Food Glorious Food: Food, Foodies, Farmers Market and Handmade Food Renaissance

My favorite genre of food is seafood; shrimp, crabs, scallops, and especially lobsters. Anyway seafood was cooked whether it was fried, boiled, sauteed, etc, it all tasted great. After reading David Foster Wallace’s critique “Consider the Lobster”, eating lobster or any type of seafood for that matter is not as appealing to me anymore. David Foster Wallace disucsses the ethical question is it morally right to kill the animals and treat them different than we would a human life. Wallace shows the controversy of whether or not the lobster actually feels pain. Some people say it is morally acceptable to kill the lobster because they dont feel pain. While on the other hand others say it is morally wrong to kill lobsters because they do experience the pain and people who say they dont are basically trying to hide the truth in order to justify their answer. I believe the lobsters do feel pain especially when they are being boiled. Wallace discusses in his critique of the Maine Lobster Festival that the most common way to cook and lobster is by boiling it. He describes the lobsters actions of it putting its claws on the rim of the pot to try and prevent itself from going into the hot water and even when it is in the water the pot shakes due to the lobster feeling uncomfortable and trying to escape. Picturing this scenario alone made me realize that whether is they fell “pain” or if they are just “uncomfortable” its not something the lobster wants to experience. Just like humans, lobsters have the instinct of survival. I feel that since they act human like in some way we should treat lobsters as well as every other animal like humans in that we dont kill them for our own selfish reasons. If we treated lobsters like we treated humans, we would be put in jail. Since reading this article, I have not eaten lobster and actually feel uncomfortable seeing a lobster in the store knowing they are going to eventually be killed and cooked. This article has definitely changed my perception on animals lives and how they are just as precious as we consider our lives.

I started to care for what I eat since taking a health class in high school. The teacher explained the dangers of saturated fats, trans fats, sodium and cholesterol. He also explained the benefits of having vitamins, iron and other nutritional values in your daily diet. The movie “King Corn” changed my perception on today’s food market. I’ve started looking at the ingredient’s labels and on the back of products; furthermore noticing that

High fructose corn syrup is highly popular among everything. King Corn elaborated that corn was genetically altered and it’s not what it used to be. The fact that high fructose corn syrup contains a toxic ingredient makes me question the safety of all these products; why doesn’t our government put stricter regulations on such a thing?

I’ve personally changed my habits with the persuasions of King Corn. My usual morning activities include brushing teeth, getting dressed and eating a cereal most likely the “Corn Chex” brand cereal. I managed to find successfully a substitution by buying the “Rice Chex.” “Rice Chex” tastes as good as the “Corn Chex”, but it isn’t corn driven. Eating something Corn based seems silly after being informed through ‘King Corn”, when I get close to “Corn Chex” I’d start to have mental pictures of all these laboratories altering corn with possible negative effects on human body. I am not the only one learning from our class, my family has been strictly lectured of the importance of excluding food purchases with a numerous adds of high fructose corn syrup. However, it is astonishingly hard due to the fact that very other product is fortified with it.

“Consider the Lobster” by David Foster Wallace was the most influential from taking English 2100. I never actually took a moment to think about the processes that an animal undergoes before reaching my plate. David Foster Wallace is highly successful with using vivid descriptions and adding onto to the fact that while cooking lobster, we technically boil it alive. I used to love going to “Red Lobster” with my grandmother, which conveniently was located in Times Square, near my grandmother’s work.  We used to love going to ‘Red Lobster” on Friday night and getting our favorite “Lobster, Crab and Seafood-Stuffed Mushrooms” dinner special with a side of iced tea. But now I can’t eat a cooked lobster without imagining the poor “Sebastian” from The Little Mermaid trying to fight his way out of the pot to run for his life, just like in the good old cartoon.

Beef used to be my favorite type of meat, that’s because I love spaghetti Bolognese and many other dishes full of beef, but “King Corn” has radically changed my view of beef; I grew up in Europe where all of food is usually organic, and more importantly animals are usually treated in a more humane ways.
In Europe where we still have pastures (in which cows can feed on grass)on which cattle can graze, and from personal experience I can say that not only it tastes better, but thanks to “King Corn” I realize that it is healthier too. When I came to US I knew that food production in US involves a lot of unnatural practices that aren’t popular (or sometimes legal) in Europe, but not that cattle spends it life contained in extremely crowded areas (instead of more natural pastures) for more profit at the expense of animal’s suffering and nutrition thus our, and animal’s health. More over I cannot imagine how people decided that cattle should eat food that is unnatural to them which can’t be good for them for obvious reasons.
What shocked me the most was the lack of any sort of ethics in treatment of animals? “King Corn” showed how cows spend lifetime contained on a crowded strip of land so small that they can’t even more around, while they are feed food that is simply not made for their stomachs; moreover all of this causes diabetes and certainly other health problems too. I would be able to eat food with less nutrients but when I know buying beef supports cruel practices that we saw in “King Corn” or even worst practices from “Kosher Wars” specifically Agriprocessors ripping still alive animals alive, that appears a lot like Auschwitz.
Initially I thought that all(relatively speaking) people treat animals fairly, in production of food money is not the only factor especially when dealing with live animals that can sense what happening to them. Now I’m not comfortable with eating beef(as naive as it sounds, I still hope that it is only cattle industry that is so cruel) so instead of eating my favorite spaghetti Bolognese I rather to switch to something more austere like Fettuccine alfredo.

    For the longest time I have eaten lobster, looking at the dish as no more than another animal killed to satisfy my hunger. But I never thought about how it was killed or in all reality cared how it was killed as long as I was able to have my luxurious lobster meal. My problem was that in my mind I was not able to imagine somebody cooking lobster it sort of just appeared on my dinner plate and I was satisfied. Before this class if someone would of asked me was the lobsters alive before they are cooked I would of definitely said “No”. My problem was not hat I was uncaring but more that I was uninformed these are not things that the customer sees going into a large restaurant the food is made in the back so all the customer knows is what comes out on the plate. Since my reading of David Foster Wallace’s text “Consider the Lobster” I have come to the conclusion that i will take a stand and not eat lobster anymore. In my mind gaining this knowledge now makes me look at myself in the past as being kind of immoral and uncareful so now I think my mind automatically questions itself when a big slab of meat is on my plate and questions run through my head such as “How did this food get here?” and “Was it properly killed or did it suffer a painful death?”.

    Even though I am not the person or the people who force feed animals and slaughter them, as a consumer I still feel kind of guilty because my demand for the food makes the companies have to produce on a large scale and in return they can not be mindful of every little lobster or every cow because they have a certain quota to meet to keep their factories live and running. Sometimes the thought passes my mind who’s more guilty the people who are doing the killing or the people that are consuming the food, I mean I understand the severity of torturing animals so I gladly changed my diet but everybody else is not going to just up and change their diet because of some information they were given. Also, in all reality people have to eat, they can push for food to be properly killed before they eat it but if it is not they can not just give up eating. This class has open my eyes to the fact that as a human being on planet earth I am apart of a big slaughtering problem, but since i know that now im making it my business to change it. No more lobster for me.

On tuesday, two or so weeks ago i went to Z lounge with my friends, they have daily specials there for food and i noticed that Friday is a lobster special which was cheap at only 21$.  I got really enthusiastic about coming back on friday and persuaded my friends to go to try it out, lobster is almost a delicacy and for cheap it seemed like a bargain. At about that time we began reading “Consider the Lobster” by David Foster Wallace, and when friday came around i read  only half of the essay he wrote not entirely reaching the part about how lobsters get boiled alive. so unknowingly i return to Z lounge that friday, sit down and order my lobster, when it arrives it is cut open down the middle of its stomach and laying on its back.  To begin with it already wasn’t a pleasant sight, the lobster you see as a whole not just a piece of meat like chicken or steak so you feel slightly disturbed by eating it already.  In addition, you have to crack the lobsters claws to get the meat out, its kinda like cracking bones, you have to put a good amount of force into it, and this is all while it lays on its back almost staring you down helplessly, i felt like a hyena or something tearing apart the animal. After eating the lobster i wasnt entirely satisfied, i dont eat lobster often at all and i really expected it to taste better.  The next morning i finished reading the article and found out that lobsters actually get boiled alive and there is a good chance that they are suffering by getting treated so. After the combination of both experiences i think i will refrain from eating lobster from now on, both the visual and intellectual knowledge makes eating the lobster not at all appealing even if it is for a cheap price. Im a chicken kinda guy anyhow. =D

One kind of food that has been part of my diet is beef.  Ever since I have been born, I do not remember a long period of time in which beef was not present as one of my meals.  Beef shows up in my diet by that McDonald’s Big Mac that is so delicious to that great eight ounce steak from Outback Steak House.  The presentation of beef is evident and the list of where I eat it can go on and on.  As I live my life and eat this beef continuously all my life, I do not recall a time where I stopped and thought of where the food I was eating came from.  All I know is that it comes from a cow from a farm where it was then brought to a slaughter house where it was killed and processed to be bought by consumers which would lead to our plates.

This absent minded of thinking while eating the meat present in my diet all changed when the movie of King Corn was presented in class.  As I stated before, I just thought the simple process of going from farms to processors to my plate is how meat is transferred, but there is more than that.  I now saw the treatment of animals before being processed.   This movie showed how corn plays a large role in the beef that I eat all the time.  As the food industry grew, the idea of grass feeding cows has almost become a myth and was not done much from producers.  An easier process with faster results has come upon the feeding and the treatment of cows.  The cows have started being fed corn which allows the cows to become bigger in less time.  Corn became the main protein for cows.  The feeding of corn to cows instead of grass lowers the cost because of the abundance of cow meat present.  With the great positive of lowering meat cost, there is a downfall in the quality of the meat.  A corn fed cow has much more fat than a grass fed cow rendering it less healthy, containing less protein, and less flavor of the original meat.  King Corn shows how much of our meat is made up of corn so much of my diet is full of corn.

The movie King Corn allows me to think before what is being put into my mouth.  Now I know that my diet is mostly based on corn products which caused me to cut down on my meat intake.  Knowing that my meat is less healthy and fattier is a wake up call for me because that is a sign in which I should change up my diet with various other food which may not just be meat.  This is a wake up call for me, but it also brings upon other important questions such as how would we select food now that we know what is going into the food that we eat or how would we improve the food that we eat now that we know how unhealthy it may be.

I am not going to lie. My diet consists mainly of meat and some form of soda. I think my body has reached the point where it rejects vegetables. Any form of meat I love, whether it be fish, pork, lamb ,chicken, but i especially love beef. Ive never stopped to wonder how the animals my meat came from we’re raised, nor did i care. As long as I got to eat my meat, I was a happy person.

“King Corn” opened my eyes to two things. One, the meat I’m eating isn’t from grass fed cattle like I always thought, and two, high fructose corn syrup is in everything I eat. I always thought all forms of corn were healthy for you, but “King Corn” proved me wrong. High Fructose corn syrup causes obesity, and we get large amounts it from EVERYTHING we eat, since its located in almost all brands of food and drinks. I also learned from the documentary of how cattle is raised nowadays. They are kept in small closed areas and are fed an all corn diet. By preventing them from moving, they get fat faster and are ready to be butchered and sent to the meat packing plant faster then it would be too let them graze in a field. I see this as very bad. The quality of meat that comes from a corn fed animal is no where as near high quality as meat from a grass fed animal. This raised my awareness that what I am eating isn’t as healthy as i think it is, and beef these days isn’t actually beef, but just compressed corn that looks like beef.

After watching “King Corn”, my consumption of beef as gone down just a tad bit. The idea that its pack with corn just doesn’t sit right with my stomach. I have also cut down on my soda, drinking mainly juice and water. I occasionally have my McDonalds, but not as much as I use too. Ive also ventured out to a store that sold grass fed meat, and it is quite delicious compared to the corn fed beef. However, that store is quite far from my home, and there are no Kosher restaurants near where I live. As much as I love meat, I care more about my health, so I am willing to cut down after learning all these facts from “Corn King”.

The food industry has created a range of products that have made cooking more convenient for our fast pace lifestyle. At the same time some products are not healthy often causing an illness that sometimes consumers are unaware of the source of their ailment. Once you discover the origins you are able to curtail the consumption or eliminate it completely from your diet. This is the case of corn syrup, which is a food product that if taken in excess may cause overweight or diabetes.  Among the products that have corn syrup are juices, ice creams, cakes, soft drinks, and tomato sauces.When I go to the supermarket I usually read the labels for any allergy causing ingredients or sweeteners. Can fruits is one of the products packaged with corn syrup, but there is a better alternative. When I buy canned pineapple, I always purchase the one that is packaged with its natural juices. It is doesn’t contain the overly sweet candy taste and the fruit has enzymes that aid your digestion.

The makers of the documentary King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis show us how corn is produced and tracks how many products have corn as one of their ingredients. The partof documentary that drew my attention was the making of high fructose corn syrup. Ian and Curt try to demonstrate how high fructose corn syrup is made. They make some inquiries regarding the ingredients in HFSC and among the ingredients is sulfuric acid, a highly corrosive chemical which is added to the mix. The package of sulfuric acid has a skull and cross bones. Although the movie is very interesting it made me think about how healthy is this product that is derived from corn.  Also, the fact that two college students are running around the Midwest asking where they can get their hands on a chemical, post 9/11 is disturbing.How is the FDA regulating these chemicals?  According to section 201(f), “(1) articles used for food or drink for man and animals, (2) chewing gum, and (3) article use for components of any such article” fall under the FDA jurisdiction.Source:http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodDefense/Bioterrorism/ucm082798.htm

Would the Bioterrorism Act of 2002 consider sulfuric acid as a controlled substance? Does the oxidation of this chemical when added to mixture makes it less harmful to the body?

People that suffer from diabetes and continue to consume foods with HFCS may want to think twice after they see King Corn. The documentary draws the viewer’s attention to consider the consequences of the over indulgence of corn sweeteners. Ian and Curt interviewed a Brooklyn man regarding his obsession with soft drinks and share how he lost weight when he stop drinking soda. His other medical issues were also alleviated. Now, I am not advocating for a complete elimination of corn syrup from your diet unless you are diabetic or your doctor indicates otherwise. I would rather save it for a special occasion like a nice jelly apple and or caramel corn made from scratch. I like to have a soft drink once in a while, but I mainly drink bottled water, which is a healthier alternative. During some Jewish holidays, some soft drinks companies sell sodas that contain cane sugar instead of HFCS. They have a better taste. Making wise choices when selecting foods is the best way to maintain a better health.

Food is defined as, “ any nourishing substance that is eaten, drunk, or otherwise taken into the body to sustain life, provide energy, promote growth, etc” by dictionary.com.  I am an avid lover of all different types of  meat, from beef, to chicken and fish.  The type of meat I eat most often however, is most certainly beef, whether it be a steak, a burger or in a stew I constantly find myself consuming it.  I would basically consider myself a carnivore, but I was shocked to see where beef actually came from. I had always know about the slaughter houses and the gruesome ways that the meat packing industry had slaughtered cattle, but I never actually knew the condition the cattle were in.  I guess I always figured they were well taken care of because this being America, there are strict regulations on just about everything.  I was completely and utterly wrong.  In the documentary “King Corn”, by Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis, they visited a slaughter house/cattle farm where the owner basically said that cows are fed a diet consisting of 85%-90% corn and other grains.  The owner then stated that the cattle were non-stop fed for about 3-5 months and confined to a small area.  This ensures that the cattle to get as fat and bulky as possible in the shortest amount of time possible.  All of this translates to a lower quality of meat served to the consumers.  As Curtis and Ian said, “so basically what your saying is that Americas favorite food the hamburger, is just a serving of fat”.  I now believe that to be the truth behind the curtain of lies that we have been fed over the years.  In the past, around 40 years ago and earlier, cattle were all fed grass.  This was a healthy diet, and it took about 4 years to get a calf to grow to a full size.  The trade off was that the meat was very lean, fat-free, and healthy; not to mention that it also tasted much better.  By contrast I discovered that today’s conception of beef is no where near what it used to be.  It contains nearly no nutritional substances, which therefore, by definition, beg the question “is this really food?”.  In my opinion, no, it is not.  I now try to eat more organic food when given the option and I usually avoid the types of so called “mystery meat” because that is possibly the worst thing you can consume.  It is the unwanted part of an unwanted cut of meat most of the time;  and it is then processed even more to add artificial flavors to make it taste like meat.  That in itself is something that shouldn’t be allowed, and I now consider my self to be an educated consumer.

Ever since i can remember meat and soda have always been a part of my diet. I usually eat other types of dishes like pasta, or rice, but meat has been my favorite. I am not really the type of person who can just ead a salad or meat once in a while, like some people i know.  My mom always tells me that eating meat everyday is not good for you becuase it can lead to many disorders with your body. I always thought that she was just telling me that becuase she did not want to cook, because she was tired so i never really paid attention to it.  My opinion changed after watching the documentary King Corn.

At first when I started watching the documentary i thought it was going to be like those other documentaries I have seen where they just throw information that is not interesting at you. This one changed my view because most of the facrs they gave were things i didnt know, and applied to my life in a big way. I learned that corn is in basically everything that we eat since it is cheap to make and grows fast. They make high fructose corn syrup from corn and add it to almost every drink. Another thing I learned was that the farmers keep cows in cages and feed them corn, so they become fat faster with the corn and lack of excersie, so they can go to the market faster. All of this explains how they have found corn in our hair and many people suffer with diabeties. Nobody waas meant to take such a huge amount of corn without excersice or breaks from it.

After watching the documentary I have made some changes to my diet. I stopped drinking soda and started drinking more water and orange juice. I still eat meat since it is my favorite food but i eat it with a variety of things. This is becuase i want to cut back on any extra corn im putting into my body. I also told my brother to do this too so he can lose some weight and become fit. These are the thoughts and changes i put into my diet based on what we learned and experienced in class.

            Ever since I was young, beef was my favorite meat and has always been a major part of my diet. My dad would by a couple pounds of steak every time we go to Pathmark. Before attending this course, I had a very bad habit of going to fast food restaurants. During the beginning of my senior year of high school, I would go to McDonalds every Saturday after my SAT tutoring class. Up until we watched King Corn, I didn’t know there were such things as corn-fed beef and grass-fed beef. I thought all beef came from field roaming cows. Every October around Columbus Day, my family and my uncles family would drive to upstate New York and go apple picking. On our way there, we passed by a lot of farms that contains a large field with happy, healthy, free-roaming cows. That gave me the idea that all cows were raised like this. Ever since I learned about corn-fed beef and how most of the meat we eat consists of fats, I lost my desire in eating a lot beef and I also stopped eating at fast food restaurants. I find it disgusting how they trap the cows in a tight area to prevent them from moving around and how they feed them a solid corn diet.

After watching the movie, reading the articles and listening to the discussions, I started watching what I eat. I started consuming less and less junk food such as soda because of the high fructose corn syrup. Instead of bringing a bottle of soda or juice to school everyday I started bringing a bottle of water. I also talked with my parents about shopping at kosher stores more often. However, there are no kosher stores in my neighborhood. The closest store we know of is in a Jewish neighborhood near where my uncle lives. Because of this course, I am becoming more aware of the food world. It changed my view on lots of foods like junk foods and meats. It led me to start making healthier choices when it comes to food.

One kind of food that I have been trying to give up as a part of my diet is beef since my attendance in this class. The essay Kosher Wars provides couples of examples to show how the food industry is changing the food quality. The more industrial food productions involve in the society, the less you know what have ever happened to food. I couldn’t imagine that the food which sending to our mouths is being prepared in a dirty environment. Also, the beef contains too high percentage in protein for human consuming. As food plays an important role of body energy, we shouldn’t eat unhealthy food that increases the risks of diseases. It is meaningless if we are offered with many options, but don’t choose something good for our health. Kosher War also brings me another image of how chicken behaves when the slaughter reaches the door of its cage. Even the chickens, they all know what is going to happen next, and their reactions are trying to tell people that they don’t want to be killed. The article Consider the Lobster, which was written by David Forster Wallace, explains the painful experience in details through the way of killing lobsters. Animals act much like when human beings act in a terrible pain. Same story happens to beef. We all believe that it is interesting when a cow milking, however, have you think how hurt it is while it suffering from a defunct-processing plant, and being prepared as food on your table? It is an ethical problem. After I finish reading those two essays, my mind keeps coming up and mentions me not just the beef is done under the bloody war between the machine and cows, but also its disgusting taste each time I see beef. These two essays we read in class help me shape my perspective view of the beef, and offer some reasons that make me thinking deeply about if it is necessary for me to change my eating habits.

Fast Food has always been a large percentage of the food that i ate.  I have always been someone who has eaten at McDonalds, Wendy’s, Burger King or my favorite Taco Bell!  These companies have always distributed food at low prices and close locations.

The convenience and affordability became unbearable to avoid and became an everyday routine every summer.  Regardless of season I always found myself there at least once a week all year round.  I always knew eating such amounts of fast food was not well for my health.  After reading the calorie counts when they were revealed in New York City about a year or two ago I was astonished.  But, the true realization came when I watched the movie “King Corn” and read the novel “Silent Spring”.  King Corn showed me the real and unappealing living condition of cattle being grown for beef.  They were given cheaper processed corn, not grass from an open field, which nature intended.  They were kept in small confined pens which prevented them from move continuously and fattened them up.  The truth was eating a burger from a fast food restaurant was much unhealthier then a home made burger.  I was further educated to understand how major crops were grown in the novel “Silent Spring”.  Many farms grow crops in large plantations unified to a single crop for the greatest output.  These unnatural conditions induced the need for pesticides and deadly chemicals to be used on these farms for top production.  They would be used to kill unwanted insect or diseases which could kill the crop.

After learning the processes in which the food we eat today is manufactured and produced, the concern for my health increased.  Knowing what entered my body and effected it became a greater concern.  My choice of foods has changed from cheap fast food to home cooked meals and restaurants.  Because of this class’s lectures and assignments I have been able to change my eating habits as well as my health.  Now I know what I’m eating and whether or not it will benefit my body positively! Thank you!

Kosher meat, whether it be chicken, veal, beef, etc, has always been a regular part of my diet. Being as I am an observant Jew, I have always only eaten meat that is kosher. I am often tempted to try non-kosher meat these days, as many of my non-Jewish friends go out to eat regularly and a must sit and watch them devour these meals that look most appetizing. However, I have always held strong in only eating certified kosher meat.

After reading “Kosher Wars,” my position on eating only kosher meat has only become stronger. “Kosher Wars” describes how Judaism requires that animals must be slaughtered, prepared, and cooked in a certain way in order to be permitted to be eaten. It also depicts how meat that is not kosher can come from an animal that is simply shot down ruthlessly without even being taken to a slaughterhouse. As a result of the fact that kosher meat is so pure, even many who are not Jewish prefer eating kosher meat over non-kosher meat. Although it may be priced higher, kosher meat undergoes an entire process to ensure that it is only of the purest and finest quality. Before being distributed and cooked, it is first soaked, salted, and ridded of all blood. Knowing that the meat I eat is certified kosher guarantees that I am getting the highest quality meat.

Purity and cleanness are only half of the reason “Kosher Wars” has strengthened my stance on only eating kosher meat. Not only is it of the highest quality, the ritual that is used to obtain it is both moral and ethical. When the animal is killed, it is slaughtered by a licensed Jewish authority with a perfectly smooth knife. The Rabbi quickly and precisely makes the incision into the trachea of the animal, bringing it to an instant and painless death. Both the quality of kosher meat and the process in which the animal is slaughtered to obtain it are reasons that “Kosher Wars” has made me aware of, and thereby strengthening my beliefs in keeping kosher.

Meat has always been an important part of my diet. The smell, look, and taste of a well prepared meat dish has always and will always have my personal appeal. But since taking this course, I’ve taken a much more sympathetic view towards the animals that satiate my hunger.
In King Corn, I found that the treatment of cows was truly horrifying. They weren’t allowed to roam and feed on grass-they were instead locked up in their pens with no other choice but to eat industrialized corn. This corn is considered inedible for human beings, yet it is essentially force fed to these cows because it is cheaper to produce. As a result, the cows become obese and sick, and sending them to the slaughter house seems closer to a mercy killing.
It is upsetting to think about how these animals are treated, but in the end I much prefer this knowledge than to remain in ignorant bliss as the general public does. In this sense I feel very fortunate for taking this class, as I’m sure if more people were aware of such unethical practices they would fight to end them. I believe that the food industry is well aware of this, and purposely turns a blind eye towards the treatment of cows, and surely the treatment of other animals. They have replaced their ethics with economics; feeding the cows industrial corn and preventing them from roaming ensures they will become fat, and fatter cows means bigger profits.
It is sickening to think that as this is being written, or as it is being read, there are animals that are being treated unfairly, condemned to miserable lives. Some may say that they are being raised to be killed anyway, so why should it matter what their lives are like? While it is true that these cows are fated to become a steak on someone’s plate or part of a hamburger, that does not change the fact that they were once living creatures. All forms of life should be treated with respect, whether we eat them or not. If a person can go to jail for abusing a dog, then why shouldn’t the same standards be held for animals that we eat?

Food is all around you. Since I can remember I have loved eating meat, weather it was beef, chicken, or lamb. Meat was a large part of my diet. Most kids grow out of the “I do not want to eat my vegetables” stage but I never did. To this day I dislike eating most if not all vegetables. Therefore I ate a lot of chicken and beef. Whether it was a fast food restaurant or even at home, meat was always my way of curing hunger.
I will admit at the beginning of the movie I thought “King Corn” was going to be a very boring documentary type film, however as I started watching it I changed my mind completely. I now believe that “King Corn” is a great educational film. Never have I been so disgusted by what I ate. Corn is all around you, whether it is in the form of corn syrup or even in the diet of the meat you eat. Corn has dire affects as well. When the documentary said that the corn fed cows have 150 days to be slaughtered before they died, I was very shocked. Our beef that we get on our table is coming from cows that are barely alive. It is no wonder that many sicknesses come from eating steak, and burgers. Corn is not meant to be digested at such alarming rates, especially without exercise. The cattle that get slaughtered have no freedom. They imprison the cattle in small areas without space or freedom to graze. Some people might not think this is a problem but consider the question, how would you feel if the only freedom you had was to stand in the same spot and eat what was forced on you? It doesn’t seem as good anymore if you think that animal have feelings and rights too.
After watching “King Corn” I tried to alter my day-to-day diet. It was a lot difficult however. I remember specifically the first day of my diet I was at work, I got really hungry. Usually I would just go upstairs and buy McDonalds. However I stopped and I thought about what I could buy that really had no form of corn product inside. Chicken nuggets and any burger had traces of corn inside; even the drinks might have high fructose corn syrup. Finding something that has no corn was a lot harder than I thought it was. However if you try, and pack your own lunch periodically your body will feel better, even if it’s only for a few days. It’s important to try to change than to just sit around and hoping someone does something about it.

Beef has always been an integral part of my diet. Growing up in a Russian family, many of my favorite dishes include beef and I cannot imagine my life without eating it. Just based on my mother’s home cooked meals, I eat beef or veal at least once a week. But if I include all the inexpensive fast food places that I eat at with friends or between classes, then that number can rise to me eating beef two or three times a week. In my everyday life it would be extremely uncommon for me to actually go an entire week without eating beef whether it is a cheeseburger, beef and broccoli or a steak.
Now normally I would never notice such a statistic about myself, or if I did I would not mind it much attention, but based on the recent reading we have had in class I really began to think about what I eat everyday. Although beef was a topic that we seldom talked about, the idea was brushed upon in “King Corn” and several of the readings and it really caught my eye.
In “King Corn” there was a scene where they showed how cows were force fed with corn in order to make them grow faster and be available for meat faster. Just seeing the conditions that these cows were in was bad enough. They were each put into their own area with almost no room to move and nothing to do but constantly eat. But what really caught my attention was when they mentioned that they would give the cows medicine so they can intake all of this food without their organs shutting down. The required medicine begins to show the abuse that these cows go through. It shows that these animals get pushed so hard that the only way that they can survive is by medicine keeping them alive. But it also makes me think, as a person who is eating this meat, what are these chemicals that are strong enough to keep cows alive while they are being force fed and how are they affecting my food?
I also do not trust the beef industry nearly as much as I used to, especially after reading an article about how in 2008 143 million pounds of beef had to be recalled because crippled and sick animals were being shoved into forklifts and abused before being made into beef. Because the animals did not pass proper inspection for food safety, all the beef had to be recalled. Now one big way that people view this is that we could have had bad food that was not inspected, which is very true. But I also begin to look at this situation in a very different way because it makes me wonder, how many cows were murdered for 143 million pounds of beef that all went to waste? It is a shame that all these cows are just taken for granted when we only think of ourselves right away.

 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23212514/

I have always been someone who has eaten McDonalds, Wendy’s, or Burger King at least a few times a week due to their convenience. I always knew eating such amounts of fast food was not good, especially after the calorie counts were revealed to me in New York City fast food establishments, but it was King Corn that really changed something for me. After viewing King Corn I was made aware that cows aren’t fed with grass and don’t graze on an open range, instead they are put in a pen and continuously fed corn. The idea of just caging an animal that’s used to naturally being free is sickening to me but on top of that it’s not good for their health, which is not good for my health. After being informed of this, I have noticed that I have been eating less burgers in general. Surprisingly, I don’t miss that type of food in the way I would if some just told me I couldn’t eat it anymore. My view of the manufacturers of corn fed beef has not changed actually because I am aware people do go to fast food restaurants to get the most calories per dollar and by using grass fed beef it would make the food much more expensive. The article Kosher Wars also has led me to want to taste what real grass fed is like. I actually imagine it to be something amazing due to the fact that it is so pure and natural. Even since Professor Penaz asked what would happen if our food was protein based instead of corn based, I have been trying to add more protein to my diet, knowing that I am taking in such large amounts of corn. The video about GMO’s surprisingly also contributed to my thoughts on beef. The story of the farmer who’s farmer got contaminated with seeds manufactured by Monsanto, led me to think about the health effects if in similar case the cattle’s food got contaminated with pesticides, the effects that would have on me.

Steak has always been an integrated part of my diet. I am a huge lover of meat due to its high protein content and taste. After a great workout I would always crave for some red meat. Up until we watched “King Corn” however I never thought of the process in which the meat I love ended up in the supermarket. I also never thought of how what the cow was fed affected the quality of the meat. “King Corn” led me to further explore my curiosities and watch a few of the PETA videos. What I discovered shocked me.
“King Corn” only touched upon the cruelties that animals have to endure for the sake of corporate profit. It talked about how it was economically beneficial to feed livestock a mainly yellow corn based diet even though it caused health defects. A yellow corn based diet also lowers the quality of the meat by lowering its overall protein content. This could be reflective to show that it causes muscle deterioration. Upon hearing this, I honestly only thought to apply this information for my own sake. I thought of cutting down on eating meat not because it was cruel to use yellow corn as the main part of a cow’s diet, but because knowing that the meat that is sold nowadays is not that great.
After watching the PETA video’s however my view completely changed. The process in which livestock is made for food HIGHLY angered me. The conditions in which they are raised and the lack of freedom they have is despicable. Watching the way cows are lined up to be slaughtered reminded me of the Holocaust in many ways. To think that humans were once treated in similar conditions brought me mixed emotions of sadness and shame. I felt sadness to think that such inhumane thinks have happened and are still happening in the world today. I felt shame because of my naivety and lack of action in stopping such things. I was able to relate to this due to my Korean culture. I remember my dad would tell me heart wrenching stories of the Japanese occupation of Korea during World War II and he would always come to tears. I used to think that he was just being a sensitive guy at the time, but now I think that it would be inhumane not to break into tears. I considered being a vegan for a while, however didn’t believe that I had the willpower to cut out meat altogether. The social circle that I am part of and my family’s customs would make it highly difficult for me to avoid any sort of meat. However every time a grab a hamburger now or my mom prepares a delicious homemade meal I think of the industry that I am supporting. This is an industry that induces animal cruelty for the sake of corporate profit. It is an industry that follows the principles that are not too far from Nazi Germany or World War II Japan. It disgusts me. In terms of how it changed my view of steak, I would try to lean towards a more salad based diet when out with my peers. For protein intake after a workout, instead of craving a steak I would now much rather choose a protein shake or high protein content beans.

On a side note my aspirations were to always be a criminal justice lawyer. Now I am considering studying law to fight for animal and human rights. What I have learned from “King Corn” and the PETA videos was truly inspiring. Thank you.

One food that I have always loved is lobster. I love the taste and it seems I am always in the mood to eat it. But I could normally only eat it during special occasions such as parties, anniversaries, and Christmas Eve, so I would always look forward to it. To me it always seemed like food that tasted good and nothing more. But then I read David Foster Wallace’s essay Consider a Lobster I can no longer look at it as simply food. As I read about the lobster going into the pot and clawing to get out (and various other methods such as sticking a metal rod into their body, slowly suffocating them in fresh water and even cooking them in the microwave), I wondered at how cruel it really was of me to eat lobster. I thought to myself how I would feel if I were the lobster and how painful as well as how cruel boiling a person alive would be and really started to think about all of the seafood that I eat including crabs and other underwater animals.
After I read the essay my immediate reaction was both disgust and sympathy. To think that thousands of people gather around to eat this creature knowing full well of the way that they are cooked. And not only eating many of them, but eating them as they come to the shore.
Although I went into the essay without thinking it would have any effect on me, it actually did. But the truth is I would probably eat lobster ten times out of ten if it were put in front of me because I have more passion for food then I do for saving animals. Although this may seem selfish, the truth is that I have always kind have known about the lobsters method of cooking, so why would I change now. Although I will think twice before eating lobster next time, these facts from this essay will probably not stop me from craving it.

Having a dad as a chef does not mean delicious home-cooked meals from him all the time. In fact, it means seldom eating his cooking at all. For the few times a year he does cook, my dad always makes lobster and steak. As a child, I remember seeing the lobster in the sink and feeling a horrible sensation in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t help but feel bad for the lobster, just blowing foam out of its mouth not knowing its fate. As for the steak, it never occurred to me the cow had to endure pain as well. Why is it that we feel guilt towards eating some animals and others we don’t?

In Consider the Lobster, David Foster Wallace makes a great point when he talks about how there is a huge difference if people were to slaughter cattle right in front of an audience for preparation. Most people don’t think twice before tossing in a lobster into a hot kettle of water. However, it is important for us to question how our food is prepared and be thoughtful of the creatures we do eat. For instance, the thought of the lobster’s suffering never crossed my mind if I ate it prepared at a restaurant. Yet, the lobster in my kitchen makes me feel guilty and sympathetic. The truth is revealed when you see it through your own eyes. The reason why I felt sympathy towards the lobster and not the cow is because I have witnessed the actual killing of a lobster. Our discussions in class have taught me to think deeper into food, and how it portrays our mindset. It is imperative for us not to place ourselves on a pedestal and think we are better than the animals we consume, and realize that each creature is no less important than another one.

Beef is in something that I eat at least three times a week. Yet, I do not know what beef is supposed to taste like. It’s astonishing to find out after 17 years that you still don’t know what a crucial part of your diet really tastes like. I always pictured cows roaming in a field eating grass. King Corn revealed that in reality, corn is fed to cows because it’s cheaper. Grass fed cows however, are healthier and better tasting. They are less likely to develop illness such as huge holes in their stomach. The delectable steak my dad made was not how real steak tastes. This led me to ask, “Are the best foods we’ve eaten nothing in comparison to how they should taste?” Corns fed cows are to suffer during their lifetime, and the result of this is not even quality beef.

Ever since I began this class the whereabouts of food have been on my mind much more often than before. I have thought more about what exactly is in my food and where did my food originate. One kind of food that I have been trying to give up as a part of my diet since my attendance in this class is junk food (soda, potato chips, and candies). I have not completely given it up but I have decreased my overall consumption. I have tried very hard to completely give it up but I ending up finding myself fall into temptation fairly easily. I am getting better at giving it all up but I still need some work.

Out of all the food-related sources we have viewed in class, the one that had the greatest effect on me was King Corn. This movie really grabbed my attention and made me want to read the labels of the items I buy and pay attention to the artificial sweeteners involved. The creators of the movie were wise enough to fully involve the viewer and make the viewer ponder, question, and analyze. It was informational and entertaining. The movie made me research corn in our daily foods and it was the beginning of a ritual, where I ask myself before I eat something, what is in this? King Corn heighten my awareness of what is in my food and the ingredients present in it.

On the other hand, the two essays we read in class, helped shape my perspective in he process of food making and the killing process behind it. “Consider the Lobster,” went in depth behind the scientific research involving animals and their pain sensory ability. The essay questioned prior beliefs and what new research has found. The writer did a great job of connecting the reader the possible feelings of a lobster ready to be made dinner and presented all the ironies involved in cooking lobsters and other similar animals. “Kosher Wars,” presented the morals behind butchering and once again brought up an animals feeling during the death and cooking process. Both essay but the animal on the forefront and indirectly asked the reader to put themselves in the animal’s position.

These three sources together with our in-class discussions have changed my view of the food industry, which have led me to change my view on junk foods. All three of these sources showed the downside of the food industry. They showed how the food industry takes advantage of our common ignorance and mal-attention to small detail and began changing the essential components of our everyday foods. They began adding products that reduced and speed up their production but become harmful to us when over consumed. The fact that almost everything I eat on a daily basis has corn scared me and made me wonder why. These sources exposing the food industry to me in a different light has changed my perspective in a manner where I am more aware and conscious of what goes into my mouth and makes me strive to change my eat habits.

One kind of food that has been part of my diet up until my attendance in this class is peanut butter and jelly (I know that’s kind of juvenile, but it’s true). I usually ate peanut butter and jelly three to four times during the week. But after watching King Corn, I pretty much cut it out of my diet because the jelly contained high-fructose corn syrup. Although the peanut butter did not contain high-fructose corn syrup, I knew that there was a good chance it would contain some other bad ingredient. After viewing the list of ingredients on the jar, I did find that bad ingredient – hydrogenated oil. I always knew hydrogenated oil was unhealthy, but I never knew just how unhealthy it was. So like Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis in King Corn, I decided to do my own research on hydrogenated oil. What I found was quite a surprise; I found that hydrogenated oils contain high levels of trans fats. Honestly, I was not aware of this before. Interestingly, one site compared trans fats to poisons like arsenic and cyanide because they interfere with metabolic processes  http://www.treelight.com/health/nutritio…). Another site I found explained that hydrogenated oil is used in the food industry to ultimately maximize profits  http://www.downwithbasics.com/hydrogenat…). That’s a pretty disappointing motive, especially since trans fats have much to do with diabetes, coronary disease, and obesity – in other words, it can kill you.

After learning the facts, I’ve really changed my perspective on popular peanut butter and jelly brands, like Welch’s and Skippy, which contain hydrogenated oils and high-fructose corn syrup. I think if it hadn’t been for King Corn, I would never have made the effort now to check all of the nutritional value of a food product and not just its calorie content. I knew high-fructose corn syrup was unhealthy, but watching King Corn made me more aware of the dangers associated with it and prompted me to start avoiding foods containing it. Furthermore, watching King Corn impelled me to do some research on other ingredients that are notoriously unhealthy, including hydrogenated oil. Merely knowing that a certain kind of food is unhealthy is not enough to avoid it. In fact, most of us will continue eating a type of food anyway, knowing just how unhealthy it is. However, I think the only way anyone will change their perspective of food is if they continue to do the research and continue to educate themselves; it’s the only way to understand why some foods would be better off untouched.

Lobster has always been a food i have longed to eat but am not allowed because as a Jew, i only eat kosher. Even tough i can’t eat it, that hasn’t stopped me from thinking about what it would taste like if i was able to eat it. I also wondered how healthy it is, but the thing that got me thinking the most was how a lobster is actually cooked and prepared. After reading “Consider the Lobster”, by David Foster Wallace, and “Kosher Wars” i started to get a real idea as to why i can’t eat lobster. It even got me thinking that i would probably choose not to eat lobster even if i was allowed.
According to the Jewish religion, I am forbidden to eat lobster. The Jewish bible, or Torah lists specific qualities to look for in an animal to determine if it is kosher. A sea creature must have both fins and scales and can not have had any forms of suffering during its existence. The article “Kosher Wars” even explains that to properly slaughter any type of kosher food, the slaughtering must be quick, precise and painless. there cannot even be a nick in the knife which would cause an animal a second of pain.
Aside from the fact that a lobster does not posses fins and scales, most people use live lobster and boil it alive before cooking it which obviously causes it pain and suffering. even if it doesn’t feel pain like human beings do according to some scientists, the lobster doesn’t die instantly; it takes between 30 to 45 seconds to boil the lobster to death.
When i learned that this is how lobsters are treated in order to be served at their freshest, i was disgusted. Forget about the fact that they aren’t kosher; I had no desire to eat lobster after hearing that they are alive mere minutes before they are cooked and served to you on a platter. Just knowing that is enough to completely ruin my appetite or desire to try lobster. I now also know a cook had to take it alive, throw it into boiling water and listen to the pot rattling and shaking with the lobster inside trying to find a way out before it boils. I also know many cooks leave the room because they can’t bear to notice the lobster suffering. The cooks aren’t even eating the lobster and can’t even stay in the same room, so imagine how someone like me feels now knowing this is how lobster is cooked. In a way I feel blessed to be a Jew and to keep kosher because i know i haven’t eaten food from an animal that has suffered.

After all the things we learned in class, it’s kind of disappointing to admit that I haven’t really eliminated any food from my diet. Although I know a large amount of products, almost all products have some form of corn in them; it doesn’t really prevent me from eating something. Once in a while I may check the Ingredients of the food I am eating, but even after I see it has corn in it I still eat it. I figure since almost everything has corn it is kind of hard to find some food that doesn’t have it. Even after I read Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, I didn’t change my diet habits. I think the reason for that is because my grandpa always told me that harmful pesticides are always sprayed on all fruits and vegetables, ever since I can remember, my grandfather makes me peel of the skin off of every fruit and vegetable that I want to eat.

 However, one thing that has changed is the amount of meat I eat. I absolutely love meat and could eat it on a daily basis for every meal of the day, but after reading “Kosher Wars” I really thought about the animal and the process that it goes through before it is just a piece of meat on my dish. Before, this article, I had no doubts in the kosher meat that I consumed daily. I thought something that religious based would not have some kind of corruption in it; however I was shocked to learn that PETA has video proof of the unfair treatment of animals in slaughter houses. I was absolutely disgusted when I read about this and have cut down my meat consumption in half.

Also, aside from food, one of the discussions in class dealt with obesity in America and just how drinking soda alone makes a person gain a lot of weight. I love eating and drinking my food down with a can of coca-cola. Ever since that class I drank coca-cola maybe twice and that’s only because I desperately needed sugar. Overall, I must admit that this class has made somewhat of an impact on my dietary habits.

One kind of food that has been a part of my diet all my life so far is meat. I love meat. As far as I knew, I was eating a cow that once ran across a grassy field or a chicken that was raised by a farmer. I never really questioned where it came from or how it got to my plate.

It wasn’t until I watched the documentary King Corn when I realized there was so much more in the process of the food industry. In the movie, it exposed how cows today weren’t grass fed; they were fenced in to ensure minimal movement and usage of energy while they ate grains and corn until they became ill. This was only one of their “behind-the-scenes” look at the food industry. The documentary was an eye opener for me and it has made me think twice before buying anything at the grocery store. I don’t know about everyone else, but I can speak for majority of the population when I say that I want to know the source of where my food is coming from because of health or ethical reasons. I want to know that the things I am eating weren’t injected with any chemicals that can put me in danger.

People back then weren’t as aware of the food because their main concern was being able to put a decent meal on the dinner table. Today with the advancement of technology, science becomes more involved with our food and resources, it is hard not to doubt whether or not our food has been tampered with. Usually crops such as the corn are genetically modified in order for the harvest to be abundant.

The food industry has definitely changed my perspective of food. I will never look at meat the same. Instead of seeing what should be protein, I’ll see it as mostly fat now. This is a contributing factor as to why the health of Americans today is deteriorating. More cows lead to lower selling prices therefore meaning more consumption of corn fed beef. It is what keeps the industry alive. Food that has been tampered with is a big issue but hasn’t been in the spotlight because people don’t have any other option for food. Usually foods that are cheaper come with the price of its’ quality, which sometimes families can’t afford to be concerned about. These issues will continue to exist because where the food comes from isn’t the first thing a person thinks about when he is either buying the food or eating it.

      One thing almost everyone dislikes is spending too much money. We especially get upset when we have to spend a lot on necessary items, such as food. However, we all fail to realize that the less we spend, the cheaper the quality we receive. For many years now, farmers have been producing an oversupply of corn. Since there is so much corn, it lasts for years and it is very economical. Animals are fed corn instead of grass and almost every product people eat has corn in it. By watching the documentary King Corn, I learned that cattles are feed corn for up to about 120 days only, because they get ulcers or sick from all the corn. They can also get Acidosis and die. Livestock consume about 70 percent of antibiotics to fight Acidosis. Shouldn’t this information make people take a second to ponder on what they are doing to animals and about what they are eating? They are eating animals that take many antibiotics and who can get a disease. Before taking this class and learning about different factors that affect the food I eat, I would wonder what it was that I was putting in my mouth. I did not pay much attention to that question though because I felt it would be better not to think about it. I used to prefer to eat something without knowing exactly where it came from if it looked good. That is terrible but I believe an abundance of people would have agreed with me. Now, I actually read labels and drink one hundred percent orange juice rather than just any juice. The food that has been a part of my diet since I was young is corn-feed beef.

      I was disgusted to find out that beef is fat disguised as meat. It really bothered me to discover that because that is the meat they sell at Mc Donald’s, Wendy’s, diners or restaurants and the meat I eat at home when my mother makes tacos or lasagna. It did not hit me that beef is cheap because of that and that is why it is sold at fast food restaurants. I do not eat at Mc Donald’s like I used to and I even told my mother to stop buying beef. The information I learned has affected me greatly because I always warn my friends or co-workers about buying drinks like Arizona or soda. Those drinks, as well as candy, have high-fructose corn syrup which is high in calories and has low nutritional value. Sometimes my mother gets annoyed at me because I do not eat some of the food she cooks. I feel as though my family should start buying kosher food from a person they know and I’m not even Jewish.

      Not knowing where your food comes from, or who produces it, is a problem. It is better to know who you are buying your food from because that way you will be able to determine if it is healthy, fresh and if the animals were treated well while they were alive. The animals should also be killed in the most painless way. It would just make one feel worse about eating the animal if that weren’t so. There is always a story behind the food you are eating and it is up to you to decide if it is healthy enough to eat. Advertisers make their food look delicious and hide the facts consumers need to know. The truth of the matter is, even after being informed, people will continue to drink tampico, eat burger king or buy corn fed beef. Apparently, the economic issue in this situation is more important than one’s health or life span.

I have always loved eating meat, and because of my religion I am forbidden to eat non-kosher meat. Growing up in a Jewish community and going to a Jewish school, I was always taught that kosher food is healthier for you, and that the animal that is slaughtered, or shechted in Hebrew, in a more humane way. We learned that everything we do has a reason, the knife used to kill the animal must be checked several times and made in a certain way, and the actual cut the shochet, or slaughterer makes must be kill the animal instantly, so that the animals feels the least pain possible. The reason for keeping kosher is to be more humane and healthier. After spending about 2 months in this class I realize that kosher meat is not necessarily more humane or even healthier. In the article Kosher Wars, Samantha M. Shapiro describes the more recent years of kosher meat. Agriprocessors is one of the first kosher meat distributing companies that was successful. It made meat cheaper than it was at the kosher butchers. I thought great because I learned the rules of kashrut are very strict and would prohibit animal cruelty in the slaughterhouse but as I continued reading I found that it was just the opposite. The animals were being treated badly as well as illegal immigrants and underage workers working at the factory. I was surprised to learn this. After that I don’t eat meat unless it is from one of the local kosher butchers. Even these local butchers, who is to say that they don’t treat the animals the same way that Ariprocessors did? I realize now that we must be much more aware of the things we eat and were it comes from. I know from now on I will.

I love beef. I love steak, I love cheeseburgers, and everything else with beef.  Beef has been a pretty steady piece of my diet. I can remember the first time my mother let me try a piece of her steak, and the taste that ensued from it. Whenever I go out for  some fine dinning, I get a steak. Whether I get a New York Strip, Ribeye, or Prime Rib, I have to have steak. But since I started attending this class, that taste of steak hasn’t quite been right.  I don’t what piece of material really got me. Maybe it was the “Consider The Lobster” or even the corn documentary, but just can’t look at a piece meat the same way. Now when I think of the ethic use against animals, I always think it’s a double standard. We have slaughter houses for cows, but nobody gets angry about someone squishing a bug. The food industry is so different compared to what was fifty years ago. I live in area where right across the street there is a McDonald’s, down the street a Wendy’s and Burger King,  and a couple streets up a White Castle. What do they all have in common, all sell cheap beef products.  One of the specific things that got me was how cows were being “beef” up so they could be sold quicker. So instead of using grass or hay, they used corn. I can bet you that most of these fast food chains have a hand in these farms and how these cows are being brought.  But let me play devil’s advocate, is okay to beef these cows in this way if it means that more food is produced.  I mean in world we live in where there is poverty and hunger, is okay to serve cheap food? But I still feel we need to be better in how we serve our food, because guess what, we’re the ones who are eating it.

Lobster has always been something that I was not allowed to eat. I am not allowed to eat it because of my religion. Lobster is also the one food that I have always wanted to try. It was the one thing in the world I’ve always wanted to put in my mouth that I just could not do. Anytime a commercial came on that showed a happy family at a restaurant enjoying a nice red lobster with butter my mouth would start to water.

However, since this class my desire for lobsters has definitely gone down. Not being familiar with lobster I actually did not know that they go through pain when being cooked. Thanks to David Foster Wallace’s “Consider a Lobster,” I was taught about what actually happens when lobsters are cooked. They are cooked alive and actually struggle before being turned into your dinner. I do not like the idea of animals going through pain, especially when not necessary and for me that reduced my extreme want for lobsters a lot.

Another thing I learned from Wallace’s essay was that Lobsters were not as elegant as I thought they were. He described the Maine Lobster Festival in a way that actually turned me off from lobsters in a big way. I imagined lobsters as a very high line food and I never imagined them in the way they were presented in the festival. A lot of my desire to eat lobster came from the elegance I believed that surrounded it and to learn that it’s not always as elegant as I thought changed my perspective of lobster majorly.

Ever since reading and discussing Wallace’s essay on lobster my yearning to taste that red animal has gone down tremendously. I did not like the fact that the animal exhibits the pain that it does when it is being cooked in the pot. I understand that animals need to be killed in order to eat them- but when described as holding onto the sides of the pot and fighting with all its might not to be cooked, I felt bad for the animal and did not want to eat it as much anymore. I also did not enjoy learning that lobster is not as high line as I though it was. It was a turn off to my want of the lobster. If it weren’t for this class my desire for lobster would probably be the same as it was before. So I actually want to thank Wallace for helping me not want what I couldn’t have anyways!

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. –MAHATMA GANDHI

It seems that all the different things we eat and drink are actually all the same thing. Corn.  Apparently, this substance, which I refrain from calling a vegetable, is found in most food products. In fact, corn is present even in things that are supposed to be fresh, such as poultry and meat. What we don’t know is that because we consume so much corn, it’s most likely found on our hair. Such an eye-opening statement is not rash, but factual. After seeing the documentary King Corn, my outlook and insight on food changed dramatically.  This specific film exploits the food industry for what it does and places in its products, and how one little vegetable finds its way into virtually everything edible. Trying to avoid this substance is inevitable. Trust me, I’ve tried. But all the things we love to eat has corn in it. Personally, beef is a big part of my diet. I love it more than chicken. I always find a way to consume some form of beef every day, but that could even possibly be my vice. Unbeknownst to me, most farm raised cows are actually fed corn grain rather than grass. And all this time I thought there is nothing better than a nice, succulent slab of steak. Apparently, there is something better, and it’s a juicier version of it. The fact that most beef I consume happens to be corn fed makes me uneasy. It even bothers me that these poor cows eat so much corn is that it makes them sickly and full of fat. It makes me uneasy to know that I could be getting better tasting food when I’m not. I completely understand that corn is extremely cheap, and that its all good business, but you can’t help but ask: is there really not enough grass to go around? Or is corn produced in such grand surpluses farmers need a way to get rid of it? But the food industry is doing what it does best: producing cheap food for everyone.  In this day and age, not many people can pay steep prices for good quality food, so we settle for the lesser quality. As much as this bothers me, I’m pretty sure that I still eat corn fed beef. And that’s the thing. As bad as corn can be for us, that doesn’t stop us from drinking our sodas or eating food. But it doesn’t hurt to be aware of what’s going into our body and how. The last thing I want for anyone is to have corn seeping through their pores. But it’s probably too late, as corn has become mainstream in America. So next time you have a plate of food at a restaurant or even in the convenience of your own home, just tell yourself this: “This has corn in it, and I’m going to eat it anyway.” The same goes for your glass of juice, or your candy bar. Yummy.

After watching King Corn, I have learned that corn is in almost every single thing that we eat. We take in so much corn that it’s even in our DNA. Before this class I didn’t even know this; I thought corn was simply yellow kernels. And I never knew that so much corn was grown or even why so much corn was grown for that matter until after this movie and our discussions; I thought people other than myself just loved corn on the cob. It’s enough to make you wonder why the average person doesn’t know about certain things like this especially when they are the ones ingesting these massive amounts of corn. It’s other people like the directors of King Corn that are giving this information to the public. When before I could tell you that I hadn’t eaten corn in, say, a week, I now have no other choice but to say I’ve had corn in some form or another every single day of my life. I love burgers; they are probably the 1st thing on my favorite-foods list; I could never turn one down. However, after finding out that most burgers are made from corn-fed beef rather than grass-fed beef I’m that much more cautious about eating it. To me, what is more abundant and obviously cheaper is what’s less healthy for the body. These mainstream cows are fed corn and grain rather than grass and it causes them to become sick, yet these are the same cows that we are eating and we are enjoying the flavor. It all comes down to being educated about where our food comes from and how the animals are treated. Aside from eating corn-fed beef, corn is in other foods in the form of corn syrup. When I first learned about corn syrup a couple of years ago, I knew from the start that it wasn’t really a good thing because it caused many complications to the body such as diabetes. In the movie, the two directors actually tried to make corn syrup and what struck me the most was the fact that one of the ingredients was something that was poisonous: it had a skull with bones on the label! It’s almost enough to make you want to cut corn syrup out your life altogether, but that’s almost impossible to do. We are a country that lives off convenience and we aren’t strong fighters against temptation. Therefore, we are more likely to choose the roads that will keep both our pockets and our stomachs full, regardless of the food’s effects on the body. We also don’t worry about how an animal died, or how all of a sudden chickens that would normally take about 12 weeks to reach four pounds are now reaching this weight within 6 weeks. We don’t realize that… well I should say we don’t acknowledge the fact that animals have feelings too. I’m not saying that it’s wrong to kill animals, because in certain situations we depend on them for survival. However, I am saying that we have the option and it all comes down to our ethics. But, when does our ethics overpower us? Do we need the government to step in and make certain things illegal to consider the animal?

(sources) http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2009/07…

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12kosher-t.html

 http://www.kosher.com/

Check out this link!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carole-carson/10000-trees-registered-fo_b_320008.html&title=Carole%20Carson: 10%2C000%20Trees%20Registered%20for%20Community%20Fruit%20Exchange

 http://www.fallenfruit.org/manifesto.htm…

nbsp;http://nytimes.com/indexes/2009/10/09/ma…

nbsp;http://www.gourmet.com/

Exodus 32 The Golden Calf
1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods [a] who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.”

3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.

4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, [b] O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.”

6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. [c] Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

7 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.

8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

9 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people.

10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

11 But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. “O LORD,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people.

13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’ “

14 Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

15 Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. 16 The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.”

18 Moses replied:
“It is not the sound of victory,
it is not the sound of defeat;
it is the sound of singing that I hear.”

19 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. 20 And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

21 He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”

22 “Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. 23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ 24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”

25 Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. 26 So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him.

27 Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’ ” 28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. 29 Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”

30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”

31 So Moses went back to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”

33 The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. 34 Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”

35 And the LORD struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.

Footnotes:
Exodus 32:1 Or a god ; also in verses 23 and 31
Exodus 32:4 Or This is your god ; also in verse
Exodus 32:6 Traditionally peace offerings

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:XvTOrh8PzBIJ:www.biblegateway.com/passage/%3Fsearch%3DExodus%2B32%26version%3DNIV+golden+calf+%2B+bible+passages&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Literary:

Symbol vs. the real thing

Gold

Faith vs. seeing

Test

Asleep vs. vigilence: watchfulness in respect of danger, care or caution.

The Senses: deceptive, lie, blur, tempt

 The Seven Deadly Sins: Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. 

Character:

Immediate gratification vs. pastience the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/patience

Receiving for the self alone vs. receiving to share with others

Immediate Gratification  vs.  accomplishment or earning: Bread of Shame: if you recieve something that is unearned, eventually you will lose it.

Conspicuous consumption is a term used to describe the lavish spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth.  Display = social status or “keeping us with the Joneses”.

Restriction and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: knowing when enough is enough. Even if you know how to do something, should you do it? Satan said “yes”.

An important social media guru talks about how social media has changed food as we know it.
Check out link: http://mashable.com/2009/10/07/social-me…

For class next week read David Foster Wallaces essay, “Consider the Lobster.”

Today I will give each student a copy of this essay. Please take this opportunity to mark it up by making notations in the margins. Look up words in the dictionary that you do not understand and copy down the definitions.

In class today I will give you advice on how to do a close-reading of this essay.