The practice of cultivating self-awareness is a challenge that exists in all facets of life. In the study of world food politics, it is a practice which is vital to understanding various problems which plague our world. In our class, we have focused on a range of contemplative practices. These specific reflections have created a space which has allowed for… Read more »
***Click HERE to take a listen — Hoodia Rap*** Here is a rap song I wrote from the contemplative practice about industrialized food process, hunger, and its aftermath. The Hoodia plant grows naturally in the southern region of Africa. The San people traditionally consume the bitter plant as an appetite suppressant, to help survive in desert conditions where food resources… Read more »
At the end of lecture one day, Professor Litfin gave a single raisin to each student to suck on as we learned about the lifetime of the seemingly simple food. From the time the grape was planted, to it being dried out and transported to stores, we thought about it all. For me, eating food is part of my daily… Read more »
Our contemplative practice with chocolate in Lecture 7 left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. This may be because we were ingesting raw cocoa nibs, but it was mostly due to the new information I received from this lecture that was difficult to digest. Prior to this contemplative practice, I loved eating, or baking/cooking with chocolate. I’ve always… Read more »
Given humanity’s innate ties to food, as a cultural centerpiece, a custom or family tradition, and as the energy that sustains us, it has been helpful to me to explore an emotional approach to understanding the material covered in this course as a means of supplementing my logical and analytic understanding. Several of the contemplative practices we have conducted throughout… Read more »
Contemplation and deep imaginative thinking are important tools that are often times skipped over in daily life. Especially when it comes to things more complex than just asking yourself, do I want to go out tonight or do study for my exam? Or, do I eat a salad or a cheese burger? Contemplation over deeper topics can be very resourceful… Read more »
I have written a few contemplated reflections before, but this class’s focus on fossil fuel contemplation has really caught my attention. There are many talks right now about substituting fossil fuel with electricity as vehicles’ main source of energy. The rise of electric cars, especially the Tesla models, is an example. Although electric energy is usually viewed as a clean… Read more »
How do you feel when you are hungry? Do you get quiet, impatient, how well can you focus? Sitting in class with my trivial hunger sitting deep in my stomach, I had a hard time relaxing, focusing. I found my thoughts wandering to what I was going to eat for lunch. Contemplating hunger in class was very powerful because I… Read more »
Why are we as human beings obsessed with the idea of making the most out of the present? There are numerous idioms about “living in the moment” and “making the most out of your time” that convey warm sentiments, but as a society we’ve taken them too literally. In fact, we’re “living in the moment” so much that there might… Read more »
When we think about hunger in the world, we imagine the lack of food. The video “Silent Killer: The Unfinished Campaign Against Hunger” tells us the other reason of world hunger. In Brazil, enough amount of food is produced to feed all people in Brazil. However many people cannot get enough food to live and are facing to hunger. The… Read more »