EE2 Final Draft

A Vegetarian Manifesto

It may seem like a rash decision, but the other day I became a vegetarian. I had never really given much thought to the option of being a vegetarian at all before in my life. I had previously thought that it would be fairly easy for me to avoid meat since I have never been a big meat eater, but I never thought I would feel the need to not eat animals. I have known that there are ethical issues involved with eating meat, otherwise why would so many people decide be vegetarians? However, I have also known that almost every food that we buy from the grocery store has been produced in ethically questionable ways. In reality, unless I only eat food I grow in a garden at my house or buy from a local small-scale farmer, my diet will inevitably consist of foods that are grown or processed in ways that somehow hurt others. Since I have known this to be true, I have chosen not to think about my food choices in terms of how they were produced. I have usually chosen instead to ignore the ethics of my food. It has been quite easy for me to choose to eat in ignorance for my whole life. This does not mean that I have never eaten anything grown in my own backyard or bought my food at a farmer’s market, but I have never exclusively chosen to eat these foods over the foods bought from commercial producers in a store. I have never really eaten by following any kind of distinct guideline before.

I believe I have never considered vegetarianism because while I knew that the animals that are raised for humans to consume live in inhumane conditions I never really had to see them in these conditions or actually addressed the problem. The problem was never visible to me so I didn’t feel the need to fully recognize it. Although this is not the right way to view any problem, to ignore something just because it isn’t visible, I still did. The problem became visible to me however after watching the short documentary called Food Inc in writing class. After seeing real cases of the terrible production methods I had to acknowledge that animal cruelty in relation to food production is an issue that is not completely ignorable. The 94-minute long documentary showed vivid images of still living cows hanging by their feet on a production line, chickens barely able to move because of malnutrition, and a group of pigs being crushed by a large piece of metal. While some people may have been able to push these images aside, after watching the movie I really was not interested in eating one of those animals forced to live in misery and killed in very inhumane ways. This is how I became a vegetarian two weeks ago in writing class.

Although my conversion was based largely on emotion, there are many rational arguments for vegetarianism. There are arguments surrounding, not only animals’, but also workers’, rights to humane treatment and to certain freedoms. There are also scientific health reasons to avoid eating meat. You only have to look at the food pyramids that have been produced over the years to see that smaller and smaller portions of meat, especially red meat, have been recommended for a healthy diet in the more recent years. There are even arguments proposing that universal vegetarianism would help combat global warming by reducing the harmful effects that the meat industry has on the environment.

In Michael Pollan’s article, “An Animal’s Place,” Pollan discusses his reactions to Peter Singer’s book “Animal Liberation” and his views around the treatment of animals. Pollan took a slightly different approach than I did when faced with addressing the issue of animal treatment. While reading Singer’s book and thinking about animal rights he was sitting down to eat a steak; he addresses the irony of this, calling it “a good recipe for cognitive dissonance (if not indigestion).” Pollan questions some of the fundamental arguments against eating meat. He notes, for example, that rights for animals and rights for people must be looked at differently because we are biologically different. He also notes that predation is a naturally occurring phenomenon so killing other animals is not simply a cruel human practice. In regards to these differences in rights of humans and rights of animals I think one of the more important quotes from Pollan’s article is this one: “The moral idea is that everyone’s interests ought to receive equal consideration, regardless of what abilities they may possess.’” This quote suggests that just because a chicken does not have the capabilities that a human has, it should still be free from pain and suffering and free to participate in any lifestyle that it wants to rather than be forced to live in awful conditions.

I agree with Pollan when he later discusses the idea that the inhumane treatment of animals for consumption purposes is a fairly new occurrence, and has become a big problem because of the way large production plants are run. I like Pollan’s idea of being a “humanocarnivore,” or someone who will eat meat only if they are certain that during the animal’s life they were treated well, and that they were able to be free of pain and suffering. Food Inc. played on this idea when they compared the techniques that farmers raising animals for large companies used and the techniques that a small independent farmer used. The independent farmer allowed his animals to have a good amount of living space and to eat and live naturally unlike the other farmers did. I like this “humanocarnivore” idea because, like Pollan, I do not think that eating all meat is wrong or unnatural, but I believe the meat and poultry industries act inhumanely and do not want to support their actions.

I also do not want to support the meat and poultry industries because they not only remove animals’ freedoms to a happy and healthy life, but these industries can be extremely unhealthy for the workers as well. The article “Foul Trouble” by Christopher D. Cook discusses the dangers found in poultry production plants for the workers. The workers are at risk of disease through exposure to salmonella, bacteria, and blood. Exposure to these substances is made even more dangerous because workers often have cuts from the birds or from the tools they use. I found it to be very disturbing that in some plants the workers have to kill the birds themselves by hand. Another disturbing fact Cook brought up was that “OSHA also found that most employees in the plants it surveyed were required to buy their own protective boots, gloves, and aprons, necessities that many poultry workers- who typically earn only $6.50 an hour- simply did without.” Not only are these workers underpaid, they are not even given protective gear to attempt to avoid the many diseases and injuries that their jobs put them at risk for.

Aside from the health and happiness of the people and animals involved in the production and the eating of meat, the industry’s effect on the environment, and on the world food supply, are extremely significant. The amounts of carbon dioxide and methane that raising and processing animals for consumption requires are excessive. The article, “Fight Global Warming by Going Vegetarian,” gives a statistic that in itself proves the inefficiency of the industry: “Producing one calorie from animal protein requires 11 times as much fossil fuel input- releasing 11 times as much carbon dioxide- as does producing a calorie from plant protein.” In the article “Holy Cow: What’s Good for You Is Good for Our Environment,” Pan et al also discuss the environmental impacts of the industry, stating that: “the animal agribusiness generates more greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation alone.”  As we have been attempting to solve global warming by using public transportation, switching to more energy efficient light bulbs, or driving hybrid cars, the meat industry has been largely contributing to the issue and many people have not had any idea to what extent. The inefficiency of the industry is hurting the environment by taking up huge amounts of land, causing deforestation, and emitting large amounts of greenhouse gasses. This is undoubtedly another very good reason to avoid eating meat.

After researching the meat and poultry industries further, I know there are many more reasons to be vegetarian besides the emotional reasons for which I decided to try vegetarianism. I do not believe that people should never eat meat, or even that I should never eat meat if the animal was humanely raised and killed. I do however, believe that the meat and poultry industries as they exist today partake in many wrongdoings. They are contributing to too many moral and global injustices for me to support. I also know that these industries are not the only food industries doing harmful things; the seed industry, and specifically the Monsanto seed monopoly, for example hurts many farmers. Choosing to acknowledge this one issue by avoiding meat is at least a start. I think the industry could be reformed drastically to continue to cater to people’s eating needs but in a much more humane way. In the article, “Is Universal Vegetarianism Feasible,” Professor A. E. Taylor argues that it would be impossible for the whole world to become vegetarian simply because we do not have the technology to produce enough plant calories agriculturally to feed the entire world. While this may be true, I think that we could at least decrease the amount of animals consumed, since we have learned that meat consumption should not be a huge part of our diets, as we once believed. With a decreased need for meat these huge plants that are inhumanely raising and killing animals could be replaced with smaller farms which treat their animals as living beings and not as items on a production line as the small farmer in Food Inc. did. This might not happen anytime soon however, so being vegetarian, or at least being what Pollan would call a “humanocarnivore” seems like the best way to avoid to the meat industry for now.

Works Cited:

Cook, Christopher D. "Fowl Trouble." Harper's Magazine Aug. 1999: 78-79.

 "Fight Global Warming by Going Vegetarian." PETA People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Web. <http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/global-warming.aspx>.

 Food Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Perf. Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Richard Lobb. 2008.

 "Is Universal Vegetarianism Feasible?" JAMA The Journal of the American Medical Association. American Medical Association, 18 Jan. 2012.

<http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.2011.1912>.

 Pan Et. Al. "Holy Cow! What's Good for You Is Good for Our Planet." Www.archinternmed.com. American Medical Association, 29 Apr. 2012.

<http://blackboard.du.edu/bbcswebdav/courses/2017.201230/Holy%20Cow%20-%20Ornish.pdf>.

 Pollan, Michael. "An Animal's Place." New York Times Magazine 10 Nov. 2002.

Reflection

I have learned that eating is not a simple thing, that it involves many decisions that we might make subconsciously but that are informed by the media, the economy, science, and culture. I have learned that the way humans eat has changed over time and differs between cultures and between individuals. I think it was very interesting to look at the way people write about food and research different issues surrounding health and eating, and the food industry. The things I learned in this class are important because now I am more interested in learning about food production and reading about food related issues.

Vegetarian Manifesto, first draft

It may seem like a rash decision, but the other day I became a vegetarian. I had never really given much thought to the option of being a vegetarian at all before in my life. I had previously thought that it would be fairly easy for me to avoid meat since I have never been a big meat eater, but I never thought I would feel the need to not eat animals. I have known that there are ethical issues involved with eating meat, otherwise why would so many people decide be vegetarians? But, I have also known that almost every food that we buy from the grocery store has been produced in ethically questionable ways. In reality, unless I only eat food I grow in a garden at my house or buy from a local small-scale farmer, my diet will inevitably consist of foods that are grown or processed in ways that somehow hurt others. Since I have known this to be true, I have chosen not to think about my food choices in terms of how they were made. I have usually chosen instead to ignore the ethics of my food. I have been able to choose to eat in ignorance quite easily for my whole life. This does not mean that I have never eaten anything grown in my backyard or bought at a farmer’s market, but I have never exclusively chosen to eat these foods over the foods bought from commercial producers in a store. I have never really eaten by any kind of distinct guideline before.

I believe I have never considered vegetarianism because while I knew that the animals raised for humans to consume live in inhumane conditions I never really had to see their conditions and actually address the problem. The problem was never visible to me so I didn’t have to fully recognize it. Although this is not the right way to view any problem, to ignore something just because it isn’t visible, I still did this. The problem did become visible to me however after watching the short documentary called Food Inc in writing class. After seeing real cases of the methods involved in meat production I had to acknowledge that animal cruelty in regards to food production is an issue that is not completely ignorable. The hourish long documentary showed vivid images of still living cows hanging by their feet on a production line, chickens barely able to move because of malnutrition, and a group of pigs being crushed by a large piece of metal. While some people may have been able to push these images aside, after watching the movie I really was not interested in eating one of those animals forced to live in misery and killed in very inhumane ways. This is how I became a vegetarian two weeks ago in writing class.

Although my conversion was based largely on emotion, there are many rational arguments for vegetarianism. There are arguments surrounding not only the animal’s, but also the worker’s, rights to humane treatment and freedoms. There are also scientific health reasons to avoid eating meat. You only have to look at the food pyramids that have been produced over the years to see that smaller and smaller portions of meat, especially red meat, have been recommended for a healthy diet in the more recent years. There are even arguments proposing that universal vegetarianism would help combat global warming by reducing the harmful effects that the meat industry has on the environment.

In Michael Pollan’s article, “An Animal’s Place,” Pollan discusses his reactions to Peter Singer’s book “Animal Liberation” and his views around the treatment of animals. Pollan took a slightly different approach than I did when faced with addressing the issue of animal treatment. While reading Singer’s book and thinking about animal rights he was sitting down to eat a steak; he addresses the irony of this, calling it “a good recipe for cognitive dissonance (if not indigestion).” Pollan questions some of the fundamental arguments against eating meat. He notes, for example, that rights for animals and rights for people must be looked at differently because we are biologically different and that predation is a naturally occurring phenomenon. In regards to these differences in rights I think one of the more important quotes from the article is this: “The moral idea is that everyone’s interests ought to receive equal consideration, regardless of what abilities they may possess.’” This quote suggests that just because a chicken does not have the capabilities that a human has, it should still be free from pain and suffering and free to participate in any lifestyle that it wants to rather than be forced to live in awful conditions. I agree with Pollan when he later discusses the idea that the inhumane treatment of animals for consumption purposes is a fairly new occurrence, and has become a big problem because of the way production plants are run. I like Pollan’s idea of being a “humanocarnivore” because I do not think that eating all meat is wrong or unnatural, but I believe the meat and poultry industries act inhumanely and do not want to support their actions.

I also do not want to support the meat and poultry industries because they not only remove animals’ freedoms to a happy and healthy life, but these industries can be extremely unhealthy for the workers as well. The article “Foul Trouble” by Christopher D. Cook discusses the dangers found in poultry production plants for the workers. The workers are at risk of disease through exposure to salmonella, bacteria, and blood, cuts from the birds or the tools they use. I found it to be very disturbing that in some plants the workers have to kill the birds themselves by hand. Another disturbing fact Cook brought up was that “OSHA also found that most employees in the plants it surveyed were required to buy their own protective boots, gloves, and aprons, necessities that many poultry workers- who typically earn only $6.50 an hour- simply did without.” Not only are these workers underpaid, they are not even given protective gear to attempt to avoid the many diseases and injuries that their jobs put them at risk for.

Aside from the health and happiness of the people and animals involved in the production and the eating of meat, the industry’s effect on the environment, and on the world food supply, are extremely significant. The amounts of carbon dioxide and methane that raising and processing animals requires are excessive. The article, “Fight Global Warming by Going Vegetarian,” gives a statistic that in itself proves the inefficiency of the industry: “Producing one calorie from animal protein requires 11 times as much fossil fuel input- releasing 11 times as much carbon dioxide- as does producing a calorie from plant protein.” Pan et al also discuss the environmental impact of the industry stating that “the animal agribusiness generates more greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation alone.”  As we have been attempting to solve global warming by using public transportation, switching to more energy efficient light bulbs or buying hybrid cars, the meat industry has been contributing to the issue and many people have not had any idea to what extent. The inefficiency of the industry is hurting the environment by taking up huge amounts of land, causing deforestation, and emitting large amounts of greenhouse gasses and this seems to me like another very good reason to avoid eating meat.

After researching the issue further, I know there are many more reasons behind being vegetarian besides the emotional reasons for which I decided to try vegetarianism. I do not believe that people should never eat meat, or even that I should never eat meat if it was humanely raised and killed, but that the meat and poultry industries as they exist today are wrong. They are contributing to too many moral and global injustices for me to support. I also know that these industries are not the only ones doing harmful things, the seed industry for example hurts many farmers, but choosing to acknowledge this one issue is at least a start. I think the industry could be reformed drastically to continue to cater to people’s eating needs but in a much more humane way. In the article, “Is Universal Vegetarianism Feasable,” Professor A. E. Taylor argues that it would be impossible for the whole world to become vegetarian simply because we do not have the technology to produce enough plant calories agriculturally to feed the entire world. While this may be true, I think that we could at least decrease the amount of animals consumed since we have learned that meat consumption should not be a huge part of our diets. With a decreased need for meat these huge plants that are inhumanely raising and killing animals could be replaced with smaller farms which treat their animals as living beings and not as items on a production line. This might not happen anytime soon however, so being vegetarian, or at least what Pollan would call a “humanocarnivore” seems like the best way to avoid being a part of the damaging meat industry. 

What to eat

The essays “Unhappy Meals” and “Angels and Vegetables” both highlight the conflicts that Americans face today when trying to decide what and how to eat. They both discuss how American culture has stressed different ways of eating and being healthy over time as scientific research and diet fads have caused popular belief to change. Rather than deciding what to eat based on historic cultural norms like the French or the Italian, Americans try to decide based on current and frequently changing popular ideas about what they should eat.

In the essay “Unhappy Meals” Pollan talks about many of the things that American food culture has focused on throughout the years. He first talks about how in the 1980’s food culture shifted to a larger focus on the nutrient content in what people are eating, not just on what foods people are eating. He calls this nutritionism and points to several problems to this approach to food such as the fact that highly processed and well advertised foods often may appeal to the consumer as being healthier than a simple fruit or vegetable. He talks about the focus on a low-fat diet, and on the consequences of this diet, that people simply eat more because they think they can since their foods are low in fat.

Dupuis’ essay goes into the history and social aspects of food culture more than into the scientific aspects that Pollan highlights. He discusses how in the past people have judged what and how to eat on their religion, on figures of authority, on income levels, and also on popular culture. Like Pollan, Dupuis notes that because food and health is so publicized, the way Americans decide what to eat is largely based on conscience rather than tradition. Dupuis writes that “ Rather than making political choices, we pretend, like the vegetarian abolitionists, that our dietary choices will solve our personal and national problems” I think this is an interesting observation which describes how the question of “what to eat” is not just based on what one wants to eat, but on history, popular culture, science, and the economy among other things.  

comments

I think it was interesting how so many people wrote about skipping breakfast and especially about eating cereal as an easy fix to skipping breakfast. I thought it was funny how cereal was described as RTE (ready to eat) cereals in some of the studies, this does not really seem like something that has to be abbreviated to me.

Breakfast

Looking our class' food logs, I noticed that many people skipped breakfast both during the week and on the weekend. I am sure most of us have heard a million times that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and believe that science has backed this statement up however we continue skipping this important meal. Even though a few people seemed to have a schedule in which they did eat breakfast everyday, even in such a small sample size, the habit of skipping breakfast was still noticeable.  Although people know this trend is not healthy, it is interesting to look at why people continue to avoid eating breakfast.

I believe the most obvious reason that people skip breakfast is because their day begins too early in the morning; either their work or school day begins too early for them eat before they become busy. I know that in high school, when school would start as early as 8am or earlier for sports, I physically could not eat before heading to school because it made me feel sick. Like I did, some people choose to skip breakfast because their commitments begin at an early hour before they have any appetite for food. Now, in college, I usually do not have class this early in the morning and do have an appetite before class, but sleeping in or finishing homework before class is often more important than eating for me. I could easily sleep right up until the last minute before class starts unless I set an alarm and plan my morning in order to leave time to get food before class. I think this is the case for many people, and explains why a few people did not list any breakfast foods on their food logs.

Another reason people may skip breakfast is in an attempt to lose weight. Breakfast may seem like an easy meal to skip because you are less hungry in the morning and may seem like a good idea for some people. Research often suggests however, that eating breakfast leads to receiving healthier nutritional value in what one eats in a day and can also lead to a healthier weight and BMI. In a study done on Korean adults it was shown that “breakfast eaters” in general had a higher energy intake, but that their diets included less fats and unhealthy foods than the diets of people who rarely ate breakfast or did not eat breakfast at all. The article noted that “The ‘Rare breakfast eater’ group had an inadequate intake of micronutrients” which supported the idea that skipping breakfast would have negative effects on diet quality. Although people may skip breakfast with the idea that it is an effective way to diet, I think this study gives a good example of how this idea can backfire and actually have adverse effects on health.

Whether skipping breakfast because one values sleep more than eating or because they think it will help them lose weight, this unhealthy practice remains a trend despite scientific evidence that it is not good for the body. I don’t find it is very surprising that people do this even though they know it is not healthy. People do many things they know are not healthy when they seem to be an easier or more exciting alternative to the healthy action and skipping breakfast is just one example.

MIn, Chanyang, Hwayoung Noh, Yun-Sook Kang, Hea Jin Sim, Hyun Wook, Won O. Song, Jihyun Yoon, Young-Hee Park, and Hyojee Joung. "Skipping Breakfast Is Associated with Diet Quality and Metabolic Syndrome Risk Factors of Adults." Nutrition Research and Practice (2011). Print.

observations on food logs

It seems like a lot of people went out to eat, maybe this was because it was the weekend and people were getting off campus to eat more often than during the week. It was also interesting to see foods that people eat like nutrigrain bars or yogurts in addition to the food you can get in the dining halls.

food log

sunday
yogurt, pineapple, eggs, orange, coffee, carrots, peanut butter, salad, m&ms

saturday
apple, hummus, pretzels, orange, salad, rice, cereal, pepsi

friday
kombucha, cake, carrots, greenbeans, quesadilla, tea

Tortillas

The tortilla is a food staple, which, like many other foods, has been produced and eaten differently and by different people over time. The tortilla was traditionally made and eaten in Mexico and has since been Americanized and expanded upon from its original form. There is no longer just the handmade corn tortilla; people now enjoy flour and wheat tortillas, flavored tortillas, even low fat or gluten tortillas.

Being from Maine, Mexican food has never been a large part of my diet, a chain restaurant called Margaritas being one of the only places nearby to get Mexican food. This means that for me, tortillas are usually eaten not in enchilada, burrito, or any Mexican influenced form, but in place of bread for a sandwich. When used in this way, the tortilla is often just called a wrap, becoming something so different from the traditional Mexican tortilla that it has been given a new name. The tortilla, or wrap, has even evolved to fit America’s health conscious population with spinach, wheat, tomato, and gluten free wraps which hold together a sandwich without bread. As Pollan notes in “Our National Eating Disorder,” American culture has created a kind of “carbophobia” in which things like bread or pasta are seen as bad for one’s health. Pollan observes that “we’ve learned to choose our foods by the numbers (calories, carbs, fats, R.D.A.’s, price, whatever), relying more heavily on our reading and computational skills than upon our senses” (Pollan 4). Tortillas and wraps provide a better choice (over bread) for people prescribing to this kind of computational way of eating that Pollan discusses because they usually have less calories that bread in a sandwich would.   

Although I usually eat tortillas in this very Americanized way, in place of bread on a sandwich, there is one restaurant I go to at home that does not get it’s tortillas delivered premade by some company. Tu Casa is an authentic El Salvadorean restaurant and the only place at I know of at home where you can order horchata or plantains in Spanish and feel like you are part of a different culture. It is also the only place I know of where you can watch your tortillas being made to order right in the kitchen. Tu Casa’s tortillas are not corn based, but flour based. After ordering, you can watch the cooks mix the dough in a large bowl, separate the large blob into smaller round sections and then cook the flattened dough in a pan, working so efficiently that they could probably make twenty tortillas in five minutes if there were enough pans for that. The tortillas come out hot on the plate and taste better than any tortilla you could ever get at a Chipotle or Illegal Pete’s.

Clearly, this Mexican tradition has been influential in the food traditions of America and other countries as well. It is interesting to look at how America has in turn influenced the history of this food staple in Mexico. As noted in “Transnational Tortillas,” “the production of corn, corn-flour, and tortillas (is) critical to the Mexican economy.” Traditionally, dried corn would be cooked with water and limestone into a mixture called nixtamal. The nixtamal would then be ground into masa, or tortilla dough, and then cooked on a griddle. Because tortillas are such an important part of Mexican life, the Mexican government, in times of economic struggle, would create subsidies so that corn farmers received enough money and buyers were able to get tortillas at a good price. The Compañia Nacional de Substencias Populares (CONASUPO) was the agency in charge of creating these subsidies, however, when neoliberalism gained popularity around the 1990’s things started to change.

Neoliberal policies were enforced by American organizations such as the World Bank and the IMF and rather than help the economy, they created many problems. For example, CONASUPO lost control over the food industry and control over pricing and subsidizing. Many industries were privatized, and the corn and tortilla industry suffered because of new policies. Now, “25% of corn consumed in Mexico comes directly from the U.S. market” because subsidies on Mexican corn is no longer allowed and imported corn is cheaper. Price controls on tortillas themselves were also eliminated so they have become more expensive. Because of these neoliberal policies that America imposed upon Mexico, both the corn farmers and tortilla consumers have run into more challenges then they did when CONASUPO controlled the food industry.

From their roots in South America, to their expansion and diversification in American, tortillas are one of the most useful food staples out there. Tortillas have an interesting history and are sure to be around for a long time.

Works cited:

 Bank, Muñoz Carolina. Transnational Tortillas: Race, Gender, and Shop-floor Politics in Mexico and the United States. Ithaca: ILR, 2008. Print.

Pollan, Michael. "Our National Eating Disorder." (2004). Print.

food industry

All three articles discuss current issues surrounding the food industry, highlighting both the immoral treatment of the animals bred for consumption and of the workers in the food industry. I thought the arguments against “specieism” in the article “In an Animal’s Place” were really interesting and raised some issues that I had never really thought about. For example Pollan’s observation that “The moral idea is that everyone’s interests ought to receive equal consideration, regardless of ‘what abilities they may possess’” (Pollan 2) for example, seems like something you might only apply to people, but can be extended to animals as well. Just because a chicken does not have the capabilities that a human has, it should still be free from pain and suffering and free to participate in any lifestyle that it wants to rather than be forced to live in awful conditions.

The infographic about the chicken industry focused more on how the plants where chickens a held and processed for sale are dangerous for the workers. The workers are at risk of disease through exposure to salmonella, bacteria, and blood, cuts from the birds or tools. One of the most disturbing things in this article to me was that in some plants the workers have to kill the birds themselves. The introduction to “On The Tomato Trail” also discusses how today’s food industry condones inhumane worker conditions. The article talks about how growers are exposed to all the chemicals that are now used in agriculture to create large about of artificially perfect fruits and vegetables. The article also discusses how there is a kind of slavery in the industry where workers are denied rights and even sold to different bosses. 

American Eating Disorder

Pollan suggests that the American eating disorder is related to the fact that we base our food choices on current cultural fads rather than on what our bodies actually want. This approach to eating has caused a paradox, because as we give so much importance to eating healthily that often after trying so hard to eat in a certain manner we feel deprived and will make up by eating a lot of bad foods just once and a while. Our nation becomes obsessed with certain healthy ways of eating, but is also one of the least healthy nations. Pollan gives examples of American “carbophobia,” and of other food fads and points out how “a scientific study, a new government guideline, a lone crackpot with a medical degree can alter this nation’s diet overnight.” He argues that this predicament is a product of the “omnivore’s” dilemma. We have so many options and in our culture, we turn to popular culture to help us make decisions. When there are products processed for literally every diet, many Americans base their food choices on what certain credible sources tell them to be eating rather than choosing on what their stomach wants.

I thought it was interesting when Pollan contrasted this American way of eating with the way French people eat. It is definitely interesting that the French eat more of what they want, and have a better relationship with food than Americans and are also a healthier population. I think the French know how to not deprive themselves and because of this they don’t overeat at times or feel guilty about how they eat.  

The way we eat today final draft

Shifting Food Cultures

Food culture consists of the kinds of foods people eat, when they eat, where they eat, how they get or prepare their food, and why they eat it. This culture can change when other parts of a society change and different manners of eating better fit new lifestyles. It is true that the term “food culture” is a very general term, which that may not apply to everyone, but can be seen as an overall food trend. For example, the food culture in the 60s could be demonstrated by a family who ate home-cooked meals at set times and set places everyday because this was what everyone did and this was simply how eating was done. Today, some families may still have a home-cooked dinner together every night at 6 o’clock as used to be the norm, however in general this is no longer common. It is now more common to see people eating more sporadically, eating on the go, and eating in a more individualistic manner. For some, the increasingly fast paced lifestyle that encourages this shift in eating habits has led to a reliance on premade, grocery store or drive-through items to survive. Others, those that might be called “foodies”, exhibit a range of food consumption characteristics that have only recently been observed as a part of American culture.

In her article titled “Eating at the Edge,” Jamie Horwitz discusses the need for food convenience that has arisen and been supported by food industries. Her article opens with a quote from Charles Simic, “American fast food has the advantage of being portable. It’s hard to eat spaghetti or goulash in bed or in a car; it’s much easier with a bag of chips or a can of peanuts.” This quote exemplifies the importance of fast and easy to eat food in a fast-paced society. If meals were still commonly prepared and eaten at preset times and locations it would not be important to have single serving foods available to eat alone when time is available. This however, is not the case for many people today. Horwitz gives examples of astronauts or travelers as people who are not able to plan their time around meals, but working people, those going to school and those with many other commitments are in this circumstance as well. This is why many people have diets consisting of convenient, individually prepared meals eaten on the go even if this is not their preferred eating style.

As a freshman in college, I can attest to the importance of premade and readily available food. With only a short break between classes, there is usually not time for a meal in the dining hall spent eating with friends. More often than not lunch means grabbing something premade at a coffee shop near classes and eating it either in class, at work, or while catching up on homework. This is food that I would not choose to eat if there were other options and time to get something else, but it is the most convenient when hungry and crunched for time. Many people in college also turn to things like “Soup at Hand” or ramen noodles to eat late at night when cafeterias are closed or because they have gotten tired of eating the same bland foods in the cafeteria day after day. Although college students are not exactly like astronauts, struggling to eat their freeze-dried meals while floating through the air, we have schedule and availability constraints too and ramen is sometimes the easiest thing to eat.

For some people however, the change in food culture has inspired the individual not to turn to ramen noodles, but to make their eating personally meaningful and a reflection of their persona. Whereas many people find “Soup at Hand products that capitalize on consumer desire for an easily heated, well-contained, single serving that requires no preparation, no serving dishes or cleanup” (Horwitz 44) to be perfect for their needs, some people find things these products to conventional for their diets. People considered to be “foodies” have a refined and “enthusiastic interest in the preparation and consumption of good food” according to an online dictionary. Things like cup noodles do not satisfy their individualistic food needs and are probably not included in their ideas about what foods are good to be eating.

According to Anna Brones, there is more than one type of foodie; she claims food enthusiasts might fall under one of ten different categories. Some of these categories seem quite obscure, while some carry a less than favorable connotation. Brones claims that these different categories of eaters include the “I made it myself!” the “organivore,” the “Europhile,” the “one upper,” the “snob,” the “anti snob,” the “avoider,” the “blogging food pornographer,” the “bacon lover,” and the “DIYer.”

The “bacon lover” was the most unexpected of the categories, described as someone who didn’t eat any meat besides bacon, which was eaten with much enthusiasm. I had never previously heard of this particular category, but those such as the “avoider” or the “organivore” definitely describe a noticeable population of eaters. The phrases “Gluten free” or “vegan” can be seen after items listed on many restaurants’ menus or on products found in the grocery store catering to those Brones has termed “avoiders” who stay clear of certain food groups religiously and might not eat soy, or be strictly vegan or vegetarian. Local farmers markets can be seen full of avid “organivore” eaters stocking up on the organic and locally grown vegetables for their consumption. It can definitely be noted that there is no “Starbucks lover” or “canned soup enthusiast,” category, rather the above types all aim to be nonconventional in their manner of fulfilling the human need to eat.

While out to eat at a Thai food restaurant recently with my dad, I noticed a bit of this foodie culture going on. I did not see any “bacon lovers” requesting bacon on their pad thai, but I did observe some other things that reminded me of what Brones writes about in her article.

As I read the menu I saw that they included “gf” and “v” after the names of many of their dishes, for the “gluten free” and “vegan” options. I also read “we buy local and natural when possible and prudent.” My dad, apparently not aware of the new slang that goes along with change in food culture asked what “gf” and “v” stood for, sounding quite unimpressed when I told him what these abbreviations meant. A foodie under the category of “avoiders” however, would find these to be extremely important food groups and would have probably supported the restaurant for being inclusive to their needs.

Then, as I took out my phone to take a picture of a plate of food my dad suggested that I should explain to the waiter why I was taking a picture.  It never crossed my mind that a waiter, or anyone else, might think this was weird to do. My friends always put pictures of especially good-looking dishes on Instagram or Facebook for others to view. In the article “Foodie-ism, as youth culture,” the writer goes to dinner with a few young food enthusiasts and notices that they take “quick photos of each dish as it is placed on the table,” and how “Dish snapshots and social-network check-ins are a given.” The article notes how this growing attention to food has become a large part in the culture of younger generations, and the author might have viewed his eating companion as of Brones’ “blogging food pornographers.” These people share their meals electronically through social networks, a contrast to past times when food was simply shared through meals in the company of others.

Right as we were finishing our meal, I watched a waitress call one of the cooks over holding a small plate of pad Thai in her hand. Across the bar I saw a young women talking quietly and animatedly with her date. The waitress stood next to me and explained to the cook that the woman across the bar had claimed that “food was her thing,” and that as a “foodie” she thought that the pad Thai was badly spiced. This woman apparently was not convinced that just saying her food was too spicy was good enough, but had to insist that her opinion on the food, “as a foodie,” was better than the restaurant’s. I believe this woman would have fallen under Brones’ “snob” category.

Through this recent dining experience, and through experiences of eating in college I have gotten a feel for the current culture of food. Some eat the most convenient foods for survival and some eat a self-chosen diet that holds up to their food standards. These choices can be made due to budget, personal choice, or to support an image that one wants to make for themselves. My dad did not know what “gf” and “v” stood for because these terms were not always so important and visible, but now for certain people these terms are part of who they are as an individual. Food industries have evolved for the new food enthusiasts with all their different obsessions and also for those of us who need a quick self-serving sized meal on the go. The way we eat today, whether for convenience or preference, is more based on individual needs and wants than it used to be.

Sources:

Brones, Anna. "Foodie Underground: The 10 Types of Foodies (and What to Do with Them)." EcoSalon. 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://ecosalon.com/foodie-underground-the-10-types-of-foodies-and-what-to-do-with-them/>.

 Horwitz, Jamie. "Eating at the Edge." Gastronomica 9.3 (2009): 42-47. Print.

 Idov, Michael. "New York Magazine." NYMag.com. 25 Mar. 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/foodies-2012-4/>.

EE1

Shifting Food Cultures

Food culture consists of the kinds of foods people eat, when they eat, where they eat, how they get or prepare their food, and why they eat it. This culture can change when other parts of a society change and different manners of eating better fit new lifestyles. It is true that the term “food culture” is a very general term, which that may not apply to everyone, but can be seen as an overall food trend. For example, the food culture in the 60s could be demonstrated by a family who ate home-cooked meals at set times and set places everyday because this was what everyone did and this was simply how eating was done. Today, some families may still have a home-cooked dinner together every night at 6 o’clock as used to be the norm, however in general this is no longer common. It is now more common to see people eating more sporadically, eating on the go, and eating in a more individualistic manner. For some, the increasingly fast paced lifestyle that encourages this shift in eating habits has led to a reliance on premade, grocery store or drive-through items to survive. Others, those that might be called “foodies”, exhibit a range of food consumption characteristics that have only recently been observed as a part of American culture.

In her article titled “Eating at the Edge,” Jamie Horwitz discusses the need for food convenience that has arisen and been supported by food industries. Her article opens with a quote from Charles Simic, “American fast food has the advantage of being portable. It’s hard to eat spaghetti or goulash in bed or in a car; it’s much easier with a bag of chips or a can of peanuts.” This quote exemplifies the importance of fast and easy to eat food in a fast-paced society. If meals were still commonly prepared and eaten at preset times and destinations it would not be important to have single serving foods available to eat alone when time is available. This however, is not the case for many people today. Horwitz gives examples of astronauts or travelers as people who are not able to plan their time around meals, but working people, those going to school and those with many other commitments are in this circumstance as well. This is why many people have diets consisting of convenient, individually prepared meals eaten on the go even if this is not their preferred eating style.

As a freshman in college, I can attest to the importance of premade and readily available food. With only a short break between classes, there is usually not time for a meal in the dining hall spent eating with friends. More often than not lunch means grabbing something premade at a coffee shop near classes and eating it either in class, at work, or while catching up on homework. This is food that I would not choose to eat if there were other options and time to get something else, but it is the most convenient when you are hungry and crunched for time. Many people in college also turn to things like “Soup at Hand” or ramen noodles to eat late at night when cafeterias are closed or because they have gotten tired of eating the same bland foods in the cafeteria day after day. Although college students are not exactly like astronauts struggling to eat their freeze-dried meals while floating through the air, we have schedule and availability constraints too and ramen is sometimes the easiest thing.

For some people however, the change in food culture to focusing on the individual has inspired them not to turn to ramen noodles, but to make their eating personally meaningful. Whereas many people find  “Soup at Hand products that capitalize on consumer desire for an easily heated, well-contained, single serving that requires no preparation, no serving dishes or cleanup” (Horwitz 44) to be perfect for their needs, some people find things these products to conventional for their diets. People considered to be “foodies” have refined and “enthusiastic interest in the preparation and consumption of good food” according to an online dictionary. Things like cup noodles do not satisfy their individualistic food needs and are probably not included in their ideas about what foods are good to be eating.

According to Anna Brones, there is more than one type of foodie; she claims food enthusiasts might fall under one of ten different categories. Some of these categories seem quite obscure while some with carry a less than favorable connotation. Brones claims that these different categories of eaters include the “I made it myself!” the “organivore,” the “Europhile,” the “one upper,” the “snob,” the “anti snob,” the “avoider,” the “blogging food pornographer,” the “bacon lover,” and the “DIYer.” The “bacon lover” was the most unexpected of the categories, described as someone who didn’t eat any meat besides bacon, which was eaten with much enthusiasm. I had never previously heard of this particular category, but those such as the “avoider” or the “organivore” definitely describe a noticeable population of eaters. “Gluten free” or “vegan” can be seen after items listed on many restaurant’s menus or on products found in the grocery store catering to those avoiders who don’t eat soy, are vegan or vegetarian. Local farmers markets can be seen full of avid “organivore” eater stocking up on their organic and locally grown vegetables for their consumption. It can definitely be noted that there is no “Starbucks lover” or “canned soup enthusiast,” category, rather the above types all aim to be nonconventional in their manner of fulfilling the human need to eat.

While out to eat at a Thai food restaurant recently with my dad, I noticed a bit of this foodie culture going on. I did not see any bacon lovers, but I did notice some snobbery, made an observation about the “blogging food pornographer” and saw some appeals to “the avoider” and the “organivore” made by the restaurant itself.

As I read the menu I saw that they included “gf” and “v” after the names of many of their dishes, for the “gluten free” and “vegan” options. I also read “we buy local and natural when possible and prudent.” My dad, apparently not aware of the new slang that goes along with change in food culture asked what “gf” and “v” stood for, sounding quite unimpressed when I told him what these abbreviations meant. A foodie under the category of “avoiders” however, find these to be extremely important food groups and would have probably supported the restaurant for being inclusive to their needs.

Then, as I took out my phone to take a picture of a plate of food my dad suggested that I should explain to the waiter that I was just taking a picture for class because they would probably think it was a strange thing to do.  It never crossed my mind that anyone might think this was weird to do. My friends always put pictures of especially good-looking dishes on Instagram or Facebook for others to view. In the article “Foodie-ism, as youth culture,” the writer goes out to eat with a few young food enthusiasts and notices that they take “quick photos of each dish as it is placed on the table,” and how “Dish snapshots and social-network check-ins are a given.” The article notes how this growing attention to food has become a large part in the culture of younger generations, and the author might have explained his eating companion as of Brones’ “blogging food pornographers.”

Lastly, I witnessed a food “snob” in action. I watched a waitress call one of the cooks over holding a small plate of pad Thai in her hand. Across the bar I saw a young women talking quietly and animatedly with her date. The waitress stood next to me and explained to the cook that the woman across the bar had claimed that “food was her thing,” and that as a “foodie” she thought that the pad Thai was badly spiced. This woman apparently was not convinced that just saying her food was too spicy was good enough, but had to insist that her opinion on food, “as a foodie” was better than the restaurant. I am pretty sure that she was a great example of someone belonging to the “snob” category.

Through this recent dining experience, and through experiences of eating in college I have gotten a feel for the current culture of food. Some eat the most convenient foods for survival and some eat a self-chosen diet that holds up to their food standards. My dad did not know what “gf” and “v” stood for because these terms were not always so important and visible. Food industries have evolved for the new food enthusiasts with all their different obsessions and for those of us who need a quick self-serving sized meal on the go. The way we eat today, whether for convenience or preference, is more based on individual needs and wants than it used to be

Sources:

Brones, Anna. "Foodie Underground: The 10 Types of Foodies (and What to Do with Them)." EcoSalon. 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://ecosalon.com/foodie-underground-the-10-types-of-foodies-and-what-to-do-with-them/>.

 Horwitz, Jamie. "Eating at the Edge." Gastronomica 9.3 (2009): 42-47. Print.

 Idov, Michael. "New York Magazine." NYMag.com. 25 Mar. 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/foodies-2012-4/>.

Horwitz

Horwitz argues that the way in which people eat their food has changed because the way people experience time has changed. She talks about the shift from eating meals at set times in the company of others to eating meals and snacks alone and on the go. The eating schedules of people on long flights gives a good example of how people cannot always plan their time around meals (Horwitz 46). Horwitz’s beliefs that this inability and declining importance of creating schedules around meals is not only something that people on flights experience, but is a growing part of American culture. She also talks about how food-packaging designs have changed to fit this new lifestyle and how many restaurants stay open late to accommodate people’s food needs. Horwitz gives the example of Cambell's Soup at Hand as a product that has capitalized on the new culture of eating, "None leave behind the pot, stove, bowl, spoon, or table more fully than Campbell's Soup at Hand." (Horwitz 42)

a surface area enhanced for microwave radiation and sized to fit a car’s cup holder before being discarded

I think Horwitz’s observations are true, and something I have experienced at college and at home. During the week when I have a busy schedule with classes, working, and doing homework it is usually not easy to find time to meet up with friends and eat a meal. I usually end up grabbing some packaged food from a coffee place to eat while I do homework on a break between classes rather than eating with others. At home I noticed the family dinners that were so common when I was a kid decreased to just a few times a week as I got older. When I got a car and started working or going to friends’ houses more often after school I was rarely at home when the rest of the family was having dinner. Even if I was home, often one of my parents wasn’t home from a meeting or my sister was at practice so I would just make my own food and eat while I did homework or watched tv. With the fast paced and work focused culture I think that it has become more difficult to have a set eating schedule and this means on the go meals are much more common.  

Phat Thai

On Sunday night, at around 8:00 pm I was driving around Cherry Creek looking for an interesting place to get dinner. As I passed by Phat Thai, I found the brightly colored sign and openness of the restaurant appealing, and the use of “Phat” in the name intrigued me also. From the outside, the restaurant looked like a modern, and possibly targeted for higher-class place, but the “Phat” kind of threw me off. To me, the word seemed humorous, like something that might be in the name of a small, quirky place, but not in the name of a classy and modern establishment. After driving by a few other restaurants, some Italian places, California Pizza Kitchen, and another Thai place, it was decided that Phat Thai had the most potential.

As I entered the restaurant through the large glass doors I first noticed the modern, but also laidback feel created by the décor and the background noise. The two large TVs hanging on the walls, the large bar in the center of the first floor, and the contemporary music just audible over the sound of conversations led me to believe that this restaurant was not the sort of classy and uptight place I imagined it might have been before coming inside.  The walls were painted an inviting orange-yellow color, which looked good with the dark wooden tables and chairs. Metal hanging lights and the metal of the bar added the modern touch, but a few bamboo plants and oriental lights made the restaurant seem warm and inviting. Although it did not seem crowded at all, the hostess led us to the large, circular bar to wait for a table to open up. I noticed that the diners seemed to be mostly young adults relaxing and engaging in conversation while enjoying their meals; there were no families or older people eating. This could have been because it was late on a Sunday night, but I think this is the kind of crowd that Phat Thai would attract no matter which day of the week or what time of night.  

As I read the menu I saw that they included “gf” and “v” after the names of many of their dishes, for the “gluten free” and “vegan” options. I also read “we buy local and natural when possible and prudent.” I really didn’t think these things to be unusual; the appeal to healthy, natural, and local foods has become the norm in popular culture. My dad however, was not aware of this change in food culture and the language that went along with it, and asked what “gf” and “v” stood for. He did not seem all that impressed when I told him what these abbreviations meant, but for many people seeing “gf” and “v” on a menu could be quite a selling point. These terms are an important part of the new “foodie” culture. As I took out my phone to take a picture of a plate of food my dad suggested that I should explain to the waiter that I was just taking a picture for class because they would probably think it was weird for me to do this.  It never crossed my mind that this might be a strange thing to do, my friends always put pictures of especially good-looking dishes on Instagram or Facebook for others to view when they go out to eat. In the article “Foodie-ism, as youth culture,” the writer goes out to eat with a few young food enthusiasts and notices that they take “quick photos of each dish as it is placed on the table,” and how “Dish snapshots and social-network check-ins are a given.” The article notes how this growing attention to food has become a large part in the culture of younger generations and it was interesting to see how the crowd of young adults at Phat Thai might have been, and were, a part of this “foodie” culture.

Phat Thai might have to try a little harder to gain the approval of food experts, however. I watched a waitress call one of the cooks over. She was holding a small plate of pad thai in her hand, and looked back at a young women across the bar who was talking quietly and animatedly with her date. The waitress and cook stood next to me and I overheard the waitress explain that the woman had claimed that “food was her thing,” and as a “foodie” she thought that the pad thai was badly spiced. The cook rolled his eyes and said that it tasted normal to him and the waitress laughed looking somewhat annoyed, but talked nicely with the woman and offered to do whatever was needed so that she would be content with her meal.

Appeals to healthy, natural, and world conscious food may attract foodies like this woman to Phat Thai, but the quality of the food is clearly also a very important part of the experience, which they might still have to work on. Although Phat Thai’s “jasmine rice sales are donated to organizations that provide flood relief and other forms of assistance to those in need of Thailand and SE Asia,” this foodie would probably not be uploading a picture of her pad thai to Instagram.

article

http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/foodies-2012-4/

This article, called Foodie-ism as Youth Culture, talks about how younger generations are becoming more interested in the kinds of food they are eating. Being a "foodie" used to be seen as something that an old person or a snob would be, but this article claims that younger generations now see foodie culture as cool.

Cate and O'Donnell

In both of the readings, food exists as a main part of a subculture: the culture of Shenzhen and of the San Francisco county jail. The food people eat has a connection to their history and to their current situations, which can be observed in each article. The article by Cate talks about how people have created “spread” in Jail, a kind of creative cooking that the inmates do which has its own economic and racial divides even in such a small community. O’Donnell’s article talks more about how the differences in food across time in Shenzheng reflects how the culture in Shenzheng and across China is changing.

In “Breaking Bread with a Spread” in San Francisco County Jail, inmates tell about the food creations they have come up while serving time. They create “spreads” to keep themselves more satisfied than they are while eating only the standard food they receive. They also use spread as a creative outlet and as a way to eat something that might remind them of home. These “spreads” have a ramen noodle base and then they add things like cheetos, peanut butter, meat, and vegetables to make a unique meal. Some inmates would make a spread like stir-fry and others like a jambalaya. I thought it was interesting how “spreading” brought people together but how it was also racially divided. One of the inmates said, “’In here the whites spread with the whites and the blacks spread with the blacks.’” It was also interesting how there were economic divides, if you were an inmate with more money to spend it would be easier for you to make a spread, and how inmates might share a spread with an inmate of higher rank to gain their approval.

O’Donnell’s article was more focused on the changing culture in China, from socialist to capitalist, and how this shift could be seen and talked about metaphorically through food. I thought it was interesting when she wrote that “northern beef eaters symbolize state socialism and southern seafood eaters represent the emergent capitalism of China’s post-Mao market economy.” The beef eaters, or ranchers, were seen as more honest whereas the fish eaters were seen as sneaky and sly with more rewards than the beef eaters. The difference between the food traditions of “old-Shenzheners” and the “new-Senzheners” was also interesting to read about.

Coke advertisement comparison

Bryce's Blog


Bryce also wrote about Coca Cola advertisements and noticed that "These advertisements are trying to show that coke is a unique drink that has the ability to change one’s day in the happiest of ways." He wrote about the "coke side of life" slogan that I also wrote about and how their campaign does not put other companies down but attempts to make a positive association with Coke products. This supports what I found when I looked at two Coke advertisements, that they portray Coke products as something that goes along with fun activities and being on the "coke side of life" is a happy place to be. 

Open happiness

Regular Coke commercial:

Diet Coke commercial:

Comparing two commercials, one for regular Coke and one for diet Coke, it is obvious that Coca Cola is trying to associate their products with happiness and fun. There were only slight shifts in audience appeals between the two commercials, both seeming to target young adults rather than children or older adults. Both commercials suggest that there is a carefree way of life you experience when drinking Coke. The “coke side of life” campaign consists of upbeat music, and happy people enjoying themselves and their drinks. 

            The first commercial, for regular Coke, opens with a man wheeling some kind of instrument by the ocean and up a hill. The sky is covered in a yellow haze and the scene is reminiscent of a warm and sunny summer afternoon. The man is wearing a top hat and a long black jacket and as he reaches the top of the hill he begins to set up his instrument. He presses buttons and switches, which reveal colorful knobs and small, furry, smiling creatures. The musician opens a cooler and pulls out a Coke, attaching it to the instrument where the liquid flows through bending tubes until several taps are filled with Coke. As the man presses the keys of the instruments, the taps spray the liquid into the mouths of the little creatures and they let out musical notes creating a song as squirts of Coke enter their mouths. People start gathering around the musician and his interesting instrument and they begin to dance and drink Cokes. The scene fades out and the commercial ends with an image of a red Coca Cola bottle and the words “open happiness”.

            The summery imagery and cheerful music makes an association with drinking Coke and having a good time while the surreal parts of the commercial make it memorable and light. The use of the small furry creatures playing music and singing for their Coke creates a child-like carefree feeling to the scene and also adds an element of humor. Although there is a child-like quality to the surreal elements of the commercial, it appeals to a young adult audience rather than to children. It is a reminder that there is still time to do carefree things and have a good time, and that drinking a Coke should be involved.

The second commercial, the commercial for diet coke, also focuses on happiness and enjoying oneself. The scene begins with a girl opening a diet Coke with a huge smile on her face. She takes a sip and gets up to rollerblade with her friends, all of them seem to be having a great time and are surrounded by glowing bubbles that are flowing from the Coke can. They are in a parking lot near a food stand by the beach and it looks as though it is warm out and the sun is just starting to set. Like the commercial for regular Coke, this one creates the feeling of a late, carefree, summer afternoon.  The commercial actually does not emphasize the fact that the product is a diet drink until the end of the commercial, where it leaves the rollerblading scene and shows a diet coke with bubbles coming out of it and the words “light it up” appear next to the drink.

This commercial uses the same idea as the first, appealing to young adults who want to have a good time. The cheerful music and the apparent happiness of the people drinking Coke support the idea that there is a carefree “Coke side of life”. The diet commercial did seem more directed towards women, but not as obviously as many other diet soda commercials are.  The commercial used a woman as the main actor and an activity, cheerfully rollerblading with friends, which would appeal more to girls whereas the concert in the regular Coke commercial was not directed towards either gender. The diet commercial also used the words “light it up” to suggest that you can both lighten your weight and add “light” or fun to your life at the same time if you drink diet Coke.

The idea that Coca Cola is promoting, the idea that drinking coke will “light it up” and that as you open a bottle you are “opening happiness” works because people connect eating and drinking with enjoying themselves. By relating their product to hanging out with friends and having a good time, Coca Cola makes their drinks appealing as something that goes along with enjoyable activities. Both the regular and the diet Coke commercials are successful in addressing the value that our society gives to eating and drinking for enjoyment.

Potato chips

Freedman and Jurafsky examine potato chip advertisements and find that advertisers use different language and emphasize health and authenticity issues differently to appeal to either high class or middle to low class people. More expensive chips use more complex grammar and vocabulary and also use many more negative associations to imply that their chips have something that others do not.  It is also noted that the more expensive chips make many more health related comments on their packaging urging people to pay extra for the healthier or what looks like the healthier version. When Freedman and Jurafsky looked at appeals to authenticity in advertisements they found results that differed quite a bit from what appeals would be made in wine advertisements. They found that emphasis on naturalness and ingredients was used mainly for the more expensive chips and emphasis on historicity and locality was used for the cheaper chips. This contrasts with wine advertisements where the better wines usually boast about how long they have been around and where they are produced. I think this is the most interesting part of the analysis because it exemplifies how the advertisements that we see everyday and usually do not give much thought to require complex thinking. Advertisers do not use the same language to attract certain groups for every kind of food, historicity does not attract high class chip buyers in the same way that it attracts high class wine buyers. I am sure this is the same for things like fruits and vegetables, advertisters would have to use a different approach to sell these products than they would to see potato chips. Freedman and Jurafsky could look at fruit and vegetable advertisments to see what differences there were, health in this case might be emphasized for every price, naturalness might still be emphasized for more expensive produce. It would be interesting to see the differences between different foods. 

Christmas traditions

There are not many specific foods that remind me of being at home, at least not in the way that a ketchup sandwich reminds my mother of dinner time in the home that she grew up in. She has told me how her and her siblings were not allowed to leave until they had finished their sandwich and how they hated them so much that they would hide them in the drawers of the table until their dad got home and let them off the hook. At our dinner table there are only four people, instead of nine, and eating dinner is usually pretty uneventful besides a few laughs and the stories my younger sister often tells. We eat foods from many different backgrounds, each delicious in it’s own way, unlike the ketchup sandwiches my mom had to eat.

Holidays are usually more connected to specific and memorable foods whereas the dinner table is more connected to my sister’s stories of 6^th grade drama. For Christmas, thanksgiving, and Easter, cooking and eating certain foods are as much a tradition as opening presents or egg hunting. On thanksgiving we eat all the normal thanksgiving foods at either my house or my grandmother’s house in the afternoon and always go to my aunt and uncle’s house for dessert at night. On Easter we always make crepes with my neighbors while the younger kids hunt for eggs in our backyard. However, more than any other holiday, the most memorable food traditions of my family are our Christmas traditions.

Christmas cooking traditions in our family consist of many interesting recipes, many of which don’t seem very Christmassy at all and some of which are not very appetizing, at least not to me. Usually someone might recall the Christmas ham, potatoes and vegetables they had each year, but when I think of Christmas food I think of squid pie, smelts, spanakopita, baklava, and rice pie. It is unclear to me where these traditions came from. Squid pie and smelts, which apparently are Italian recipes although I have never heard of them at any Italian restaurant, were, I think, passed down from family on my mom’s side. We also always make spanakopita and baklava, which are Greek foods and I am pretty positive no one in my family is Greek, so I am not sure why this has become a tradition in our family. I have no idea where rice pie even comes from.

My least favorite of these traditions are the smelts and the squid pie. The smelts are usually made on Christmas Eve at my cousins’ house. I try to avoid the kitchen, but you can always smell the small fishes frying from the living room where those of us who do not enjoy the smelting process watch the never-ending Christmas movies on abc family. Then someone will come in holding a plate of the disgusting silver fishes and I will always say that I do not want to try one. The smell of smelts will unfortunately follow you home on your clothing every Christmas Eve. Then there is the squid pie. I have watched it be made many times and, like the smelts, I think it smells pretty bad when it is done but, for some reason, people seem to like it. The squishy “tubes and tentacles” as my aunt calls them just don’t look too good to me.

The spanakopita and baklava are newer traditions I think, and almost everyone in the family has gotten at least one baklava making lesson. I don’t remember when I got my first lesson, but now I have become a professional. First, you melt butter in a bowl in the microwave and lay out the first thin piece of filo dough in the pan brushing on a layer of butter on top. Once you have enough filo dough and butter layers, about 25, you add a layer of sugar, cinnamon, and nuts, and then add some more filo dough layers. Next you have to cut the baklava into diamond shaped pieces and stick a clove into each one so that it will stick together. After the baklava cooks you pour a sticky honey mixture on top and its done.

 I remember one year I begged my mom to let me skip school and let me stay over at my aunt’s house and help her make all the Christmas foods. Although I find a few of our Christmas recipes questionable, they are important to me because they are so connected with my experiences. 

Ahn and Nicholson

Home Run: My Journey Back to Korean Food discussed the author’s struggle with his cultural identity through food. When the author and his family first moved from Korea to the United States he was not comfortable with his background and made choices that reflected his discomfort. He asked his mother to have a separate fridge in the garage for Korean food because he thought people would notice the different smell and would only eat the popular American foods that his friends ate when he went out. Although he did this it was clear that he still did appreciate his mother’s traditional cooking and liked the food. While he was cooking for work, after his parents died, he noticed that he was adding Korean foods to his cooking again. Ahn wrote that he is now dedicated to teaching his son Korean traditions and that he will do this through Korean cooking as well as other things showing that he has become comfortable with his cultural identity.

In Eating White, the author, Geoff Nicholson, talks about his memories of his mother through the foods that she cooked, ate, and loved. He remembers her love of many foods that are often considered as unhealthy in America now, but that she would always cook in England when he was growing up. She liked to cook foods that were very white, like white bread, and dishes with milk, cream, butter, and cheese. This piece, like Roy Ahn’s piece really shows how culture and food are important parts of a person’s identity.

Both of these writers had recently come to the United States and they saw clearly how food from their other homes was different from American food and how that told a lot about cultural differences. I can relate this to the traditional foods that my mom’s Italian family makes for every holiday. Although I do not feel like these cooking traditions are a very large part of my life, they are unique and remind me of the unique foods that each of the authors wrote about. 

recent meal

The last meal I ate was lunch today. I ate in the halls dining hall with Larkin, my roommate, and then Alli, my old roommate, came and ate with us too. I went to the dining hall because it is convenient because it is right downstairs from my room and because I pay for a meal plan. Since the beginning of the school year the food in the halls cafeteria has gotten more and more boring because they seem to serve similar things everyday. Halls would probably not be my first choice and it is probably not many other people’s first choice either but everyone still eats there. For lunch I ate salad with romaine lettuce, tofu, edamame, carrots, sunflower seeds and vinegar and oil. I also ate pineapple and had water that had orange and raspberry in it. The pineapple was actually really good and the salad was ok. I might have thought the food was better at the beginning of the year but I eat something similar almost everyday so it was not that exciting.