Final essay #2

The world we live in today is a horrible place that most of us are sheltered from by the luxuries we buy. Things never used to be this way. Before agriculture, humans only took from nature what they needed to survive. When agriculture came around, so did the need to control and manipulate nature because of the rising population. In modern times nature is continuously being destroyed. The human population skyrocketed when fossil fuels started being used heavily. With the human population so huge, agriculture needs some help from scientific research to feed everyone. Food in our culture is one aspect of a larger nightmare.
Food is becoming more and more unnatural. With the growing population people are looking for ways to produce food as quickly as possible and as cheap as possible. With this mentality, problems always occur. Corn, soy, wheat, and rice are the 4 main plants grown on farms. Corn is used in far more products than most people know. It is made into high fructose corn syrup which is used in all of the soft drinks. And corn is also used to feed the cows in the feed lots to make them get to slaughter weight the fastest way possible. They force the cows to eat corn instead of grass which is what they were meant to eat. The corn causes the cow’s health problems which get to their worst point just as they are slaughtered. In the slaughter houses, the conveyor belts are running too fast for the average person to handle let alone untrained illegal immigrants. They are treated badly and get paid very little. They often get cut by the knives they use and take drugs to help them stay focused. The worst part about food is the creation of fast food. People can order their salty, tasteless, greasy food and eat it while driving in their cars. Obesity and diabetes are just two of the various health related problems fast food has caused humans. All of this is made possible by the use of fossil fuels. Fertilizer, pesticides and the trucks used to transport the food all use oil. The world revolves around oil these days.
The larger nightmare includes oil, poverty, nuclear weapons, global warming, and corporations. There are conflicts in the Middle East and oil has something to do with it. Innocent people die because people want oil. While most people have food and a place to live there are always those who don’t. If world war 3 were to start because of an oil dispute I don’t think it would last very long because nuclear weapons would kill everyone in an instant. Global warming is destroying the planet because of humans. In the last century we have done more damage to the earth than anyone ever imagined could be done. Corporations only care about money, not how they affect everyone else. The workers might be mistreated, or the environment might be harmed, but everything is fine if they are creating profit.
There are many more destructive things on the earth and as long as there is oil to fuel everything, these things will continue. More corn will be grown, more cows will suffer their horrible lives, and more trucks will release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere helping global warming. Food in our culture is one more aspect of a larger nightmare.

Final Essay #1

The history of food is a very long history and boring up until the last 1% of human existence. Humans were hunters and gatherers. This means that they went around looking for plants to eat and animals to hunt. People weren’t overweight and they traveled a lot looking for more food. Occasionally there were some problems like when they hunted woolly mammoths to extinction. Hunting and gathering was the only life for humans and seemed to be fine until agriculture was developed. People started to domesticate animals and started growing plants. This allowed the tribe to grow in size, have food available and allowed more time to sit around and relax. This allowed cities to appear. Things stayed like this until the invention of the tractor in the early 1900’s. Tractors allowed more food to be produced for less money. Industrialized food really started in the 1950’s after World War 2 because while looking at the enemy’s research labs that had poisonous gas, they were able to switch some molecules and make pesticides. The variety of foods being grown decreased and now the main products are corn, soy, rice, and wheat. Corn is used in a countless food items because scientists discovered its many possibilities including high fructose corn syrup which is used as sweetener in soft drinks. Corn is also used to feed the animals we eat. Just as the plants are grown and sold in the most efficient way, animals are treated the same way. They are kept in big buildings cramped into small spaces and fed with corn, something cows aren’t made to eat, just to get them heavier the quickest way possible. Health problems have appeared in humans that are food related because of this new system. Obesity is just one thing that would never have happened if we were still hunters and gatherers. This modern food system relies on fossil fuel. They need it to fertilize the plants, to keep bugs away, and to distribute the food. It is destroying the earth. Fishing boats are catching all the fish and destroying the bottom of the ocean so the fish can’t reproduce, and using pesticides and fertilizer destroys the natural ecosystem that would be there. If they stop using those things, nothing would be able to grow naturally. As everyone knows, fossil fuels will run out. This system cannot last forever and based on calculations by scientists, peak oil will come very soon. As the oil decreases, more and more sustainable farms will appear. Sustainable farms need very little oil and some don’t need any. Using nature’s relationships farmers will be able to produce a good amount of food. For example cows will eat grass and their waste will lie on the ground and flies will lay eggs in it and then the farmer will bring in chickens to spread the waste which helps fertilize the grass and they eat the maggots the flies eggs have hatch into. When there isn’t enough oil to ship it or when the price is just too expensive, people will have to live close to a farm or start their own. People won’t start hunting again because there isn’t enough game out there but people will learn about wild plants and start gathering those.

whats good to eat essay

What is a good way to eat? Everybody is different in the way their body uses the food that is given to them. Some people need more calories to just be alive than others. The question is where to get those calories. Of course there are the obvious choices concerning health. For example you might want to choose a salad with chicken in it rather than a bacon cheese burger. But if you are a person with high metabolism and gets enough exercise you wouldn’t have to worry about which one you chose. What you would have to worry about is how it got to your plate. What sort of chemical pesticides were used on the lettuce? How much space did the chicken have to live in? How healthy was the cow before it was killed? Someone could have a diet good for themselves and be completely healthy, but why do that when you could be just as healthy maybe even healthier by eating food coming from an organic sustainable farm. A sustainable farm is the opposite of the industrial food system. Instead of having cows all in one place and all the chickens in another, all the animals are on the same grass. The quality of the food comes how healthy the environment is on the farm. There are no chemicals involved in the farming process which is healthier than feedlots. Farmers markets carry everything the farm produces so it is very accessible. The animals live better lives, workers are not exploited, and it is all sustainable.
Eating plants and animals from an organic sustainable farm is healthy for multiple reasons. The first reason is that organic fruits and vegetables are grown without chemical pesticides. The animals are also not fed hormones or antibiotics. Organic means that you have a closer relationship with the food you eat. Pesticides are just one more step coming between you and your food. It is further from what nature intended it to be. Same goes with hormones and antibiotics in the animals. Animals that live their normal lives should not need antibiotics or hormones. Another reason why the organic sustainable foods are healthier than normal foods is that since things are working they way nature intended it to, all the nutrients are they way they are supposed to be. Since the animals are eating grass instead of corn, omega-3 fatty acids are in the meat instead of omega-6 fatty acids which appear when animals eat seeds. Omega-3s help with neurological development and omega-6s help in fat storage (Pollan). It is important to maintain a 1-1 ratio with these fatty acids. When you eat meat from a sustainable farm you are more likely have that ratio which will keep you healthy. Healthy animals mean healthy meat. Of course if you just eat meat all the time you won’t be healthy but if you balance it with all the other food groups you will be healthy.
Eating food from an organic sustainable farm is very convenient if you live near a farmers market. All you have to do is walk a few blocks and buy whatever you want. You could even start your own organic garden in your backyard if you don’t live near a farmers market. Then to get the meat just go to the supermarket and look on the label to find out where it came from. The prices shouldn’t be too much higher than other foods but it is more expensive. It’s more expensive because it does not rely on corn like everything else. Farmers in the Midwest produce too much corn so any product that has anything to do with corn, which is a lot, is very cheap. Spending the few extra bucks is well worth it.
Ethically, eating from an organic sustainable farm is one of the best food choices a person could ever make. First of all it is not dependent on oil like industrial farms. Even though there are vehicles that use oil, they could live without them. When the peak oil crisis finally arrives, these farms will continue to produce healthy food without a problem. There is no place for oil on this farm. The animals do all the work. They way a sustainable farm works is how the animals do what they are supposed to do. Cows eat grass then drop their waste and move on to another patch of grass. After 3 days when the maggots in the cow pies get big, chickens come and scratch the cow waste all over the patch of grass, which fertilizes the land, and then eat the maggots. Other chickens eat other patches of grass and their waste provides nitrogen to the ground to allow the grass to continue growing healthy. The farm just tries to imitate symbiotic relationships found in nature (Pollan). By doing so the animals are happy doing their job. This is how it is sustainable. The farmers make sure things are working and help the animals along and maximize the production without harming the animals except of course when they are slaughtered. In industrial feed lots, the animals are fed corn all day and have no space to move. They are not happy or healthy. Their lives are meaningless compared to animals on a sustainable farm. Choosing to eat from a sustainable farm is the right ethical choice. Workers are not exploited on sustainable farms. There are no conveyer belts of meat waiting to be sliced at a pace to quick for a normal person. Animals are killed when they are ready to be killed. In industrial meat factories illegal immigrants from Mexico come to this country because the overproduction of corn has destroyed their economy. They work long shifts and sometimes take drugs to stay alert. This doesn’t happen on sustainable farms. Sustainable farms have good ethics.
Eating a balanced diet from the industrial food system with enough exercise will keep you healthy. The industrial food system has 3 major flaws though. It isn’t as healthy as sustainable farm foods, it is cruel to animals, and it exploits workers. You might find a good way to eat using the industrial food system but the right way to eat is by sustainable farms. Michael Pollan the author of The Omnivores dilemma and of Unhappy Meals (an article for the New York Times), has done a lot of research and is very reliable. People should know why it is important to know what the right way to eat is because when fossil fuels are limited in the near future the industrial food system will collapse. In order to get through the oil crisis people need to know about sustainable farms which is how nature intended it to be. Oil made Americans fat and unhealthy, organic sustainable farms will make people healthy again.

article response

I read the article about how calories work. I thought it was interesting that 217 big macs can power a car 88 miles. I thought it was also interesting that food labels dont always tell the truth. How hard is it to write the real amount of calories. Knowing that calories help you breathe and pump blood makes the idea of starving to death worse than i origionally thought.

Peak Oil comments

Since the predictions for global peak oil range from now to 2035 i think society should be doing more to prepare for life without oil. i think life will go back to the way it was before oil was discovered. the population will steady itself out or even decline. I think the reason people arent focusing on the changes that need to be made because its too hard for them to see the future. they want to see it to believe it and it will be to late to change before chaos breaks out.

comment on simone's blog

great paper. I think you should read over your paper to catch grammar errors. YOu explain the IFS very well but maybe you should give your opinion on the future of the IFS too.

comment on brian's paper

Nice paper. You talked a lot about the past and present of the IFS but maybe you should add something about where you think the IFS is heading in the future.

Industrial food paper

The industrial food system is food being produced in mass quantities reaching all the supermarkets and fast food restaurants around the country and other countries. It keeps food affordable for everyone. Scientists work to invent new food products to make more money. Trucks ship everything everywhere. The industrial food system is based on fossil fuel, cheap labor and the idea that it is better to produce as much as possible by doing things as fast as possible for as cheap as possible. While people all over the world are being fed by the system, the long term damage caused by it will not be easily fixed.
Explaining how a cheeseburger from a fast food place got to you is a good way to explain how the industrial food system works. First fields of genetically modified versions of corn are planted and then harvested. Farmers are made to grow more and more every year because of the price and scientists have to come up with ways to use the extra corn every year because of the extra surplus. One way to get rid of the surplus is to feed it to animals. To make things more efficient cows along with pigs and chickens are kept in small pens. They are fed corn which is not what nature designed cows to eat. It causes them multiple health problems like acid in the stomach. By the time they are about to die from the health problems they are sent to a slaughter house anyway. From there people are made to work cutting meat and gutting cows but the lines move too fast and they cut themselves and spill the guts all over the meat. The leftover parts of the meat are used to create the beef patties which are sent to the fast food places.
Along with the hamburger the soda that comes with the value meal also is a way to use up the surplus of corn. High Fructose Corn Syrup is the sweetener used. The fries come from huge fields of potatoes and nothing but potatoes and the salt comes from mines that seem to be at the center of the earth. Fossil fuel powers all the trucks used to bring the food to that one restaurant. My experience with the industrial food system is a good experience. Since it is everywhere there is no escaping it. It is less expensive than organic food and fast food tastes good. It isn’t as healthy but I haven’t had any major health problems yet.
The industrial food system is the primary source of U.S. nutrition because the food is cheap and there is a lot of it. 100 years ago, meat was a special occasion in an average household. Since there is so much corn, cows can grow so much faster and since they are crammed into small places more cows can be raised at once. This makes meat much cheaper then if a farmer raised cows by letting them graze on grass. Also it allows people all over the country to enjoy the same foods. 100 years ago you were stuck with the local farms.
One of the most important problems with the industrial food system is the treatment of the animals. Cows get fed many things which they would not naturally eat. They are meant to eat grass, not corn. They are also fed the blood and meat of the dead cows. Cows are herbivores, meat and blood should definitely not be in their diet. All the animals of the industrial food industry are treated as objects not as living things. They are living in filth and manure which causes ecoli outbreaks. Another problem is the CEO’s of all the companies that benefit from the industrial food system. The meat factory speeds up the line so workers have to take drugs to keep them focused and even then many people get injured. The line moves so fast that the people who gut the cows make more mistakes and shit gets into the meat. The owners of the fast food places don’t care as long as they are making money. The industrial food system encourages farmers to grow increasingly larger crops of corn every year. This presents a huge problem. More space will be used for corn fields and more corn will have to be eaten. Humans will become more over weight with all the food there is. Also more food means that it will be able to support a larger population. More fossil fuels will be needed to keep things running and that won’t last very long. The earth can’t support a rapidly increasing human population.
The Industrial food system matters because it is able to provide food at affordable prices to everyone in the country. If the industrial food industry didn’t exist, the population would not be as large as it is today. It is one of the reasons for progress in society.
The system tells us that we just want to have something in our stomachs. A hamburger at McDonalds will quickly fill the stomach of a hungry person not paying attention to taste probably because he is talking to friends or paying attention to the road in a car. I now know that there is shit in the meat but I will continue to eat it because it is most convenient. The more expensive a food is does not mean it is free of the industrial food system. Gourmet cheese ravioli is just as bad. The cheese probably came from a cow in a small pen with machines sucking on the hormone injected utters. There is very little a person with a busy life can do to escape the industrial food industry.
The situation the industrial food system has put us in is not good at all. It relies on fossil fuel and everyone knows that it will not last forever. 100 years ago the human population was approximately 1,500,000 people. The current population is about 6,660,000,000 people. Even if fossil fuel lasts another 100 years or even 50 more years, there is a chance that the population could reach 10,000,000,000 people because the industrial food industry will be able to produce enough food to feed all these people. The Earth can’t handle all those humans. Cities will get bigger, corn fields will get bigger and humans will get bigger themselves. The environment will be destroyed and then humans will have trouble surviving. The industrial food industry might seem good because it supplies people with a surplus of food, but it is doing more damage then people know.

What I did at Wendys

I went to Wendys after school and I stopped by a store to buy a cookie. It was less crowded at Wendys so i thought they would be able to take the time to deep fry my cookie. I asked the lady if she could deep fry my cookie but she said no. I asked why not and she just ignored me. I kept asking and she kept ignoring me so i left and ate my cookie.

my post on Nick's essay

Why is it ethically better to eat according to your diet?
I think it would be better if you gave specific information about how eating less meat and more vegetables will keep you healthy.

Supermarket

Historically, there are many things a supermerket has that you couldnt get in the past. If you wanted chicken, you would have to buy a whole chicken and pluck it. In the super market you have a package of 6 chicken wings. There are products from all over the world. How fast are food products evolving? When will a new flavor for something be produced? there are so many more choices of the same foods than there were years ago.
There are a lot of products in the supermarket and each has their section. within their section, there are healthy choices and unhealthy choices. I noticed that there was an equal amount of unhealthy and healthy choices for some products like cerial.

Fast food meal

I ate at subway and I got an italina bmt on hearty italian bread. It had ham, salami, and pepperoni in it and i added lettuce and the southwest sauce. as i was eating it, i didnt feel much. I just felt full after a while. Then i had some cookies and I was even more full. Not tired, not energized just full.

Tomato plants

Tomato plants are a summer plant. We could start when it gets warm around june and they will be ready to pick around 60 days later. We could start even earlier if we plant them inside and transplant them when the weather gets warmer. Certain types of tomatos need different amounts of space between plants. From 12 inches apart to 5-6 feet. when planting, use fertilizer. Use stakes if needed. Water thouroughly and regularly when it hasnt rained for a while. Watch out for tomato hornworms, verticillium and fusarium wilts, early blight, septoria leafspot.

3 Days of Food

The first day I would start with chocolate chip pancakes with maple syrup. My next meal would be a couple slices of pizza. Dinner for the first day would be Penne Alla Vodka. Second day breakast would be a grilled chieese with bacon. LUnch would be nachos. Dinner would be Chicken Cordon Bleu. Breakfast on the third day would be french toast. Lunch would be a cheeseburger with bacon and barbeque sauce. Dinner would be tacos.

People should eat according to the food pyramid. Lots of wheat, some fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat, and sweets.

Introduction to Locally Available Goat Milk Cheese

A. Goat milk cheese is cheese made from goat milk. Nothing is different about the process except where the milk comes from.

B. Goat Milk cheese is better for you because it has lower fat and lower cholesterol.
C. The goats are raised and the cheeses are made in Pine Bush, NY.
Contact information: Person: Lynn Fleming
Address: 414 Church Rd, Pine Bush, NY 12566
Phone: (845) 744 – 6089
Email: lynnhaven@hvc.rr.com
D. The goats are fed “local hay” and “regular grain”. The hay and grain contain very little pesticides. The Farmer said getting the healthiest types of food for the goats are very hard to get. The goats are not treated with hormones and antibiotics. The milk is pasturized which means it is heated to a certain point to kill bacteria. Then the cheese is formed. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1167088873055109674 http://www.realfoodliving.com/goatmilk.htm http://www.idfa.org/facts/cheese/cf34.pdf

Pasta

I boiled the water, dumped the pasta into the pot and the pasta grew over the 10 minutes. A foam covered the top when it was ready. I dumped the pasta and hot water into a strainer then i ate it with tomato sauce and parmesean cheese.

I ate nachos. When I took a bite of one nacho, it had cheese, and a jalepeno pepper on it. When I bit into it, the nacho chip it crunched and the cheese got spread out and the chip kept crunching and the pepper got crushed and mixed in with the crumbled chip and cheese. Then I felt the spicy heat from the pepper. I chewed faster and everything became mushier and i swallowed because I needed a drink of water. Later I had two peppers and the heat was worse so I needed more water. When I ate the chip with cheese on it, the crunchy part kind of made lots of little pieces that went all over my mouth. The not so crunchy part just became mush and spread out all over but the sting from the peppers stayed in the back of my throat a long time and water didnt help it until i was done eating.

My Meal

I went to Nathans/Pizza Hut on saturday night. I got a chili cheese dog and i split a pizza with some friends. The chili cheese dog tasted good. the comination of bread, hot dog, chili, and cheese really hit the spot. I couldn't really seperate the flavors after I took a bite but the combination is what makes it taste good. The pizza wasn't the best pizza, but it was ok. I didnt have the beef half, I just ate the plain slices. The sauce wasn't as flavorful as I'm used to but I can't explain why. The cheese wasn't the same as a regular pizza either. The pizza tasted like pizza just because it had sauce, dough and cheese. I can't describe how it tasted other than the individual ingrediants. Pizza Hut pizza doesnt taste as good as other pizza and i dont know why.

Refrigerator

Gallon of water, orange juice, 2 milk cartons, country crock, margerine, fake margerine, strawberry jam, clam juice, mayonaise, american cheese, tortillas, juice boxes, 3 boxes of gogurt, sugar, maple syrup, butter, left over food (cant tell what it is).