Jack moved to Peru, the priest became ill and was immediately flown back to America to be treated by Farmer. He passed away a month later, and Paul discovered that he was infected with a strand of MDR that was immune to all of the available tuberculosis treatments in existance.

Gems-
"Farmer was a TB expert. When he was still just a residant at the Brigham, he'd written a treatment manual for the house staff. He had been diagnosing and treating the disease ever since he'd first set foot in Haiti, where nearly everyone was infected and active cases were rampant." (Kidder, 138) Farmer is one of the best in the world at treating this disease. So I can only imagine how much of a wake up call it must have been to realize that a close friend had died from a strain of the disease that he was supposed to be an expert at treating that could not possibly have been cured by any of his known methods.

"Others [who hadn't been able to afford their drugs] had given up and gone back to their shacks on the barren, dusty hillsides and were waiting there to die." (Kidder, 140) When I read this it really made me think about the different ways that people deal with illness and dying. How some people can just accept there fate and will embrace death when it approaches, and others will reject the idea ferociously.

"Meanwhile, here in Peru, where the government made debt payments of more than a billion dollars every year to American banks and international lending institutions, experts in international TB control had deemed MDR too expensive." (Kidder, 141) This sounds a lot like the men and women in "Sicko" who were denied treatment because the health insurance companies would come up with excuses not to allow them treatment, when really the only thing going on is that the health insurance companies are trying to make more money.

Thoughts- This section of the book did an excellent job of reinforcing some of the ideas that the movie "Sicko" had presented to me. Although I never really blamed doctors for the terrible American system of dealing with illness and dying, I always sort of thought of them as machines, who would just treat patients with the resources they had without actually making an effort to change things. In "Sicko," we heard from a doctor who moved to London because he liked the way that they had their health care system set up, and by treating patients in Great Britain, not only was he able to help more people but he was also making a lot more money for himself. Paul Farmer has taken the concept of actually helping people through medicine to a whole new level, and the selflessness in his work is something that defys the human trait of greed, which is something I thought no human, let alone American, would be able to push aside.

HW 21b- Comments

NatalieK said...

I liked that you made a lot of connections in your post, but maybe you could've elaborated a little more. For instance, did it seem to help your mother's friend feel more positive when you avoided the subject of death? Or maybe, why was it so spectacular to you that Beth had her 13 year old son help her? I can imagine why, but it would be interesting to hear about it too. Otherwise I thought your post was really interesting considering the fact that you seemed to be able to understand Beth's motives through your own personal experience.

December 9, 2010 7:02 PM

Devin said...

I liked your first connection about visiting your good friend's mother with ALS in the hospital and how you would chat about the Patriots (cannot believe you're a Patriot fan) in order to keep the conversation upbeat. I know that ALS is a terrible disease and it would be interesting to hear how seeing someone with it firsthand affected you. I myself have never been with anyone with a serious disease. I think that having that experience must be powerful and important in the way that it makes death and dying more real, making us aware, as Beth said, of our own mortality. I also liked the connection you made to Beth's taking care of her husband with only the help of her son when you told us that your aunt took care of your sick grandmother all by herself. I think it must be true that many more women take care of sick and dying relatives than men do. It's obviously much nicer for a sick person not to have to be in the hospital but it must have been a huge burden in this case for your aunt.

December 10, 2010 10:07 PM

Jim Harker said...

"For as long as I can remember ... She was ill for her entire life..." This is a really powerful image - that all we may really know or remember about a grandparent is the time when they were sick, frail,or incapacitated by disease at the end of their lives. You knew your grandmother for the eight years of her final illness, but didn't have the chance to know her life prior to the illness. I think it's the relationship and history of people BEFORE the illness that gives both the patient and the caregiver the strength to stay positive and loving as you fight against the disease. That's what makes it possible to chat about the Patriots - some things you may not be able to share anymore, but you look for all the things you still CAN share. A sick person's 'road' is a much slower journey than young, healthy, busy people 'walk'. You have to slow way down to the sick person's pace, and look for ways to 'walk' together.

December 11, 2010 6:57 AM

TIM said...

I really liked when you said "I imagine that the fact that Evan and Josh were so close to their father was a very good thing, but it also probably made it harder for them when he passed away." I know from experience that when you are not as close to a family member, it is not as hard to deal with their death when the time comes. So it would make sense if the closer you are to someone the harder it is to deal with their passing. I also liked the way you were able to connect the ideas that Beth had to your own life and it would have been nice to hear more about her experience if she said anything else.

December 11, 2010 11:03 AM 

 

                  My comments on other group members-

Ben H said...

I love the depth of thought that you put into this homework. For instance, when you said "Without relationships, maybe you would treat death as an old friend, ready to finally take you away. We seem to only fear death because of fear of what we’ll miss." That statement really got me thinking, and was more insightful than anything I could have thought of. I also really liked the way that you represented many of your ideas. You asked the reader a lot of questions, a technique that for me, adds more meaning to what you're saying and certainly captures my attention more than just ordinary statements. Great Job! Ben H said...

My favorite thing about this homework is what a good job you did using the insights of Beth and connecting them to your own life. For instance, I thought it was very interesting how you were able to relate something like the time standing still in Erik's situation to your own experience in a soccer game, when normally the two situations would be completely different. I also like when you said, "I like the idea of people having some kind of awareness of their own death and being brave enough to fight it or brave enough to want to accept it and go to it like some new part of the world not yet visited," because it really got me thinking about the way I vew death. Great job!

HW 22- Illness and Dying Book Part 1

The book that I am reading is titled Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, published in 2004 by Random House Inc.

Precis- Beginning Section: I was in Haiti 2 weeks before Christmas in 1994, the reason being to report on American soldiers. This is when I first encountered Paul Farmer, a doctor who worked in a hospital a few miles north of Mirebalais. I learned some more about him and ended up sending some donations to his hospital over the next five years, which he responded to with hand written letters of thanks. The next time I saw him was in 1999, in Boston. He was dealing with a patient named Joe who had previously been diagnosed with HIV and other diseases. Farmer wasn't just trying to cure him, though. It seemed like he was really trying to make his life better. In 2000, he invited me to see his oeuvre in Haiti.

"As Farmer was leaving the shelter, he heard Joe say to another resident, just loudly enough to make Farmer wonder if Joe meant for him to overhear, 'That guys a fuckin' saint." (Kidder, 16) This quote inserted a question into my head: how does helping someone to have a better life make them a saint, and what does that say about how considerate are people are of others in general?

"P.J. said: 'But Dad, white people don't pick citrus.'
'Yeah? I'll give you white people." (Kidder, 51) I thought this was interesting because growing up in New York City, what P.J. said is something I never would have said to my father. It also helps us understand why Farmer does not have a problem healing Hatians; because his father knew about them and explained them to him as equals.

"I became aware of the logistical facts of Farmer's life only gradually so they didn't seem completely unusual until I totaled them up." (Kidder, 22) This makes sense to me, because as I was reading in the beginning about Farmer's life, it did seem pretty odd to me why he would have chosen the life that he did.

The most interesting thought that I have had while reading this book so far has had to do with the idea of kindness, and is related to the first quote that is listed. Considering the way that all Paul Farmer did for Joe was his duty as a doctor and a little bit more by trying to make him as comfortable as possible made Joe feel like Farmer was a saint seems to represent that kindness is not something that we experience very often, or not for him. However, the quote goes on to say, "It wasn't the first time Farmer had heard himself called that." (Kidder, 16) It seems like many of those who have been treated by Farmer believe that he is something that he feels he is not only because he did what any doctor should do; cure patients but also treat them like people, and not just test subjects. It feels like many other doctors that Farmer's patients had seen in the book were probably just treating the patients, and not the people, which really just points out that what they're doing is bad and not that what Farmer is doing is saintlike.

HW 21- Expert #1

Insights-
1. One thing that I thought was interesting was how neither Beth or Erik ever used the words death or dying in order to provide positive energy.
2. Another experience that Beth shared with us that I thought was interesting was how she chose to take care of him, with only the help of Evan.
3. Finally, one of the more subtle insights in Beth's story was how she said Evan and Josh were very close to their father.

The fact that the words death and dying were never used in the hospital or at any time around Erik is something that I am very familiar with. Every time I have ever visited someone I know in the hospital, words like those were never mentioned. For instance, when my family and I went to visit a good friend of my mother's who had ALS, all we talked about were postive things like how everyone was doing and how the Patriots game went, things like that. Also, the way that Beth took care of her husband with only the help of her 13 year old son is spectacular to me, and also something that I am familiar with. When my grandmother was ill (which was really for as long as I can remember her being alive), my aunt took care of her all by herself for years. They lived on the same property in two different houses, and the only time anyone other than herself would take care of her mother was when she needed to go to work. The third insight about how close Erik was to his to children is actually sort of different from my own life. Although I was always close to my father, he was always out working when I was younger. I imagine that the fact that Evan and Josh were so close to their father was a very good thing, but it also probably made it harder for them when he passed away.

The first question that Beth's presentation sparked for me was something like: How do people's experiences differ when talking about how they were treated by their doctor? The reason this question popped into my head is because Beth said that the oncologist was very cheerful and agreed to treat him with confidence that it would by him some time. However, on many TV shows and even from a lot of family friends that I know, I have heard stories about horrible doctors and bad treatment. In the case of Erik, on the other hand, no medication or treatment was never denied and Beth never even had to pay a hospital bill!

HW 19- Family Perspectives on Illness and Dying

In my family, there is certainly a history of disease. On both my mother and father's sides of the family, everyone is highly prone to skin cancer because of how fair skinned we are and there have been numerous cases on both sides of the family. Another issue in my family has been heart disease, but the only confirmed case of that that I can think of in my family was my grandfather, who used to smoke a lot and did not eat on a particularly healthy diet. Because of these diseases, my family has had a lot of experience visiting friends and family in the hospital, which has led to me visiting the hospital quite a bit as well. The experiences that my parents have had dealing with illness and dying are the kind of things that make me afraid of growing older.

My father is the youngest of a family of six siblings; he is even nine minutes younger than his twin sister. His father died when he was only two years old and was raised by just his mom for his whole childhood. His mother (my grandmother) was in an accident not to long after I was born where she hit her head so hard that she began to internally bleed into her brain. For as long as I can remember, although she was able to think just as quickly as she had before, something happened where she could not get the words out, and the only word I ever remember her saying was "yes." She was ill for her entire life, but every time I saw my father around her he would always act and look perfectly happy, just like the rest of my family. I was young, so I unfortunately did not do as good of a job looking happy and I really just felt awkward around her... which I came to regret deeply when she finally passed away.

My mother has also had her fair share of dealing with illness and dying. Her father had two heart attacks in his lifetime, and did not survive long after the second one. However, unlike my fathers family, everyone on my mothers side lives out of range for us to visit often; in California. So my mother did not have to pretend like she was not worried. However, back when my godfather was in a car accident that nearly killed him, she immediately left to go see him. Not that this is an unreasonable norm for dealing with the ill and dying, but the response of my family to someone who is sick has been to immediately go out and visit them in the hospital, even if they are 2000 miles away like my godfather was. Another good friend of my mothers was diagnosed with ALS recently, which completely took away his ability to move and speak. I remember visiting him with my family a few times, and watching as she was as supporting and kind beside the hospital bed as I have ever seen her.

HW 18- Health & Illness & Feasting

My experience of Thanksgiving this year was similar to the way I experience it practically every year, and practically every year Thanksgiving is one of the few times of the year that completely fits in to the aspects of our countries practices that relate to physicality. I know for a fact that there are many people that just use Thanksgiving as an excuse to eat as much food as they want and that there are also many that couldn't even explain what the holiday is meant to celebrate. In my family, it feels like Thanksgiving is becoming less and less traditional and cultural and more just about the physicality of eating as much food as we want. For instance, almost every year for this holiday, my parents and I gather with the rest of my family at my aunt and uncle's house. However, this year my parents wanted to go down the block instead to a party where not even they knew many of the people that would be there. There certainly was going to be a lot of food there, however.

Another tradition that my parents and I missed out on with my family was sitting around the TV with everyone and watching football. Although it does not sound like a necessarily thankful thing to do, it has become practically a cultural ceremony in many families across the country, and I'm sure there are many that would argue that it is a good thing to do because football is a very "American" game. These two activities of eating as much food as you can and lying around and watching TV afterwards are not exactly "healthy" things to do, and further represent how the holiday of Thanksgiving is one of the few times where body-centered practices dominate over anti-body practices.

In my opinion, it is not necessarily a bad thing that there is one day every year that is almost completely devoted to body-centered practices, because all the others are practically all connected with the mind. In fact, another way that Thanksgiving reminds us of our physicality is the way many people tend to feel the next day. After such rapid consumption of food that, very often, is not necessarily healthy for you, many people will feel very tired initially after the meal. After a little while, some people will probably experience stomach pain while others might continue to experience fatigue. This idea is similar to what we talked about in class, and how only when a person is ill is when they truly start to consider their physicality. This is yet another reason that represents how Thanksgiving is becoming completely based on body-centered practices over anti-body practices, especially in families like mine.

HW 17

Fortunately, my experiences with illness and dying have not been too extensive. I have visited multiple family members and a close friend of family a few times at the hospital, but have not myself had to deal with severe illness. (even though some would say that we are dying the moment we are born, I prefer not to look at life in such a negative way) In a way, I have been taught to see illness and dying as something that is just a part of life, and every now and then I find myself thinking about it and becoming a little depressed. After all, it is a depressing thought, knowing that everyone including yourself will have to deal with illness in their lives.

I have also always had a dislike for hospitals in general, because in my life all the times that I have had to visit the hospital it has been for a bad occasion, and never for something like giving birth. This has placed an unfair bias in my mind that hospitals are miserable places, and all the hospital shows on television today as well as the people I know who have spent a long time in the hospital also do a good job of emphasizing how the patients really just want to be free. My family has been around much longer than I have, and have had a lot more time to think about these issues. They have learned to accept the fact that practically everyone will deal with illness and dying, and have had a lot more experience in the past with both of those things than I have.

To be honest, I am not really familiar with the social norms involved with illness and dying. However, I am aware that it has become very common for parents to get a lot of vaccines for their children when they are very young, and it is "normal" for many people to go to the doctors office for an annual check-up. Something I don't usually think about much is how much humans pay attention to their health compared to other animals; we brush our teeth, we constantly go to doctors and specialists, we always wash our hands... and other creatures just eat what they can to survive. It seems like humans pay so much attention to avoiding illness that we end up living unnaturally long lives.

HW 12- Final Food Project 2- Outline

Thesis- The procedures that the United States of America carries out to deal with food, illness & dying, and  birth is a nightmarish industrial atrocity that most citizens in America are not aware of, and therefore it has become the dominant social practice.

Argument 1- Food

Major Claim- The food industry in America has employed their greedy desire to be efficient in order to make more money to the point where quality and health benefits have become ignored.

Supporting claim 1- Unnatural feeding as well as mass production-style farming and processing of farm animals.

        -Cows being fed corn leads to public breakout of E-Coli (Kevin's death)
        Evidence: "In Food, Inc. we meet Barbara Kowalcyk, whose 2 year old son, Kevin, died from E.coli poisoning after eating a hamburger."

        -Genetic engineering of both crops and farm animals alike.
        Evidence: "Human health effects can include higher risks of toxicity, allergenicity, antibiotic resistance, immune-suppression and cancer. As for environmental impacts, the use of genetic engineering in agriculture could lead to uncontrolled biological pollution, threatening numerous microbial, plant and animal species with extinction, and the potential contamination of non-genetically engineered life forms with novel and possibly hazardous genetic material."

        -Processing of ground beef
        Evidence: "In 2002, Public Citizen and the Government Accountability Project discovered that even after repeatedly testing positive for salmonella contamination, several ground beef processing plants were allowed to continue to sell meat for several months before steps were taken to clean up their facilities."

Supporting claim 2- Increase in health issues among Americans of all ages.

        -Increase in heart disease
        Evidence: "If you have diabetes, you are at least twice as likely as someone who does not have diabetes to have heart disease or a stroke. People with diabetes also tend to develop heart disease or have strokes at an earlier age than other people."

        -Increase in diabetes

        Evidence: "In 2008, about 6.1% of the U.S. population reported that they had diabetes...From 1980 through 2008, the crude prevalence of diagnosed diabetes increased by 144%."
        -Increase in obesity
        Evidence: "Over two thirds of the adults in the United States twenty or older are considered to be overweight or obese: All adults total: 68 percent; Women: 64.1 percent. Men: 72.3 percent."

Works Cited:
http://www.foodincmovie.com/about-the-issues.php
http://centerforfoodsafety.org/geneticall7.cfm
http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/processing/
http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/statistics/prev/national/figage.htm
http://www.nutralegacy.com/blog/general-healthcare/obesity-and-diabetes-statistics/
http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/stroke/

HW 11- Final Food Project 1

For the first part of this final food project, I chose to embark on the experiential journey of eating only foods that cooperated with a vegan diet. Although this experience only lasted for 48 hours, I still found it to be a great challenge because of my usual carnivorous eating habits. However, it was not actually the deprivation of meat that provided the biggest challenge for me, even though I was used to eating it practically on a daily basis. I am also used to drinking milk every day, and if being deprived of that wasn't enough, I had never really thought about just how many foods contained dairy. A vegan diet meant no meat, milk, yogurt, eggs, cookies, and MUCH more. Even for just two days, this experience was very challenging for me, and my mother kept having to remind me of things that I couldn't eat that I would not even have thought about before.

Two days of dieting, no matter what the diet is, are unlikely to effect the way you feel necessarily, especially if your eating habits are not really that bad to start off. Although I used to have the occasional popeys chicken or McDonalds chicken sandwich, my parents almost always cook dinner, and do a great job of making sure I have a healthy and balanced diet for the most part. As a result of this, the lack of meat and dairy in my diet may have been a huge deprivation for my taste buds, but otherwise I did not feel very different during the time that I was actually being vegan. However, the day right after my last day of veganism, I had a lot of chicken and I believe I also had a slice of pizza. Later on that day, I found that I was feeling slightly queezy, possibly because my system was not ready for such a rapid intake of meat/dairy.

There were a few benefits of being a vegan for two days. The first one is that it introduced me to a very different way of thinking about food as well as people who choose to follow a vegan diet, and I gained a new respect for those people for two reasons. Firstly, the way they discipline themselves to not eat so many tasty foods, and also because they are not enabling the food industry to continue producing disgustingly processed meat like the rest of the country is. Although I don't believe that in this case one person can make a difference, it is still good to support what you believe in, especially if that is not eating many foods that appear normal but actually have disgusting stories behind them. Also, I think that if enough people were convinced to eat on a healthy diet, the food industry would end up promoting more organic and healthy products. On the other hand, that is a lot easier in writing than it is in action.

Some of the meals that I had consisted of things like tofu, roasted vegetables, (broccoli, carrots, onions, sweet potato, etc.) quinoa, (a food sort of like rice but with more protein) and rice and beans. Although I said earlier that the experience was a challenge for me, it would have been ten times harder if my parents were not such good cooks or if my living situation was not as good as it is now. In general, this experience was good for me, and I might even consider doing something like this again, except hopefully for more than just two days. It was also pretty good for me because although I didn't really feel better necessarily, I did feel like my energy levels were good all the time even without one of my main sources of protein in my diet. It showed me that there are other ways to get protein other than eating meat.

HW 10- Food, Inc. Response

Food processing is getting out of hand, and is becoming a huge player in the reason for America's obesity problem. Chickens are now being genetically engineered to grow bigger and have bigger breasts than they normally would in half the time, but are not fed what they should be and are treated very badly. The government allows farmers to sell corn at a lower cost of production, and 30% of US land is devoted to corn growing. Corn is consumed by all animals on a farm, and even fish are being fed corn now. However, cows were not designed by nature to eat corn, and it is proven that corn makes them sick with diseases such as E-coli. This results in many foods that we eat being contaminated with the E-coli bacteria. If those same cows were fed grass for just 5 days, 80% of the E-coli in their systems would be flushed out, but the industry doesn't care about that. Heavily subsidised calories from fast food are cheaper, which is why obesity is such a big problem, espcially among poor people.

Although the general idea of both the book The Omnivores Dilemma and the movie Food, Inc. was pretty much the same, there were a few different positive and negative aspects to both of them. For instance, the book focused a lot more on the details regarding the polyface farm as well as organic food. It also addressed the author's experience creating a meal by living the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, where the movie didnt't speak about that at all. However, one of the advantages of watching the movie in my opinion is that you can hear the tone of voice that is used by some of the characters that we had previously read about in the book. For instance, I feel like I learned a lot more about the type of person that Joe Salatin really is from the movie by actually listening to him speak about how he feels about industrial farming.

The main thoughts that this movie left with me have to deal with becoming a vegetarian. I'm sure that there will be a lot of talk among my classmates about vegetarianism after all of the disgusting things that we saw in the movie relating to processed meat. Although this movie did an excellent job of turning me off to fast food, it did not convince meat to give up meat eating altogether. It tastes great, and is a good source of protein no matter how badly processed it may be, however I do believe that I will cut down on my meat eating, because nothing is truly threatening for you if it is consumed in moderation. If I believed that the people really did "vote" for the food that would be produced and that I actually could change the way these farm animals were treated, I might consider becoming a vegetarian. Otherwise, I would rather enjoy good quality meat even if it is unhealthy for me and lose those few years of my life, because in my opinion food is one of the world's greatest gifts and joys.

HW 7d

Chapter 17- Over the years, eating meat has become increasingly controversial and morally problamatic, therefore vegetarianism is much more popular than it was. Personally I don't understand why people are just now starting to consider the ethics involved in the way we slaughter animals, for humans have been eating meat for tens of thousands of years. It is interesting how certain animals such as house pets like dogs will get special treatment from humans, like a Christmas gift on Christmas, and other animals like pigs will be the source of the Christmas ham. Descartes would say that it didn't really matter how animals were treated because humans were the only creatures with souls. But Peter Singer would say that to treat animals so cruely and differently from us would make us speciest, which in his opinion is the same thing as racism.

Gems- "Do you really want to base your moral code on the natural order? Murder and rape are natural, too. Besides, we can choose: Humans don't need to kill other creatures in order to survive; carnivorous animals do." (Pollan, 310)
            "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)

Thoughts- This whole chapter made me think a lot about how much I have not really been thinking for all these years. However, the reason it will not be able to convince me to stop eating meat is because my problem is not actually consuming the meat of other animals, it is the way they are slaughtered. Even if I were to become a vegetarian and completely give up meat-eating, it would not change the way that animals would be treated. Until someone can show me that by not eating meat, I will be helping to stop this cruel treatment of animals mentioned in both my book as well as both of the movies from class, I have no interest in giving up meat. In fact, it almost feels like a waste if I don't eat meat, because then those animals suffered and died for nothing; at least by eating them we convert something horrible into something that benefits our health.

Chapter 18- On my first day holding a rifle in the woods, I found that there is nothing I have previously encountered that could have prepared me for the amount of attention that the task at hand of hunting really takes. I never found myself observing the smallest details before until now. I had some serious nerve issues the night before, and when I fired my gun successfully before, my shoulder hurt for a week. Also, the animal I would be hunting was the California pig, known for its feral and vicious nature as the "dog ripper". I had to give up my first opportunity at killing my own pig because there was no bullet in the chamber. About a month later, I went hunting with Angelo again, and finally got my first pig.

"Angelo clapped me on the back and congratulated me extravagantly. 'Your first pig! Look at the size of it. And with a perfect shot, right in the head. You did it!" (Pollan, 352) I have never been hunting before, but from the tone of the chapter I am under the impression that it is a very exhilerating experience. However, it doesn't seem like killing an animal myself is something I would be too excited about. It would be a life I took myself, and for what? Personal satisfaction, maybe even just for the experience? This idea reminds me of how some people believe that life is sacred while others do not. I think I do believe that life is sacred, and all creatures should be treated with respect, and not killed unless it is necessary for survival. Being slightly religous, I would probably have at least said a prayer for the creature who's life I had taken.

Chapter 19- Now it is time to discuss mushroom hunting. Unlike most food that would typically be gathered, (produce) mushrooms usually grow in the forest which is a place where people like me would have no difficulty getting lost. Foraging for mushrooms is also a difficult task because no one is really able to consistantly be 100% sure about the difference between the poisnonous and non-poisonous as well as those that contain hallucineginic properties. It was also very hard to find a mushroom hunter that would take me along with them, probably because they thought that I would reveal their secret mushroom location in my writitng. All of these difficulties, however, made mushroom foraging all the more satisfying in the end.

"But calories are simply units of solar energy that have been captured and stored by green plants and, as Weil points out, 'mushrooms have little to do with the sun.' They emerge at night and wither in the light of day. Their energies are of an entirely different order from those of plants..." (Pollan, 378) To be honest, this one quote made me think more than anything else in the chapter. I realized that I have heard the word 'calories' so often, but never actually bothered to define it. I also never considered mushrooms any different from regular plants, and now I am sort of wonderinig/ a little confused about how mushrooms get their energy. I am also curious why the author chose mushrooms, even though it is not considered to have a high nutritional value.

Chapter 20- I'm sure that when you here me boast of the perfect meal, you are getting a completely different image then what it actually is. This meal was perfect because of the fact that it was made entirely out of ingredients that I had foraged or hunted myself. I was cooking for my hunting guide Angelo, Sue, Anthony, Richard, Isaac, Judith and myself. Wild California pig would be the main course, and all the other things I had managed to gather would be on the side. Another rule of my meal was that it had to have a representative of each edible kingdom. Unfortunately, the meal was not great as far as the taste standards of my guests, but that wouldn't have been the reason it was perfect anyway. It was still a perfect meal because of the way it defied fast food, and that made it worth all the struggle and effort.

"I don't want to make too much of it; it was just a meal, after all. A very tasty meal, too... The wild pig was delicious both ways, with a nutty sweetness to it that tasted nothing like store-bought pork." (Pollan, 408) This quote, and chapter as a whole, made me realize what I believe to be one of the main purposes of the author writing this whole book- to show how used to the extensive amount of processing our food goes to that to eat non-processed food is a completely different sensation. Michael Pollan showed us what we are really eating no matter what the companies may say in The Omnivores Dilemma, and showed us how far from natural that it is. That is the reason I found this book to be extremely interesting, and something that everyone should read so they can be aware of what is really going into their systems.

HW 9- Freakonomics Response

One of the most obvious intellectual moves that the people in Freakonomics made was bribery. The researchers from the University of Chicago would not have been able to conduct their study at all if they had not bribed the high school freshmen with cash payments. Even though they found that the bribery treatment was not nearly as successful as they had predicted, in fact one of the students who had been bribed actually did worse in school. Despite the failure of bribery at this school, it was still a tool that they used in order to gather their data.

The most simple intellectual move that those who participated in the movie used was to simply go up to people in the street and talk to them. This was done primarily in the section about names in the early part of the movie, where many people on the streets were asked questions about all sorts of things relating to names. In my opinion, this is a very good tactic to find evidence from primary sources, because there is no way data like this could have become corrupt. From speaking to all of these citizens directly, we were able to learn while watching the movie that there are patterns in name considered normal, but when looking deeper we realize that the stories behind the reasons for some of these names are actually really odd. There were also some ex-sumo wrestlers that were interviewed and we learned a lot from them as well.

This leads into the third intellectual tool that was used in the film, which is statistics. This tool was used in practically all of the different sections of Freakonomics, but it was most heavily relied on in the section about corruption in sumo wrestling. Until recently, sumo wrestling was considered to be one of the most honorable sports in history, dating back so far that it has become infused with Japanese culture and religion. However, by simply looking at statistics of matches, researchers were able to discover that 75% of the time, when an a fighter who needed just one more victory to move on to the next round fought a fighter who was already guaranteed a spot, the underdog would win.

As far as the sources of evidence relied on by the authors of Freakonomics go, I would say that statistics are the most reliable. This is because although sometimes, similarities in statistics are simply coincidental, if observations are made in a large number of statistics that is unlikely. Hard facts are also meant to be completely objective, and usually are not tampered with. For instance, in the sumo wrestling section of the movie, the authors were trying to point out a conspiracy when a fighter who had enough wins would statistically lose 3/4 times to a fighter who needed a win. It is completely possible that the fighter with enough wins was being generous in a way and not fighting as hard as he possibly could. However, the fighter who needed the win would probably have a lot more motivation to win because he would really need the victory, so that could explain the previous statistic as well. Another source of evidence that was relied on by the authors of Freakonomics was numerous interviews with both professionals as well as random people on the street (such as in the names and education sections of the movie). Although this is the best way to get unaltered opinions of real people, no one feels exactly the same way about one issue, and therefore the information gathered by this method is accurate only to those who were questioned and not for the general public.

I agree with the statement that Freakonomics served as an information and a good example to attempt to explore the "hidden in plain sight" weirdness of dominant social practices. The film was very interesting, and although not all of the information given had me convinced, many facts did do a very good job of showing me how things we take for granted as normal actually have very interesting methods behind them. This leads me to how an aspect of the movie relates to our current study of how many things that are considered normal are actually not normal at all in foodways. This kind of, deception in a way, is very similar to the sumo wrestling section. In the movie, they spoke about how sumo wrestling is one of the oldest sports in history, and how it has actually become intertwined with Japanese culture and religion. It would be very odd to actually find hard, undeniable evidence that sumo wrestlers had been cheating, similarly to how it would be odd to find out how so many of our foods are processed before we eat them...

HW 7c

Chapter 11- I woke up at 6 in the morning on Joe Salatin's farm and was suprised to find that I had overslept. Everyone was already out working, and I learned that chicken feed is the only off-farm source of fertility because manure ferilizes the grass and gives it all the nitrogen that it needs. The whole farm is like a tiny ecosystem, where the chicken feed feeds the broilers, the chicken crap feeds the grass which feeds the cows, and eventually down the chain they feed the pigs and the laying hens. Efficiency is the excuse for all the large-scale industrial farms. Although those farms may be economically efficient, Salatin's farm is efficient on a natural level, and that is just as efficient in its own way.

"Farming is not adapted to large-scale operations because of the following reasons: Farming is concerned with plants and animals that live, grow, and die." (Pollan, 214) This quote really makes me think of how farming is so unlike the image that is given to children of happy animals and crops and people. It is like the nature of farming was forced to change by the greedy people who were trying to make an extra buck, and sacraficed the original values of farming. Reading this chapter has really made me want to visit both a farm like Joe Salatin's and a typical industrial farm and see the differences for myself.

Chapter 12- Now it was the time for the killing of chickens. Six times every month, several hundred chickens would be killed, scalded, plucked, and eviscerated. This is a process that very few would consider, "one of the beautiful links in the chain of farming" but it is also an extremely important process and is completely necessary for people to put food on their plates, even if they don't like to think about it.         USDA inspectors that visit the farm are always critical of the public manner in which chickens are brutally slaughtered, (they would much prefer if they were slaughtered behind "white walls" just like the other barn animals) but Joe Salatin's excuse for doing it this way is that he is trying to build neighborly relationships and that is yet another problem with industrial agriculture. Salatin constantly dealing with USDA, who really just want to put him out of buisness.

Gems- "When the USDA sees what we're doing here the get weak in the knees,' Joel said with a chuckle. ' The inspectors take one look at our processing shed, and they don't know what to do with us, They'll tell me the regulations stipulate a processing facility must have impermeable white walls so they can be washed down between shifts. They'll quote me a rule that says all doors and windows must have screens. I point out we don't have any walls at all, not to mention doors and windows, because the best disinfectant in the world is fresh air and sunshine. Well, that really gets them scratching their heads." (Pollan, 228-9)
            "Make no mistake, we're in a war with the bureaucrats, who would like nothing better than to put us out of business." (Pollan, 230)
            "You have just dined...and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity." (Pollan, 227)

Thoughts- This whole chapter had so many gems in it that I just had to make it its own section, even though I normally don't. When looking at the first quote, I feel like it is kind of a good thing that the processing shed doesn't have walls or windows because anyone who visits the farm would be able to see just by looking the way they really get their meat. Joe Salatin has nothing to hide, and its almost like by exposing what he is doing it is making it more of a natural thing, and further differentiates him from the industrial farms. I sort of got the same meaning out of the third quote, and couldn't understand why in the second quote they would want to put the farm out of business. I guess its the same reason that white people decided to enslave black people all those years ago instead of their own kind; because they were different.

Chapter 13- The Polyface Farm is the same as other farms. Most industrial farms just aim to be economically efficient, (in other words save money) but this farm aims to preserve relationship marketing, save earth's resources and reform the global food system. The industrial market only a dollar less than the Polyface Farm per pound, and that is because of the high price of processing (which is usually around a dollar a pound) Polyface farm distributes eggs, chicken, beef, and pork, and has gained recognition all over menus in Charlottesville as "Polyface farm chicken."

Gems- "Oh, those beautiful eggs! The difference is night and day- the color and richness and fat content. There's just no comparison. I always have to adjust my recipes for these eggs- you never need as many as they call for." (Pollan, 252)
            "I just don't trust the meat in the supermarket anymore" (Pollan, 242)
            "Okay, a happier chicken, great, but frankly for me it's all about the taste, which is just so different- this is a chickenier chicken." (Pollan, 252)

Thoughts- I can understand the industrial farming market's greedy desire to be economically efficient all the time at the cost of the quality of their food, because it means more money in their pocket. What I don't understand is why they do not seem to notice that the people will buy produce, meat, and eggs that TASTES better and fresher, even if it costs them the extra dollar or two. Look at the person who stated the first quote listed above- they are saying that the eggs are so good that they don't even need to use as many when they cook. So in the end, that person will probably end up spending less money on eggs in their lifetime then someone who will buy their eggs at the supermarket because those eggs will not be as good quality, so they will need to buy more of them. The cheaper prices of industrial foods are just an illusion, hiding the fact that you will need to spend more money because you will have to buy more food.

Chapter 14- Before I left Joe Salatin's farm on Friday, I decided to prepare a meal for some old friends in Charlottesville. I decided to pick out two of the chickens we had slaughtered on the farm as well as a dozen eggs. The prices for these items were comparable to how much they would have cost at whole foods. I ended up slow roasting the chickens, and everyone was very happy with the meal, but not only because of my cooking. This was a good meal because these chickens were not fed corn and were not a result of genetic breeding or pesticide/chemical use.

"When chickens get to live like chickens, they'll taste like chickens, too." (Pollan, 270) This quote pretty much summed up one of the biggest ideas of the last few chapters for me. The way to get better quality food is to give everything on your barn a better quality life. The problem with industrial farms is that they have stopped caring about the quality of the life that is supported there, and they don't have a natural system like Salatin does. Reading this chapter made me want to visit a farm like Joe's even more just to see the difference for myself, but it seems pretty clear which kind of farm is able to give higher customer satisfaction.

Chapter 15- Now there is only one meal left that I want to make, and the key to it is that it consists of ingredients that I had hunted, gathered and grown myself. To me, this seemed to be the only way to satisfy my desire to have a full awareness off what my food really is and how was it really prepared. This should be interesting, because I have never hunted in my life or even fired a gun before. For me, the first important step I must take before creating that meal is to learn what is and is not edible in the forest. Fortunately, I will have help from a 58 year old Sicillian man named Angelo, who will be teaching me the ways of the hunt.

"There was one more meal I wanted to make, and that was the meal at the end of the shortest food chain of all. What I had in mind was a diner prepared entirely from ingredients I had hunted, gathered, and grown myself." (Pollan, 277) This quote, along with the whole chapter, reminded me of an article we read in class this year. The article was comparing and contrasting the lives of hunter-gatherers to the lives of those who had embraced agriculture. It contained statistics about how when people switched to agriculture, their life expectancy along with their height suffered decreases. Overall, this chapter made me very curious about how I would feel about hunting in general after I finish this section of the book and if the meal that the author prepares in the end would be more or less healthy/satisfying than his previous meal.

Chapter 16- Humans have very large brains relative to the size of their stomach and guts, which makes  humans unique in the way that they require food that is not only healthy and tastes good, but it also has to be environmentally friendly as well as culturally and ethically pleasing. This is an effect of a varied diet as well as sensory capabilities and memory storage. Many other countries that have just as much variety in their diets as America succeed in eating healthy while simultaneously maintaining cultural values in their diets.

"Cuisines embody some of a culture's accumulated wisdom about food.' Often when one culture imports another's food species without importing the associated cuisine, and its embodied wisdom, they will make themselves sick." (Pollan, 296) My thoughts on this chapter relate mostly to the variety in human diets. I think that another important difference between humans and other animals is that most animals eat only because they have to in order to survive, but humans eat because they love to eat. (and it helps them survive as well) To quote the author, Americans have an "obsession with food" and it is one of the reasons that we are becoming obese. This also reminds me of something I heard about a long time ago, where other countries would accuse America of having not culture at all because it is just a blend of people from everywhere. Could this be the reason that America is getting fatter, because so many people don't have any real cultural foods that they just eat everything?

            

HW 8- Growing our own food

Although I was able to plant my own radish seeds in class, I was unfortunately careless enough to forget that I needed to bring them home at some point if I wanted to get them to grow enough so they would be able to eat and they were thrown away. However, I still did have about a week to observe as my radish seeds made progress. My initial thought was: "Wow, I'm growing my own food just like farmers do." However, as I started to read into The Omnivore's Dilemma I realized that its actually not at all how crops are grown. On the other hand, it still felt interesting to grow my own food, like I was creating life and supporting it myself. I feel like the experience would have been greatly enhanced had I actually had the chance to eat my radish, but more then anything growing my own food combined with reading the book made me realize that growing crops is actually not simple at all.

HW 7b

Chapter 6- During the 19th century, Americans started to drink a lot more alcohol, the reason for this being the development of corn whisky. In 1820, the average American was downing half a pint of corn whisky a day, and alcohol would be drank at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. However, this Alcohol Republic soon gave way to the current Republic of Fat, where obesity is in power and its frequent cause of diabetes is possibly Americas most pressing health issue today. One of the large contributors to this Republic is David Wallerstein, who said that because people don't want to look fat by purchasing another order of fries or a second soda, the way to get them to have more and expand sales is to supersize everything on the menu.

In the book, it says "Until his death in 1993, Wallerstein served on the board of directors at McDonalds's, but in the fifties and sixties he worked for a chain of movie theaters in Texas, where he labored to expand sales of soda and popcon." (Pollan, 105) I found this quote very interesting, but it actually was not something that suprised me at all. Although I have only been around for 16 years, even I have noticed the increase in portion sizes everywhere, but most obviously in movie theaters. They have used the excuse that "because we have increased our sizes, it is only fair that we get to increase our prices." This seems ridiculous in my opinion, because there are definitely a lot of people who don't even want to eat the amount of popcorn that comes in the small size today because even that is to large.

Chapter 7- It was now time to explore the end of the industrial food chain, which ended up being a trip to McDonald's with my wife and son. My wife ordered the Cobb salad which turned out to be the most expensive item on the menu at only 4 dollars, while my son decided to order the white meat chicken McNuggets. Chicken McNuggets had to deal with a bad reputation before, mainly as a result of the lawsuit that was filed against them by a group of obese teenagers in New York, so they decided to change their recipe. The three of us ended up consuming 4510 calories that lunch, but the corn calories that went into making our lunch could have fed many more people then three people.

"What this means is that the amount of food energy lost in the making of something like a chicken McNugget could feed a great many more children than just mine, and that behind the 4,510 calories the three of us had for lunch stand tens of thousand of corn calories that could have fed a great many hungry people." (Pollan, 118) This quote is perfect because, it addresses a problem with McDonald's food, specifically Chicken McNuggets, that I had never actually thought about. When people think about McDonald's food, chances are the first thing they think of is how it is very bad for our health. Mr. Pollan addresses a completely different problem; that the energy that goes into making this unhealthy food is so great that the calories that go into the processing could probably feed twice as many people as the food itself.

Chapter 8- Now that I am going to work on Joel Salitin's farm for 7 days, I am assuming that once I realize the amount of work it takes to do this job I will never contradict a price that a farmer puts on his produce. As the week goes by, it seems like Salatin has his farm based on the philosophy that states "All flesh is grass." He considers himself a grass farmer because of the fact that grass is really the basis of the food chain, or at least it is on his farm. Everything plays its part on Joel Salatin's farm, from grass to animals to worms in order to keep the farm organic and productive.

When speaking about the productivity of the farm, the author states that, "This is an astounding cornucopia of food to draw from a hundred acres of pasture, yet what is perhaps still more astonishing is the fact that this pasture will be in no way diminished by the process- in fact, it will be the better for it, lusher, more fertile, even springier underfoot (thanks to the increased earthworm traffic)." (Pollan, 126-7) In my opinion, what Joel Salatin is doing on his farm is something that every farmer should do. I have a great respect for anyone who stands up to something if they think it is wrong even though everyone else is doing it, and his food comes out even better than those other farmers who are taking the easy way out, "And while they were at it, nibbling on the short cattle-clipped grasses they like best, the chickens applied a few thousand pounds of nitrogen to the pasture- and produced several thousand uncommonly rich eggs." (Pollan, 126) If all farmers had embraced this ecosystem- like way of farming, I honestly think America would not have as much of an obesity problem.

Chapter 9- One of the reasons that I enjoy shopping at places like whole foods so much are the labels that are put on the products, such as "humanly grown" or "certified organic." It turns out that this is also the reason that many Americans buy certain products on the market: labeling. As of now, the most popular label has become organic. In fact, the word organic has become so popular that it has been the foundation of an 11 billion dollar industry built by farmers and consumers without any interference from the government.

"I learned, for example, that some (certainly not all) organic milk comes from factory farms, where thousands of Holsteins that never encounter a blade of grass spend their days confined to a fenced 'dry lot,' eating (certified organic) grain and tethered to milking machines three times a day." (Pollan, 139) This gem makes me really think about what the fastest growing industry today is actually going about its production. Although the author specifies that this is not true for all organic milk, it still seems like even an industry that preaches natural products is putting some of its cows through lives that do not match the lifestyle of a real organic cow. In general, this chapter has made me really contemplate organic food instead of just hearing the name and ignoring the huge hype that comes with it.

Chapter 10- By spending 7 days on Joe Salatin's farm, I realized that grass farming is beneficial in more ways than one. The name that Mr. Salatin gives his way of farming is, "beyond organic" and by farming the way that he does he is able to make hay, grow vegetables, and raise his animals without the use of any toxic substances. By choosing to base his farm around grass, Joe Salatin has created an immitation of how animals and plants should be living outside of a farm by feeding the animals what is best for them, and his grass farm actually adds to the world by having every living thing on the farm play its part, where industrial farms that use all sorts of synthetic and toxic substances are harming it. Unfortunately, it is very rare to see grass farms such as Mr. Salatin's because industrial farms are much cheaper and more economic.

"Grass Productivity documented that simply by applying the right number of ruminants at the right time pastures could produce far more grass (and, in turn, meat and milk) than anyone had ever thought possible." (Pollan, 188) More then anything, this quote got me wondering that if it is true, why haven't more people started to resort to grass farming more often? Would the increased production of, well just about everything, not mean that the farms would be more economic? It certainly seems like these farms are good in the long run, both for the environment and for Joe Salatin, because he seems to be doing pretty well living on his farm. Its almost sick that people decide to spend a little less money and in turn have to process everything that is on their farm, be cruel to all of their animals by not feeding them what they want, and not benefiting the environment like grass farming does.

HW 7- Reading Response Monday

The book I am reading is titled Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

Introduction- In order to understand the dilemma that humans as omnivores face we must look at the three main food chains that enable us to survive: industrial, organic, and hunter-gatherer. All these food chains are connected in the way that they are all tied to the sun and the worlds ecosystem. However, none of these chains have prevented the disease that has infected America; a nationwide eating disorder.

Chapter 1- There is no ingredient on the planet that Americans consume more then corn. Its everywhere, in our sodas, meats, breads. Its even in our vegetables! Corn is packed with carbohydrates and plentiful, making it very cheap. This is the reason why it is 45% of all the items in the average supermarket.

Chapter 2- George Naylor is in charge of a farm in Iowa that is 320 acres and in charge of feeding 129 people. Although his grandfather had success with the farm, he is struggling to feed his family and a family members paycheck is really the only thing keeping them alive. Practically none of his food on the farm is edible, and needs to be processed before it can be consumed.

"We have perturbed the global nitrogen cycle." The quote continues on to say that the effects of this are as unpredictable as the effects of disrupting the carbon cycle, and could be equally or more dangerous. This idea really gave me a sense of how we are disrupting the balance of the earth's ecosystem with processes such as these just for our own short term benefit. Things like spraying pesticides on so many crops and genetic modification must be having a similar effect on the environment, so I hope as I read on in the book that I will learn how these things are specifically effecting the things that I am eating.

Chapter 3- The grain elevator that transports grain to factory farms and processing plants results in a huge pile of food lying around in a not particularly clean place. In Mexico it is considered sacrilegious to leave food on the ground like that, and the pile consists both of George Naylor's Hi-Bred corn and Billy's genetically modified corn. No one boasted of the quality of their corn crops any more, and this 10-billion bushel pile of commodity corn has created a whole new food chain.

The most interesting as well as disturbing thing that the author said in chapter 3 was, "Before the commodity system farmers prided themselves on a panoply of qualities in their crop: big ears, plump kernels, straight rows, various colors, even the height of their corn plants became a point of pride. Now none of these distinctions mattered; 'bushels per acre' became the only boast you heard." (Pollan, 60) From this quote, it seems like nobody really cares about how good the quality of their corn was and only about the quantity. I would guess that this switch of priorities could result in worse quality food for the public, and its not like anyone can avoid it because corn is in practically all the foods we eat.

Chapter 4- As a result of concentrated animal feeding operations, farmers are being forced to feed corn to their cattle. Cows have something called rumen, which is what enables them to eat grass and obtain a lot of protein from it. Therefore, they are not accustomed to being forced to consume corn while being trapped in small pens. Not only was this unusual and uncomfortable for the cows, it was also unhealthy, and it resulted in emergence of mad cow disease of the cattle themselves.

"So why is it that steer number 534 hasn't tasted a blade of grass since October? Speed, in a word, or, in the industry's preferred term, 'efficiency." (Pollan, 71) Apparently, not only is the sanitation of the crops being effected by the industry's desire for efficiency and progress, so is the health of cows. A farmer even stated, "Hell, if you gave them lots of grass and space, I wouldn't have a job." (Pollan, 79) It is evident that while farmers have used corn to solve their efficiency problem, it in itself has caused various sanitation problems that are currently effecting cows and will surely effect us in the future.

Chapter 5-
Unlike dry mills where corn is simply ground into dry meal, wet mills are where corn is processed down to the point where ingredients for fast food and sodas such as rich carbohydrates are extracted. The wet milling process also extracts vitamins, nutritional supplements, and oil from the corn. In the 1970's a breakthrough took place during wet milling- the perfection of high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener that is just as sweet as sucrose. (sugar) After this point, processing foods become much more popular, and the wet milling industry has kept their processing process increasingly secretive.

"high- fructose corn syrup- which is a blend of 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose that tastes exactly as sweet as sucrose- came onto the market. Today it is the most valuable food product refined from corn, accounting for 530 million bushels every year." (Pollan, 89) Today, many of us are also aware (or according to the news at least) that high fructose corn syrup is not good for us; its actually worse then sugar. In my opinion, this is a perfect example of how the industry has chosen the cheap and quantity-based way out and how this kind of decision is not exactly effecting people in a positive way.

HW 6- Food Diary

 Over the course of 48 hours, the foods I ate went something like this-

-Fried chicken and vitamin water (lunch)

-Mac n' cheese with chicken and broccoli (dinner)

-Cocoa puffs (breakfast)

-Subway sandwich with doritos and pink lemonade (lunch)

-Tortilla chips and salsa (snack)

-Rice and beans with salad (dinner)

-Toast with peanut butter (breakfast)

-Pizza (lunch)

-Scallion pancakes and chicken lo mein

To start, I will explain why I ate most of the foods that I ate over the course of about 48 hours. To be honest, the fried chicken was kind of a silly choice considering I had already packed myself a lunch. However, I am pretty tired of eating the same sandwich after a number of years, and how could I resist that greasy flavorful chicken. That night, although the broccoli part of the meal was healthy and the chicken wasn't bad either, the mac n' cheese was not ideal. However, a website calculated that my daily calorie goal was to consume 3406 calories a day, so those two meals actually weren't terribly bad for me. The next day, I ate cocoa puffs mainly because I was too lazy to make myself anything better in the morning, and it is the only cereal in my house that I actually enjoy. The subway sandwich that I ate for lunch only had 450 calories, and was perfectly satisfying. For a snack when I got home from school, I chose tortilla chips and salsa mainly because it is not as greasy and oily as potato chips, although tortilla chips aren't particularly good for you either. The rice and beans normally wouldn't sound like a healthy choice, but it was prepared with tomatoes and brown rice, and with the bonus of the salad on the side it actually wasn't bad. The toast with peanut butter before my internship was probably my best choice, because peanut butter was a great source of protein. However, because I was working from 9am to 10:30 pm with only a combined 3 hours of break on thursday, I was very rushed and was only able to eat food that was not particularly good for me.

Overall I don't feel that great about what I have eaten over the last 48 hours. Although for the most part the food tasted very good, it wasn't exactly healthy for me. I am trying to gain weight, but the weight that I'm trying to gain is not something that is going to come from eating a lot of junk food. It isn't like a feel guilty about eating food that isn't good for me, I honestly do not feel like I had a choice. I'm sure a of people use that excuse for eating fast food, but at my internship I only get a 45 minute break and there is really no food within a radius of three crosstown blocks. Also, I noticed how after I ate the fried chicken, chinese food, and the pizza how I didn't feel as good as I did after eating a more well balanced meal such as the subway meal or the rice and beans with salad. So just because some of the greasy foods I ate tasted very good in the moment, they won't always necessarily make you feel good and will certainly not be beneficial in the long run. I'm just lucky I'm still young and have good metabolism.

HW 5 - Dominant Discourses Regarding Contemporary Foodways in the U.S.

The first thing that is important to discuss about the dominant discourse of foodways in America today is where the general population is getting their information from and who is taken seriously in the dominant discourse. When anyone with a degree that can relate to health in some way speaks up on the news, they will be taken seriously. Other sources, however might not get the same kind of serious attention. For instance, "An estimated 72.5 million adults in the United States are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year, about 27 percent of adults said they were obese, compared with about 20 percent in 2000." (Fighting Obesity through Public and Private Policy) Although this is a perfectly reliable source and part of the dominant discourse, chances are not as many people will see it because such a large portion of the population use the news on television as their source. In fact, according to the New York Times, "WHY are Americans getting fatter and fatter? The simple explanation is that we eat too much junk food and spend too much time in front of screens — be they television, phone or computer." (Fighting Obesity through Public and Private Policy) So not only are these TV screens also constantly spitting out bias viewpoints, (such as stations like FOX and MSNBC and practically every other station) apparently it is getting the country fat as well.

Another point that should be recognized is that the most intelligent and well-read person will not be taken seriously if they are not represented properly and have some kind of reliable background (such as a college degree and a relevant occupation) I remember back in 6th grade, when in school they showed us the movie Super Size Me which was made by an independent filmmaker named Morgan Spurlock. In the movie, Mr. Spurlock ate McDonald's for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 28 days straight. When he wasn't eating their food, he was investigating where the ingredients came from, and what really goes into those chicken McNuggets that everyone loves. By the end of the film, Mr. Spurlock had almost killed himself, and had clearly demonstrated the numerous amount of negative effects that eating fast food such as McDonald's all the time can have on a person. However, it is obvious that no one in society was really effected by this man's great effort in the long term. After all, the quote in the first paragraph states that a larger percentage of Americans consider themselves obese in 2010 then they did 10 years ago, and the movie was made in 2004. Its not like no one saw the movie; it one the academy award for documentary feature. It is evident that although Mr. Spurlock was arguing for the same cause that many of the doctors and health professionals that we see on the news were, he was not taken seriously by a most of the population, which excludes him and his documentary from the dominant discourse.

Although it is clear that a majority of the population do not seem to care that to much fast food can lead to serious medical problems, there are also highly educated adults who make what the dominant discourse considers to be smart food choices, such as lots of vegetables, protein that is not in the form of red meat all the time, etc. However, although the children that live in this country could not care less about what anyone says about their happy meals or their sweet desserts, they will always want to eat them because of how good they taste. They don't care how much their parents say they should eat their veggies because of how good they are for them, they're still not going to like them or want to have anything to do with them. Certain food industries are starting to catch on to this behavior, and have adjusted their methods of marketing as shown here, "The baby-carrot industry tried to reposition its product as junk food, starting a $25 million advertising campaign whose defining characteristics include heavy metal music, a phone app and a young man in a grocery cart dodging baby-carrot bullets fired by a woman in tight jeans." (To Eat its Vegetables, America Orders Fries) So according to Food and Health News, the baby carrot industry is trying to sell a healthy vegetable by calling it a junk food so kids will want it. In other words, they are encouraging the youth in this country to eat junk food because it is healthy for them AND it tastes good. Fortunately, the dominant discourse will most likely reject this action and most of the population will be against it. That doesn't, however, change the message that this industry is sending out to America's children.

HW 4- My families' foodways

The food that my parents grew up eating is actually very similar to the food that I have grown up eating. Chances are this is a result of my parents remembering the foods that they ate when they were being raised by their parents. So after speaking to my mother about what she grew up eating, it seems a lot like where my family is from has a lot more influence on what I eat then just the different generations of my family. For example, my mother and I both grew up eating meat and pasta as well as drinking milk practically every night for dinner. We both ate family dinners every night, and although she had bread on the table all the time and ate ice cream for dessert when I ate chips ahoy, the variety in our meals were generally very similar.

My grandparents ate slightly different things from my parents and I. They were raised by my great grandparents, who were the first ones in my mothers side of the family to come to America. This means that they were raised eating lots of mediterranean food, more then me or my mother. Although all three generations used quite a bit of olive oil when we cooked, my grandparents were definitely subject to the most olive oil. Other popular greek foods that my grandparents and even my parents ate much more frequently then I did consist of lamb, pound cake, and heavily buttered pasta.

Although the types of food have differed slightly over time in my family, the real difference is the size of the portions. Both of my parents grew up with three other siblings at minimum eating dinner with them, and the same is true for my grandparents. Naturally, because there were more mouths for my grandparents to feed and they were not exactly rich at the time, there was much less food to go around for my parents and my grandparents. Also, I am the only member on either sides of my family who was ever born in New York, and both of my parents were raised in suburban environments. What this means is that although most of the time in my family we cook our own meals, there are always nights where we will order chinese food, and these nights were much more frequent for me then they were for either my parents or my grandparents.

HW 3- Food- Fast Food Insights and Green Market Realizations

On Wednesday, as we traveled through both the green market and the popular fast food chain known as Taco Bell, I noticed some similarities as well as differences. The first thing I noticed was that both the green market and Taco Bell are usually not places where people tend to sit down and eat the food they purchase. Although Taco Bell provides chairs and tables, most of the customers were in too much of a rush to sit down and would often leave immediately after they received their order. However, at every place that I visited in the green market, the salesman/woman would talk about how their products were all natural and grown at their own farms. There was not even a sign in Taco Bell that would suggest something like that about their own ingredients, but they instead boasted how good their food tasted as opposed to the green market where signs advertised things such as vitamins and minerals.

The reason that most people in America would probably choose Taco Bell over the shops in the green market is because they share the same priorities as I do when it comes to food. Taste over health. All of the drinks that were available were the fountain sodas, which are all packed with sugar to enhance flavor other then water. However, the green market advertised healthy beverages such as wheat grass juice, which is something I have never tried before but as we walked past it one of my classmates said, "Oh yeah I had that stuff before! It tastes like shit." On the other hand, this beverage was packed with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and chlorophyll. Still, most people these days will probably choose Taco Bell because even thought its bread does not taste fresh and its cheese isn't even cooked all the time, it provides that flavor that people crave and want, but for most of us it is certainly not what we need.