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.