International trade allows us access to fruits, vegetables, spices, and much more from other countries around the world. There are so many foods in our markets, grocery stores, and restaurants that we take for granted. The number of resources, work, travel, etc. that goes into producing goods elsewhere and bringing them to the United States is not noticed by many of… Read more »
In week 3, we discussed how chocolate gets from the cacao farms on the Ivory Coast, to the neatly packaged commodity that we all know and love. As images of children, taken from their families as slave laborers, were shown performing the difficult tasks of harvesting cacao beans, my heart sank. As we learned that farmers, who are underpaid, had… Read more »
The contemplative practice that I found to be the most interesting was the lesson on the production of chocolate. Chocolate is one of the most well known commodities in our culture. It’s heavily sought after by consumers during significant holidays, it’s the perfect gift for a loved one, and we add it to various foods such as cakes and ice… Read more »
For me the contemplative practices have been a way to relax and think about myself in relation to the larger food system. While they have all given me something to think about, the one that had the most influence on me was the lesson 5 contemplative practice about feeling hunger. I, like many Americans have never been truly hungry. By… Read more »
Chocolate most commonly is found in dark, milk, and white varieties, each with its own unique flavor, and most people have their own preferences as to what they like best. For me it’s all about milk chocolate, especially when it accompanies peanut butter, and that could be ice cream or the coveted Reese’s peanut butter cups. Chocolate is a commodity I have apparently taken for granted over… Read more »
At first thought, a raisin seems mostly like a forgettable, diminutive sort of food, and for most of the world that’s probably true. Interestingly though, there is an entire industry surrounding their cultivation that has been in existence for decades, with years upon years of marketing ploys and product placements touting their simplistic deliciousness. Behind the simple boxes of what… Read more »
The contemplative practice that I found to be most inspiring was the one about cocoa beans and chocolate. In this practice, we thought about where the beans come from and the process that is used to get the beans to facilities to make the sweet snack that we consume often. Thinking about the work it takes to get to grow… Read more »
In wealthy countries like the U.S., hunger is not really something often brought up because it is not generally a life and death issue here. I have been fortunate enough to grow up in a household where fridges were almost always stocked and putting food on the table was never really an issue. The Lesson 05 Contemplative Practice: Feeling Hunger… Read more »
The Western diet is an extension of our capitalist culture. We are told what to drive, where to live, what to buy, who to vote for and what/how much to eat. We have allowed the Western diet to take root because of our desire for cheap, fast, processed foods that are easy to ingest. Over-consumption is not just encouraged, it is… Read more »
It might seem a bit random, but the reading that we have done thus far in class has actually brought to mind for me feminist issues. One might not think that feminism and food have much to do with each other, but I see a direct link to it in comments such as Michael Carolan’s about possessing sufficient time to… Read more »