Final Food Assignments

Food, one of the few things that are actually necessary to survive. Sure people also "need" all of these other things to "survive" such as a computer or a cell phone but those are just material needs. I once thought of food as something so simple that did not need anything extra for it to be satisfying and enjoyable. I thought food came from happy little farms that treated there animals well until it was time to in fact get them ready to be eaten by us. When I thought that I was ignorant. I was in fact blind to what really went on when it came to food, and when I was enriched with the knowledge I have now I can see that America makes food as complicated as possible in order to maximize profits. That makes me wonder why and how they could make something so simple so complicated and I also wonder do they realize that it’s not good for the earth and us humans? Just a couple thoughts.

Some of the stuff we watched in class such as "VROOM - farming for kids" reminded me a lot of a television show that comes on cartoon network, it was also a movie; its called Barnyard. Barnyard is a cartoon that shows all kinds of animals living on a nice little farm run by this old married couple and while the old people are not tending to them they have all kinds of fun. On the farm they only have one machine and that is a tractor, the old farmer does all the work himself and takes good care of the animals. What this has in common with "VROOM..." is that they are both giving the illusion to children that farms are actually like this, not like the big corporations based on efficiency rather then a job well done. I realize that Barnyard is in fact a kid’s show and VROOM is also for kids but when if I were to watch these now I would not be able to stop thinking about the other videos I've seen such as "Our Daily Bread" and the Meatrix series. What those videos showed were the truth, they showed how the farming corporations are treating these animals terribly, not treating the workers well, and just looking very evil in general.

My family and I go grocery shopping about once every two weeks. When we go shopping we usually buy the same stuff, which is usually a variety of things. As for fruits and vegetables we buy a lot of strawberries, bananas, grapes and oranges. We buy plums and other things not as often; my father loves peanuts so we always buy at least a jar of peanuts. My family does not eat red meat so when we go shopping we buy a lot of fish, turkey and chicken. When I go to grocery stores I notice that the first thing I see are cans of sodas and bags of chips, always. Then what I see next are the fruits and vegetable section and that confuses me because its like do they want us to eat a lot of junk food or be healthy?

They way food is done in my family is it is very organized most of the time. When we have dinner we usually all eat together and make sure the table is set and the food is on the table and no one can start eating until everyone is at the table. When everyone is at the table we then say our prayers and then start eating. We also don't watch TV during dinner because it is a time where we need to speak to each other and share how are days went. I enjoy this very much because it allows me to feel connected to family, that we have at least a time of the day where we all connect. In the mornings breakfast is not like that, usually everyone is getting ready for school/work and people leave at different times so its hard to really be coordinated like dinner. For breakfast its more individual while dinner is more family orientated. On the weekends however breakfast is like the dinners, and people make different things and we all just enjoy being in each other’s company sharing a meal. When it comes to lunch that is when my food habits are more present, and from that I believe I am a mixture of the mainstream corporate way of eating and my family’s way. During lunch I prefer the fast and convenient food rather then the food that actually needs preparation, but like my family I like to be set up before actually eating the food.

I mentioned before about the mainstream corporate way of eating food and just the way food is done and that is basically fast food, convenient, easy to cook food rather then food that takes time to prepare. On TV and in movies the kind of food that is always shown are burgers, cakes, candy, fast food chains, pizza and other "junk food". It seems as if the food that is the fastest and more convenient to make is the cheapest while the healthier foods are more expensive; and that is kind of messed up because it is basically saying that it is going to cost you to be healthy in America, while they end up making money of the fast food still because when you are unhealthy you have to go to the doctor which is going to cost money and if your insurance does not cover what ever your sickness is then its going to cost even more money. It is all just a big cycle of paying sustaining good health.

Overall in the end I am just saying, its better to treat food as the simple thing it really is, don't buy into the corporate hype and eat food to really savor the flavor and not just eat mindlessly. Please know whats going into your body.