What I found most interesting and thought provoking about this week’s lessons was the TED Talk video of Joel Salatin discussing about how he transformed his barren, wasteland of a farm into a paradise of abundance through the practice of regenerative farming solely using biological methods. By reintroducing organic matter into the soil, growing a variety of crops, and by… Read more »
Throughout Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food, Pollan presents a case in defense of food as he attempts to defend food from nutrition science and the food industry. He makes the claim that professional advice about what people should consume has resulted in the population becoming less healthy, and even goes as a far as to argue that the… Read more »
A major concern with the incline of nutritionism in modern food systems is that there has been a perpetual shift in the science behind dietary guidelines, specifically within the last century as fads arose in Western cultures. Additionally, the assertion that food is more than just the sum of its parts in Pollan’s writing exemplifies the criticality of our own… Read more »
Looking on the lectures and the readings for the past two weeks, some of the most intriguing things for me would be the roots of our modern world system and the ongoing food related problems we are facing now. Personally, for me, colonialism has a negative connotation. The reason for this is because in many modern-day movies, colonialists were always… Read more »
In todays globalized and diverse world, the concept of “diet” and types of diets have become an obsession that we humans stress and contemplate over. As a result of the public’s demand for “healthier” options for foods, the ideology of nutritionisism has become a tool for the food industry to make more profits and come out with new findings that… Read more »
Michael Pollen’s book In Defense of Food, and Nutritionalism at large, have always had a bit of affluent or bougie undertones but the end of this book amplified that undertone to an overtone. The book ends with a third act that is all about getting over Nutritionalism and eating better and thus a healthier life. The “Pay more, Eat Less”… Read more »
Is Green Worth the Fuss? How can we incentivize people to overcome the collective action problem, stop free-riding and take action when the benefits are so long term and indirectly seen? One common solution is to “vote with your wallet” and buy green or sustainable products whenever possible, even when making small purchasing decisions like buying a bottle of… Read more »
Michael Pollan states in his book In Defense of Food “Health is, among other things, the product of being in these sorts of relationships in a food chain…if the soil is sick or in some way deficient, so will be the grasses that grow in that soil and the cattle that eat the grasses and the people who drink the… Read more »
Images of genetically good looking people surrounded by (unhealthy) food that promises “fitness” is the epitome of how dysfunctional the Western diet is. I used to watch Fabio’s ‘I can’t believe it’s not butter!® ’ commercials all the time when I was little. No matter what channel I was watching, I could always expect an appearance from the hunky… Read more »
A notable point from the Michael Pollan reading was the emphasis on the origins of popular thought on nutrition throughout history; the shift from protein to carbohydrates as America’s über nutrient was noted as being catalyzed by John Harvey Kellogg, whose name coincidentally shows up in many home’s pantry to this day on cereal of all sorts (Pollan 30). This… Read more »