{"id":960,"date":"2018-05-05T03:28:05","date_gmt":"2018-05-05T03:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/?p=960"},"modified":"2018-05-05T03:28:05","modified_gmt":"2018-05-05T03:28:05","slug":"contemplating-over-cacao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/2018\/05\/05\/contemplating-over-cacao\/","title":{"rendered":"Contemplating Over Cacao"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contemplation is a form of deep, reflective thought which allows one to look at something for a long time, and sometimes in a new light. Everyday we might make choices regarding what we will eat for breakfast or whether to go to a restaurant or cook at home, but rarely do we engage in contemplation with our food. As a product of the industrialization of the food industry, and the lack of contemplative thought surrounding food, Americans have become blind to the process it takes for our meals to arrive on our plates. <\/span><\/p>\n

Americans eat chocolate everyday, but do they know about where it comes from? Lots of it comes from the Ivory Coast, where farmers of the cacao beans, from which the bitter chocolate taste is extracted, have never even eaten a candybar. Our relationship to the cacao bean is backwards compared to that of the Ivory Coast farmer. Cacao farmers are in touch with the food that they grow. They follow the cacao bean through every stage of its early life before processing, but never get to indulge in its delicious taste. We, Americans, on the other hand, consume chocolate nonchalantly and without any regard as to where it has come from.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is common to say that ignorance is bliss, but bliss at the expense of underappreciation of others contributing to our own well being is discourteous. If we can grow an appreciation of food, we can also grow our empathy and open mindedness. <\/span><\/p>\n

Contemplative practices help us slow down so to realize we have much to be grateful for, and that everything has its own history. A bar of chocolate would not be possible without the cacao farms of the Ivory Coast. Noticing this relationship shrinks the globe, revealing the interconnectedness that humankind shares as a result from trade, and makes you realize your privilege only exists because there are other people out there working on your behalf.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contemplation is a form of deep, reflective thought which allows one to look at something for a long time, and sometimes in a new light. Everyday we might make choices regarding what we will eat for breakfast or whether to go to a restaurant or cook at home, but rarely do we engage in contemplation with our food. As a… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemplative-practices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":961,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960\/revisions\/961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}