“Food in our culture is one aspect of a larger nightmare”. I guess there are different meanings to this quote to different people. Someone can argue that the foods they are eating now are perfect and that they would not change one thing about it at all. However another might argue the fact that the food we are consuming now and producing is a living nightmare and we must change it as soon as possible. And then the devil’s advocate might say, hey, these are just your opinion; someone else is always going to have a different opinion then you. I guess all that matters, is what works for someone. Someone who is obese might say everything is great, the food is great, and life is great, when someone who is an anorexic might say he/she does not need food in their life. Their life is great and always will without food.
In my opinion I think that the food in our culture as of now is not a total nightmare just yet. Yes, we might have millions of fast food franchise all luring us in wanting us to spend our precious money to buy their unhealthy food but I feel that we have a choice on what it is we want to eat. Sure, some choose to eat fast food because well its fast food… but like I said, they chose to eat that. Surely they can take 15 minutes out of their busy life and just go somewhere else that won’t kill their liver and body but they don’t, they CHOOSE to eat at McDonalds and Wendy’s. Although the food in our culture has yet reached a total nightmare, I believe we are very close. Our way of living is solely based on industrial life, and machinery. We depend on machines to do our job too much that I am afraid that come a time we won’t be able to fend for ourselves because we depend on machines so much.
Not only do people rely on machines to do their job, we are also in the crisis of Peak Oil. Not only do we rely on machines to do our job, but we use a lot of oil in the process as well. What used to be, people walking or even taking their bikes to work, nowadays people rely on their cars way too much. Even if its taking a ride to a McDonalds 15 minutes away… people rather take the easy way out to fill their bodies with poison.
In a way though I do feel that the food in our culture is beginning to take form to become a total nightmare, based on all the facts that are around us. It is sad to hear and read that almost half the human population is obese, not just in America but countries around us as well. For example, France has one of the highest obese rates, and in some ways they eat healthier than us; however they do cook all their meals with lots of butter and margarines. It is also sad to hear about people wasting food when there are countries that can barely keep up with their food production let along feed their families.
The way people prepare and get their food these days is somewhat of a downfall. According to text and movies, such as “Fast Food Nation” and “Daily Bread” the way our food is being slaughtered are horrendous. In one skit of the movie in “Fast Food Nation” we see a big executive in large fast food cooperation go into one of his franchise and order a sandwich. It then that we see one of the workers, flat out spit into his sandwich as he is preparing it. Also in the movie “Daily Bread” we see that the workers, who are slaughtering the cows, show no sign of emotions as the cows are being sliced and diced right in their face. I guess the slaughter houses teach the workers to show no sign of emotions since all they care about is the money and not the animal’s feelings.
There was another film that I saw in class that explained how people dealt with their problems when oil was simply unavailable for them. The whole community put aside their problems and differences and just learned to work together to try and keep their small community afloat. Without oil and machines to help them, they learned to grow foods the old fashion way. And towards the end they were able to have a functional community without the dependency of oil and machinery to help them.
I feel that in order for our society today to be able to live longer when oil is no longer available for us, and machines can’t fulfill our jobs, we have to learn how to do things ourselves. People have to stop depending on industrial life, and start focusing on how to plant and grow things because the time when the industrial life falls will be upon us and until then people have to start having a change of heart and start taking this issue into mind!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Past, Present, Future... of Food
Food is everywhere around us. Everywhere you look you can find at least one person munching down on something. Whether you are at the ballpark and thousands of people are around you eating a hotdog or two, scarfing down some nachos and inhaling beer or maybe you are at movies, and you look to your left and to your right and 1 out of 2 people have bags of popcorn, a drink and candy. Food is almost inevitable to most if not all people just like some people believe that Judgment Day is inevitable. However, that may be the problem nowadays, the fact that food is always around us no matter where you look. That can be the downfall to life as we know it.
In the past, food was as normal as it can get. Local farmers would grow the food, and then sell it at a farmers market, much like we have today. Not many people cared about getting food prepared as quickly as possible just to make a quick buck. Food was treated with a kind of respect, making sure that things were cooked properly and efficiently. There were hardly any fast food chains like the ones we have today that flood the blocks we live on. There were hardly any news on people dieing because of the undercook meat they ate, or because of the disease they gotten. Before fast food franchises hit the market, places like France was a place where home cooked meals were eaten almost every meal. For lunch, they would head home from their jobs, just to have a nice home cooked meal, whereas nowadays, for lunch people just head to the nearest McDonald’s and grab something quick to eat, where they would go hungry again in about an hour or so. Although back then when people would go home to have a home cook meal, the France did cook a lot of their meals in a lot of butter and margarine and always had wine to drink in every meal. This lead to a few cases of obesity but nothing serious like the cases we have today. I guess you can say that fast food franchises are the downfall to human society.
As of now, the food in our society can do much better compared to the past. As of now, fast food franchises have totally taking a huge impact on how people eat. What used to be people eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner at home, nowadays people choose to eat out rather than eat a home cook meal. Sure, eating out is a much quicker way, since you don’t have to cook or clean, but to just pay and eat, it is also bad for the body. What make the food taste good are all the different seasonings and things they put in the food to enhance the taste so that you would come back again and again. Companies like these hardly care about the quality of the food but the quantity. If they can make their food in lightening speed and also make it taste good enough, then they will do it at no expense. For example, in fast food Chinese restaurants, the reason it taste so good and why it appears in front of you so quickly is because of what they put in that they specifically say they don’t: MSG! This special ingredient heightens the taste of the food to great extent but also is bad for your body in the long run. Also people who eat fast food like McDonald’s for every meal every single day, eventually all that sugar and fat will catch up to them and eventually take a toll on their body. People know all these facts from TV commercials and newspaper articles but yet they still do this to their own bodies. They know the dangerous effects of eating fast food every single day yet they still eat it every day because it’s quick and cheap. This is why when you are walking down the streets you see obese people walking, when you head to the beach to have a good time there is a chance you will catch a glimpse of at least one obese person. Like is said before food is here and it is inevitable.
I feel that in the future things will just keep on getting worst if people don’t change their eating ways. Things will also continue to get worst if they don’t do something about the way their food is being harvested and prepared. People have to learn the ways of growing and producing their own food and learning not to rely on oil and machinery to do their jobs or else food WILL be the downfall to human society.
In the past, food was as normal as it can get. Local farmers would grow the food, and then sell it at a farmers market, much like we have today. Not many people cared about getting food prepared as quickly as possible just to make a quick buck. Food was treated with a kind of respect, making sure that things were cooked properly and efficiently. There were hardly any fast food chains like the ones we have today that flood the blocks we live on. There were hardly any news on people dieing because of the undercook meat they ate, or because of the disease they gotten. Before fast food franchises hit the market, places like France was a place where home cooked meals were eaten almost every meal. For lunch, they would head home from their jobs, just to have a nice home cooked meal, whereas nowadays, for lunch people just head to the nearest McDonald’s and grab something quick to eat, where they would go hungry again in about an hour or so. Although back then when people would go home to have a home cook meal, the France did cook a lot of their meals in a lot of butter and margarine and always had wine to drink in every meal. This lead to a few cases of obesity but nothing serious like the cases we have today. I guess you can say that fast food franchises are the downfall to human society.
As of now, the food in our society can do much better compared to the past. As of now, fast food franchises have totally taking a huge impact on how people eat. What used to be people eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner at home, nowadays people choose to eat out rather than eat a home cook meal. Sure, eating out is a much quicker way, since you don’t have to cook or clean, but to just pay and eat, it is also bad for the body. What make the food taste good are all the different seasonings and things they put in the food to enhance the taste so that you would come back again and again. Companies like these hardly care about the quality of the food but the quantity. If they can make their food in lightening speed and also make it taste good enough, then they will do it at no expense. For example, in fast food Chinese restaurants, the reason it taste so good and why it appears in front of you so quickly is because of what they put in that they specifically say they don’t: MSG! This special ingredient heightens the taste of the food to great extent but also is bad for your body in the long run. Also people who eat fast food like McDonald’s for every meal every single day, eventually all that sugar and fat will catch up to them and eventually take a toll on their body. People know all these facts from TV commercials and newspaper articles but yet they still do this to their own bodies. They know the dangerous effects of eating fast food every single day yet they still eat it every day because it’s quick and cheap. This is why when you are walking down the streets you see obese people walking, when you head to the beach to have a good time there is a chance you will catch a glimpse of at least one obese person. Like is said before food is here and it is inevitable.
I feel that in the future things will just keep on getting worst if people don’t change their eating ways. Things will also continue to get worst if they don’t do something about the way their food is being harvested and prepared. People have to learn the ways of growing and producing their own food and learning not to rely on oil and machinery to do their jobs or else food WILL be the downfall to human society.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
IFS Paper
“Good afternoon, welcome to Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin Robbins, how may I take your order?” “Yea, can I get a sausage egg and cheese combo, with an extra large coffee, light on the half and half with about 5 sugars, and also throw in a chocolate sprinkled donut as well.” “Would you like any then else with that sir, maybe one of our new freshly made cookies or biscuits?” “Hmm… no it’s okay, maybe next time though.” “No problem, well here is your order sir, and you have a nice day.”
Day after day, shifts after shifts, I repeat these opening words to brand new customers, some of which are locals, which I know their order like I know the back of my hand. What really surprises me every single day, is how can people eat these kind of food knowing the facts that they know, from commercials, to doctor visits. How can anyone, eat a sandwich, which its eggs are processed and freeze dried ready to warm up and serve? The meat patties which are combinations of different animal intestines, and probably the only thing that is not genetically modified - the cheese. As I watch people order the same thing every single day, injecting a large amount of sugar and calories into their body, I can’t help to question, is this why a large amount of people in the US are obese, and even though people are trying to change their eating habits, is this why it never works?
The Industrial Food System – IFS is based upon machinery allowing them to produce a large amount of their products thus leading to mass production. The IFS is also based on machinery where the products comes into no human contact, everything is done by machines. According to Martin Heidegger, he states that: “Agriculture is now a motorized food industry, the same thing in its essence as the production of corpses in the gas chambers and the extermination camps, the same thing as blockades and the reduction of countries to famine, the same thing as the manufacture of hydrogen bombs.” When I read that I felt that Heidegger was trying to get across the fact that the way we produce our food is like a natural disaster. Not only is mass production going to be Earth’s downfall I started thinking about Peak Oil and how that is going to affect our future. I start thinking about how almost everything we do in our life, getting our groceries for our dinner, going to the movies, exporting and importing foods, all depends on oil and the industrial life. However as we keep on using up the oil that is limited in our life, pretty soon we are going to use it all up and then most people are not going to know what to do then because they are so wrapped around the idea of allowing machine to do manual labor.
Michael Pollen states: “Very much like a pre-modern city, however, teeming and filthy and stinking, with open sewers, unpaved roads, and choking air rendered visible by dust” In this quote Michael Pollen is describing a feedlot. A feedlot is an environment that is very uncomfortable and very filthy where animals live. Feedlots are designed to be huge, however they use up as much room as possible therefore stuffing animals tightly together as possible. The conditions that animals endure in feedlots are terrifying compared to animals raised on a farm. Not only are the living quarters horrible for the animals but the way they are killed are even more gruesome. Based on a movie called “Daily Bread” cows are literally dazed first with an electric gun, and then they are lifted and transported ready to be killed and washed. However according to the movie, the people who kill and clean the cows, are mostly illegal immigrants therefore they do not have the necessary training to properly kill and clean an animal so therefore some of its excrement drip onto the conveyor belt where other animals are being transported. And that is literally how people are eating “shit” in their food.
I guess all in all not many if not all people do not know the process in which their food is being prepared and what exactly is on their plate. The people who eat at fast food restaurants constantly might actually be eating “shit” or maybe spit… who knows. I know that it is almost entirely impossible to convince everyone to stop eating fast food based on the information I picked up, but it is always worth a shot to convince most people if not all. And who knows, maybe if one person is convinced, that person can convince others, thus leading to others, and maybe someday, everybody!
Day after day, shifts after shifts, I repeat these opening words to brand new customers, some of which are locals, which I know their order like I know the back of my hand. What really surprises me every single day, is how can people eat these kind of food knowing the facts that they know, from commercials, to doctor visits. How can anyone, eat a sandwich, which its eggs are processed and freeze dried ready to warm up and serve? The meat patties which are combinations of different animal intestines, and probably the only thing that is not genetically modified - the cheese. As I watch people order the same thing every single day, injecting a large amount of sugar and calories into their body, I can’t help to question, is this why a large amount of people in the US are obese, and even though people are trying to change their eating habits, is this why it never works?
The Industrial Food System – IFS is based upon machinery allowing them to produce a large amount of their products thus leading to mass production. The IFS is also based on machinery where the products comes into no human contact, everything is done by machines. According to Martin Heidegger, he states that: “Agriculture is now a motorized food industry, the same thing in its essence as the production of corpses in the gas chambers and the extermination camps, the same thing as blockades and the reduction of countries to famine, the same thing as the manufacture of hydrogen bombs.” When I read that I felt that Heidegger was trying to get across the fact that the way we produce our food is like a natural disaster. Not only is mass production going to be Earth’s downfall I started thinking about Peak Oil and how that is going to affect our future. I start thinking about how almost everything we do in our life, getting our groceries for our dinner, going to the movies, exporting and importing foods, all depends on oil and the industrial life. However as we keep on using up the oil that is limited in our life, pretty soon we are going to use it all up and then most people are not going to know what to do then because they are so wrapped around the idea of allowing machine to do manual labor.
Michael Pollen states: “Very much like a pre-modern city, however, teeming and filthy and stinking, with open sewers, unpaved roads, and choking air rendered visible by dust” In this quote Michael Pollen is describing a feedlot. A feedlot is an environment that is very uncomfortable and very filthy where animals live. Feedlots are designed to be huge, however they use up as much room as possible therefore stuffing animals tightly together as possible. The conditions that animals endure in feedlots are terrifying compared to animals raised on a farm. Not only are the living quarters horrible for the animals but the way they are killed are even more gruesome. Based on a movie called “Daily Bread” cows are literally dazed first with an electric gun, and then they are lifted and transported ready to be killed and washed. However according to the movie, the people who kill and clean the cows, are mostly illegal immigrants therefore they do not have the necessary training to properly kill and clean an animal so therefore some of its excrement drip onto the conveyor belt where other animals are being transported. And that is literally how people are eating “shit” in their food.
I guess all in all not many if not all people do not know the process in which their food is being prepared and what exactly is on their plate. The people who eat at fast food restaurants constantly might actually be eating “shit” or maybe spit… who knows. I know that it is almost entirely impossible to convince everyone to stop eating fast food based on the information I picked up, but it is always worth a shot to convince most people if not all. And who knows, maybe if one person is convinced, that person can convince others, thus leading to others, and maybe someday, everybody!
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