Racial discrimination is an issue that most people thought withered away especially with prominent events like the election of our first African-American president. However, events of recency have demonstrated that these movements are not dead, rather they have caught a second wind. The Color of Food by Raj Patel demonstrates that this discrimination has expanded into U.S. agriculture system in… Read more »
One way that the interconnectivity of topics is highlighted in this class is through contemplative practices, like the activities with the cocoa nib or the raisin. The activity with the cocoa nib was the most eye opening because of how much labor and exploitation that takes place from the time the cocoa is harvested to the time it is consumed… Read more »
Life is like a box of chocolates. This might mean something to your average first world consumer but to cacao producers in Africa the saying has no context. If it’s not obvious by the title the contemplative practice I found the most helpful was the chocolate practice. The combination of having both raw cacao and a piece of chocolate itself… Read more »
For a lot of us, overlooking water as a crucial resource is commonplace and its availability to us is often taken for granted. In other places around the world, having water readily available could mean saving millions of lives and increasing productive growth for a nation’s economy. As we sit comfortably in our own homes using and consuming as much… Read more »
Contemplative practices have been a useful part of my learnings in this class. They have been useful for me to think back on what we have learned in the class and reflect on it and what it means to the world at large and connect ideas. One of the things that sometimes happens during the contemplative practices is my mind… Read more »
My first reaction to the contemplative practices was distaste because I found them trivial. I still feel that way, though I do think they are premised upon a central point which I do find valuable. That premise is that it is valuable for one to imagine their own place within the larger industrial food network. I think that both the… Read more »
After watching countless Fabio cameos for ‘I can’t believe it’s not butter!® ’ commercials, I started thinking more about how gender and aesthetic beauty is playing a role in food commercials. Why did a margarine producing companying need a gorgeous man to sell its products?’ Well, there were many answers, but during my contemplative time, I thought of a different… Read more »
Realizing as a society that global concerns currently being dealt with are truly connected will be key in fixing our eventual food and water crisis. Contemplative practices have enlightened me on issues such as world hunger and helped give an appreciation for the amount of energy it takes just to get food to the table. Nonetheless, I couldn’t fully integrate… Read more »
Taiwan, a country suffers from China’s pressure in every perspectives within the global system, can “food” effect Taiwan’s relationship with China even though Taiwan’s political system still undergoing China’s compression?Even though China does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country but a province that belong to China, they still make business between those two. Food, is part of the business… Read more »
Blog post 2 Robert Diaz This blog post will be influenced by take away 5 and parts of lecture. I previously mentioned in my take away journal the true cost of cheap food. Just because food is cheap doesn’t mean it’s healthy for you and it also doesn’t mean that didn’t have a negative impact elsewhere on in the world… Read more »