Response: (copy and paste the questions then add in your comments. Craft complete and thoughtful sentences that restate the topic as if the question was not there. Unless referencing your own experiences as evidence, avoid informal pronouns such as I, me, my, we, our, etc)
1) What is the " omnivore's dilemma?"
2) Answer the "simple question" what should we eat for dinner? Explain how this is a personal choice. Include a description of a recent dinner you have had and why you chose it.
3) For the dinner you described in #2, trace and identify where each ingredient came from. Go as far back as possible on the food supply chain.
4) Refer back the overview link above. Create an outline that shows how Pollen organizes the book? Identify and include the key concepts/themes he covers as well as his methods ( how he researches these topics).
5) Consider the following definitions of politics as referenced from Oxford Dictionaries:
politics
[ ˈpäləˌtiks ]
noun
noun: politics
- the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power:"the president's relationship with Congress is vital to American politics"synonyms: government · affairs of state · public affairs · diplomacy
- the activities of governments concerning the political relations between countries:"in the conduct of global politics, economic status must be backed by military capacity"
- the academic study of government and the state:"a politics lecturer"synonyms: political science · civics · statecraft
- activities within an organization that are aimed at improving someone's status or position and are typically considered to be devious or divisive:"yet another discussion of office politics and personalities"
- a particular set of political beliefs or principles:"people do not buy this newspaper purely for its politics"synonyms: political views · political leanings · party politics
- the assumptions or principles relating to or inherent in a sphere, theory, or thing, especially when concerned with power and status in a society:"the politics of gender"
Use the definition of politics and one of the facts/figures from the first section of the Omnivore's Dilemma as evidence. Compose a short (3-4 paragraphs) formal and revised response that answers the following question:
How do our personal food choices have political causes and consequences?
Paragraph requirements
A) thesis statement: topic plus position/opinion.
B) evidence (from bulleted list of facts/figures). Please include proper punctuation and an introductory phrase with the author and title.
C) your interpretation of the evidence
D) how the evidence relates food to politics
6) Read Michael Pollen's biography. Evaluate his credentials and experiences. Is he a credible source for information about the food industry. Explain why or why not. Cite evidence to justify your answer.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI'm having difficulty accessing the link - when I click, it transfers to a page stating, "You have reached a domain that is pending ICANN verification." Is there another link I can use to complete this assignment?
Thank you!!!
Thanks for letting me know! That was weird. I have provided an alternate link!
ReplyDeleteThank you!!
ReplyDelete1) What is the " omnivore's dilemma?"
ReplyDeleteThe omnivore's dilemma is how we have trouble finding out don't what to eat, and not eats. We are always stuck between what is good, healthy, fatten, natural, artificial, vegetarian or safe to eat, as omnivores struggle to know what it is to be eating.
2) Answer the "simple question" what should we eat for dinner? Explain how this is a personal choice. Include a description of a recent dinner you have had and why you chose it.
When we eat dinner we should eat what appeals to us and or taste in food it will differ from person to person there is no "one meal" we should have for dinner. The last dinner I had was a huge bowl of rice, with a side of steamed broccoli, and topped with shredded pot-roast. The had this for dinner because I absolutely love anything that has rice or potatoes, and I feel vegetables complete any meal, and pot-roast for protein.
3) For the dinner you described in #2, trace and identify where each ingredient came from. Go as far back as possible on the food supply chain.
To trace back where my food from my last dinner came from would be slightly difficult. The rice a was from a box that was packed in Rancho Dominguez, Ca. and states they only use rice grow in the U.S. For my pot roast i knew it was red meat and found out it was pure beef (no bone) from California. As for the broccoli it was surprisingly from Guatemala.
4) Refer back the overview link above. Create an outline that shows how Pollen organizes the book? Identify and include the key concepts/themes he covers as well as his methods ( how he researches these topics).
1.Pollen organizes his book by first introducing the reader to corn, and going into the Midwest staying on the cropper's farm.
1aHe takes the reader to the farm where it all start from planted the kernels and the ethics of farmer it.
1bThen the production and usefulness of the magic grain.
1c.all the way to it ending up in a third of our foods in super markets
2.He then does the same process for grass by going to a farm and watching the whole process.
2aWhat the grass is used for and who the grass it feed to,
2bWhere it will go to for our meat.
2c.To the killing of the animal
2d. Pollen preparing it being into a meal.
3.Lastly Pollen takes his readers on a journey to finding out own food by gathering and hunting our on dinner. By going on the hunt for wild mushrooms, and concludes what the right meal is.
5) Consider the following definitions of politics as referenced from Oxford Dictionaries
When considering the different definitions of politics it really does coincide with the book. Politics seem to run the food industry in the book, from the FDA regulating what is put into our food is similar to the fifth definition given in the example. I also believe that this definition is the reason why people are always consumed with what to eat because of the politic that go on the food world.
1) What is the " omnivore's dilemma?"
ReplyDeleteThe omnivore’s dilemma is the problem many modern American consumers face of deciding what to eat, and which of the myriad options that exist for those who eat both vegetables and meat is the healthiest and most environmentally sustainable.
2) Answer the "simple question" what should we eat for dinner? Explain how this is a personal choice. Include a description of a recent dinner you have had and why you chose it.
We should eat food that is both healthy and sustainable, although this is not always our first choice. The choice of what we consume for dinner is so personal because it reflects our cultures and also because decisions about what we put into our bodies are in essence, very personal. Recently for dinner I had Trader Joe’s butternut squash ravioli and sautéed kale. I think my family chose to have these foods for dinner because they were both healthy and convenient to make.
3) For the dinner you described in #2, trace and identify where each ingredient came from. Go as far back as possible on the food supply chain.
The Trader Joe’s Butternut Squash ravioli has the following food chain background:
• The pasta part of the ravioli consists of soft wheat flour, liquid whole egg, and durum wheat semolina.
o Soft white wheat is produced in the Pacific Northwest as well as in California, Michigan, Wisconsin, and New York. http://ohioline.osu.edu/agf-fact/0146.html
o Durum wheat is produced mostly in North Dakota. http://ohioline.osu.edu/agf-fact/0146.html
o Eggs are produced all over the US, but Iowa, Ohio, and Indiana are the top producing states. http://www.aeb.org/farmers-and-marketers/industry-overview
• The filling part of the ravioli consists of butternut squash, bread crumbs (wheat flour, natural yeast, salt), butter, amaretti biscuits (sugar, sweet apricot kernels, dried egg white, lactose, whey powder [milk protein], baking soda), salt.
o Butternut squash: Waltham Butternut is the widely used variety of butternut squash. Florida, Washington and California are produce large quantities of different varieties of squash, and Mexico also imports a lot of squash to the US. http://www.agmrc.org/commodities__products/vegetables/squash/
o Wheat flour- see wheat info above.
o Natural yeast: There are currently 13 plants, owned by 6 companies that produce yeast within the US. Yeast is formed using a variety of different yeast strains, in addition to beet and/or cane molasses. Sugar cane is primarily produced in the US in Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii, and Texas. Sugar beets are produced in large quantities in eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota.
o Salt: The US and China are the two highest producers of salt. Salt production areas in the US are primarily concentrated in the Midwest and West.
o Butter: California is the produces the largest amount of butter annually in the U.S.
o Sugar: Sugar cane is primarily produced in the US in Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii, and Texas.
o Apricot Kernels: Some apricot kernels are produced in East Asia, Pakistan and the Mediterranean.
o Dried egg white: See egg info above.
o Lactose: Lactose is derived from milk. California is the largest milk producer in the US.
o Whey power: Also derived from milk, whey is the a byproduct of cheese production. Wisconsin is the largest cheese producer in the US, with California coming in Second.
o Baking soda: Baking soda uses soda ash, which is found in large quantities in the Green River Basin in Wyoming. Baking soda is also produced chemically.
• Kale: California and Georgia are the top two states in the production of kale within the U.S.
4) Refer back the overview link above. Create an outline that shows how Pollen organizes the book? Identify and include the key concepts/themes he covers as well as his methods (how he researches these topics).
ReplyDelete1. “The Industrial: Corn”
a. Pollan explores monoculture as perpetuated by the American food industry by following the journey of a bushel of corn from a farm to a fast food meal.
2. The Organic/“Pastoral: Grass”
a. Organic and International - Whole Foods Meal
i. Pollan explores grass as a root ingredient in a meal from Whole Foods.
b. Organic and Local - Polyface Farm in Virgina
i. Pollan explores a “polyculture of grasses” grown at a local farm as a root ingredients for a second meal (Pollan, 8).
3. The Hunter-Gatherer/“Personal: The Forest”
a. Pollan hunts and gathers in Northern California forests to develop a meal of his own, thereby more fully exploring the importance of how we eat.
4. Key questions: Where does our food come from? How should that affect our choices regarding the food we consume?
5. Central themes:
a. The intersection and conflict between human food industries and nature
b. The importance of how we eat, and its relation to nature and ecology
c. The role food industries play in severing connections between consumers and nature
Pollan, Michael. The Ominvore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. N.p.: Penguin, 2007. Print.
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ReplyDeleteUse the definition of politics and one of the facts/figures from the first section of the Omnivore's Dilemma as evidence. Compose a short (3-4 paragraphs) formal and revised response that answers the following question: How do our personal food choices have political causes and consequences?
ReplyDeleteOur personal food choices are directly linked to politics on both a personal and global scale. What we choose to consume, essentially casts a vote in the realm of agriculture and environmental science by supporting certain industries and the measures that these industries take to produce our food. Ultimately our personal food choices have political causes and ramifications, by economically backing the industries that produce the food we consume.
The choices consumers make on an everyday basis directly reflect their opinions and knowledge (or lack thereof) regarding the food industry and its roots. As defined by the Oxford Dictionary, the term “politics” means “a particular set of political beliefs or principles.” One’s political beliefs regarding the environment, GMOs or even Monsanto’s food monopoly, can play a direct role in the food one chooses to eat. More often than not however, people’s personal food choices have political causes and ramifications of which they are entirely unaware. In his book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” Michael Pollan shares that just one calorie of food energy comes at the cost of ten calories of fossil fuel energy. Few people are aware of this fact, which suggests that every day, simply by consuming food products, especially foods that aren’t produced locally, Americans are unconsciously endorsing the use of fossil fuels.
Moving forward, it is important that we become more knowledgeable about the foods we eat and their origins, so we can avoid making inadvertent political decisions. As Michael Pollan asserts, “if we could see what lies on the far side of the increasingly high walls of our industrial agriculture, we would surely change the way we eat” (Pollan, 10-11). As conscious consumers then, in a world where our food industries are so closely linked to the well-being of the environment, it is our responsibility to actively search for the information behind the wall, so we can know the full ramifications of our food decisions and ensure that the causes we promote with our food consumption are aligned with our own politics.
6) Read Michael Pollen's biography. Evaluate his credentials and experiences. Is he a credible source for information about the food industry. Explain why or why not. Cite evidence to justify your answer.
I believe the Michael Pollan is a valid and credible resource for information about the food industry. The fact that he is the Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley lends credibility to his ability to effectively and objectively share information. Additionally, the awards he has received, such as the James Beard Foundation Award and the Reuters/World Conservation Union Global Award in Environmental Journalism suggest that he is very knowledgeable about both food and the environment.
Continued.
ReplyDelete6) Read Michael Pollen's biography. Evaluate his credentials and experiences. Is he a credible source for information about the food industry. Explain why or why not. Cite evidence to justify your answer. Use the definition of politics and one of the facts/figures from the first section of the Omnivore's Dilemma as evidence. Compose a short (3-4 paragraphs) formal and revised response that answers the following question:
How do our personal food choices have political causes and consequences?
As human beings we have the ability to choose; to choose whatever we think is best for ourselves. Having food preferences is one of our abilities to choose what we want to eat. But when it comes to personal food choices or any choice these are the reasons why we make these choices and then we have to live with whatever results from our choices.
When we have personal food choices set in stone there is a reason why we make these choices. This can be seen as a political cause, because when you have “activities associated with the governance of a country or other area” that influences the people that live there. When you have the government or any party tell the country that it is okay to eat all these “foods”, even though tests and studies have shown that a lot of the food we are eating is not something we should be eating. The government and it’s companies say that the tests are “not significant”or practical and we as the population cannot be scared of everything that is in the country’s food products.
Then you have such a major effect from the government getting into food politics. Because they have influenced the way people eat and people are now forming their personal food choices around these “politics”, people are no longer healthy and haven’t been for quite some time. In today’s generation of children are in a major heath crisis. A fact from Omnivore's Dilemma is that “today’s generation of children will be the first generation of Americans whose life expectancy will actually be shorter than their parents”. I feel this is just one of the major consequences of trusting the food politics put out by a high major authority.
Michael Pollan is I very well known and respected man. He is a very credible man; he received his education of English at university. Then soon became I known journalist and writer. His them started to actively write books relating to food and health. And these books were very well known and popular just like Mr. Pollen himself has received award after award, and the awards are not simply for his writing ability as shown by “Best American Science Writing” and achievements in “Agricultural Journalism Award” and “Global Award for Environmental Journalism”. This is a man that “lectures widely on
food, agriculture, health and the environment” he is a creditable and well educated individual and he expresses this In the Omnivores Dilemma.