Food # 8 - Industrial Food

I believe that things like this do happen and that the conditions for animals and workers are bad, but I feel that the videos (The Meatrix) over exaggerate things to make their point. Yes, these conditions are terrible and they do exist, but people are not purposefully trying to harm their workers and people are not trying to ignore the medical aspects that negatively effect society. People are poorly informed about the aspects of society that make us sick or harm us. Of course there are people in the world that try and only think about efficiency, but they (I believe) do not make up most of the population of factory owners. We also must keep in mind that there are inspectors whose job it is to check these factories and make sure they are up to code and clean. Of course like every job, there are people in this profession who do a bad job, but nothing is perfect. I also think another possibility for this "Meatrix" video is that people watch it because it is targeted to fans of a specific movie and they watch it because they want to see the similarities and differences in the movie and the "Parody." This being said, I think that people watching this video either some insight into food and how its made or get nothing at all. They laugh because of the jokes and they like the irony of the movies being the same. I personally didn't think differently about my food, i just eat the same as usual. This video is just another thing that Americans will watch and ignore the true meaning behind it. We are already know and are used to our food ways and I think few people are willing to change.

Food # 6 - Response to Pollan 1

I agree with Pollan 's argument becuase I feel like Americans pay so much attention to what they eat and that they care so much about carbs and what not, but not as much about what exactly is in the food. The constant need to check the percentage of carbs and fat and such drives people to read "proffesional's advice." There are so many different opinions about what to eat if a person wants to go on a diet that the media can basically control a person's dietary habbits. The media tells people what is and is not considered healthy and thus fools people into eating whatever they see fit. Americans worry so much about dieting and how many carbs they are consumng, but rarely do they ever find out the actual ingrdients that are in their food. This leads to people being misinformed about what is and is not healthy and therefore people don't get the nutrition they need. Countries like France and Italy eat healthy and might possibly consume as much as America, but they eat things in moderation and so they are healthier. In my family we don't ever follow what anyone considers healthy. We eat everything and anything we want, but as mentioned before, we eat everything in moderation. My mom usually cooks and she cooks healthy foods and then we snack on whatever we want.

Grocery Store and Habitual Foods

What I eat:

Fruits:
-Cucumbers
-Tomatoes
-Apples
-Grapes
-Watermelons
-Pears
-Peaches
-Raspberries
-Cherries

Vegetables:
-Broccoli
-Strawberries
-Carrots
-Corn
-Bean Sprouts
-Potatoes

Grains and Roots:
-Rice
-Peanuts
-Garlic
-Red Beans

My family goes to the grocery store a lot considering the fat that we are a very hungry family of 5. When I go to the grocery store with my parents, I never really realized the marketing in a grocery store was so well thought out. When I went by myself, I noticed that on the higher levels (on about Kevin's level) there was the "Hungry Man feasts" that were frozen dinners advertised for men. On my level, I noticed that there was the "Kid Cuizine" and things advertised for younger kids. The same applied for the cereals. Again on Kevin's level, there was the "healthier" cereals and on my level, there were the cereals that came with prizes in the boxes and the junky cereals to market to kids. This is an interesting strategy because I notice that kids can see these things more easily and therefore want to ask for more from their parents. My family tries to eat as healthy as possible and to ensure this, my mother doesn't take us with her grocery shopping so we don't all get sidetracked. She asks us what we want before she leaves the house and then she goes to the store and gets what she needs to. My mom has always taught me everything is good in moderation. She allowed me to have things that I wanted to, but she taught me to have those things little by little and ever since I was a kid I just always really liked healthy fruits and vegetables so I never really had a problem with eating healthy. My younger sister is the same way, but my middle sister is so different which is weird because we were all raised the same way, yet she eats so much junk and she doesn't realize how bad it is for her even when her doctor says that she is not healthy and needs to start eating healthier. I think this just goes to show that it doesn't matter how you were raised, if a child decides to change their habits, they will and they'll do whatever they want.

May Day Response

May Day is also known as national workers day. It is to celebrate the struggle of the working class over the years and is celebrated all over the world. In different countries, such as Greece and England, there are festivals held and May Day is celebrated like many other holidays, but not so much as in America. We acknowledge this holiday exists, but we don't really celebrate it. It used to be that Americans would make May Day baskets and leave them on someone's door step. They would then ring the doorbell and run away. This is the only way that early settlers celebrated May Day. Now, Americans don't really celebrate May Day. It is semi-ignored in our society. Us not celebrating May Day is another example of how Americans ignore important parts of society.
Americans are so wrapped up in their own lives that they don't appreciate those who work and have worked hard to keep our country running smoothly. People have worked really hard in every job that they have no matter how small and have struggled. Americans think nothing of those who have worked hard to help our community and just brush it off because they see workers everyday. Because these people are seen everyday, no one acknowledges what they do for society because it seems like their jobs are just done and no one appreciates what we have and what would happen if these jobs were not completed. May Day is also a form of communism and socialism. Americans of course were always taught that communism and socialism were a source of evil so of course this holiday would be forgotten by a society that was brainwashed into thinking communism was evil. Americans don't want to give other forms of ruling a country a chance. This makes us ignorant to the rest of the world.
Another point is my constant mention that America is known for stealing other cultures' holidays and traditions. America goes to other countries, takes over and at the same time steals traditions and makes those traditions our own like with food. Yet after we "stole" this holiday, we didn't pay it any mind after a while. Once we realized what is stood for, we ignored it because it wasn't part of our beliefs as "The Great Nation of America." This shows that Americans are lazy and never want to do things on their own, but when we do have a tradition we change it or ignore it to fit the American standard.