Extra Credit -THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA

Chapter 5 - The Processing Plant: Making Complex Foods
In this chapter Michael Pollan investigates how corn is processed, i was very surprised to see how big of a staple corn is in our diets and most of it we don't even realize we are eating. Although most Americans don't actually eat a lot of corn, we consume it is ways most would not expect. Some of the many examples include the cattle we each such as chickens, turkeys, pigs, and the cows were are feed corn, many alcohols are made from corn, a lot of the fried foods we eat are cooked in corn oil and last but not least fossil fuels. More specifically corn enzymes are broken down carbohydrates that start of as a long chain of different organic compounds. Pollen also talked about how corn is found amongst most processed food; when reading the back of any product just look for glucose, fructose, maltodextrin and methanol, if you come across any of those just to name a few, think corn! Because so much corn is needed a lot of energy is used to keep up with the high demand, if a tractor is run about ten calories of fossil fuel is burned (that's a lot) that will only produce about a ton of corn, that may seem like a lot but not in the big picture. The most interesting thing i read in this chapter was about how the large corporations will straight out lie to the consumers and are able to get away with it, without any consciences. Its all a trick, if the cost of soy or corn goes up they (the company) will switch to cheaper ingredients (fats) but call it the "natural" stuff. If on the back of a box it says something like "contains one or more of the following..." listing three or more things they just don't want to be specific with which one they used, most times its the ingredients that cost the company the least amount of money to produce. The longer the list of ingredients on the back of the box means the less healthy is actually is. Cheaper products are used to re-create the final outcome. Overall there is not a lot of truth on the back of any box, they mix ingredients to make it appeal more to the consumer. Companies to not like to share there secrets because they don't want other people (companies) to steal their tricks.

Response to Jared Diamond - Easter Islands Collapse

The article on Easter Island was very boring to me, that could be because i either did not really understand the points that Jared Diamond was trying to make or because i found it to be very repetitive and it did not seem to catch my interest. It took a lot for me to focus on the reading but overall i was able to find a few interesting things he had to say. It was interesting to see how the people of Easter island is similar to ours, In the article Diamond mentioned that the island was insufficient in their supply of foods and lacked a lot of natural resources for food. The water did not have very many coral reefs and there were no lagoons which meant that fish and shellfish was extremely limited. The people of Easter Island ate mostly carbohydrates which was not a balanced enough diet to be considered healthy. Although we are exposed to protein foods like chicken, pork and fish a large part of most Americans diet consists of unhealthy carbs that are very high in calories and bad for your health. There lack of nutritious food caused the natives to suffer from many health problems from a young age, one of the biggest challenges they had was incidents of cavities and tooth decay which were at an all time high. If the had access to more protein (meats) and fruits the problem most likely would have gone down significantly. It sounded like there priorities were a little questionable, their competitive nature could have possible lead to their collapse, Instead of keeping the crucial resources for themselves they used them to make bigger statues (just to prove a point). One of the first things i noticed when i picked up the article was the picture of the large statues, they had me thinking about the kind of civilization they lived in was like but the people who were descried my Diamond did not seem like the people who would spend all there time building something like that. Similar to the United States there were a society that valued wealth and status before anything else. In America we show out social and financial status by expensive houses, clothes, jewelry and properties that we brag about. "the bigger the better" For them their source of status were the statues, putting that before anything else. Is it too late for us to do something about the collapse that is headed out way? We bring so much media attention to controversial topics like global warming, and we say we will do something to change it and make it better but nothing seems to happen. Why do we wait until the problem is to great to fix it? We take for granted the warning we have a head of time. We live in a extremely selfish world where we only care if it effects us or the people closest to us.

Extra Credit - Wildman Steve Brill

I found the trip to be pretty fun and very interesting, I meet up with everyone on the Conner of west 72ND and central park west and was really surprised to see how many people had heard about the tour and more importantly were actually interested enough to spend most of the day with a man who seemed kinda weird. He greeted everyone with a bizarre song (if you can call it that) using his mouth and a clapping motion, in one hand he held on to all the gear he would need for the journey he was about to lead us on and in the other hand he pushed his five year old daughter Violet in a stroller while taking long odd steps through central park.

Wildman Steve Brill definitely knew everything there was to know about what was growing in central park, he knew the good plants from the bad and was able to show us by identifying very small but significant details. One of the first plants we stopped at was about 100 feet away from the busy city streets It was known as the poor mans pepper, it is a member of the mustard family. Not only does its spicy flavor and leafy texture go good in salads and in sandwiches its medicinal purpose is extremely affective preventing peoples chances in being diagnosed with cancer.He brought up a good point he said you would be better off eating the stuff in central park than buying the industrialized food that you find in all of the supermarkets. Who knew you could survive on what is literally in our "version of" a backyard. That made me think, why do we insist on buying produce that is overly produced in chemically and artificially made factories when we could eat food that is grown in small amounts the right way? As Americans we eat the way we are taught and what is put on our plates, for hundreds of years the "normal" way is to eat is the commercial way. If When the population was smaller and families were living off the local farms foods was instilled as technology advanced we may have been less dependent on industrialized foods.

Some of the other plants we stopped to take a closer look at were called the common spice bush; Wildmans advice was that it was best used as tea, taking a handful of leaves of the steams crushing them in your hands and then sticking them in a pit of boiling wait for about 20 minutes, it medicinal purpose is that is can help cure fevers. This plant was ironically 15 feet from a hot got stand. Another plant we saw prevented gas and flatulence and served as helpful aids during pregnancy and child birth. Throughout the tour he dropped useful hints for anyone who loved the outdoors and spends a lot of time exploring "natures possibilities". For example he said the best time for finding mushrooms is after heavy rain, they tend to grow well when surrounded by wood chips, or under trees. While walking along the bike path we came across a plant found on a grassy hill,little did we know it would have to do a lot with out unit on industrialized foods. The plant (although i can not recall the name) was originally discovered by the Johnson brother,after they were bitten by mosquito's. They needed something to relieve the itchiness and irritation. That one small discovery made in the woods by natural resources turned out to become a multi million dollar corporation known as Johnson and Johnson, who know not only have one product but thousands.

I was really surprised to see how much there was to learn about our natural environment and resources. I was only with him for a few hours and learned more in that time than i have in my life anywhere else, i cannot imagine how much more there is to know. If people were to eat from only things that they could find in parks, forests and the woods it would take a lot of time to learn what is okay for your body.I think most Americans see it as a commitment to eat the natural way, people hear the word "vegan"or "vegetarian" and think it will take too much time out of their "busy and hectic" schedules to take the time and shop a little differently to in the end benefit their health. We as Americans are really lazy even when it comes to out health.

Grocery Store and Habitual Food Assignments:

The majority of the time my family shops at wholefoods which is very convenient because it a block and half away. When my dad gets around to it he shops on the upper east side at stores like zabars and fairway or his favorite family run Italian store in little Italy. For things that we need In bulk like laundry detergent, toilet paper and paper towel we order from fresh direct. If my parents go shopping we will normally eat from what is in the fridge for a few days but if not we order in. Typically my mom buys pretty basic foods (staples) for the week like bread, fruit, vegetables, eggs and milk, whereas my dad buys the more exotic food.
On a weekly basis these are the fruits and vegetables we have in our house (they are not always eaten):
Mango
Pineapple
Raspberry
Banana
Avocado
Tangerines
Grapes
Cantaloupe
Pomegranate
Apple
Orange
Cucumber
Tomato
Garlic
Onion
Lettuce
Carrot
Corn
Mushrooms
Green beans
Parsley

The Big Paper -- Industrialized Foods

Large companies and corporations will go to any length to maximize their profits:

Around 630 pm is when people start getting hungry for dinner, it can take a few silly arguments over where to order in from
or what to make for dinner, but the end result is what everyone looks forward to. Whether or not you sit at a formal dinning room table with your whole family or slouch over the couch watching the local news or sports. what's on every ones mind is where there dinner is! Everyone wants to enjoy what they eat, the smell, the appearance and the overall taste is what attracts people to their food, but do they really know where what they are eating comes from? what did they use to make is taste so good? but most importantly how healthy is actually is for your body? Taking trips to grocery stores is a weekly trip most people make, before hand; they raid there pantry's and empty refrigerators and begin making there lists. The average American household shops based on the price not the quality, everyone is looking for the best deal and the majority of the time its the concentrated foods that are sold for cheap because they are made in enormous quantities produced my major corporations. Every since i was young i have been an animal lover, my dream job was to become a vet. When i was eight i stopped eating mean for a little less than a year, but was told i needed some sort of protein so i slowly began to eat chicken and fish. I choose not to eat most meat cause i thought the animals where too cute to eat, but now i choose not to eat most meat because of the way they are raised and treated on the farms (if u can call it that). We have been brainwashed and blinded by the ways of corporate food industries, they put millions of dollars into teams who's only job is to promote the image of their brand to make it seem as if the product they are selling is the best quality of its kind. While reading Micheal Pollan's book called The Omnivores Dilemma, he brought up a very interesting point that the average American has too many choices of food. To support that thought on a trip we took in class to a local supermarket we were asked to count the amount of a certain product, the numbers were really surprising, walking down the cereal isle i counted 76 different brands and types, the same thing happened when i counted the different types of pickles (37). Walking into a supermarket it is very hard to come across any fresh produce at an affordable price, people see the expensive price tags and walk the other way. They end up shopping for packaged foods that come in bulk or is sold for a considerably cheaper price. Organic food seem to be harder to find, i think most people find the labels on the products comforting cause they think they know where its coming from when the reality is that its mostly lies.

Americans fall too easily into this trap, they believe what they are being told is the truth. They see the commercials for things like orange juice and see the happy mother stick her hand into a shelf and on the other side it is a sunny farm with middle aged white men picking the oranges and handing her a carton of the "freshly squeezed juice." in reality the oranges are grown in a over sized greenhouse where mechanical devices are run on tracks run by poorly treated emigrants striving to make ends meet on less than minimum wage, trying to support their families. The machines run back and forth spraying the plants with pesticides. This is done in order to speed up the process to meet up with the over whelming demand. They spend so much money on trying to give there company and product a good name. They will go as far as not to be honest and lie to maximize there profit and make as much money possible.

When people are younger they have much less control on what they put into their bodies, they eat what there parents throw on their dinner plate and don't have much of a say. When i was little everything seemed to be tasty and i was not afraid to try anything. Like most Americans i ate to survive but not necessarily the healthiest possible way for my body. I remember seeing this clip on Peta.com about the abuse animals went through to produce a rich heartless person with a warm fur coat for the winter, the clip continued and showed how the animals raised for food were treated exactly the same if not worse. I could not help but look away and felt sick to my stomach, if that was the chicken i was eating, i did not want to eat that anymore. Most of the meat we eat started off as baby cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys who quickly discovered the fate of the lives they would forcefully be living. Thousands of chickens and turkeys are crammed into tiny cages, while the cows and pigs live in similarly horrible conditions, they are fed antibiotics to speed up there developmental process and "help" them to stay strong despite the conditions they are put through. When it is time to kill them they are put into machines where they roll out dead or knocked out. They are slaughtered by being slashed in the throat or cut in half while they are still alive. These animals never see the sunlight or get to run around and smell the fresh air. A movie we watched in class called Our Daily Bread is a perfect example of how the food we eat is treated, keep in mind that movie was made in Europe so conditions in the United States is way worse.

Not only are the animals we eat treated horribly, but the fruit and vegetables are grown un-naturally. Going off first hand experience when i was about 10 i was visiting my grandmother in Florida, we decided to go to a strawberry patch to hand pick the strawberries. At first i was amazed to see the mile long rows of ripe and tasty looking strawberries, which to my eyes looked like they were being grown the natural way. Little did i know they were anything but, 10 minutes into picking the berries i was cover in itchy red hives from my hands past my elbows. Thinking about it now, if just touching the fruit gave me such a bag reaction what would have happened if they were in my body. Not only are they bad for your body they can cause serious illnesses for little kids. Referring back to the movie Our Daily Bread the workers are exploited, the director does a very effective job at portraying their emotions though sounds, they looked extremely bored and over worked, there was a scene where the weather conditions were horrible but they were still working just as hard. It almost felt like a prison type scenario because the worker were being over looked by "the boss man" and his binoculars to make sure the workers were not slacking. There was always that sense that the workers were on a very low level compared to the man who was in charge, the director used a obvious technique by always filming from above, another example was when the workers had to get on their knees to receive their paychecks. Many of the friendly run farms are being put out of business because of the larger corporate companies. Another movie we watched in class was called Vrroooomm!!!! Farming for Kids, although they were trying to come across as a friendly farm to little kids it was easy to tell that the produce was being mass produced giant tractors, with huge wheels picked up thousand of cabbages and potatoes by the minute.

Response to Pollan- The Omnivores Dilemma

In The Omnivores Dilemma, Michael Pollan argues that as individuals we don’t have a good enough idea of how we choose to eat and what foods we are eating. Most of the food we consume is advertised by the media, providing us with little information on where it comes from and how healthy it actually is. We are reliant on other people to run the way we eat, even if we are not aware of it. I agree with many of Michael Pollans ideas, you can go to a bookstore and find thousands of dieting books, search online the newest trend in how to lose weight or watch TV and see commercial after commercial on diet supplements and pills to take in order to lost the most weight in the fastest period of time. Most diets don't work for everyone but people continue to follow them, many fall into this trap just because they like the results they see being advertised, they are convinced they will one day looks just like what they see.

I would consider my family to fall into the trap that everyone else finds themselves in, but not to the extreme of most. We don't have diet pills laying around the house or follow the south beach or zone diet, just to name a few. A lot of the advice my family takes is from our doctors. there are numerous time where i will see my mom reading an article in the newspaper about a new product in the market and will run out to try it cause she thinks its the "healthier" thing to do. Getting older I have found the best way to eat for me. When i was younger i would only want the food that looked cool or what every kid wanted in their lunch box but their parents would not buy. In elementary school it was common for kids to switch lunches because it was so important to have the lunch that appiled to them, if it was not what their mom or dad packed it was something else that another kid had.

Internet research:

What is the percentage of vegans and vegetarians in the United States?

Looking at the increased number of vegetarian products now available, there's no question that the interest in vegetarian foods has expanded in the last few years. Burger King now offers a vegetable burger. Most supermarkets carry soymilk and veggie alternatives to meats.

The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) estimates that 30-40% of the country's consumers are a good market for meatless items. Four to ten percent of Americans call themselves vegetarians. But are are actually vegetarian? VRG over the years has asked in national polls: out the following foods, if any, you NEVER EAT: Meat, Poultry, Fish/Seafood, Dairy Products, Eggs, Honey.

In a 2003 Vegetarian Resource Group Harris Interactive Survey, 2.8% of those surveyed said they never eat meat, poultry and fish/seafood. A majority of the vegetarians said they never eat meat, poultry, fish/seafood, dairy products, eggs, and honey.

Ten percent of 25-34 years olds indicated that they never eat meat. In a different 2000 VRG poll, 10% of 18-29 olds gave a similar answer.

Based on the U.S. 2000 census and 2.8% vegetarians, VRG calculates there are about 5.7 million adult vegetarians in the United States, but this is only an estimate.