As a college student, myself and many others are always lacking something. Time, energy, money, you name it. Despite this, according to the American Dream we are doing everything we should be doing. Our education is leading us well on our way to fulfilling that happy dream of living in a white picket fenced house with a perfect spouse (and… Read more »
Over the last 50 years, the amount that the world knows about what comprises food has grown exponentially with each passing year, but I don’t think anyone knew what exactly would happen because of it. It is easy, for me at least, to imagine when people only ate foods because they knew that for some reason or another they kept… Read more »
Michael Pollan’s solutions to the industrialized food system are to turn inward focusing on individual action that insulates people from the larger and more problematic food supply chain. However, the choices that people can make about their food do not exist in a vacuum; there political and economic forces that constrain what individuals are able to do in terms of… Read more »
As a student, I don’t have the money to buy most of my food from farmer’s markets or small businesses that source their foods locally. I can get food from larger chains like Safeway, which sell food (especially produce) at a lower price because it’s part of a food system that relies on exploitation of labor and of the environment… Read more »
Michael Pollan claims that “the human animal is well adapted to a great many different diets, and the Western diet isn’t one of them” (Pollan 11) in his book “In Defense of Food”. The Western diet is another way of saying processed food. Pollan explains how a group of doctors visited different countries to get feedback on people who have… Read more »
One of the solutions that Pollan gives in his book for eating better and living a more healthful lifestyle is to buy locally from farmers markets rather than from supermarkets. Initially, upon reading this, I felt as if I could make this change in my own life, as I’ve shopped at farmers markets in the past. However what Pollan and… Read more »
Food has meant many different things to me at different times in my life. It has been a joy as I gather around for birthday dinner with my extended family, an annoyance as I scarf down a Clif bar between classes, a wonder as I pull a baby beet from the wet earth. I had yet to view food as… Read more »
Regardless of what foods we eat or diets we follow, we all have something in common: we’re all consumers. None of us are plants, we can’t survive off of sunlight (unless plants are pretending to be humans, in which case we have bigger things to worry about than our diets), we need food to survive, and you can bet food… Read more »
Claims from nutritionists and scientists that our diets are missing key nutritional content is one of the largest factors driving the supplement industry. The supplement industry feeds off of these statements to push their alleged health claims on the public, and consumers often dogmatism approach to health makes it even easier to sell their supplement products (whether or not they’re… Read more »
Apathy: one of the biggest issues facing the fulfillment of our shared civic responsibility. People don’t think that their vote or their action can make a difference, and thus they don’t utilize their individual power to spark change. That being said, this week’s readings and lectures have caused me to— rightfully so— question the individualistic rhetoric surrounding apathy. The juxtaposition… Read more »