W10- Synthesis

The article entitled "Engineering Food for All" written by Nina Fedoroff was interesting and covered many of the same topics discussed in Food Inc. and The Omnivore's Dilemma. Obviously, all three were about the food industry, but they all focused in on the topic of genetically modified food and how farmers and companies were growing and producing food.

However, the article differed a little from the documentary and the book in that it pointed out positive about the food industry now, whereas the other two, especially Food Inc., did not shine any sort of positive light on the way companies went about getting corn. The article explained why food production is done the way it is, the cheaper the better and the higher crop per acre the better. She also debunked the theory that the modified crops are in any way worse for us than natural crops, in fact, she said that there are 90% less harmful modified crops than natural crops. Food Inc. never mentioned that at all, it just focused in on Monsanto as the bad guy and acted as if nothing that company did was a good thing. However, The Omnivore's Dilemma  did mention a lot of the same type of stuff as this article, especially when Pollan was at the corn farm in Iowa. He mentioned that most of the farmer's neighbors were using modified seed and getting more crops, but less quality. The problem with that is the food industry isn't necessarily looking for quality, rather they are looking for quantity over quality.

All three of these mention that farming is not a lucrative business. Food Inc. has many testimonials about the way farmers are struggling to survive, the corn farmer is Pollan's book talks about his neighbors all being in debt and that his wife actually keeps the family afloat. In this article it says that 90% of farmers are poor. All three think this is a problem because if people can't make money and survive by farming and do something else we'll have to find other ways to produce enough food for what is a growing population.

Overall, all three are very similar in the subject matter and the focal points. However, they do differ in some of the views of what we are doing, why we are doing it, if we need to change and if so what changes we need to make.

W9- Open Post

The last couple weeks I have noticed an inordinate amount of Oreo packages on the shelves and in the back of the Kroger in Athens, where I spend about twenty to twenty-five hours a week putting groceries (mainly beer since the students are in town) to try and limit the amount of debt I accrue over my four-and-a-half years of schooling. 

After about three days of noticing the mountain of Oreos in the back of the store I finally had a conversation with a co-worker about it. (Yeah, well when you walk around Kroger for five hours doing nothing you have entertaining conversations like that.) Finally, I picked up one of the packages and started reading the unusual colorful Oreo package. 

To my surprise I found out that Oreo is turning 100 years-old today, March 6th. We had no idea Oreos were that old. In response to our new discovery my co-worker picked up a package and said I bet these will be good, thinking Oreo was releasing some new flavor or something. However, he was disappointed to find out they just added sprinkles to the cream on the inside.

So for this monumental day in packaged cookies I decided to dedicate my blog post to my favorite kind of Oreo. 

Sure the original is pretty awesome, the double stuffed is, well doubly awesome. But, the best kind of Oreo ever is the Peanut Butter Oreos. I love peanut butter and I love Oreos so of course it would be my favorite. However, there is another reason. I used to drink milk all the time and there is nothing better to eat with milk that Oreos. But about ten years ago I quit drinking milk. I don't really know why I just didn't like it anymore and I hate to say it but Oreos just weren't as exciting when I quit drinking milk. Thankfully though a few years later I was introduced to Peanut Butter Oreos and fell right back in love with them.

So last night after this conversation and after I clocked out I went to aisle twelve to get some my peanut butter and Oreo fix at the same time, only to find out the Athens Kroger doesn't carry the peanut butter variety of Oreos, one more reason to dislike Kroger.

W8- O'Betty's Review

When I found out that we, as a class, were meeting at O'Betty's I had no idea what was going on. I live in the Athens area and have since I was one year old and I had never heard of it. I had no idea what kind of food it offered or what kind of atmosphere to expect. However, after a little class discussion I learned that the restaurant's main attraction was their hot dogs. While sitting in the restaurant looking around I noticed that they won several successive "Best Hog Dog in Athens" awards from the Athens News. The only thought that popped into my mind at the time was "man, Lary's Dog House needs to step it up." Because that is the only other hot dog place I could think of off the top of my head. 

I didn't eat at O'Betty's instead I fixed myself lunch before I came to class. It's not because I didn't trust what my classmates had said (that they made really good hot dogs.) The reason I didn't eat there was because, well, I am sick of hot dogs. I played baseball every spring and summer of my life from age three to twenty-one. At baseball games the only food that is consistently offered is, you guessed it, hot dogs. But not just any hot dogs. No, because it is a tradition to have hot dogs and because the hot dog tradition has formed a sort of ballpark monopoly, the hot dogs are usually pretty crappy. But it's hot, you're dirty, you're hungry and you have 20 minutes until the next game so you don't really have a choice. Long story short, or well shortened a bit, when baseball ended for me, so too did hot dog eating. 

I have no doubt O'Betty's makes good food. The smell is the restaurant didn't make me sick at all, so it wasn't full of hot dog smell. The setting though was the most surprising part. It was almost had an old gentlemen club-like feel to it. There was leopard print cloth on the booth seats, the tables as well as other places. There were also pictures of (I'm assuming) famous women of their time wearing a rather limited amount of clothing. It certainly didn't give off a family vibe, but that's probably why it's near Court Street in downtown Athens where drunk students are going to stumble in and out all the time. 

It isn't a place that I would frequent, or even go back to because of the hot dog thing, but also because it's small and very open to everyone else in the restaurant. I rarely eat in fast food places and I kind of equate the set up of the dining area to a small fast food place. Generally, if I go out to eat it's so I can talk in limited, but decent privacy with the person/people I'm eating with. This restaurant is geared more to the open (some might say obnoxious) type, like college students, which although I am a college student I don't (at least I hope I don't) fit in that stereotype. 

W7- Food Inc.

The Food Inc. documentary definitely had a lot of persuasive elements to it. The strongest in my opinion were the shots of the animals, mainly cows and how they were treated. For me to say that I am not an animal-lover is an understatement, but I don't like that animals are treated the way they are. Another persuasive element was the Joel Salatin and the other normal farmers' testimonies about how they do everything they can to succeed and not lose their livelihoods because corporations are taking over the food industry. It's never an enjoyable thing to watch someone who works so hard fail or be threatened with failure. Obviously, the mother of the deceased child was sad to see and played to my emotions.

One of the things that wasn't at all persuasive to me was the pity-party thrown in the documentary for the illegal aliens being arrested. There were quotes in the video about how it was sad how they were used by the food plants and then arrested and sent back home. One person said something about how its sad that they get used and then get sent back while the managers and people who run the companies get to stay in America. In a sense I understand that hiring illegal aliens should be punished because its against the law. However, comparing the higher-ups' in the company and the working aliens' right to stay in the country is utterly flawed logic and the documentary lost credibility with me for focusing on that as long as it did.  

Another thing I didn't find to be as persuasive as the filmmakers wanted was the video of the dead chickens and the constant shot of dead animals in production lines. To me it isn't sad that animals die for humans to eat them. There is nothing wrong with that. Everyone knows when they eat meat that an animal had to die for them to get it on their plate. I felt like the film tried to make that a sad thing and again it's just not.

One question I have about the whole concept of the film, which I interpreted as American citizens don't know what they are eating and how it's prepared and how big companies are basically making the food industry a monopoly. Is why is it that way? The film makes it seem like the food industry is run a certain way that keeps itself hidden behind a "vale." I would argue that Americans have as much of a role, if not a bigger role than the companies do in putting up that vale. Sure people don't want kids to die, or themselves to die from obesity related symptoms. But are we changing? Not much. That's because we want the vale to be there, we don't want to know just as much as the companies don't want us to know. We don't want to have to spend extra money at a local market than at Walmart because Walmart in convenient and cheaper and the food tastes just fine. So was I influenced at all by this film? No, not at all.  

W6- Open Post

I have a younger brother who is a freshman in high school and I heard someone tell him today that high school is "the best four years of your life." 

My heart sank instantly. I closed my eyes to digest what had just been said... when I realized that person wasn't God and what he said wasn't necessarily the truth at all. However, it got me thinking. 

What from high school could possibly make someone say that? I know that for some people, especially in rural areas such at Athens, people never really leave high school, never really break from the same role they played in the halls of their school. But, for the others. What could make them think high school was so great?

I look back at high school and only three bright spots are: graduating, sports and lunchtime. The first two stick out for obvious reasons, the third not so much. But let me explain. 

I was a picky eater my whole life. As a child peas were often found under my chair after dinnertime and I would gag myself just so I didn't have to eat vegetables with my meal. When I reached high school I had matured enough where those escapades no longer occurred. But, I still didn't like to try strange, school cafeteria food. After maybe a day or two of eating school lunches it became apparent that I wouldn't survive four years without changing where I got my food. 

I'm not quite sure how it happened but mom started packing my lunches, not just PB&J or lunch meat and a juice box. No, my mom went all out. She would make sure to make extras of dinner the night before. Whether it was chicken, pork, turkey or a roast there was always some left over to shred and cover in barbecue sauce for my sandwich the next day. 

As if the sandwiches weren't enough to make all the other kids jealous mom didn't stop there. I rarely went to school without some kind of baked goody in my envy-inspiring brown paper sack. No matter what it was chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles, no-bakes, mom's world (Federal Hocking) famous chocolate chip cookie dough brownies, they were all the rage of the lunchroom. Plus mom always sent enough that I could share a few with friends. I like to think I was decently popular because of my sense of humor, intelligence, decent looks and athletic ability and I won't completely say that those attributes didn't play a role. Maybe the reason I look back on high school without the fond memories of others is because my friendships were based on my willingness to share what mom sent in my brown paper sack.

W5- Our Fast Food Nation

America wants things fast. The faster the better. From cars to information, everything just keeps getting faster. Just look at the internet, seemingly everyone has faster internet, dial up is dead it just simply isn't fast enough. The internet shows more proof or the addiction to speed and convenience. Twitter, Facebook and even e-mail are great examples of the faster the better outlook. People no longer have to wait for the newspaper, mail, the evening news or even go to a news website to get the breaking news, it just comes to America's phones. 

The way Americans fill their stomachs is no different. Fast food restaurants like McDonalds are conveniently placed everywhere you look and you are rarely more than ten minutes away from one. But not only are they close at all times, you don't even have to get out of your car to get your food. Even when you go inside you can get your food within five minutes. That means that pretty much no matter where you are you are no more than fifteen minutes away from a rather cheap meal. Another important factor that leads to America's addiction to fast food is it takes no work. You don't have to prepare any food for your family, you can simply stop by a fast food restaurant. Because more women are working now than ever home-cooked meals are becoming more and more rare. Which, makes fast food all the more important for families.

Another factor is that Americans are driving more, traveling more and always in a hurry when they are doing it. If your family is headed to a extracurricular event, or even on vacation it is quicker and easier to stop by a fast food place on the way than it is to cook a meal and bring it along. If you are a businessperson hurrying between meetings it is hard to find time to plan out a meal, sometimes you just have to squeeze meals in whenever you can.

As a college student and part-time worker, squeezing in meals is a major factor in my life. I eat at fast food joints way more often than I would like, but when rushing between classes, work and sleeping I have to settle for whatever I can get.

W4- "American" Food

When I think about "American" food my first thought is food stolen from other countries and then Americanized. A great example would be the Mexican food that we eat in places like Taco Bell, it really doesn't taste like authentic Mexican food. Also, the United States of America is a young country and most popular foods that are eaten here where eaten long before the United States gained its independence. So most of the foods included in such a menu would be stolen, slightly altered foods from other cultures.

My menu would definitely include a lot of meat. The first item would be a juicy 16ounce New York Strip. It would be prepared with a lot of garlic and spices so there would be no need for steak sauce. This would be served with the choice of either a baked potato or a serving of mashed potatoes. It would also come with a dinner roll similar to those served at Bob Evan's.

That meal alone would be enough for me, but for those who aren't feeling steak I would include the following to the menu:

• Grilled Chicken
• Country Fried Steak
• Chicken Salad
• Chicken Alfredo
• Spaghetti with Meat Sauce 
• Turkey with Homemade Noodles and Gravy (No American menu could be complete without a Thanksgiving meal.)
• Barbecue Ribs
• Grilled Chicken and Bacon Sandwich (with Swiss Cheese, Onions, Lettuce and Barbecue Sauce) 

For the sides options I would include:

• Mac'n'Cheese
• Rolls
• Mashed Potatoes
• Baked Potato
• Corn (on and off the cob)
• Green Beans (with bacon)
• Peas
• Onion Rings
• Sweet Potato

The dessert section would feature the following:

• Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Birthday Cake
• Apple Pie
• Pecan Pie
• Chocolate Pie
• Pumpkin Pie
• Milkshakes (Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry)

The beverages would be the normal restaurant options:

• Sweet or Unsweetened Tea
• Coca-Cola products
• Water
• Lemonade or Pink Lemonade
• Budweiser
• Bud Light

Overall, I think that would give a fairly decent representation of what American's like to eat when they go out for dinner. Obviously this doesn't represent a portion of the public that is vegetarian or vegan but I think the majority of Americans would be satisfied to see this menu if they went out to dinner.