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.