End of the Semester Evaluation

"All of our ingredients have lived rich, full lives."

... This should always be the case!

Wow. This semester has opened my eyes to the world. Ever since coming to school, I have been realizing that the world is not as rose colored as many people make it seem. I have come to understand how corrupt the food industry is and I cannot comprehend why people would go this far all for the sake of money. However, I do have a better understanding of how I can change it. By spreading awareness, I can make a difference in the world around me. I am aware that I cannot change the world in a day, but I can make small changes in my life and the lives of others around me.
One of the most interesting things that I have discovered about the slow food movement is that those involved with it are very likely to be involved with other philanthropic causes. For example, not only does the food co-op support local food, it supports the non-GMO project, BPA free products, sustainability and taking care of the environment and fair trade, humane practices. This all makes sense in my eyes, but somehow it does not make sense in the eyes of others. For example, have you ever seen stop and shop or walmart promoting sustainability and fair trade? If you have, did it last more than a week? Do they promote it with more than just a couple products? Of course not. Those involved with the slow food movement have made a lifetime commitment to food justice.
Learning about the food justice has also taught me some life lessons, some of which i have already talked about in previous posts. I have learned that simplicity should be a staple in everyone's life. A couple days ago I looked around my room and just thought about how much STUFF I have. Clothing, decorations, jewelry and other STUFFs that i don't even have uses for. I felt cluttered and I want to remove everything that does not have meaning in my life. I want to live a simpler life. Day by day I understand what is important in life and it is not all of the junk that I keep stored in my room. I am fascinated by the idea of living to hunt and gather food and then convene to enjoy it. Just picture this in your mind. My mind has painted a picture of a campfire with food over it in the woods, nature surrounding us. Imagine living this life, bonding over food with the people you love. Nothing unnecessary about that life.

Blackboard Posting- Carl from End Hunger CT

Eng Hunger CT

Carl spoke about End Hunger CT and how they are attempting to end hunger in our country. He mentioned that many people are not getting the help they need in terms of food. One of the biggest obstacles is that certain groups of people are especially hard to reach. For example, the SNAP program only reaches 1/3 of seniors and disabled persons and immigrants are also hard to get a hold of. Carl's job at End Hunger CT is to find out if people are eligible for food aid programs. One downfall of the food aid system is that there are 1700 applications per social worker at the state level.
When I think about this program in comparison to other programs we have talked about in class, it is easy for me to criticize it. First of all, SNAP and WIC are two programs which end Hunger CT uses, and both are funded by the government. Isn't this ironic, considering the government is the institution that is supporting the fast food industry. They are the very ones that are poisoning us. Furthermore, the food that they fund for the people in need of AID is very low quality and unhealthy. These federally funded programs are not going to progress, they are only going to continue the oppression. The government and End Hunger CT should put more effort into food programs that will allow people to produce their own food.

In Class Reading- Bread Body Spirit

There is Nothing More Profound

Karyn D. Kedar

There is nothing more profound than the breaking of bread.

God we ask Your blessing

For all who are hungry

And cannot come to eat

Who do not know the feeling of a second helping,

Who know that the bread of affliction is real…

Affliction: distress, misery, pain, disease

1.       In my opinion, it is unusual to see a prayer/blessing for those who are hungry and suffering.

2.      Passover- Bread of affliction: “Bread of suffering” “Bread of Poverty” Matzah bread. We are instructed to feed those who are in need with the bread of affliction. Feed those who are wanting with this bread.

3.      Two meanings: symbolizes redemption and freedom, but also represents “poor man’s bread,” so it is a lesson on humility and not to forget what life was like in servitude.

Blackboard Posting- Guest Speakers

I agree with the idea that people have to first live the fast life in order to live the simple life. I think this is one of the most interesting paradoxes about our world today. In order for both of the farmers to successfully own a farm, they had to be social workers and engineers. It is unfortunate that people have to conform to society before they can live the life they have always wanted. For example, Paul has always wanted to own goats, but could not afford them until much later in life. Why does society constrict us so much that we cannot live the lives that we are passionate about? I think that the definition of a "life" has been so misconstrued over time that we have lost what it is really all about. For example, when mankind first existed they hunted and gathered; their lives revolved around finding food and then enjoying it. People coexisted with nature and with other beings. This is the simple life. This is what we used to want and what I think we should one day get back to.

Faith

"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase." -Martin Luther King Jr.

In one of my first journal entries I mentioned that I wanted a garden but I was so nervous to do it because I have killed every plant I ever owned. Since writing that first journal entry, I have planted three plants of my own (in organic soil, of course) in pots and they sit on my window sill soaking up the sun at this very moment. I have not yet planted food, but rather flowers. Towards the end of April I was given the opportunity to plant my own plants and I was excited to give it a try! Instead of planting one, I planted two. I had the same reservations about planting that I always had, and I felt like my plants weren't going to grow, but I tried it anyway! This is one of the biggest tests of life... Thinking that you can't do something, but trying it anyways. If you never take that leap of faith, you will never live to your fullest potential. This is one of the hardest parts of being a Sociologist... there are so many problems that we want to solve, but how do we know that we will make any kind of positive influence? We have explored a number of different societal problems over the past couple of months. Take King Corn for example... The two boys that planted an acre of corn had no idea if they were going to be able to better understand the corn industry and make a difference about it. However, after taking that leap of faith there was reward. They are now able to make the King Corn documentary available to the public. They are advocating the brokenness of the corn industry and better informing people like myself. Taking a slight risk also ended up paying off for me. After my first two plants sprouted up after only a few days of water and sun, I planted another and it has also begun to grow. Everyone always says it's the little things in life that matter the most, and I would have to agree. I only planted three flowers, but this has already given me the confidence and inspiration to grow my own garden in the future. This little step I made about trying to grow my own plants is going to help me contribute to the slow food system by allowing me to produce my own food one day.

Food Justice- Chapter 6

One thing that stuck out to me in this chapter is the disconnect between immigrant farmers and Americans. Ithought it was interesting hwo many different immigrants, including Somalis, Hmong, Central Americans, and many more nationalities of farmers convened to talk about barriers and different experiences they have had. The group also played music and tried to better understand other cultures. One farmer mentioned “we produce the food to make it peaceful in the world.” Why is the attitude of immigrant farmers so much more positive and democratic than the attitude of those in the fast food industry? Or in the majority of the country for that matter? The immigrant farmers not only look to learn from each other, but to help each other.

I find the attitude towards immigrants to be very negative in the eyes of the American population. We view immigrants as outcasts who have very little to contribute to society. However, the opposite is true. This article showed that these farmers have much more concern about humankind and the food industry than does the rest of the population. This was depicted in the reading: “Instead of viewing immigrants as ‘transplants,’ similar to plants that have been removed and replanted, Klindienst suggests we understand the immigrant ‘as a gardener—a person who shapes the world rather than simply being shaped by it.” We should all strive to be gardeners, as this quote defines them. There is no way we can make a difference if we sit back and let the world take control of us.

Global market

http://vimeo.com/8812686

The first feeling I got while I was watching this video was fear. I was the most scared when I heard that in 2050, the world's food production will have to be doubled. I will be alive during this time, with a family! What will we do? The food we will be eating will definitely not be healthy if we don't start supporting local farms and organic products immediately. I am a little bit discouraged because I don't foresee people changing their ways very dramatically in the near future. I frequently ask myself if we will ever start realizing the consequences of our actions.

"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Give a man a fishing rod and he will eat for a lifetime." I feel that this is part of the solution to the unbalanced global food market. We are so focused on helping people, yet we don't even understand that we are actually hurting them when we provide them with goods. We need to come up with a solution that will help people in the long term, rather than on  a one time basis. Furthermore, food drop offs help in the short term by providing a meal, but hurt in the long term by lowering the value of local food.

"By choosing a dish of lentils instead of steak, he consumes 1/6 of the farming land and 1/12 of the water and this leaves more for others." This quote speaks directly to me because I have chosen not to eat meat. This is one of the biggest reasons why I do not eat meat. I find that the quantity of meat and the frequency it is eaten at is not sustainable.

Robert Montgomery

Two of my favorites...




http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2ngrug/www.robertmontgomery.org/robertmontgomery.org/5.html

What if we all die of cancer?

"An effect of this contamination is that we are now one of the most polluted species on the face of this planet... Indeed, we are all so contaminated that if we were cannibals, our meat would be banned from human consumption" (Hundred Year Lie, 5).
This quotation really alarmed me. How is it that we have polluted ourselves? If we were cannibals, we couldn't even consume our own bodies. How can our bodies survive then if we are so badly contaminating? One thing is for sure: our bodies have survived this long, but they will not be able to sustain themselves much longer if we continue to pollute ourselves.
I feel very overwhelmed as I read this article. The first thing that comes to mind is my family: my mom and my brothers. How am I supposed to protect them from this? How can I relay the importance of this information to them? How will they afford the more nutritional food? And where can they even obtain nutritional, local food near where we live? My mother has seen her father and her mother die form cancer.. I do not want to see the same thing happen to her! But is it already too late? Have we gone so far that we can never recover our bodies from the detrimental damage we have already done to them?
It is scary to read that in the past 100 years, the cancer mortality rate has gone from three percent to twenty percent, and diabetes went from .1 percent to 20 percent. These numbers are horrific! How can the rates sky rocket so much in such a short amount of time? This is a tiny amount of time in the history of humans. We are ruining ourselves so quickly. If I really think about it, cancer is almost commonplace in our society today. When we hear that someone has been diagnosed with cancer, it is not entirely alarming because it happens all the time. One day, cancer could be the means of death for all of us. We will all slowly and sadly deteriorate because of our selfishness and ignorance. Furthermore, it is interesting to me that people always talk about "finding the cure to cancer" when we are the ones that practically created it. And we have the answer right in front of our faces! We can stop cancer! Stop spraying chemicals all over our food, stop genetically modifying our seeds, and let nature take its course!

PESTICIDES & "The Circle of Poison"

As I read the article "The Circle of Poison," I am dumbfounded. I can't believe that people choose money over life. The powerful, rich corporations who control the lives of so many underprivileged people are willing to let them die for the sake of money.
As we learn more and more about the FDA, I more often begin to question their validity. It seems to me that the FDA is there just for show, not to protect anyone. The article explained that the FDA rarely seizes or refuses any shipments. Rather, they take a sample of the product and send the rest off to the market. The article even explained that there have been highly dangerous amounts of pesticides in the food that went to the market and then into our bodies. There really was no point in even taking a sample of the product, because either way they could not recall it. These pesticides can lead to cancer. How is the FDA (aka the government) allowing it's own people to get cancer. Our government and we as people are ignoring all of the facts. Not only our the vegetables we consume everyday ridden with carcinogens, but so are many other types of foods and drinks. Although the FDA is allowing this to happen, we cannot blame them solely. We have to also blame ourselves. We do not think about what we eat, we ignore the warning signs, and we do what is convenient. The reality is that we know we are ruining ourselves. If anyone thinks this is false, they are ignoring the evidence. Another reason why I was intrigued by this article is because it was advocating that people become informed and do something about this problem. I respect that the article not only presented the facts, but it went to great lengths to reveal them. The article explained how secretive not only the American government and corporations were, but even third world countries would not reveal their dirty secrets. Why? Money of course, they didn't want to scare off the precious tourists who so diligently and ignorantly pour money into their hands.
After reading this article I am beginning to further question how our world has gotten this far. We are ruining everything that this earth has given us. Since they day the earth was created, we had everything that we needed to survive. But we still want more more more. It has never been enough. I took a break from writing this journal and looked out my window and just watched the rain come down in sheets. It is so natural and pure and beautiful. And we are destroying all of this natural beauty. But more truthfully, we are destroying ourselves. We are a part of the earth, and while we continue to kill it, we kill ourselves.

food food food: journal 1

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of food is my mom. The next thing that comes to mind is the restaurant my parents used to own and all of the food that was prepared there. I never gave this food a thought, and I never established a connection between the food and myself, unless I was preparing it myself. I would read food labels somewhat often, but only to look at the calories, fat content, amount of sodium, and so on. This is what I know about food and I have been trained to think this way about food. I have been taught by my mother and society that food is something you prepare, not something that you grow. In fact, I have never really had the desire to grow my own food because I kill every plant that comes into my possession. However, the first time I came close to growing food is when I took care of a friend's garden while they were on vacation over the summer. Although I was scared that I was going to kill the vegetables, I also felt a fulfillment from watering the plants every morning because it was evident that they needed the water to survive. It was as if I could see that plants sprucing up after they had been hydrated. I even had to pick a squash or two when they were ripe, it was such a fun feeling! As funky as it sounds, I felt some sort of connection to the vegetable. Seeing the work of watering the vegetables paying off felt good. One of the harder parts of watering the plants was that the tomatoes just wouldn't grow! WHY?! It was an interesting feeling of frustration when I saw no progress on the tomatoes over the course of the week. I was determined to take special care of the tomatoes to try and encourage them to ripen. I later tasted the vegetables that my friend had been growing and they were spectacular! Maybe the reason they tasted so delicious is because I knew they were grown so close to home, right in my friends backyard. There is also a kind of mystification about growing food in a backyard, because I am so used to picking the vegetables off of a rack in the supermarket, rather than off the vine. This is what first sparked my desire to someday have my own garden.

And so my interest in food began. The semester following the summer, food was mentioned briefly in one of my classes, and I was immediately intrigued. I wanted to know more about food, how it is made, who controls food production, and why there are so many people living without enough food to sustain themselves! I find it so interesting that I know so very little about the very thing that sustains my very existence! Someone has to help me understand....

Dedication

The response I got when a man in the elevator of the administrative building found out that I was a Sociology major: "Oh, you’re trying to solve the world’s problems?.. You know, I really admire Sociology majors because they want to make the world better, everyone else is just out for the money. I’m proud of you."


This blog is dedicated to the random man in the elevator for making my day, encouraging me to fulfill my dreams and reminding me of the value of the little things in life.