Blog 9 (make up)

Obesity has become a very common charactersitic among the American people. With all the food possibilities, fast lifestyle, and large portions, I can see what leads to America's growing lifestyles- pun intended. Yet, the media and advertisers take a different spin on the all- American.

People are seen as fit and healthy when males are extremely cut and muscular while women must be extremely lean and thin. In the modeling industry, it was interesting to observe the differences between males and females and how essential these notions of maleness and femaleness have become embedded to that industry. After being exposed to shows like Tyra Banks's America's Next Top Model, Janice Dickinson's Model Agency, Make Me a Supermodel, there also exists the struggle of dealing with the the such essentialized characteristics of what a model really looks like.

Janice Dickinson is an exceptionally infamous supermodel herself with lots of plastic surgery- it's obvious. With her new recent tv series of starting her modeling agency, we see how intense and specific the weeding out process is when doing castings. She is one to typically favor the body type that most American's don't have- overly muscular, fit, extremely skinny, tall- while still having "the face." Even the models that do pass to "fit" her agency struggle as she pokes and prods at their bodies constantly white threatening to drop them if they don't get their body back on track. She challenges them and like it isn't hard enough already, models begin to turn on each other in realizing this is a battle for the survival of the "fittest" in the ideas of what is the "fittest" body types for her agency. With that the models themselves deal with the pressures of one another in competition for remaining with Janice's Agency. This further creates the tension of believing what the body type must be- something that one is not and must strive for. These exclusionary ideals become a continuous examinatin of what is real versus what is constructed socially. When did "plump and pasty" start to look so bad?? Wasn't that a sign of luxury? I guess this aspect has taken its toll on the food that runs through the American body as a whole.

The social construction and constant interjection of body type when obesity is more common factor in determing the body type of the real American bodies. With social construction battling obesity, it's hard to really see them fighting against each other in a binary. They in themselves are battles that both must be delt with in their own realms before expecting a duel between them. If obesity and social construction doesn't change its ways in America soon, there's always the rise of "body construction." Could that be the two working for and against one another in some sense...

Blog 8 Makeup

Chocolat is a movie that I have never had the desire to see. Johnny Depp is a talented man, but I had no real idea about the plot or storyline for this film. I ended up being pleasantly surprised (as was my girlfriend who loves Johnny Depp and this film, so enjoyed watching it with me under the pretense of “homework”). It put a different spin on chocolate for me, reminding me that it is an aphrodisiac and can be a very sensual thing instead of some forbidden diet item.

As Christopher pointed out in his post, it was a bit strange to have a chocolate sauce covering the chicken at Armande’s birthday celebration. I quickly realized that my favorite dish to get at Mexican restaurants is chicken mole, which is essentially diced chicken breast in a chocolate-tomato-like sauce. It is an acquired taste for sure.

Kevin Thomas’ review for Chocolat (featured in the Los Angeles Times) and his interpretation of the film was strikingly similar to my own. I have not seen many French films, or foreign films for that matter, but he claims that this film is similar to other French films and well adapted from the original novel. I always prefer to read the book before I see the movie in most cases. Here, watching the film has made me want to read the book more, even though I will likely seeing the characters in my mind as they appeared in the movie instead of using my imagination.

Movie Review; 'Chocolat' a Rare Treat That Nourishes the Soul. Kevin Thomas.
Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, Calif.: Dec 15, 2000. pg. F.2

I don't know if there is a way to simply edit my posts, but here are all the ones I wanted to edit, reposted for your viewing pleasure:

Blog 9
The films and articles that we read for today were honestly disturbing at a bit hard to handle at times. There have been a number of people in my life who have been directly affected by various eating disorders. I am sure many of us watching and reading these materials have either had personal experience with these things or know someone who has. While watching the film Killing Us Softly 3, I initially patted myself on the back for not watching much TV or taking much notice of the advertisements that are happening everywhere around me. Then when the speaker mentioned that everyone thinks that they are immune to the messages and consequences various ads have on our psyche and subconscious. That made me realize that I am likely less of an independent thinker than I believed. I see advertisements in various publications such as The Stranger (Seattle weekly magazine) and What's Up! Music Magazine (local music magazine) for things I often buy and stores I like to shop at, and I wonder how much of that has to do with me viewing some of the same ads week after week in the pages of these magazines.
It was quite disturbing to read out the young lady's teeth rotting out of her head and disintegrating from vomiting so often. I often feel invincible just like she did, and I guess it is a hard realization to know that your body will not regenerate and fix whatever is damaged or goes wrong (although the anatomy of human beings is impressive, the body cannot do everything!).I think one of the reasons that the media continues to push extreme thinness on the consumer is to sort of gloss over the problem and pretend that it is not really happening. It is no secret, with numerous studies done and TV specials and news reports on the increasing size of Americans, yet sometimes it is easier to pretend the problem does not exist by focusing more attention on this "ideal beauty" portrayed in advertisements.

Executive personality traits and eating behavior. Spinella, Marcello; Lyke, Jennifer

Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Pomona, NJ, US. International Journal of Neuroscience. Vol 114(1), Jan 2004, pp. 83-93.



The New Yorker in 1950
The first thing that I noticed as I went through the pages of December 1949 – February 1950 New Yorker was the name brands that I recognized. From many of the liquors (which I know we are not commenting on, but still) to the airlines company TWA, Norelco razors, and Rolex watches. Although I am not sure if TWA went bankrupt recently or not, I am fairly certain the rest of these companies are still in business today. Even Abercrombie and Fitch had an ad! With few exceptions, the people featured in the advertisements had big bright smiles and looked absolutely thrilled with whatever the product was they were attempting to sell. The people are mostly cartooned figures usually positioned towards the product (very lifelike) with great interest and/or enjoyment. It looks to me like the typewriter that is being advertised on one page is the greatest thing that has ever to the family and will be life changing. The only advertisement I found that was food related was Kippered Herring, featuring a mother herring bathing her baby herring in the bathtub to show how well cleaned and packaged in the can this brand of herring is. Wow, does mother herring sure look happy about scrubbing her child for your consumption! The message that this ad seems to be putting out is how much Crosse & Blackwell care about your health and safety by taking the time to package the herring in such a way. Every other ad is mostly for tobacco, alcohol, and clothing/perfume. I suppose readers of The New Yorker were more concerned with fashion and things of that nature that what kind of herring they were going to eat for dinner that night.

Ameena Batada, Maia Dock Seitz, Margo G Wootan, Mary Story. American Dietetic
Association. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Chicago: Apr 2008. Vol. 108, Iss. 4; pg. 673



Government Involvement
While watching this film, I felt very frustrated and angry about the way that our government has handled the treatment of family farms throughout the nation, as well as in Canada and Mexico. The information presented made the U.S. seem to be this monster that is set on receiving royalties from everything and everyone they can by patenting organisms and seeds. I think this is just plain wrong. I also feel irritated that so many of the politicians that should be allies for these small family farmers are the same people that are benefiting at their expense, profiting from either part ownership or employment in the very companies that seem to be trying to put these farmers out of business. I feel the same way about Dick Cheney’s involvement with Haliburton. This energy and oil company (and consequently, the vice president) is profiting off the Iraq War after being contracted by the U.S. government to build and maintain military bases in the Middle East through the Army's Logistics Civil Augmentation Program.
I fully support the alternative foods movement, as we’ve been discussing in class, that encourages buying produce from local farmers at Farmer’s Markets. It builds the community by supporting one another and fights the tide of corporate take over with the food that is delivered to groceries stores (which as they said in the film, travel thousands of miles on average before getting to the consumer). I really had no appetite after watching this, and I am now weary and nervous to eat most things for fear they are likely genetically modified. I don’t know what the long-term consequences would be for me physically, but I do understand how it is affecting people globally now, and that is enough to make me want to change my food choices. I hope in the future that foods will be labeled as being genetically modified so we know what we are eating. But I suppose ignorance is bliss, eh?

Smith, Ron. “GMO peanuts could improve health.” Southeast Farm Press; 4/9/2008,
Vol. 35 Issue 11, p6-11, 2p. EBSCOhost Research Database. http://web.ebscohost.com.



post 4
After reading The Scavenger’s Guide… I have a new outlook on hunting. It would be difficult for me to kill and butcher an animal myself, but I think I would be far less likely to waste any part of the animal. I would also be less likely to throw away unfinished food if I grew, gathered, harvested, or killed it. Thinking back to eating in the dining halls on campus my Freshman year, I thought very little about the food I was wasting since I did not have to gather it, prepare it, or clean it up. I would feel better killing a wild animal because it is more likely they have a more natural diet than factory farmed animals and I would know directly how it was butchered and what part of the animal I am eating. As for middle and upper class people hunting more for sport, as opposed to those below the poverty line, this is an interesting question. I hate seeing animals heads mounted on people’s walls like trophies. So I suppose I don’t really have an answer to that question. As for Steve Rinella killing so many animals for his mammoth feast, at least it was only once (I hope). He also seemed to be an avid hunter-gatherer with an understanding of wild animals. I’m sure a meal like a 10 oz. filet mignon, potatoes, salad, etc… has a huge impact that I will never see, effecting lots of different things. For the steak to be harvested, possible forests were likely slashed and burned to give them grazing land, completely changing the ecosystem and dynamics of the area. That’s a huge impact!

Thompson, A.K. Postharvest Technology of Fruit and Vegetables. Harlow: Blackwell
Science, 1996.
Trubek, Amy B. Haute cuisine : how the French invented the culinary profession.
Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000



A Modest Proposal?
The work by Jonathan Swift was obviously quite shocking. I knew this article would be about cannibalism, but not about consuming peasant children to control the population in Europe. Wow. Several of Swift’s comments made me pause to reflect. He ends with the statement that he could think of no argument or objection against what he is proposing. Really? Not even one? I have little understanding of the culture in Europe at the time, but it is hard for me to imagine that the public embraced Swift’s ideas and no one would have any objections.
Swift is not just proposing the use of babies for food, which is slightly off-putting, but also using their skin for gentlemen’s boots and women’s gloves. I am sure many animals in the world cannibalize their own kind. I just wonder how many would use the skin or body of the dead animal for any purpose. I also began to wonder in what context would I be able to force myself to eat another human being? If I were starving and stranded on an island, maybe, but I can’t know without being in that situation. The living conditions for the people of Ireland and the United Kingdom would have to be exceedingly terrible for Swift’s ideas to be accepted. He makes one comment about how sad it is that “poor and innocent babes” are sacrificed by abortion and murder by the mother’s of these bastard children, when he is proposing the same thing. An objection to that claim I just made would be he is proposing to use these children to benefit society. Basically, I’m just a little disturbed by the whole idea.

Alive; the story of the Andes survivors. Read, Piers Paul, 1941. Philadelphia,
Lippincott 1974.



PETA and the meat-packing industry
The first thing that I noticed about the DVD “Meet Your Meat” (besides the fact that Alec Baldwin was the narrator) was the creator of the film: PETA. The images were shocking, the effects disturbing and lasting. Just as they were going for I’m sure. The People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) uses questionable ads and shocking comparisons between the meatpacking industry and the Holocaust and extermination of Jews in Europe to get the point across that vegetarianism is evidently where it’s at. After looking into PETA online, I found that there have been several cases of this organization taking pets from various animal shelters and performing euthanasia on the animals by injecting them with something (I don’t know what), leaving them in dumpsters in a pile. They did this with the claim that it was done to be more humane than other methods like a gas chamber for the animals. Unfortunately, the video did not provide any possible ways to combat the meatpacking industry besides becoming a vegetarian. However, there are ways to be a morally and ethically responsible carnivore and/or non-vegan vegetarian. It requires some research and depends on individual communities, but there are local dairy farms based nearby in Lynden providing dairy products from animals who aren’t pumped full of antibiotics and hormones. I felt the same way after reading the article “Hidden Cost of Cheap Chicken.” I wish the author’s encouraged research into farms that do not treat animals in the ways they focused on. The responsibility obviously cannot be entrusted to the major meatpacking distributors in this country, so it must be shifted to the consumer to become informed about what they are eating and to shop accordingly.

Buehr, Walter. Meat from ranch to table, written and illustrated by Walter Buehr. New York, Morrow, 1956.Wilson 4E-Children's CollectionTS1955 .B8 1956 Yeager, Mary. Competition and regulation: the development of oligopoly in the meat packing industry. Greenwich, Conn. : Jai Press, c1981.Haggard 3 -BooksHD9415 .Y4



Effects of Culture
I have grown up in American pop culture and have done a minimal amount of traveling through Canada and Mexico. These are countries that are not all that foreign to most of us, neighboring the United States to the North and the South. Due to my lack of travel, I have had little experience with what other cultures might see as acceptable foods to eat versus the perceptions and diet that I have grown up with. For the most part, I do not view my eating habits as being all that different from those around the United States. In Western Washington, we likely eat more salmon and seafood than some part of the country that is land locked like Kansas or New Mexico. There are regional differences, but I do not find them to be all that different from my daily diet. In the U.S., we have taken elements of different cultures and adopted them as our own from immigrants throughout much of the 21st century. Reflecting on the definition of a culture, I find myself at a loss. I use the word often without much thought to how I would define it. Perhaps it is a group of people who share anything from common heritage, interests, and/or traditions. There is much more to a culture than that, but these are the first things that come to mind. If most of my friends were vegetarians, that is a sort of culture that would likely influence my eating habits and change them based on that culture.
Ethical sourcing in the global food system, edited by Stephanie Barrientos and Catherine Dolan. Sterling, VA : Earthscan, 2006.
Location in library: Haggard 3 -Books HD9000.5 .E85 2006
Increasing the contribution of small-scale fisheries to poverty alleviation and food security. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2005.Location in library: Wilson 4W -Books SH329.S53 I53 2005

Blog 8_Chocolat

Originally I had gone to blockbuster with the intention of renting Like Water for Chocolate but unfortunately they did not have it. I then thought Babette Feast would be interesting, but they did not have that either. I was left with no other choice to watch Chocolat. But I am so glad that I ended up watching it. The move was fantastic and Judi Dench did such a great job. It took me a bit to get into the movie, but after the first few scenes I was hooked. The power that chocolate is portrayed as having is very interesting because sometimes I forget just how much power food holds, especially desserts. Chocolate is so sweet, tempting, and easy to indulge in that the symbolism used in “chocolat” being sinful made sense. Vianne made such divine treats and customers were addicted after one bite. This happens to me all the time. I say, “just one bite”, and then I end up finishing the whole thing, whatever it is I may be eating. Food has a way of captivating me and it takes control of me. Just the other night I was out eating appetizers and as full as I was, they just tasted so good, I kept eating and eventually finished them. The other major part of the movie I loved was the connection between food, family, and shared memories. The feast for Armande’s birthday was absolutely exquisite. The preparation of food that went into the celebration was intense and it was through this feast that they were sharing laughter and good times, and then eventually even going to the boat for dessert. Whenever I think about large family gatherings or time spent with friends, there is always eating involved. Food and dessert is prepared and it really is the host of the party. Analyzing the movie through the perspective of food, it really does a good job of using food and desserts symbolically for power, family, and friends.

Shugart, Helene A. "Sumptous Texts: Consuming 'Otherness' in the Food Film Genre.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 25.1 (2008): 68-90.

This is an interesting article because it is recognizing the prominence of food playing a role in films, chocolat being one of them. I thought this quote below summed up a lot of what our course has been about. Looking at food as much more than simply food but connecting it with human emotion.

"Specifically, I contend that these films offer food as a rhetorical device through which discourses of privilege are reconciled with and restabilised against contemporary practices of desire and consumption, especially (and increasingly) for and of the "other".

Blog 9_Media&Thinness

I think that our culture struggles greatly with obesity because everything has turned into convenience. Living in America, it’s often easy to seek out, the “fast, cheap, and easy.” Many of us like to go through the drive-through, and like to find the closest parking spot, etc. I am definitely guilty of this as well. We are living in such a fast paced society that the convenient way of life is what we know and with the rising cost of living it is hard to spend time focusing on “healthy living.” Stress and lack of sleep can often lead to weight gain as well, and many people experience both on a daily basis. It’s interesting because although our society has this struggle with obesity, the images we see of beauty and perfection are the polar opposite. Covers of girls on magazines, actors and actresses on tv, models on the runway, more commonly than not, are portrayed as having an “ideal” body. They are fit, tall, have a big smile, and white teeth. The media focuses on sending messages of what beauty is through touched up images using computers, which is easy to forget. The part in Killing us softly 3 when Jean Kilbourne discussed how women are becoming objectified was really eye-opening for me. I never thought about it like that but she raised a good point about how women’s bodies are used as beer bottles, and plastic surgery is encouraged. When we are immersed with these images in radio, tv, magazines, it is hard to ignore. The media is very influential and when adolescents are exposed to the “beauty” in the media it is not surprising that they will go to extreme measures in an effort to achieve that size 0 waist, or the large breasts, and the plump limps. Reading Evelyn Lau’s article was extremely sad because so many people go through this battle with food. It reminded me of the power that food can have. It almost made me mad that we have set our society up to make people feel like they aren’t thin enough, or they are too thin, not tall enough, and not physically fit. Reading about her family blaming her for the diet they started and her mom’s obvious disapproval was heartbreaking. However the mother may have been doing it out of love in some strange way. The whole issue of weight and physical appearance is somewhat sensitive but some cultures are quite blunt and it’s no different when it comes to physical appearance. It’s funny because my friend and I were having a conversation about how family will comment on things like weight gain, etc. We had both experienced aunts and uncles telling us things about the way we look. I’ve learned through the good and the bad that it’s all about confidence. You really have to love yourself in order to accept or at least get through both criticism and compliments. If you are unhappy with yourself, the things people say good or bad often mean nothing. Although this is so much easier said and done. Things like the reluctant hero magazine talked about in the Body image video were great because it can be inspiring for young girls. It is vital to have positive outlets for people to see that the beauty in ads do not exist without electronically enhancing images.       

           Rothstein, Stephen, G. "Reflux and Vocal Disorders in Singers with Bulimia” Journal Of Voice. 12.1 (1998): 89-90

  

The Media

Every ad you see today usually has a person that is good looking and seems “perfect” trying to sell a product. All of the ads in the movie Killing Us Softly showed people using their sex appeal to sell their products. These kind of ads are seen everywhere today because statistics show that sex sells. With the technology we have today every ad is airbrushed and cut and pasted to make them look perfect so what people are striving for is impossible. As I have been writing I have the TV playing in the background and every commercial has shown good looking people trying to sell a product and every other commercial is advertising a diet supplement or workout equipment. I mean I’m all for working out and being healthy, but I think it’s crazy when people strive for perfection. In America today people are increasingly getting larger and larger and because obesity is a large issue going on in our culture the media shows extremely thin people hoping to make the public strive to be thin. Also if they show obese people in advertising nobody will buy the products especially if it is for a food place. I learned a lot about bulimia and anorexia from the article An Insatiable Emptiness it really is a disease, something you can get addicted to I think that this is also true for people that overeat that it’s something they get can get addicted to and become obese.

Shea, Maureen E. and Pritchard, Mary E. "Is self-esteem the primary predictor of disordered eating?" Personality and Individual Differences. Vol 42 (8) June 2007 pp. 1527-1537. PsycINFO. Western Libraries, Bellingham. 1 June 2008.

Welcome to America My Friends

I will admit, the films and articles were hard to get through. They reveal a reality that no one really wants to face or wants to see. They tell nothing but the disturbing truth about our society. The percentage of people in the United States that are currently dieting at any given time is sickening. But take a hard look at the world we live in. It's a consumer society and a vicious cycle. We are all consumed in TV (which is primarily nothing but one big world of advertisement), we are surrounded by fast food and disgusting food. People wonder why Americans are all obese? I have to laugh, it's not that hard to figure out. Look at our food culture, or lack there of. It consists of TV dinners, fast food, grease, fat and sugar.

We really are, killing ourselves slowly.

We eat food unlike any other country in the world, and portions not even comparable to any other country in the world. Of course everyone is fat in America and what a perfect set up for the economy. Keep people fat and self-conscious about themselves, continue brainwashing them with the unrealistic body image they must attain, and the materialistic life they must have, and there will be money flowing from every direction. Hollywood rules our entire existence. 

"Look at how skinny she is, she has a perfect body. I want that body."

"Look at how many cars he drives, and how many houses he has, and all the women he's got dangling off him. I wanna be like that."

The result?

A fat, self-conscious and depressed society, that will buy and buy and buy all the products for diets, beauty, workouts, clothes...anything...to get them closer to what they see on TV.

And people wonder why most girls between the ages of 12-25 have some type of eating disorder? Why they have selfesteems that are as low as the ground?

Is it not the most obvious thing in the world?????

Because they turn the TV on everyday and are forced to stare at what they "wish they could be and what they wish they could have."

That's why.

As long as America stays fat, as long as the entertainment and advertising industries rule our lives, nothing will change. They want women to feel fat and ugly. If you're a man, they want you to feel poor and scrawny. Then you will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of your life time on diet pills, gym memberships, beauty products, makeup, expensive clothes and anything else they can brainwash you into thinking that you need. Guys will spend money on weights to pump, a nice car to impress the ladies, materialistic things and trendy clothes.

Welcome to America my friends.

The land of "I wish" and the land of "I want."

But can never have.

A good read:

Davis, Caroline and Lori Scott-Robertson. "A psychological comparison of females with anorexia nervosa and competitive male bodybuilders: Body shape ideals in the extreme." Eating Behaviors 1 (2000):  33-46.

(The title of the article should be underlined, but my computer wont do it for some reason and the 2nd and 3rd line indented inward)

Blog 9

The films and articles that we read for today were honestly disturbing at a bit hard to handle at times. There have been a number of people in my life who have been directly effected by various eating disorders. I am sure many of us watching and reading these materials have had either personal experience with these things or know someone who has. While watching the film Killing Us Softly 3, I initially patted myself on the back for not watching much TV or taking much notice of the advertisements around me everywhere. Then when the speaker mentioned that everyone thinks that they are immune to the messages and consequences various ads have on our psyche and subconscious. That made me realize that I am likely less of an independent thinker than I realize. I see advertisements in various publications such as The Stranger (Seattle weekly magazine) and What's Up! Music Magazine (local music magazine) for things I often buy or places I often shop, and I wonder how much of that has to do with me viewing some of the same ads week after week in the pages of these magazines. It was quite disturbing to read out the young lady's teeth rotting out of her head and disintegrating from vomitting so often. I often feel invincible just like she did, and I guess it is a hard realization to know that your body will not regenerate and fix whatever is damaged or goes wrong (although the anatomy of human beings is impressive, the body cannot do everything!).

I think one of the reasons that the media continues to push extreme thinness on the consumer is to sort of gloss over the problem and pretend that it is not really happening. It is no secret, with numerous studies done and TV specials and news reports on the increasing size of Americans, yet sometimes it is easier to pretend the problem does not exist by focusing more attention on this "ideal beauty" portrayed in advertisements.

Executive personality traits and eating behavior.Spinella, Marcello¹; Lyke, Jennifer¹

Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Pomona, NJ, US.International Journal of Neuroscience. Vol 114(1), Jan 2004, pp. 83-93

Blog 7_MagazineFoodAds

For the purpose of this blog I will be focusing on a 1950’s coca cola ad in a 1952 national geographic issue. I also found it difficult to find an abundance of “food” advertisements but I assume that a lot of the food ads would be conveyed in a similar fashion to this coke ad. The coke ad was very classic. There was a man and women leaning on couches with big smiles, relaxing with cokes in hand, dressed up, and engaging in delightful conversation. There was also another man on the side sifting through records. It portrayed a very happy time, with good laughter and coca cola drinks. This is different from how ads are often created today because advertisers are much more risqué, however it is still similar because it was trying to promote a good time. Food ads often show families talking and eating, or friends dining out and having a good time. They appeal to social interaction because that is what food is most often apart of. The coke ad does have more of a cartoon type effect though and people were extremely dressed up, where as currently a lot of ads for restaurants or milk you’d come across, you won’t find people in gowns and tuxes. If people are used, they look like you and me (but photoshopped). In general it was a very wholesome ad encouraging drinking coke to have an enjoyable time which is the same message that ads today also try to send. Ads just aren’t as wholesome these days.

Brennan, Ross. “Regulation of nutrition and health claims in advertising.” Journal of Advertising Research 48.1 (2008): 57-70

chocolat

First off I will start by saying I love chocolate and was amazed at how many different ways she was able to make chocolate like the chocolates made with chili pepper, little truffles, etc. and the time when they used it as a gravy and poured it over all their meal. It was crazy how much chocolate they had. And the acting was so good that every time they bit into a chocolate I craved one really bad. I do believe that chocolate can arouse people/help brighten their spirits because whenever im having a bad day chocolate can make it a litlle better. The themes I got out of the movie were that you shouldn't judge someone and try to turn against them if they don't do what you think is right. Just do what you think is right. And to go out of the box and try something new even though it's different , it doesn't always mean its bad. Ive learned from trying different foods that sometimes you have to break away from what society says is right and try it because you could be missing out on something wonderful. In Ram Samudralas movie review he brought up the idea that along with the town changing tradition and eating chocolate during lent Vianne learned to chang her ways as well and learned that following tradition can be harmful to her daughter. I didn't think of that theme relating to Vianne until i read the review. I read a few review and all of them enjoyed the movie as did I. And a lot of them all mentioned the great acting ability of Lena Olin and how convincing she changed characters from an abused klepto to a strong woman.

Review:
Vincent,Mal. "'Chocolat' is a tasty concoction flavored with European actresses." Virginian Pilot. Norfolk,VA. December 23, 2000. Pg. E.7 Proquest. Western Libraries, Bellingham. 25 May 2008

Chocolat

Oh my goodness...I like chocolate, but not THAT much chocolate. I read a review written by Marc Lourdes from the New Straits Times, December 1, 2007, titled Film Feast. I do agree with him when he makes the statement that this movie is purely eye candy. The film was definitely "pleasing to the eye," but in my opinion, a little too much pleasing to the eye and there was nothing else to it. There was just too much chocolate and though it was nice to look at, I got sick of it after awhile. I thought the plot of the movie was a really odd...to have a movie centered completely around chocolate. I would argue the person who created the idea of this film was a pure chocoholic. I find it strange that the little chocolate shop Vianne creates stirs up so much controversy in the little town. It seems very unrealistic. My mom mentioned to me that she saw this movie on a plane while on a trip to New York and she thought it was stupid, so I never bothered to watch it (since most of the other people I know that had seen it said roughly the same thing). Now I know why. It was just ridiculous, that chocolate was such a big deal in this village. The chocolate shop attracts a ton of attention, loathing feelings and suspicion, while at the same time arouses emotion and passion. I could see why the little Catholic town was so sheltered and pure, but it just seemed strange that chocolate would be the sin that begins to tear the town apart. It's just candy for crying out loud. The casting in this movie was weird too. Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche were kind of a strange pair. The fact that these too actors are very successful, didn't make the movie any better. I'm not really sure why this movie won several Academy Awards, but it definitely is a sappy, romantic movie that I would only watch with a bunch of girl friends. I doubt I could get my boyfriend to sit down to this whole movie and not be miserable. I do really like chocolate, but to watch an entire movie centered around it that really has no plot and strange combinations of actors, I doubt if I would watch it again by choice.

The review:

Lourdes, Marc. "Film Feast." New Strait Times. 1 Dec. 2007: pg 02. Proquest Newspapers. Proquest. Western Libraries, Bellingham. 22 May 2008 .

Blog 8- Chocolat

I remember back when my mom rented Chocolat and forced my dad to watch with her. She told me how good it was, one of her favorites. She may be biased with her love of cooking and baking. I think she really took the film to heart and the simple pleasures of chocolate. After watching the movie, I could see why she enjoyed it so much.

After watching it, I thought it was intriguing how much trouble chocolate could cause a town, but I guess when it’s set during Lent, it can become threatening. It’s amusing to think that chocolate can be threatening in this case or even at all. Yet, we see how drawn together the characters become over this intrigue of this small chocolate shop. Chocolate takes on this role of the supernatural as it changes the lives and relationships of the townspeople. Such a confection is world-renowned and universal and to use such a pleasantry as chocolate is cunning. Food is always something that gets people together.

I was surprised to actually read a review that wasn’t raving about Chocolat. Rob Vaux of the Flipside Movie Emporium: Movie Reviews and Commentary. His review gave Chocolat a C-...wow! There was disappointment in delivering the movie and thought it posed a lot of promising avenues but stuck close to the practical. He felt that there was a lot of “fluff” that moved this film from mediocre to extraordinary. “Like the creations in Vianne's window, Chocolat looks quite inviting... making it all the more bitter when we find its hollow center.” Overall, he was confused why people put this film in such high regard and comparison to the likes of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

Vaux, Rob. "Chocolat: C-." Flipside Movie Emporium: Movie Reviews and Commentary. 1 Mar. 2001. 24 May 2008 .

1950's Magazine Ads

As I looked through the magazines for food ads I didnt come across very many food ads, but thats the same as the magazines today where there arent very many food ads, the ads in magazines are more focused on clothes, alcohol, beauty products, etc. But the food ads I did find were all in color so they definitely stood out against the different articles. The first ad I found was found in the New York Times Magazine during Oct.-Dec. 1959 and it was for Lipton soups its tagline was "hearty fall eating starts with fresh home-cooked tasting lipton." The tagline and the picture of soup surrounded by fall leaves gives you the image that this soup is perfect for fall. But as I looked at the image of the soup it really did not look appetizing to me I think the difference between soup ads today and in the 50s is magazines today use graphics to make the soup look better than it actually is. I also found an ad for Farm House Ready-to serve chocolate cream pie. In the magazine LIFE from March-April 1955 I found canned pineapple and minute rice. Mostly every food item I found was a canned or boxed food item. This makes me think that they are trying to convince people to buy convenience foods. During this time period women were trying to find quicker and easier ways to make meals and I think magazines noticed this growing popularity and started to put canned food items in their magazines.

Academic/Scholarly Article:
Outlaw, Joe L. "Washington Scene." Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm and Resource Issues. 2005 4th quarter. Vol. 20 Issue 4, p 215-216.

The New Yorker in 1950

The first thing that I noticed as I leaf through the pages of December 1949 – February 1950 New Yorker is the name brands that I recognize. From many of the liquors (which I know we are not commenting on, but still) to the airlines company TWA, Norelco razors, and Rolex watches. Although I am not sure if TWA went bankrupt recently or not, I am fairly certain the rest of these companies are still in business today. Even Abercrombie and Fitch had an ad! With few exceptions, the people featured in the advertisements have big bright smiles, looking absolutely thrilled with whatever the product is they are attempting to sell. The people are mostly cartooned figures usually positioned towards the product (very lifelike) with great interest and/or enjoyment. It looks to me like the typewriter that is being advertised on one page is the greatest thing that has ever to the family and will be life changing. The only food advertisement I found that was food related was Kippered Herring, featuring a mother herring bathing her baby herring in the bathtub to show how well cleaned and packaged in the can this brand of herring is. Wow, does mother herring sure look happy about scrubbing her child for your consumption! The message I that this ad seems to be putting out is how much Crosse & Blackwell care about your health and safety by taking the time to package the herring in such a way. Every other ad is mostly for tobacco, alcohol, and clothing/perfume. I suppose readers of The New Yorker were more concerned with fashion and things of that nature that what kind of herring they were going to eat for dinner that night.

Ameena Batada, Maia Dock Seitz, Margo G Wootan, Mary Story. American Dietetic
Association. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Chicago: Apr 2008. Vol. 108, Iss. 4; pg. 673

Blog 7- Magazine Ads

It took me awhile to find the magazine section of the library for this blog assignment but it was interesting checking out the lower level of the library. When I finally came to the room I checked through a couple Life magazines. I looked at the 1936 volume which I believe is one of the earliest sets if not, the earliest. It was kind of difficult looking through the already-worn and discolored pages as I tried to flip the pages without making it worse than they already were. There were so many ads for alcohol which I never realized that most of the ads were alcohol with a couple food or item ads. Since we couldn’t use those ones, I came across 2 Campbell’s soup ads- December 7 and 14 of 1936…

The first one’s headline said: Campbell Soups are Condensed to Give You Double Value. It had a scene of a grocery aisle with the shelved soup cans and all the varieties (21 at the time). On the right side was the woman on the right side was younger, dressed in black dress and hat with a huge fur trim, red lip, a hand placed on her hip with red painted nails, and a smile. On the left was the grocery clerk-white older male with his left hand holding up a can and his right hand using a pencil to point at the can. I thought that the woman’s dress and demeanor seemed to outshine the product. It was particularly awkward how the clerk needed a pencil to point at the can. I had no idea how to read that gesture. Overall, the ad pumped up the value of this product because it is a condensed soup but with still reasonable prices. The Campbell’s girl cartoon in the corner highlights this very fact.

The second one’s headline read: An Old Fashioned Soup Goes to Town-with the attention drawn to the chicken noodle soup. It featured two women, one on either side of the headline. The woman on the left is completely covered in an older Victorian dress and her facial expressions were of her eyes closed, very reserved, coy, and quaint. On the opposite side you see the woman is in a fur coat but only reaches below the knee and we actually see her heels. Her face is more attentive from the profile angle which prominently shows her facial features as well as her eyes being open. Event he cartoon girl was featured kind of ashamed or embarrassed to be still in the Victorian era dress.

I was surprised to see that the Campbell’s look has not changed much since then as well as the ads. I thought what set the ads apart from modern advertising was how the people were portrayed and the issues that they threw out to the audience for attention which gauged the changing times. You can see the women of society really changing and advancing already just through Campbell’s soup ads.

Adam Mack. "Food Is Love: Food Advertising and Gender Roles in Modern America. " Journal of Popular Culture 40.2 (2007): 393-395. Research Library. ProQuest. WWU Library. 15 May, 2008.041 http://www.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/

Help!! :(

Has anyone found sources on Italian weddings and food??? I've been at the library for a good chunk of the day and I've found sources on Italian weddings, but nothing that mentions food in detail...
Should we change our topic?

Blog Assignment #7- Food Ads

I chose to examine the New York Times Magazine from January 4th, 1953 Section 6. It was hard to find food ads, but the 4 ads I did find had many things in common.
Ad #1 was for Carolina Brand Rice. It was a simple ad, with a large simple box packaging the rice. There was a woman in a sexy evening gown holding the box up and singing "praises" to how good the rice was supposed to be. The ad stated, "There's nothing really finer than Carolina...the extra long grain rice." The lettering was bold on the ad and emphasized the main point of the ad, such as "Carolina," "extra long grain" and "finer." This ad, though very simple (and VERY 50's) was strikingly similar to food ads that we see today, using women in sexy clothing to sell a product.
Ad #2 was for Golden Mix (for griddle cakes and waffles). The packaging was, again, a simple box with bold lettering emphasizing the main point of the add. This ad had no people portrayed in it. It was simply a box of the product and big bold letters that stated, "Don't waste syrup, milk and butter on ordinary pancakes! Use Golden Mix and enjoy the world's finest!" Again, we see the word "finest" used once more to explain the status or quality of the product.
The third ad was for Arnold Brick Oven Loaf and the ad had a large fat man in a baker's hat holding the oven loaf, smiling. The ad said, "Brick Oven is the finest white bread we ever baked! The very finest U.S.A butter in the Arnold Brick Loaf is rated a 93." In this advertisement, the rating of "93" is never really explained and I assume people are supposed to assume that means it's rated 93/100, but like I said, it's very unclear. Here we see the word "finest" used two different times in this one ad. Perhaps this word was a popular word in the early 1950's, I really don't know. But it was poppin' up like crazy all over these ads.
The last ad I examined was for Land O' Lakes Sweet Cream Butter. The ad states, "From the rich Land O' Lakes, America's finest butter." And once again, "finest" is used to describe the butter. The ad was very colorful and the bold lettering was used to emphasize "finest."
All of these ads were very simple, with big bold lettering and very similar words used to advertise the products. I noticed in many of the other ads I saw (food, clothing, tobacco, alcohol, etc.) women's sexuality was used to attempt to lure people in to looking at the ad and possibly wanting to but the product. This is something that is very prevalent today, and it was surprising to see that as a common advertising strategy, even in 1953. I'm a sociologist, so don't get me started on the issue of exploiting women for profit, and the abuse of women's sexuality to sell items. My blog will be 100 pages long.

A good read:

Dixon, Helen G., Maree L. Scully, Melanie A. Wakefield, Victoria M. White, and David A. Crawford. "The effects of television advertisements for junk food versus nutritious food on children's attitudes and preferences." Social Science & Medicine 65.7 (2007): 1311-1323.

(the title of the journal is supposed to be underlined and the second and third line of the citation should be indented, but the computer won't do it for some reason, just as an FYI.)

assignment with blog groups

hey group!! how are you? im so sorry i couldnt make class earlier in the week. I've been feeling under the weather and could not muster enough energy to come to class. However,  i talked to our teacher, Paul Piper and spoke to Britani and we have come up with the solution for me to put our paper together and add transitions inbetween each section so the paper flows nicely. Along with putting the paper together i will do the MLA citation. So if you guys would willingly give me the title of your source that'd be great. If there is anything else you would like me to do, then please let me know. However, for now, this is what i have been assigned to do, so if you could all post it by at least sunday night then I will be able to put it together monday and email it out to you. Thanks so much.  See you guys!!!!!!!!!!!

Blog 6- anything food

Do you ever hang out with people and either automatically set a "food hang out" or somehow always find yourself ending up eating anyway? I remember talking with my friends about this as we were waiting for dinner one night- how ironic. We decided to hang out later one evening and as we tried to figure out an agenda it was either too late or too expensive. Yet, for some reason, we all found enough cash to grab some food and chill. It was an interesting observation having been eating with this particular circle of friends a numerous amount of times. It was interesting even outside of my own circle of friends that food was a great subconscious social gathering. I never realized how much food motivates presence and engagement whether to invite people to a meeting/event or to an informal, random, last minute hangout session. In talking with some people at work they feel the same way to the point of effecting their diets.

So, actually we've come to the point of making a joke about how we always eat when we hang out, whether homemade, processed food, fast food, or sit down AND at pretty much all hours of the day. It gave us the idea that we should start documenting our food escapades on film. It was a chance to be a food critique and a kind of guide. This idea catered to our discussions frequently. It made us question about food critiques and jobs associated with food especially the infamous ice-cream taster! On that note, who thought that wasabi ice-cream at Coldstone was a good idea?!

Harris, Marvin , and Eric B. Ross, eds. Food and evolution : toward a theory of human food habits. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987.

Dickson, Paul. The great American ice cream book. New York : Atheneum, 1972.

We all want food: fast and perfect

A topic related to anything that has to do with food?

Alright, here we go. I work at Little Ceasers and I'm around food a lot! I prepare it, I make it, I cook it, I sell it, I clean up after it. The whole 9 yards.

After working in a food joint for awhile, I've come to realize that people (and I'm generalizing) are very picky and emotional about their food. I really don't understand why. Maybe it's just something we've been socialized into feeling. It kind of ties into the idea of when we shop for produce, we always search for that piece of fruit that hasn't been tainted, scratched, cut, bruised or anything. You know what I'm talking about....

Well, people are the same way about food that is cooked by someone else and they still expect perfection of their own standards. People like food quick, fast and perfectly prepared.

(Hence the zillions of fast food restaurants in America on every corner). Customers come into Little Ceasers expecting their pizza to magically be ready the moment they get their change and their receipt. And most of the time (key word=most), customers are in a good mood when they come in to order food.

However, that mood instantly changes the moment they are told their pizza will be ready in 15-20 minutes.

It doesn't seem like that long to wait for a pizza, in my opinion. But 15-20 minutes isn't instant and that's what people want: instant, perfect food.

Um, sorry...not really possible.

SOOOOOOO, my question is as follows: how have we, as a society, become so socialized into wanting instant, perfect food? It's obviously something that we all want and strive for. We have science now to help us create bigger, better, greener produce. We have fast food, we have huge stores like Costco that sells in bulk, we have more convenient ways of getting food than any other country.  We want instant food, and perfect food ALL the time.

Things didn't use to be like that. Farming used to be the norm. It took months to grow food, we had to prepare our own meat and dairy, we had to make everything from scratch.

Now, we can get fruit and vegetables anytime of the year, and the only effort needed for harvesting food is making a trip to Fred Meyer to shop conveniently for food that has been fully prepared for us to take home.

What's happened to us?

Do we not have enough time to wait 20 minutes for our pizzas to be ready anymore?

A good read:

Staten, Vince. Can you trust a tomato in January?: everything you wanted to know (and a few things you didn't) about food in the grocery store. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

(For some reason, my computer won't underline the title. So the title: "Can you trust a tomato in January?: Everything you..." should be underlined in my citation.)

Cars and Calories

While I was a senior in high school, I was required to take a Citizenship class. In hindsight, that is a very strange thing to name a class that students are forced to take in their final year of schooling before being set free into the “real world.” Citizenship class? Was I supposed to be learning to be a good citizen? We had a series of guest speakers come into the class to lecture on various topics. Representatives from the Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian parties came, Vietnam veterans, Iraq war soldiers who were home on leave, and the list goes on and on. A lot of these speakers sparked great conversation and dialogue in class, a chance for students to really engage and debate with one another.

One of the few points that I really remember three and half years later came at the start of class one day. We had no guest speaker that day, but the teacher was joking with the students about some of the food choices we had made during our lunch break. This teacher had a way of getting students engaged and forcing us to think, even if it was in a potentially controversial way. On this day, one student bought some coffee to drink from the cafeteria during lunch. The teacher asked how we all felt that the school was selling us drugs. Caffeine was being pumped into our little blood streams for just three dollars or less every day, a legal drug that surrounds us in some of my favorite drinks. I never thought of caffeine as a drug, or in that way. It was an extreme viewpoint, but it sparked some interesting thoughts.

The teacher then went on to comment on how most people seem to worry more about what they put into their cars than what they put into their bodies. That line in particular struck a chord with me and I often think about that when filling up my gas tank. I’m not one for fast food, and just because it is cheap and easy does not mean it is the best choice for me. The same goes for gasoline I put into my car, but I worry far less about things like that. It seems to be the opposite for most people. I still wonder why that is.

Freeman, Andrea. "Fast Food: Oppression Through Poor Nutrition." California Law Review Dec2007, Vol. 95 Issue 6, p2221-2259, 39p

Blog 6

Food to me is more than just something to give me energy so I can go about my day. It is something I really enjoy and at times I admit I use it as a way to comfort myself when I have a bad day or cook when Im stressed and need a break. One thing that is weird is as a kid I was kind of picky about certain foods, but as I grow up and open my mind to new foods I find that foods I didnt like as a kid i love now, for example I didnt like asparagus or spicy foods and after opening my mind to them I now love them both. I find it very important to try new foods. Traveling to different places has taught me to not be so close minded for example I tried rabbit when I was in Spain which was something I was very stand offish about because when I think of rabbit I think of it as a pet, but after eating it I found it to be pretty good and something I would have again. But if I was to just stay close minded and never try any of the foods I tried I wouldnt be able to experience all the great tastes the world has to offer. Also while traveling I learned that food is more than just something you eat, in other cultures it is a way to show you respect someone. In Spain I was given a full plate of food by a woman who had spent all day cooking and preparing it and I was told by my friend that if I didnt eat the entire plate of food she gave me it would be disrespectful so even though i didn't like all the food that was in the dish and was extremely full I ate it all to show her respect. Also different parts of the world have different customs that they do around dinner time for example, when I was in France a lot of people would take walks after their meals as a social thing and to digest their food. It seems all parts of the world have customary things that they do around food. This summer im going to travel to Italy and I cant wait to try some of their food and experience their customs they have dealing with food.

Academic Journal citation:
Locher, Julie L., "Comfort foods: An Exploratoty Journey Into The Social and Emotional Significance of Food." Food and Foodways: History and Culture of Human Nourishment. Vol. 13 Issue 4, P 273-297 Oct-Dec 2005. Ebsco. Western Libraries, Bellingham. 11 May 2008. www.webebsco.com

Blog 6_ Food

Food is my best friend and my worst enemy. I love to eat. It takes up a lot of my energy and time. I love going out to eat and enjoying a nice dinner at restaurants with family or friends, but I also love cooking dinner, then having the pleasure of eating food that I have worked hard to prepare. My favorite food is noodles, any type of noodles too really. I love spaghetti and pasta, udon, pad thai noodles, top ramen, yakisoba, etc. Basically anything with noodles in it I will probably be quite fond of. Of course food is my best friend for these obvious reasons. It tastes good, it keeps me energized, and it’s often time to socialize as well when I eat. I love certain dishes from all types of cuisines. Classic American, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, Indian, etc. I can pretty much find a way to eat even when I’m in places where I don’t like what is being offered. For example at some gatherings if there are only hamburgers and other dishes filled with beef or pork or sausage, I will eat buns and cheese with ketchup, which I actually think tastes really good. When I was abroad in Madrid and a lot of there food contained pork and other unknown substances to me, I went to the store and bought crackers, cheese, dip, vegetables, fruits, etc. So I never seem to have a problem with finding some way to eat. However it is my worst enemy because I can never stop. I will eat a meal until I can’t breathe. Then soon after I will be eating dessert, whether its ice cream or candy, or frozen yogurt. I am an emotional eater so when I am really stressed or even bored I will find myself eating everything in my cabinet even when I’m not hungry. It is uncommon that I forgot to eat a meal or pretty rare that I will go very long without eating, but if it doest happen and I go for an extended period of time without eat I get really lightheaded and grouchy. Also, I spend more money on food than anything else. I will look through my statements and see that way too many dollars are spent on groceries and eating out every week. So I would say I definitely have a love-hate relationship with food.

Trela, Christopher. "Dining out and Eating Healthy." OC Metro Business. Spring (2008): p. 18

Blog 5

I thought that the film The Future of Food took on a growing dilemma with our agriculture and farming. It was interesting bearing witness to the development of genetically manipulated foods and the tolls it took on patenting. I never knew about Round Up and the seeds and how the company pretty much bought out the entire market. With the patenting now being able to be used on genes and anything that it can inhabit, the ownership policies are harder to escape. It was surprising how patenting of genes quickly took a toll on food sources. With that, I never realized how much our agriculture and farming really effect other countries in their agriculture and farming habits in their production of crops. I guess I didn't see the extent of the harm of all paperwork and government involvement in patenting but I have come to see the greater effects as time passes on.

The film makes me more weary of the food I eat, then I begin to think about how much of my food isn't already somewhat tainted. I think that even without the genes the soil and our land in itself is a polluted foreground for crops. Another thing I thought about was the goal of the green revolution in feeding everyone was a good idea but the fact of the matter is that we already have enough food to go around, it's just not being shared. the film also brought attention to this but I think one of the most interesting areas that was discussed not in much detail was the suicide gene which allowed the crop to not produce more crop once it is harvested. I never heard about such a thing but it made me more attentive to the effects of this gene if it somehow got out and destroyed needed crops especially in other countries that rely on farming and agriculture life to survive.

Enserink, Martin. "Preliminary Data Touch Off Genetic Food Fight." Science 283.5405 (1999): 1094-96. 2 May 2008.

Blog5_TFOF

The future of Food kept me surprisingly captivated. Since the video covered a lot of information I am going to share my thoughts on certain topics I found most interesting. The video reminded me of how important it is to understand issues with genetic modification and to learn more about the processes. With all this genetic modification going on, the concerns with companies claiming ownership of genes then stating that they own wherever the gene goes definitely is reason to be apprehensive about the future. Corporations have so much power in America it is quite frightening when you really break it down and observe how much control they have because they are driven by profit. Some things that caught my attention were that 80% of beef is processed by four companies’ seeds and that whatever generates the most profit will be in our supermarket if these multination corporations continue to take over the food industry. It was concerning when the video reported that the Food and Drug Administration is responsible for safety of food, but since GMOs are considered substantially equivalent to regular food, it falls into GRAS, meaning the government doesn’t require testing or labeling. Personally if the FDA is convinced that GMOs and fresh food are substantially equivalent then I don’t understand the trouble behind labeling GMOs for consumers. I don’t necessarily have any qualms or fears about eating genetically modified foods but I understand that no one can know for certain there will not be any side effects in the future. Therefore there are surely going to be people who fear eating any type of food that has been genetically modified and I think as consumers who are buying and eating the food, we have a right to know what we are putting into our bodies. I thought a good point raised in the video was when someone mentioned that “without labeling, there’s no real traceability and if there are health effects, it is difficult to collect data of GMO problems, and corporations can’t be held responsible.” If you get a bad reaction from a food that has been genetically modified but you don’t know it has been genetically modified, how is anyone ever going to find out if the genetic modification is correlated with the bad-reaction? I thought it was unfair that USA has sold millions of GMOs to other countries like Mexico. GMOs being exported didn’t seem right especially when there are places where GMO labeling is required. It was upsetting to see the problems it presented for so many Mexicans with the genetically modified corn. Another upsetting part of the video was Percy’s story. The fact that he had to destroy over 1000 pounds of his own seeds because of contamination was devastating to hear. Monsanto was a huge corporation trying to sue thousands of farmers because they have patented this seed that has contaminated places without the farmers’ choice and without any possible way for farmers to control the contamination. They are stripping farmers of their history, pride, love, and work to generate profit.

 Wolfe, Anna. "Labeling The Clones."  Gourmet news 73.3 (2008): 7

Is that why my strawberries are so big...?

Ok, so here's the ironic thing. When I went to the library to watch the video, I smuggled in a few strawberries that I had just bought from Fred Meyer only hours before. And I munched on them as I watched the video. During the video, I couldn't help but examine the strawberries I was eating and realize exactly how abnormally large they were. No strawberry I'd ever grown as a kid in the backyard garden EVER grew to be even close to the size of the ones I was eating today. Genetically modified? Ha...most likely. :(

I'll be honest, I haven't really thought a lot about genetically modified foods and I have a feeling it's because I was never really educated about the subject. Well, until now.  After watching the movie, I'm extremely angry at how our government treats small family farmers.  I felt really bad for all the farmers that lost their court cases. It seems so unfair and I wish big companies didn't have so much power. Eventually, all the small family farmers (that produce AMAZING, DELICIOUS food) will be wiped out. I really think supporting local farmers is extremely important. If all the local family farms are wiped out because they can't compete with the "big boy" companies, than we may be stuck eating a lot more genetically modified food that we'd like to be eating in the very near future.

That brings me to my next idea. Genetically modified food (GMF). In my opinion, it's really gross to think that some food travels thousands of miles before getting to the consumer and on top of it, it may be genetically modified too. When I saw that during the video, I got slightly grossed out. That's a lot of time/distance for many unmentionable things to come in contact with that food, not to mention the lack of freshness. I'm sorry, but any food that travels over a thousand miles isn't fresh, and I won't let anyone else tell me otherwise. And lets talk about the possible horrible long term effects of eating GMF, shall we? Way back in the 20's, everyone smoked tobacco because apparently no one thought it was bad for them. Now, we are all well aware that smoking tobacco has very fatal long term effects on various vital organs in the body. Well, how about GMF? They tell us that eating food that's been altered to being a certain color, to be bigger (like my strawberries, ick!), etc is ok to do, but do we REALLY know the effects of eating a bunch of that stuff.?

No, we don't. And that's a really, really big problem. We don't know the long term effects of eating GMF because it's such a new and recent thing, we haven't gotten a chance to see any bad effects. Give it 25 years or so, and I have a feeling there's going to be bad news with regards to eating food that's been modified.

SO, moral of this story is that GMF is sketchy and companies should be required to label food that has been genetically modified. I'm sure most people aren't really educated about the issue, so at this point if someone saw a little sticker on their box of strawberries at Freddie's that said GMF, they would be like "whatever." But if they do start to see negative effects on the human body, I would hope to God that companies would have to label GMF. Just like cigarettes, they come with a warning label (or at least, they're supposed to, even if it is ridiculously small print.) But hey, family farmers are awesome. Let's support them! Buy their food because they grow food the way it should be grown; all natural. And like the movie said, if all the third world countries started farming again, people wouldn't be starving. I'm optimistic that big corporations won't take over the food world.

And as for my strawberries, well let's just call that a learning curve....

A good read:

Ellen, Pam Scholder and Paula Fitzgerald Bone. "Stained by the Label? Stigma and the Case of Genetically Modified Foods." Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 27 (2008): 69-82. ebsco reserach library. Ebsco. Western Libraries, Bellingham 4 May 2008.

Genetically Modified Food

This video was very informative for me to watch because i had no idea that large companies were patenting seeds, etc. and taking crops away from farmers who use those seeds or pesticides. This made me angry because when the companies file law suits against farmers they discourage many people from farming, people would rather not want to get into that mess and most farmers today are losing money trying to compete with these large companies so the amount of people farming is decreasing. I think we need to have more people in the world farming; like the video said if people in third world countries brought back farming then not as many people would be starving in the world and with farming you dont have genetically modified food. This video made me think about the future and how genetically modified food is just going to get worse, because of our increasing population we are going to need more food and the government is going to have genetically modified food be the answer to the food shortage problem. I believe that we should have labels on genetically modified foods because many people get sick and dont know the reason for it and if their food was labeled as being genetically modified then they can use the food as a possible factor for their illness. After watching this film it really made me wonder what some of the side effects are for me eating genetically modified foods because for example, i love strawberries and i know the strawberries i get from the store are probably genetically modified but I dont know what exactly the genetically modified foods are doing to my body, it makes me very curious on what the side effects are. Ive been eating genetically modified foods for awhile now and do so without thinking about it or fearing it, but I think that if I knew the harm it was causing me then I would be more concerned.

Citation:
Costa-Font, Montserrat., Gil, Jose., and Traill, W. Bruce. "Consumer Acceptance, Valuation of and Attitudes Towards Genetically Modified Food: Review and Implications for Food Policy." Food Policy April 2008, Ebsco Research Database. Western Libraries, Bellingham. 4 April 2008. http://web.ebscohost.com/

Government Involvement

While watching this film, I felt very frustrated and angry with the way that our government has handled the treatment of family farms throughout the nation, as well as into Canada and Mexico. The information presented made the U.S. seem to be this monster that is set on receiving royalties from everything and everyone they can by patenting organisms and seeds. I think this is plain wrong. I also feel irritated that so many of the politicians that should be the allies of these small family farmers are the same people that are benefiting at their expense, profiting from either part ownership or employment in the very companies that seem to be trying to put these farmers out of business. I feel the same way about Dick Cheney’s involvement with Haliburton. This energy and oil company (and consequently, the vice president) is profiting off the Iraq War after being contracted by the U.S. government to build and maintain military bases in the Middle East through the Army's Logistics Civil Augmentation Program.

I fully support the alternative foods movement, as we’ve been discussing in class, that encourages buying produce from local farmers at Farmer’s Markets. It builds the community by supporting one another and fights the tide of corporate take over with the food that is delivered to groceries stores (which as they said in the film, travel thousands of miles on average before getting to the consumer). I really had no appetite after watching this, and I am now weary and nervous to eat most things for fear they are likely genetically modified. I don’t know what the long-term consequences would be for me physically, but I do understand how it is effecting people globally now, and that is enough to make me want to change my food choices. I hope in the future that foods will be labeled as being genetically modified so we know what we are eating. But I suppose ignorance is bliss, eh?

Smith, Ron. “GMO peanuts could improve health.” Southeast Farm Press; 4/9/2008, Vol.

35 Issue 11, p6-11, 2p. EBSCOhost Research Database. http://web.ebscohost.com.

post 4

After reading The Scavenger’s Guide… I have a new outlook on hunting. It would be difficult for me to kill and butcher and animal myself, but I think I would be far less likely to waste any part of the animal. I would also be less likely to throw away unfinished food if I grew, gathered, harvested, or killed it. Thinking back to eating in the dining halls on campus my Freshman year, I thought very little about the food I was wasting since I did not have to gather it, prepare it, or clean it up. I would feel better killing a wild animal because it is more likely they have a more natural diet than factory farmed animals and I would know directly how it was butchered and what I am eating. As for middle and upper class people hunting more for sport, as opposed to those below the poverty line, this is an interesting question. I hate seeing animals heads mounted on people’s walls like trophies. So I suppose I don’t really have an answer to that question. As for Steve Rinella killing so many animals for his mammoth feast, at least it was only once (I hope). He also seemed to be an avid hunter-gatherer with an understanding of wild animals. I’m sure a meal like a 10 oz. filet mignon, potatoes, salad, etc… has a huge impact that I will never see, effecting lots of different things. For the steak to be harvested, possible forests were likely slashed and burned to give them grazing land, completely changing the ecosystem and dynamics of the area. That’s a huge impact!

Thompson, A.K. Postharvest Technology of Fruit and Vegetables. Harlow: Blackwell

Science, 1996.

Trubek, Amy B. Haute cuisine : how the French invented the culinary profession.

Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000

harvesting food

I think its advantagous to know where your food comes from because when we go to the store and pick up the packaged meat from the store we have no idea how the animal was treated and how it was prepared and overall if it is quality meat we are about to consume, but if we actually go and hunt for our food we know for sure exactly what we are eating and can feel a little better knowing exactly how the meat was prepared. But unfortunately we do not all have the time, money, etc., to hunt for our food; also most people wont eat foods if they see the animal slaughtered. For me personally I think it would be hard to butcher my own food and it's really weird that I would rather just buy my food packaged then go out and hunt for my own food, but its too hard for me to butcher an animal and eat it, if I actually see the whole animal then I start to think more about the fact that im eating an animal with feelings etc.
I think for people that do hunt it is perfectly fine. I just think that if they do hunt animals it should be used for food and not just for fun and excitment because hunting has turned into a popular sport now.
In the really big lunch article I thought it was cool that they were cooking meals from the past and that they were eating what historical figures liked to prepare for themselves. By doing this they are able to see what people in the past ate and it could possibly bring back some good recipes for the future. But was eating the 30 something courses all at once really necessary? you could still enjoy all those meals on seperate occasions. Over eating like that is gluttony and its really not healthy to do even if you do plan on taking a walk afterwards to settle your food.

Book Recommendations:

Tait, Heather Harvesting and Country Food Fact Sheet Ottawa: Statistic Canada, 2007

Lattanzi, Mark. HarvestingSupport For Locally Grown Food; Lessons learned From The Be A Local Hero, Buy Locally Grown Campaign. Millheim, PA: Food Routes Network; Amherst, MA: CISA. 2002

Blog 4_Harvesting Food

There are both disadvantages and advantages to harvesting your own food. If we assume that harvesting your own food gives you a stronger connection to the source of your food, it can be a very good thing to gather your own foods as many people who do harvest their own food confess that the food is more fresh and tastes much better as well. It may also be very rewarding for some to know that they hunted, planted, caught, etc. the food before preparing it to eat. Some people who realize the diligence it takes in not only preparing food, but obtaining the food will probably be more appreciative of food than someone who simply buys packaged food from the store and doesn’t think twice about where it came from. However, there can also be disadvantages to having a stronger connection with the source of your food. Some people may find it even stranger that certain people can raise their own animals, establish a connection with them, name them, and truly care for them, then slaughter them. So on one hand, it might be viewed as respectable, that someone will work hard for their food, but on the other hand it could also be viewed somewhat disturbing that they kill their personal pets. It also takes a lot more time and resources to harvest your own food that many people are not in a position to do. Personally, if I had to butcher the animals I ate, I know I would be less likely to eat meat because it would bother me too much to have to butcher any type of animal. I’d rather not eat it, and not butcher it. I don’t think it is fair though to not allow people who wouldn’t be able to butcher their own animal to not eat meat. I don’t know very much about hunting so I don’t think I am qualified enough to decide whether or not hunting is moral or not. However, I guess it depends on the situation of the hunter and the hunter’s intensions. I think harvesting anything of too much is not necessarily unmoral if people plan on finishing all of it, but insanely crazy. When Harrison was describing all the food prepared for this meal it was incredibly disgusting. I can relate to eating too much because I always have a problem with eating more than I really need to. I’ve never been able to eat until I’m satisfied. I eat and eat. So as long as the food being harvested is not wasted, I think can be alright. Unless the animal is endangered or something and people continually hunt it for personal purposes.

Harvesting Resources:

Tait, Heather. Harvesting and country food factsheet. Ottawa : Statistics Canada, 2007

Benediktsson, Karl. Harvesting development: the construction of fresh food markets in Papua
New Guinea. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 2002.

Blog 4- Harvesting and Gluttony

I think that hunting is moral with the intention of harvesting food for eating and not just for the game. I can see how hunting can have its issues of being a sport and not for a means of providing food because there is so much food out there. Yet, one can't deny a hunter if they like to know where their food comes from and if by all means that leads to be your own hunter and gather, so be it. I think in that sense there's a greater concern for the environment and a more conscious awareness of how food gets on a plate. I feel that packaging desensitizes people from what really happens to their food. It can be disturbing once they get a glimpse of what goes on and see the extremes of abuse to animals when slaughtering in itself is not pretty in the first place.

After reading about the "lunch" that lasted over 10 hours and over 35 courses, I could not believe that people really put their time, money, and bodies at such stress over food. I can only imagine the preparation of this event and how much food was served that day that could probably feed a starving country or how many squabs and crayfish attended, displayed, and devoured. I guess it serves the guests right to feel so out of it as they continued to their "digestive time" with half the courses to go. Gluttony is not meant to sit well morally or physically.

Good reads:
Bringle, Mary Louise. The God of thinness : gluttony and other weighty matters . Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992.

Thompson, A.K. Postharvest Technology of Fruit and Vegetables . Harlow: Blackwell Science, 1996.

Assignment 4- Harvesting food

I would agree with the statement that killing, growing and harvesting your own food definitely gives people a closer connection with what they are eating. But let's be honest with ourselves. We live in a lazy, yet fast paced society. Very few people want to or have the time to kill, grow or harvest their own food. It's obvious, just look at all the fast food joints on every corner of every street. We have been socialized to hunt at the grocery store. We don't want to know where our food comes from, how it's prepared or what's really in it. Ignorance is bliss right? That's just reality. And yes, if I had to kill animals and butcher them into pieces of meat, I doubt I would eat  meat at all. I'll admit that whole heartily. And I have a feeling that most of my peers would agree with me. Nobody likes to think about what exactly they're eating when they buy a "ball park hot dog" at a Mariner game. You just don't think about it.

I believe that hunting is moral. It's definitely more so than what is done to chickens, cows and pigs that come from big corporate factories. It's moral to kill your own food, and have that connection and that understanding than just going to the store and buying something from a package. You don't know if that animal was killed in the most humane way. And you certainly can't guarantee that it didn't have a horrible life before it was even killed to begin with.

But then again, over killing is bad also. And so is over eating. Harrison's meal is definitely an example of gluttony. Who eats 30-something meals like that? If you wanna get really fat, maybe. But too much of anything is bad for you. It doesn't matter what it is, everything must be in moderation. I'm sorry, but I wouldn't be able to go on a binge-eating frenzy like that knowing that a huge number of the world's population is starving. It's sick and selfish and gross. It wasn't "A really big lunch" it was a "really big binge."

Good reads:

Petersen, David. Heartsblood: hunting, spirituality and wildness in America. Washington D.C: Island Press, 2000.

Cutler, Katherine N. Growing a garden indoors of out. New York: Lee and Shepard, 1973.