Final Food Assignment

In the story by James Agree, I feel that the mother can be easily connected to the people of America. In some sense, she was in denial of what happened when the cows were loaded into the train car and taken away. She was reluctant to tell her children the story of what happens to the other cows and she doesn't want to believe it happens herself so she ignores it and tries to tell her children to live their normal lives. Americans remain ignorant as to how their food is made and some would rather keep it this way. Other people know what goes on with their food, but decide to pretend it doesn't happen and ignore the fact that there are bad conditions in factories and that there are health hazards and all just so that these factories will be efficient. This ignorance and reluctancy to believe what actually happens leads people to create imaginary, ideal farms and ways of getting food that they then pass onto their children. Americans teach their children that industrialized food is the only way to obtain nourishment and then they think that farm like is the coolest thing they've ever seen. They don't know that farms are based off of fossil fuels or that the giant machines that they think are so cool, actually pollute the earth or cause soil to be unhealthy for growing other plants. They also don't know about the pesticides used that sometimes harm the food and the fact that some of the foods when picked are thrown on the ground to be sorted. The vegetables are not the only thing that people ignore the negatives of.

In factories where cattle are made into beef and pig are turned into pork and etc, the animals are kept in crowded pens and are mistreated as we saw in the "Meatrix" video. The cows tails are cut off and attached to machines to be milked. The babies are taken away from their mothers and also attached to machines that will feed them. After the cows are killed and in the actual factory, the workers work on conveyer belts that at times get so busy that they can lose fingers trying to cut the meat or hurt themselves in other ways. The blood and feces that drips off of the dead carcasses of the cattle, lad on other meats that are already ready to be packaged and this is also a medical hazard. I believe that things like this do happen and that the conditions for animals and workers are bad, but I feel that "The Meatrix" video over exaggerates things to make its 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.

People maybe unwilling to change, but there are also people who care too much about what they eat. In the book "Omnivore's Dilemma" Pollan addresses this issue. 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. My family goes to the grocery store a lot considering the fact 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.

Not only are food habits changed, but culture of food is changed as well. My family always eats together at the dinning room table. My mother insists on us eating as a family because we are all so busy that we rarely have time for each other. My mom makes dinner and my dad helps a lot of the time or they take turns cooking each night. At dinner we always talk about what went on in our day or what our plans are for the rest of the week. I feel that on T.V. and in the media, they send out two different messages about food and they way we eat. A lot of T.V. shows portray the same method of eating as a family bonding point in the day. People come together during meals to share their experiences and socialize, but another message that they send is that eating in a living room with T.V. trays and not really getting to know the other people at all.
I also noticed that people in America eat without even thinking. They eat at random times in the day and don't take much account for what exactly they put into their bodies. I follow this trend myself. Eating is a very common ritual that everyone follows for a number of different reasons. I find that people eat when they are sad and when there's nothing to do. We use food as a time for togetherness and when friends or family get together, they use food to bring each other together. No matter what culture or ethnic background I feel that food is important to bring people together.
I feel that in bringing people together with food, America has tried to bring other cultures into our world, but I feel that in doing so we have changed food to fit our unhealthy lifestyle. We have Americanized a lot of the food that we now have in our society and I feel that America's food is based off of 2 things. There is 1 extreme that is the unhealthy, fatty artificial foods. These people are the people that don't really care what they eat wether they are fat or not. They don't think about what they eat and just eat whenever they feel like. The 2nd extreme is when people obsess about what they eat and how many calories they consume or if what they eat in the day is healthy. Those who try to break away from the normal nonchalance of the American culture and try to create a "healthier" and different lifestyle for themselves are not really being to original or different. They are in fact falling into the other common group in America of those who are constantly watching what they eat or those who are vegetarian.
I think it’s interesting to go to other “cultural” restaurants that America has changed. I went to a Spanish restaurant called Sofrito. In this restaurant, there are actual Spanish dishes and music from South America and Puerto Rico and not Reggeton. There was also art all over the wall from Spanish artists. I think this was interesting to have because usually we only have Americanized Spanish foods and in this restaurant, they decided to bring their culture to America. The menu was also in Spanish which was interesting to see the actual names of all the food and to translate it in English and see the differences. Although this restaurant was Spanish based, there was still a small Americanized aspect of it. When someone was there on their birthday (like all American restaurants) they sang happy birthday. Even though they sang it in English and Spanish, I still felt like it was a very American thing to do in a restaurant and it snuck its way into the Spanish restaurant. When I looked up the answer to this question, I noticed that there is no real defined "American Food." Recipes came up for different French recipes and Mexican recipes. When I actually did find something that was "American Food," it was really not anything healthy. Reading an article called "10 foods that make America great" the author writes "Hamburgers. Apple pie. Potato chips. Foods that helped shape our nation." I really hate to think that these foods are what "shaped our nation" because I see this as an overdramatic statement that is really pathetic to think of. It is also pathetic to think that other countries have foods that are considered an art to make and are prepared carefully and with as much perfection as possible. Other cultures also have many spices and seasonings that they add and we as Americans have hamburgers and potato chips. Our food is simple and in a sense stolen from other cultures and we don't have our own cultural food. Our food is not our own and whenever we do adapt food from other cultures, we Americanize it and make it our own unhealthy version of what was an art.