Blog Post: 1
Oct 18th, 2009 by Mary Louise Penaz
Description for Blog Post: Number 1
Think of one kind of food that has been part of your diet up until your attendence in this class. Now discuss how the recent readings and discussions have contributed to a new way of thinking about that food. How does the food industry change your perspective of that food? Be specific and take time to elaborate. Blog post should be at least 300 words.
Due Date: blog post must be posted by midnight october 28, 2009 to get credit. Do not revise after this hour or it will not count.
Blog post will be evaluated based on the following:
- There has been a careful and well-developed argument.
- Clarity–use of strong concepts in favor of vague and general ideas.
- Shows a willingness to use critical writing for this purpose.
- Use of application of material learned to apply aquired knowledge, facts and techniques and rules in a different way–your personal experience with a food product.
- Not merely recapitulating material learned in class or in our books, but to use this process
- A sincere investment of time to make a compelling blog post that others can understand and perhaps learn from.
Best of Luck!
Good Luck!
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
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 lowered the quality of the meat by lowering its overall protein content. This could be reflective to show that it cause 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.
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.
I can honestly say after watching King Corn and reading Kosher Wars and Consider the Lobster I was pretty sure food was ruined for me as a whole. Personally I love eating meat beef especially, so when I watched “King Corn” and saw what was happening to those cows and the conditions they kept them in I honestly felt sick to my stomach. To be honest I’m not naive when it comes to knowing what happens to cows especially those who are bred for the purpose of meat, however never to this extent did I realize that the cows were being kept like that. I grew up in a different country, it was small and seeing farms was not something I was unaccustomed to, my uncle owned a cattle farm and as a child I would visit very often. However the cows were never kept like that and fed such thing, the farms that I grew up around were the farms where the cows were raised on grass feed and healthy roaming the pastures, mainly used for milk and I was aware that they were sometimes killed but they were treated well and humanely. Seeing “King Corn” though and realizing that we as a country were basically eating “dying meat” just turned me off from the idea of meat period. To know that these poor animals were treated no better than prisoners and suffered their whole lives sickened me, emotionally I felt for the cows to be cooped up like that and made sick just because they were needed to put on weight fast and in large amounts. Chicken is a meat I have definitely given up because I am aware that they feed chickens these hormones in order for them to grow to such large sizes and I would bet just about anything that the chickens are also being fed corn based feed as well. The thing that shocked me the most when watching “King Corn” though was the amount of corn that resided in our diets. As I was watching the film many questions went through my mind such as “ How could corn possibly be in EVERYTHING we ate?” “Why do they not make society aware of the amount of corn they ingested and also what EXACTLY was corn syrup?” Another big question that went through my mind was “If the cows got sick because of the amount of corn in their diets what effects did corn have on people?” Logically if you think about it cows have four stomachs; people on the other hand only have one. How could we ignore the possible implications of the health risks that come from corn? Also why are we not informed about this from our government? After watching “King Corn” my eyes were opened without a doubt about what I ate and the quality of my food choices, I don’t think I can look at chicken or beef for that matter, worse yet corn will never be the same for me. Soda has officially been struck from my diet, I never want to look at another bottle again because of the amount of corn syrup in them and the health risks that can be caused by soda. Diabetes, cavities, obesity, weight gain and any other health problems are not on my list of things to obtain, if excluding soda from my dietary intake does the trick then I am more than happy to pick up a bottle of water, because unlike sodas I know what water is made of…or not made of.
After reading “Kosher Wars” and “Consider the lobster” I can’t walk by seafood restaurants or any restaurant without considering the food on a much deeper level, because of these films I can’t help but actually look at my plate and ponder what is “ACTUALLY” in it and how it must have felt. “King Corn” has me reading labels of everything that I pick up now, I have informed my mother about all that I learned from these films and tried to enlighten her about what’s really going on with food and to become a supporter of the farmers market, my diet includes a lot of fruit now as well, at least I know my fruit isn’t stuffed with corn and whatever chemicals used to make them larger and chucked into tiny pens and forced to get fat in order to be slaughter just as they are about to be at deaths door. Because I grew up around a lot of animals on farms I knew that they were going to die someday, but they were never treated in humanely, personally I have always considered many animals creatures with feelings. Who are we to say that we are so great a being that were are the only organisms that feel. People always say that the difference between people and animals is man’s ability to use logic… that’s all well and good but people seem to forget that animals are very sensitive to things around them and their sensitive to things that we humans cannot even begin to understand. If I dog can identify a threat a person may pose by just being near that person and can pick up ill vibes from people, can we honestly say other animals don’t know when someone’s coming to hurt them? In “Consider the Lobster” it angered me to think that people assumed the Lobsters weren’t aware of their fate, the clanking of the lid and the lobster’s reluctance to enter the pot should be signs that it knows what is going to happen and it’s trying to fight for it’s life as any creature would, including man.
After these articles and this movie, I’m far more aware of food and what’s in it. Also I am angered by the way animals are treated and underestimated, I have seen PETA videos and more than ever I support what PETA is trying to do for the animals and someday I’d like to be able to do the same as well. I believe that animals have feeling just like any other creature.
I have given more thought in the past two months to the food I eat than I have in eighteen years. I would have never thought that the food I consume consisted of so much more than just taste. My favorite meal consists of steak and corn. The movie “King Corn” opened my eyes to so many new things. It made me want to notice the label of ingredients of the things I eat. Now, there isn’t something I don’t drink or eat without checking to see if it has corn syrup. If it wasn’t for the movie I would have never known that the majority of the meat I was eating consisted not of cows who grazed freely and ate grass, but of cows that were crowded in small fences and were force fed corn non stop to get them fat.
It is mind blowing to think that a grass fed cow has only 3% fat compared to a corn fed cow which has 17% fat. The difference between those numbers is ridiculous. In the movie “King Corn” it was mentioned how a grass fed cow tastes a lot better then a corn fed cow; this now has me curious to taste it. In the movie they showed an interview with the guy in charge of the cows and he mentioned that if the people demanded grass fed cows then that’s what he would provide. This shows how people aren’t educated enough about their food and don’t ask enough, if at all, questions about it.
The movie also showed me how at one point there were so many different kinds of corn and now only one kind grows here in America. The food industry and the way it works now makes me skeptical of what I eat. Thanks to the movie I now realize that one seed of corn is mostly made of sugar and at the very end a small part of it is nutrients. Before the seed is even planted, it has already been modified with pesticides, which makes me assume that it can’t be very healthy. When the makers of “King Corn” attempted to make corn syrup, I was in shock when they showed they had to add a chemical that had a hazard warning on the label. I don’t feel safe eating my food the way I did before, I now have so many questions and intend on making sure I know what I’m eating from now on.
Being from Middle Eastern decent, food has always been a major part of my culture and daily life. Prior to this class, my only major concern about the food that I was eating was whether the meat I was eating was halal. According to Islamic law, halal meat is meat that has been killed in a certain matter similar to that of kosher meat. After reading the essay “Kosher Wars” I realized that certain Jewish practices are very similar to that of Islamic practices. For example, Muslims are also very cautious about the animals they eat. As Muslims, we are also forbidden from eating certain animals in particular pigs. The pig is considered as simply unhealthy as well as a filthy animal to eat considering a pig will eat anything and is surrounded by an unclean environment. However, similar to Jewish practices animals have to be treated with respect and not abused. When the animal is killed, certain phrases are said which essentially “blesses” the meat and makes it suitable to eat. Living in a non-Islamic country, it has always been difficult to find places which serve/offer halal meat. After reading the essay, I realize that it’s not only difficult for Muslims to find halal meat, but it’s difficult for Jews to find kosher meat as well. It’s somewhat reassuring to know that as Muslims we aren’t the only ones who struggle to practice our beliefs.
During the past two months, I’ve become much more conscientious of the type of food I eat. I’ve realized that a lot of the foods we eat have high amounts of corn syrup, much more than we would ever really imagine. After watching King Corn I’ve realized that nearly all the food we consume in America has traces of corn syrup as an ingredient. These excessive levels of corn syrup have been causing major health concerns, in particular diabetes. Having a strong family history of diabetes, this issue hits close to home knowing how much of an impact living diabetes effects one’s everyday lifestyle. Even though its not necessarily cheaper, I believe that it’s necessary for everyone’s general welfare to start eating healthier foods rather than continuing to eat processed foods.
Every morning after swim practice or working out in the weight room, I walk down Lexington Avenue to the cafe on the corner of 23rd. I order scramble eggs on a bagel and I never really thought about where my breakfast came from or how it got to my plate until taking this class. “King Corn” really opened my eyes to what I was eating. After the movie I began reading labels looking for corn syrup or something related to corn. While it hasn’t stopped me from getting eggs each morning, I often find myself wondering how the chickens who made these eggs were treated. I must admit that the makers of “King Corn” have changed my drinking habits. While I was never a big soda drinker, I used to drink Gatorade all the time at practice. Now that I’ve learned what goes into corn syrup I’ve tried to stay away from drinking products that contain the poison filled substance. The fact that there are chemicals in corn syrup with a hazard label makes me wonder why these products are offered to the public.
Both “Consider the Lobster” and “Kosher Wars” have also made me think about how my food was treated before it was turned into a delicious meal. I also love to eat steak and burgers. I often wonder if the cow that was turned into my burger or steak was forced to eat corn meal and/or packed into small spaces. I wonder if the cow was killed quickly and as painless as possible or if its throat was ripped out like the ones mentioned by David Foster Wallace. Reading about how the Kosher people treat the animal before they kill it makes me feel better about eating Kosher food. I think the Kosher beliefs towards preparing food are more ethical and kinder to the animals. I think I’ll try to eat more Kosher products and stay away from products filled with dangerous ingredients like corn syrup.
I know that a lot of people were disturbed when they found out the truth about the food they’re eating, but I wasn’t as surprised. I had a good idea about what was involved when eating fast foods and drinking soda because that’s something I studied in high school. When I first learned about how animals were being treated and fed I was shocked but it didn’t influence me to stop eating meat because in reality its almost impossible to control what you eat. Meat is a very important part of my diet and I usually don’t feel satisfied when its not part of my meals. Its hard for me to have a meal that is strictly made up of vegetables so I usually have to have some sort of beef, pork, lamb or chicken. Basically, I’m trying to say that since meat has always been part of my diet it would be very hard to just eliminate it, especially foods like cheeseburgers. In King Korn, we learned that the cows were being fed corn as appose to grass. The more industrialized food becomes, the harder it is to regulate, because it always comes down to money and demand. Companies wouldn’t be able to afford to feed cows a healthy diet because it would take longer to plump them up. For along time cows have been fed foods that would help them grow faster and get fatter. In order to do that companies usually feed them things that aren’t safe for us to consume. Health wise, this was one of the primary issues brought up but there’s also a moral debate. In Kosher Wars and Consider the Lobster the ethical issue behind the production of foods. Animals get abused and mistreated before they are killed for our enjoyment, and Kosher Wars explains how Kosher meat is specially prepared and killed. In Consider the Lobster David Foster Wallace explains are brutal the process of preparing lobster. In order to cook the lobster it has to be boiled alive which is really sad. I wasn’t a big lobster fan before but after hearing this I think I made up my mind about boiling a live animal. These facts can really change someone’s opinion on foods that they love but personally I think it would be really hard for me to stop eating cheeseburgers or other meat products. At least now I’m more aware of what I’m eating so I think I might limit the amount of fast food meat I consume (even though I couldn’t control myself and had 3 big macs yesterday).
McDonald’s has always played a major role in my diet. I use to eat it for breakfast, and for lunch. Then I narrowed down to eating McDonald’s only at lunch time. I never really thought of McDonald’s as a major problem until recent class discussions and readings. We recently had a discussion about brands. A brand becomes a form of trust for people. Brands have a promise. Most people will look at a label(brand) before they think twice about where their food came from, or the process it has to go through to be prepared.
In the movie “King Corn”, they talked about how a measly burger and fries, could effect our health enormously. The two young men’s purpose in this documentary was to expose what really was in our food. As Americans, we fail to really explore or question what we are eating. We simply assume that whatever taste good to us is healthy. The Two young men in the movie showed how much corn was in our daily diets. We can practically pick up any food around us, and it will have some source of corn in it. Corn in everything we eat is not healthy. Most people including myself would be surprised to find out that its in everything from our sodas to our meats. The two young men explained by eating a simple meal from McDonald’s how serious the effects of corn in all our food provides. Another thing that intrigued me was that natural corn wasn’t being added into our food. They have to alter the corn before they put into our food. In “King Corn” they displayed the process of making corn syrup, in which they had to add hazardous chemicals into the syrup for it to be completed. I was furious to know that these companies put hazardous chemicals into our food, all because it saves them money. It really makes me wonder, “Is the taste of the food, worth my health?”
In result of previous class discussions on food, I find myself trying harder to stay away from the sodas and the fast food restaurants, because I know its not healthy for me. There were times when I would drink sodas for breakfast, and now I stop myself from walking to the vending machine in the morning before class. The discussions on food have really effected my diet and my thoughts on the food industry.
It seems that corn is infused in everything we eat, but what is more alarming are the other additives that are in foods. All these processed food plus the fact that we eat too much adds to the problem of overweight this country. I guess we have to make wise choices when selecting our meals. Fresh fruits and vegetables should be added to our diet to maintain ourselves healthy.