Food Inc

                After watching Food Inc, I am under the impression (more than ever) that we, as a nation, need to make changes.  We all need to be more aware of what we eat, and those of us who know already need to stop ignoring the fact that we may be eating unhealthy food. For things to change, we all have to make a change.  The sanitary conditions of the animals, we eat, stood out the most to me. Unsanitary conditions are always something I choose to believe vanished after Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” was written, as in I choose to believe it is a problem of the past. But, this film clearly showed me that it is still an issue of the present day and if anything it’s worse with all the new bacteria that have developed.  I liked that the film was such an “eye opener” and that it used such powerful testimonies, like the actual farmers that worked for these big companies.  In my opinion a lot of people have to watch this movie, it’ll change the way they view food.  

I believe in eating a good mix of small portions of food.  The food pyramid we were all shown as children is a good example of this; it included dairy, meat, whole grains, vegetables, fruits and fats.  I believe we all need a little bit of each every day. For example, we all need the calcium provided from the dairy group so every day we should all have a least a yogurt and if someone is lactose intolerant than he or she should take calcium tablets.  We should all have a small portion of meat every day; it’s a lot better if it is white meat (like fish) since red meat is known for taking too long to digest. It is a reason why I do not think it is such a good idea to be a vegetarian since the protein/nutrition provided from certain meats cannot ever be replaced by vegetables.  However, vegetables should be included in every meal. In my opinion they are the most important “food group.” I believe fruits are a great snack! So everyone should carry around at least an apple to munch on at sometime during the day. Fruits taste great and are so healthy, so why not enjoy them? Plus even though we are not used to the idea of “healthy fats” such substances do exist and it is our job to find it and consume it daily (hint: omega-3). I believe if someone can truly learn to balance all these foods and drink a lot of water, he or she will most likely be a very healthy person.  

What We Eat

                In his very powerful essay, What We Eat, Eric Schlosser explains how the fast food industry is impacting our nation both health-wise and financially speaking.  He argues that fast food is unhealthy for us and that the fast food industries are ending small businesses.  He uses numerous writing methods in this essay in an attempt to show and explain to people exactly what is happening in our nation without us even noticing.  

                At the start of his essay, Schlosser uses description to describe what someone experiences as they walk into a fast food place, “Pull open the glass door, feel the rush of cool air, walk in, get on line, study the backlit color photographs above the counter, place your order, hand over a few dollars...”(667).  He uses compare and contrast to show the eating habit-changes the world has gone through in the past centuries/years, “The early Roman Republic was fed by its citizen-farmers; the Roman Empire, by its slaves. On any given day in the United States about one-quarter of the adult population visits a fast food restaurant” (668). After this he explains the cause (and later on the effect) of the rise of the food industry, “the extraordinary growth of the fast food industry has been driven by fundamental changes in American society” (668).

                Eric Schlosser uses numerous examples throughout his essay to make his point and the one food industry he focuses mostly on is McDonald’s.  He introduces his McDonald’s argument with the sentence, “The McDonald’s Corporation has become a powerful symbol of America’s service economy, which is now responsible for 90 percent of the country’s new jobs” (668). He uses definition to explain what is meant by the phrase “McDonaldization,” which is referred to as the dominance of giant food industries over independent small businesses.  Plus, Eric Schlosser uses narrative when he explains his experience with fast food, “During the two years spent researching this book, I ate an enormous amount of fast food” (673). 

                I think using all these writing methods helped make Eric Schlosser’s essay very powerful. He made a good argument and backed it up with a lot of information. I like his writing style because it was well organized and clear so I was able to understand what his argument was.  I had heard the argument that fast food is unhealthy for us many times so that was no surprise. However, I found his argument of the impact of big food industries on our economy very interesting.  I never realized the damage big food industries were causing small businesses much less the impact of me always buying food there, instead of at independent businesses, was having on our economy.  I do not want all the money of our nation to belong to just a few men in the food industry; I want the wealth to be distributed among everyone, especially those small businesses that are usually full of hardworking people trying their best to survive in this nation. I really do hope a lot more people read What We Eat because I am sure many people out there are not aware of half the things mentioned in this essay. 

Extra Credit :)

                A few days ago, when I got to choose between responding to “Two Ways to Belong to America” or “The Meaning of Life,” I chose to write about the second essay because I thought the author made an interesting point. However, I really did like Bharati Mukherjee’s essay so I am taking this opportunity to express my opinion on it. Bharati’s essay compares and contrasts her sister’s life in America to her own.  She clearly states that she’s accepted and embraced the American culture however; her sister still keeps her culture alive (she still follows the Indian customs).  For Bharati there is only two ways to belong to America, either you completely transform and follow the American culture (like she did) or you live as an outcast  in this foreign country (like her sister, Mira).  I don’t think this situation is so “black and white.” I believe that in America immigrants can be (and are) a mix of their old nation’s customs with the new customs embraced in America.  For example, my family is from Ecuador, and to this day their old customs/culture is still a part of them but they have embraced many aspects of this country (like the English language). I was born in this country but my family raised me through an Ecuadorian culture. I speak Spanish very well, I eat Spanish food more than anything else and I listen to Ecuadorian music. But I was raised in this country, so of course through the American education/environment I learned to speak English and learned its history (better than any other nation’s) and even adapted the fast food eating habits everyone in this country has. I could easily say I feel more American than Ecuadorian, since I have never stepped a foot in Ecuador but I do respect the fact that it’s my parent’s old home. Plus I do love the culture. The simple fact that I can say I am not just a plain American but an American with a twist, makes me special.

                Sheila Jasanoff responded to Bharati’s essay with the same point I used, the point that there is more than two ways to belong to America. She also shares her experience of not just being American but also being South Asian and how she embraces both cultures.  Bharati uses definition, compare and contrast and of course pathos in her essay, to make her point. Sheila Jasanoff does as well by defining what being American is for her, contrasting her idea to Bharati’s and sharing her own experiences.  Even though Sheila Jasanoff did not write as much as Bharati she still made her point clear enough for me to understand it and agree with it. Plus I can safely say that most people don’t think of this situation as so “black and white” like Bharati does. 

The Meaning of Life

 In general, we compare and contrast to discover similarities and differences between everything and anything around us. It is a good way to understand new information, most of the new information we acquire we automatically compare it to something we already know so that the new information can become familiar to us.  In the essay “The Meaning of Life,” Roger Cohen compares the emotional states two monkeys are in after having been part of an experiment for several years. The monkeys were part of a protracted experiment in aging. Canto, aged 27, was given a restricted diet with about 30 percent fewer calories than Owen, aged 29, who got to eat anything he wanted. The conclusion made due to this experiment was that “caloric restriction slows aging in a primate species.” Roger Cohen focuses on pointing out that Owen was a much happier monkey than Canto.

Throughout the essay there are more differences pointed out than similarities. In the middle of the essay, Roger Cohen says “Canto looks drawn, weary, ashen and miserable in his thinness” and “Well-fed Owen, by contrast, is a happy camper with a wry smile.” This leads into his argument that people are happier when they eat what they really want to eat.  He uses pathos by mentioning the death of his mother, to state that happiness is necessary in life since she died of depression. He makes his argument clear in the last lines which say “Laughter extends life. There’s little of it in the low-cal world and little doubt pudgy Owen will have the last laugh.”

I agree that happiness is necessary in life. I actually believe the point of life is to be happy. However, I don’t agree that living on a diet of low calories is or has to be considered a sad life. I truly believe we need to have healthy eating habits so we can avoid all the problems that come with not having them and I truly believe we can find a way to make eating healthy fun.  For example, the idea of eating healthy can be cemented already at a young age to children, instead of having pizza parties to celebrate achievements, fruit parties can be done.  Plus, our whole society has to promote fruits and vegetables as being delicious instead of showing French fries and cheeseburgers as mouth-watering foods in every TV commercial. If changes are made little by little we will all definitely be seeing "eating healthy" from a different perspective. 

We All Tell Lies

                I believe the way Stephanie Ericsson categorizes lies (in her essay) was very well done. She categorizes lies in 10 different categorizes and gives an accurate title to each category along with explanations and examples. I believe the 10 kinds of lies she mentions are the only ones there are so she did not miss any. I believe she wrote this essay to explain to people a reality; it’s a reality most people don’t choose to face but she tells it to us straight out; it’s the reality that we are all liars in some way.  Her essay got published because who ever read her essay realized she was absolutely right and realized the whole world needed to see this reality. The purpose of the essay is to tell people that lies are a part of our lives and instead of denying that we tell them we should all learn to recognize them.

                I like how well organized Stephanie Ericsson wrote her essay. She wrote it in an easy way to understand since she categorized it in a simple way. Plus I like the whole topic of the essay. I never realized how easily we all tell lies without even noticing. I like the examples she used since they backed up all her points strongly, her examples gave her essay an emotional appeal since most of them were situations in which people were hurt in either an emotional or physical way. The category that explained omission affected me because of the example she uses about the priest who got away with molesting countless boys. That example made me completely realize how terrible omission can really be. I thought every quote at the beginning of each category gave the essay a special touch since most essays are not ever written that way. Some of the quotes were even humorous like the one that quoted The Wizard of Oz, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! I am the Great Oz!" I really did enjoy reading Stephanie Ericsson’s essay and hopefully I can recommend it to many more people. 

Skunk

A couple of years ago, Robert Connors wrote an essay called “How in the World Do You Get a Skunk Out of a Bottle?” I believe Robert Connors chose to have a question as his title so that it could grab people’s attention.  It is a question hardly anyone ever has to answer, so this causes curiosity instantly. People begin to wonder immediately what the essay could possibly be about so they end up reading it just to put an end to this curiosity. I would know since I read the essay a long time ago just to feed my curiosity. Plus the question clearly states the conflict of the entire essay and it is the question he constantly asks himself throughout the whole essay so it is an appropriate title. As a reader continues to read this essay, he or she also realizes this essay has an interesting purpose.

In his essay Robert Connors literally wrote a process analysis on how he took a skunk out of a bottle.  This unusual process was used just to get the readers interested and keep them entertained.  However, the point of the essay is to show the problems pollution is causing the environment. The purpose is to convey the message that people must keep the environment clean. The skunk stuck in the bottle symbolizes animals who could be suffering all around the world due to pollution. In most parts of the world it probably isn’t a skunk suffering but maybe fish suffering as a result of getting hurt by plastic bags in the water or birds dying from eating crap on the floor.  Robert Connors’ love for nature allowed him to write such a detailed essay in such an interesting manner to raise awareness in people so that animals could have a better tomorrow. 

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In today’s society it is so easy to convey a message that we now have to be careful of what it is we choose to hear and believe. Advertisements convey plenty of messages and they are messages transmitted with the purpose of having one buy something. Advertisements are usually well done since the money invested in creating the advertisement has to be recovered. However, most of these advertisements are terribly misleading. The company making the advertisement is willing to do anything it must to make the viewer purchase a product. For example, I found this advertisement online, of a product called QuickTrim, which is supposed to help you lose weight fast.  I believe this product is cleverly advertised.  The person that made the advertisement was clever to put facts and data on the outside of the product, so that the product can seem legit and safe. It also has in bold the short amount of time it supposedly takes someone to lose weight using this product.  Plus a celebrity was used to advertise the product to make it seem even more reliable. Kim Kardashian takes up most of the space in the advertisement; she’s wearing a bikini which shows off a slim body. Whoever made this advertisement is pretty much trying to say that by using the product you will look like this well known celebrity. Since the product is so well advertised it is easy to understand why so many people would buy it.

I have heard many stories of people who buy products to lose weight and these products turn out harming them instead of helping them. Misleading and false advertisements are to blame for all that harm. False advertisements should not be allowed at all on T.V. Plus people need to be more careful of what they buy. If people were more careful they would not waste money on things that don’t even work. People need to use advertisements to their advantage only. Plus they need to stop believing everything they see on T.V and become better informed of such things as what is a healthy way for them to lose weight.  I warn people not to buy QuickTrim unless they know someone else who managed to lose weight with it, it’s the only way someone can know if  the product really works.