I feel that everything must have a beginning and end. Just how the saying says, “all good things must come to an end.” The thought of my life collapsing is a hard one to dig into because there are just so many possibilities to what might cause this to happen. Possibilities that are personal and in my control or ones that are worldwide issues and out of my reach. I feel that the only ones in my control are school and work related. But as a society I feel my life will collapse when there is no more food, or when there is no more fossil fuels to do work for us.
One of the ways I feel my life is going to collapse is when there are no/ a shortage of animals/ food on the planet. This is going to be due to the population reaching its peek where we will lead into a food recession due to there being such a high supply and demand. This is due to us using fossil fuels to beat up the earth and process these foods. Without these fuels there is no way we have such a high supply and demand thus a possible food shortage somewhere in the near future. This will be due to us killing so many animals such as chicken and cattle that we will be running their species to the brink of extinction. Which will be when the earth turns around and says to itself, “holy shit, we really screwed up by killing too many of these wild animals.” And for some people it may not be till animals are extinct that we learn our lesson on how we are “raping,” the earth’s natural food resources. For this part of the collapse to happen it will only be a matter of time because at the rate we are going, there will soon be no cattle or chicken left for us to kill and eat.
This leads into the other half of the collapse which is when the fossil fuels are gone. When the fossil fuels are gone not only is the economy going to go down with the loss of fossil fuels, but there will be a huge and long recession as the result. The reason being is because without fossil fuels we would have lost our way of getting energy. This will cause the planet to go into years of recession because people will have to develop a way of creating safe and renewable energy so that we can have it to power any devise we need to. It will close down millions of jobs especially ones in factories because there will be no fossil fuels to power the machines to make products. And even there was a magical way to make the products; no one would buy them because there would be no fossil fuels to power them. This will not only cause loss of jobs, but also lots of food problems because no one is going to want to go through the manual labor of picking crops. This will cause a hectic situation to adapt to because no one wants to work for it when they used to go to the supermarket.
Therefore this collapse can cause a hectic situation if we don’t act soon. If we don’t the fossil fuels we depend on will be gone. And plus there will be no more animals to eat because they will be extinct and a major part of society would’ve collapsed.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
The Final Paper
Taking this course has taught me a lot about what things make life meaningful. Now I have learnt about this topic throughout the school year and I have seen the various aspects that we as a class saw as the most meaningful aspects of life. Some of these aspects are music, family, elderly people, sports, food, friends, and basically any other topic/ activity that interests the person. This has basically told me that the meaningfulness in someone’s life is not only measured by the amount of time happiness is felt but also, in my opinion, how big of a mark you put on others. In my situation in life I feel that my life is meaningful but not meaningful to its full potential. I feel that in order to have a meaningful life I must not only be happy but impact other people in the world besides myself. To make my life more meaningful I must explore the possibilities in life while still obtaining my happiness.
In my future I feel like I have the opportunity to become very big in my field and become a meaningful person on a world scale. The way I feel that I can is by possibly becoming a chef. The reason this would make my life more meaningful because I would be doing something I would enjoy while simultaneously growing on the scale of life/ moving up in society. By becoming a chef I would be in the service of supplying people with substantial meals which affect our people in a positive way, while also doing something I enjoy. This would mean affecting a lot of people in the world because thousands—millions of people could go to the restaurant. And since I would be in a good restaurant I can go home every night with the satisfaction that I affected the world in a positive way. Plus I would put aside all the leftover food to an organization called City Harvest. This organization goes around to certain restaurants, picks up the leftover food, and delivers it to homeless shelters so that homeless people who are in dire need of the food can be fed. This would bring out my “animal instincts,” from within me. The reason is that since I would be happy and worry free I would be like a majestic animal in a forest that can run around happily with no worries. And not only will I be happy I will be affecting the world in a positive way so I wouldn’t be destroying the planet with tons of greenhouse gasses. Therefore, cooking in my life would make my life more meaningful because not only would I be affecting other people positively, I will also be making myself happy.
I also follow folk messages that I believe help me live a good and meaningful life. A folk message that has a major part of how to live a good and meaningful life is friendship. The reason that this folk message stands out to me is because it is something that contradicts dominant corporate messages. The reason it does is because these dominant messages tell us that a meaningful life is having a lot of material objects, money, big house, etc. But this folk message of having friends contradicts that because there can be someone in middle class with a lot of friends and less money, can be happier than a man in upper class with a lot of money with no friends. A person with no friends even with a lot of money is actually less happy then they got no one to share any good times or joy with. It would be like watching your favorite team win a championship and then want to give someone a celebratory hug or high five but there would be no one there. And it is times like these that make even a rich person very lonely and unhappy. Because money can’t buy true friendship, people who are your friends because you are rich aren’t true friends. They won’t stick with them through the good and bad. Real friends stay with you regardless of the circumstances. This is a way that folk messages can be more important than dominant corporate messages.
Another aspect I have learned this year was health and about how to make healthy personal decisions. This means making the right decision that would impact other people positively and the person making the decision. The example we used in class to convey this message of “right decision making,” was the the guy in retirement who has to make a choice between saving the car he has saved money his entire life for or saving a little kid from getting hit by a train. Either way he can’t get both so either his dream car gets destroyed or a kid dies. So in my opinion I feel that the healthy decision would be to save the kid. Even though the car represents the one person’s financial security, everyone should have the right to live. Therefore saving the kid would be more morally right instead of saving a material object. This would be something that I would use in my own life because it tests your ability to make big decisions. I believe that the right decision is the one that would affect the most people positively. Therefore by saving the kid it would affect others in an emotionally positive way instead of that person being brutally murdered which in most cases would result in agony. Instead of saving the car which only would’ve affected one person. In this sense I feel that I would use this in my life to become a healthier person mentally, knowing that I just saved a life.
Observing holidays is another way to live a good and meaningful life. In our culture different holidays are observed for different reasons. I feel that a unique holiday that isn’t technically considered a dated holiday on a calendar is the Sunday the Super Bowl is played. This is a day in the world that people that isn’t even football fans stop on their televisions to watch a football game. The Super Bowl is considered the biggest football game of the year. The game where the two best teams in the league, one from the NFC(National Football Conference) and the other from the AFC(American Football Conference). And for this game it is when fans of their team bring out their true Fanhood. Fanhood is that special passion a person has inside them, passion that can’t be taken away, the commitment to stay up day and night watching ESPN and reading sports magazines and papers in order to be up to date with your favorite teams. Along with all the drama coming with each week, with the game coming down to a 4th Down or that tying/ go ahead field goal with time running out, shocking injuries, off field issues, and the thoughts of will my team show up to play and are they good enough get answered on the day of the super bowl. Other answers come from the individual players themselves. Some players in the super bowl have to prove themselves to their teammates, organization, and mostly the fans. This process happened to New York Giants Quarterback Eli Manning last year. After being shelled in the playoffs every year he started in them, he was able to play his best football and shut all the critics up about his incapability to win the big game. He threw only one interception on his postseason journey on the road from Giants Stadium beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card Round, division rival Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round, the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship, and finally bringing it all together by beating one of the already Super Bowl greats Tom “Terrific,” Brady and the undefeated Patriots taking their possibly historic 19-0 perfect season and making them fall one game short at 18-1.
Besides just the game this day has a lot to do with the people watching it. This isn’t a day where fans go out to watch the game in dress clothes. This is a more casual day where you dress in your team’s colors/ attire. Meaning wearing a hat, t-shirt, jersey, shoes, pants, whatever it takes for you to be satisfied with how you are representing your team. Some people even enjoy using face and body paint. Watching the game with your faced painted with your team’s colors or being topless and painting your entire chest and back in your team’s colors. On any other day of the week people would think you were out of your mind but on this occasion no one cares. This is a unique aspect to how to live a good and meaningful life because it isn’t something that is very common. I feel that acting like an animal, covering yourself in paint, and just having a good time with friends can be one of the most meaningful times of my life. Therefore living a good and meaningful life also means enjoying holidays in your own unique way.
In conclusion, I believe a perfect good and meaningful life is the ability to balance the aspects that I have mentioned before. Being able to challenge life but at the same time having fun with it is the goal because you can enjoy yourself while feeling accomplished. It is only when life has nothing more to give and you can look in a mirror and ask yourself, was my life meaningful? And if yes, then you have accomplished your purpose in life and can therefore live out your remaining days in peace.
In my future I feel like I have the opportunity to become very big in my field and become a meaningful person on a world scale. The way I feel that I can is by possibly becoming a chef. The reason this would make my life more meaningful because I would be doing something I would enjoy while simultaneously growing on the scale of life/ moving up in society. By becoming a chef I would be in the service of supplying people with substantial meals which affect our people in a positive way, while also doing something I enjoy. This would mean affecting a lot of people in the world because thousands—millions of people could go to the restaurant. And since I would be in a good restaurant I can go home every night with the satisfaction that I affected the world in a positive way. Plus I would put aside all the leftover food to an organization called City Harvest. This organization goes around to certain restaurants, picks up the leftover food, and delivers it to homeless shelters so that homeless people who are in dire need of the food can be fed. This would bring out my “animal instincts,” from within me. The reason is that since I would be happy and worry free I would be like a majestic animal in a forest that can run around happily with no worries. And not only will I be happy I will be affecting the world in a positive way so I wouldn’t be destroying the planet with tons of greenhouse gasses. Therefore, cooking in my life would make my life more meaningful because not only would I be affecting other people positively, I will also be making myself happy.
I also follow folk messages that I believe help me live a good and meaningful life. A folk message that has a major part of how to live a good and meaningful life is friendship. The reason that this folk message stands out to me is because it is something that contradicts dominant corporate messages. The reason it does is because these dominant messages tell us that a meaningful life is having a lot of material objects, money, big house, etc. But this folk message of having friends contradicts that because there can be someone in middle class with a lot of friends and less money, can be happier than a man in upper class with a lot of money with no friends. A person with no friends even with a lot of money is actually less happy then they got no one to share any good times or joy with. It would be like watching your favorite team win a championship and then want to give someone a celebratory hug or high five but there would be no one there. And it is times like these that make even a rich person very lonely and unhappy. Because money can’t buy true friendship, people who are your friends because you are rich aren’t true friends. They won’t stick with them through the good and bad. Real friends stay with you regardless of the circumstances. This is a way that folk messages can be more important than dominant corporate messages.
Another aspect I have learned this year was health and about how to make healthy personal decisions. This means making the right decision that would impact other people positively and the person making the decision. The example we used in class to convey this message of “right decision making,” was the the guy in retirement who has to make a choice between saving the car he has saved money his entire life for or saving a little kid from getting hit by a train. Either way he can’t get both so either his dream car gets destroyed or a kid dies. So in my opinion I feel that the healthy decision would be to save the kid. Even though the car represents the one person’s financial security, everyone should have the right to live. Therefore saving the kid would be more morally right instead of saving a material object. This would be something that I would use in my own life because it tests your ability to make big decisions. I believe that the right decision is the one that would affect the most people positively. Therefore by saving the kid it would affect others in an emotionally positive way instead of that person being brutally murdered which in most cases would result in agony. Instead of saving the car which only would’ve affected one person. In this sense I feel that I would use this in my life to become a healthier person mentally, knowing that I just saved a life.
Observing holidays is another way to live a good and meaningful life. In our culture different holidays are observed for different reasons. I feel that a unique holiday that isn’t technically considered a dated holiday on a calendar is the Sunday the Super Bowl is played. This is a day in the world that people that isn’t even football fans stop on their televisions to watch a football game. The Super Bowl is considered the biggest football game of the year. The game where the two best teams in the league, one from the NFC(National Football Conference) and the other from the AFC(American Football Conference). And for this game it is when fans of their team bring out their true Fanhood. Fanhood is that special passion a person has inside them, passion that can’t be taken away, the commitment to stay up day and night watching ESPN and reading sports magazines and papers in order to be up to date with your favorite teams. Along with all the drama coming with each week, with the game coming down to a 4th Down or that tying/ go ahead field goal with time running out, shocking injuries, off field issues, and the thoughts of will my team show up to play and are they good enough get answered on the day of the super bowl. Other answers come from the individual players themselves. Some players in the super bowl have to prove themselves to their teammates, organization, and mostly the fans. This process happened to New York Giants Quarterback Eli Manning last year. After being shelled in the playoffs every year he started in them, he was able to play his best football and shut all the critics up about his incapability to win the big game. He threw only one interception on his postseason journey on the road from Giants Stadium beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card Round, division rival Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round, the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship, and finally bringing it all together by beating one of the already Super Bowl greats Tom “Terrific,” Brady and the undefeated Patriots taking their possibly historic 19-0 perfect season and making them fall one game short at 18-1.
Besides just the game this day has a lot to do with the people watching it. This isn’t a day where fans go out to watch the game in dress clothes. This is a more casual day where you dress in your team’s colors/ attire. Meaning wearing a hat, t-shirt, jersey, shoes, pants, whatever it takes for you to be satisfied with how you are representing your team. Some people even enjoy using face and body paint. Watching the game with your faced painted with your team’s colors or being topless and painting your entire chest and back in your team’s colors. On any other day of the week people would think you were out of your mind but on this occasion no one cares. This is a unique aspect to how to live a good and meaningful life because it isn’t something that is very common. I feel that acting like an animal, covering yourself in paint, and just having a good time with friends can be one of the most meaningful times of my life. Therefore living a good and meaningful life also means enjoying holidays in your own unique way.
In conclusion, I believe a perfect good and meaningful life is the ability to balance the aspects that I have mentioned before. Being able to challenge life but at the same time having fun with it is the goal because you can enjoy yourself while feeling accomplished. It is only when life has nothing more to give and you can look in a mirror and ask yourself, was my life meaningful? And if yes, then you have accomplished your purpose in life and can therefore live out your remaining days in peace.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Collapse Assignment 1
Easter Island seems like one of the few places on earth that actually hasn’t been corrupted by industry. Jared Diamond portrays the island to be very grassy and vast with various stone statues that stand 15-20 feet tall and weigh anywhere between 10-270 tons. I feel one of the most interesting parts of the essay happens to be the fact that this island isn’t developed and still ran by a 3rd world society. This struck a huge surprise between them and our culture because I thought that we would’ve went over there already to try to industrialize the island and make it a new theme park or something. But these artifacts/ sculptures portray how a society that started on this island back in A.D 900 is still being carried out. By the landscape and vibe being what it is, it is a big shock the U.S hasn’t taken it over yet. Because the U.S especially in the 21st century is big on conforming other societies and islands to industrialize like we have. And the fact that we haven’t is in my opinion a good sign for the world because it shows that the world might still have some purity with having this natural landscape and society. Instead of an industrialized mess.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Big Food Paper
In today’s society, the American industrialization of food is basically “bitch slapping,” the planet we live on. This means that as a country we are taking advantage of the natural resources the earth gives to use and using them as a convenience instead of a luxury. These is causing disrespect to the animals by using fossil fueled machines to mame, torture, and kill these animals that farmers and Indians back in the day had to work to get. These machines are killing not only the animals but are “biting the hand that feeds us,” as a human race. By disrespecting and taking advantage of these natural food sources we are eventually going to kill the planet and therefore cause a worldwide starvation alert.
A place where I learnt about how people were taking advantage of wild cattle is in the internet movie series, The Meatrix. This showed me how of course the animals don’t like the treatment from the humans. The site reassembled the corrupting and disrespectful humans as the “Meatrix Agents.” These are the people who try to destroy and corrupt the Matrix just as how in the “Meatrix” the people who kill, torture, and corrupt the animals. The video even showed the agents corrupting the animals with the hormones used to make the cows grow in order to receive the maximum amount of milk. Also by putting the cows in tight crammed up spaces in warehouses where they basically have no place to move and get fed food sprayed out of a machine which is no way to treat an animal that is so important to a human’s survival. Plus then these cows are taken to slaughter houses they are basically lined up on a machine that is used to send each one by a person with a big ass knife slicing each cow’s throat. Now in my opinion I feel this is no way to treat the natural resources that supply and feed the people of earth. If we as a race are to kill cattle, we should cut down the rate of which we are doing it because it is causing a lot of excess death that is unnecessary to the species and to the planet. Furthermore we shouldn’t drug up and torture the animal beforehand. If we are to continue our ways we should consider changing the brutal ways in which we are murdering the creature to make it more respectful. And make it so we aren’t killing as many so we can save the earth’s population of that creature. If we are to do that then there shouldn’t be a big of a panic of how soon an animal may become extinct. Thus we will be changing our ways on not disrespecting the planet and animals like we are.
Another place I learnt about how industrial food is killing our culture is through Pollan’s book called “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” From what I read in this book, it showed me how food has been getting corrupted by the corporations that industrialize our earth for food. This in other words means that food has gotten to such a point that we don’t know what to eat anymore. This is due to there being so many voices of diets, ways to stay healthy/ lose weight, and just the supply and demand of all the foods being developed. This has caused food to be some alienated thing that we humans now take for granted and not care/ think about. Instead of way back when the Native Americans felt that every piece of food they were able to get together was something special due to it being a privilege and not a luxury. Now because it’s a luxury, we don’t think twice of where our food has come from and how an animal had to be sacrificed to let us eat a steak. Or the backbreaking labor a man might’ve had to go through to get some fresh fruit. Since corporations have taken over these ideas of food being special, it will eventually kill the planet and alert worldwide starvation because at the rate we are going, the earth won’t have any chance to heal itself and this will cause even the most natural of resources to be obsolete and we won’t have any food to eat anymore due to there being no more earth made food or even animal meat.
If we as a culture don’t start fast, we maybe start facing some alert of starvation along the line in our lifetime. Since we are killing more then what needs to be killed the earth is being torn up by the people who live on it. So that even the most natural fruits like bananas and strawberries won’t even be around because the soils of the earth will be so overworked they can’t fertilize any new plants. Plus even potatoes that are grown out of the earth won’t be around due people digging them all up and possibly wasting them on the billions of junk food McDonalds French Fries. Since this is such a big issue it must be advised and acted upon quickly. If not then the people of earth will be staring right into starvation because the earth will be completely “bitch slapped,” and won’t be able to recover from the brutal torture of the American food industry.
A place where I learnt about how people were taking advantage of wild cattle is in the internet movie series, The Meatrix. This showed me how of course the animals don’t like the treatment from the humans. The site reassembled the corrupting and disrespectful humans as the “Meatrix Agents.” These are the people who try to destroy and corrupt the Matrix just as how in the “Meatrix” the people who kill, torture, and corrupt the animals. The video even showed the agents corrupting the animals with the hormones used to make the cows grow in order to receive the maximum amount of milk. Also by putting the cows in tight crammed up spaces in warehouses where they basically have no place to move and get fed food sprayed out of a machine which is no way to treat an animal that is so important to a human’s survival. Plus then these cows are taken to slaughter houses they are basically lined up on a machine that is used to send each one by a person with a big ass knife slicing each cow’s throat. Now in my opinion I feel this is no way to treat the natural resources that supply and feed the people of earth. If we as a race are to kill cattle, we should cut down the rate of which we are doing it because it is causing a lot of excess death that is unnecessary to the species and to the planet. Furthermore we shouldn’t drug up and torture the animal beforehand. If we are to continue our ways we should consider changing the brutal ways in which we are murdering the creature to make it more respectful. And make it so we aren’t killing as many so we can save the earth’s population of that creature. If we are to do that then there shouldn’t be a big of a panic of how soon an animal may become extinct. Thus we will be changing our ways on not disrespecting the planet and animals like we are.
Another place I learnt about how industrial food is killing our culture is through Pollan’s book called “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” From what I read in this book, it showed me how food has been getting corrupted by the corporations that industrialize our earth for food. This in other words means that food has gotten to such a point that we don’t know what to eat anymore. This is due to there being so many voices of diets, ways to stay healthy/ lose weight, and just the supply and demand of all the foods being developed. This has caused food to be some alienated thing that we humans now take for granted and not care/ think about. Instead of way back when the Native Americans felt that every piece of food they were able to get together was something special due to it being a privilege and not a luxury. Now because it’s a luxury, we don’t think twice of where our food has come from and how an animal had to be sacrificed to let us eat a steak. Or the backbreaking labor a man might’ve had to go through to get some fresh fruit. Since corporations have taken over these ideas of food being special, it will eventually kill the planet and alert worldwide starvation because at the rate we are going, the earth won’t have any chance to heal itself and this will cause even the most natural of resources to be obsolete and we won’t have any food to eat anymore due to there being no more earth made food or even animal meat.
If we as a culture don’t start fast, we maybe start facing some alert of starvation along the line in our lifetime. Since we are killing more then what needs to be killed the earth is being torn up by the people who live on it. So that even the most natural fruits like bananas and strawberries won’t even be around because the soils of the earth will be so overworked they can’t fertilize any new plants. Plus even potatoes that are grown out of the earth won’t be around due people digging them all up and possibly wasting them on the billions of junk food McDonalds French Fries. Since this is such a big issue it must be advised and acted upon quickly. If not then the people of earth will be staring right into starvation because the earth will be completely “bitch slapped,” and won’t be able to recover from the brutal torture of the American food industry.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Industrial Food
After watching the “Animal Cruelty,” and “The Meatrix 2.5” video, I have noticed things about the meat I eat that I never would’ve thought of. In The Meatrix video I noticed how the authors of the site used animation and a theme comparing to the hit movie trilogy, The Matrix to portray the message of how animals for food in the U.S have been corrupted. The video showed the animals as the good guys and a pig as Neo whom in the real Matrix is considered “The One.” This showed me how of course the animals don’t like the treatment from the humans. Furthermore the site reassembled the corrupting and disrespectful humans as the “Meatrix Agents.” These are the people who try to destroy and corrupt the Matrix just as how in the “Meatrix” the people who kill, torture, and corrupt the animals. The video even showed the agents corrupting the animals with the hormones used to make the cows grow in order to receive the maximum amount of milk. So I felt that this site used a unique way to get the public’s attention in order to spread the idea of how animals are being tortured and disrespected in order for us people to get our meat.
The other video I watched was the “Animal Cruelty,” one. The authors of this site took a more serious and strength forward look at the issue as oppose to The Meatrix. This site’s video made it more serious rather than a cartoon/ “joke.” But oppose to The Meatrix, this site had a wider spread view of animal cruelty instead of just talking about cows. This site broke it down for animals such as cattle and most of all chickens. Chickens were tortured the worst because they were crammed together in warehouse type facilities where it was hard for them to even move. Then their diet was mutated to the point where most of them would either die of heart attacks or would get so fat that their legs couldn’t support the weight so they would just collapse and not be able to reach their mutated food diet. Then they would be shipped off to slaughter houses where their throats were slit with some of them either dead or still conscious. So as I was watching these videos I actually felt very disgusted in seeing what we as a human race are doing to the creatures of earth. It is messed up in how we are treating our planet and it must be stopped.
Even though I feel these acts of murder and torture must be stopped I feel that I won’t be able to change my dieting/ eating habits due to knowing the ways I actually receive my meat. This is due to being raised to eat foods like chicken, beef, and pork so my whole life so I never trained myself to really think about how the food got there. So even after finding out this information I am able to finally understand more about the world around me but I’m not necessarily able to change. This is because my favorite foods happen to be meats such as beef and chicken. So in conclusion I feel that understanding and following this information is important to the survival of our planet. But if there are people like me that don’t want to adapt their ways, then these animals will come eventually to their extinction.
The other video I watched was the “Animal Cruelty,” one. The authors of this site took a more serious and strength forward look at the issue as oppose to The Meatrix. This site’s video made it more serious rather than a cartoon/ “joke.” But oppose to The Meatrix, this site had a wider spread view of animal cruelty instead of just talking about cows. This site broke it down for animals such as cattle and most of all chickens. Chickens were tortured the worst because they were crammed together in warehouse type facilities where it was hard for them to even move. Then their diet was mutated to the point where most of them would either die of heart attacks or would get so fat that their legs couldn’t support the weight so they would just collapse and not be able to reach their mutated food diet. Then they would be shipped off to slaughter houses where their throats were slit with some of them either dead or still conscious. So as I was watching these videos I actually felt very disgusted in seeing what we as a human race are doing to the creatures of earth. It is messed up in how we are treating our planet and it must be stopped.
Even though I feel these acts of murder and torture must be stopped I feel that I won’t be able to change my dieting/ eating habits due to knowing the ways I actually receive my meat. This is due to being raised to eat foods like chicken, beef, and pork so my whole life so I never trained myself to really think about how the food got there. So even after finding out this information I am able to finally understand more about the world around me but I’m not necessarily able to change. This is because my favorite foods happen to be meats such as beef and chicken. So in conclusion I feel that understanding and following this information is important to the survival of our planet. But if there are people like me that don’t want to adapt their ways, then these animals will come eventually to their extinction.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Responce to Pollan 1
In Omnivore’s Dilemma I agree with Pollan in the sense that America has a lack for a stable food culture. The reason being is that in our country today there are too many messages going around. Ones such as “don’t eat those foods or you might become fat,” or “I think you should eat whatever you want in order to enjoy what you can,” or “you should eat these good foods but not those foods,” and even “be anorexic and just throw up whatever you eat.” It is due to messages like these that America has such a problem developing a steady food culture. It is because instead of just embracing what the world makes and what people develop everyone just puts a “message label,” on a certain kind of food that says something like “I have too many carbs so don’t eat me.” When people do this it cause us to be too conscious of what other people are saying instead of eating what we want to eat. I think this doesn’t just destroy our food culture but it destroys people’s lives. This is so because by food opinions being thrown in from scientists, journalists, TV, and various other places. Those sources should only be giving a person advice on what to do and not how to live their lives. But people take these sources to be like their “food gurus,” and whatever they say the American people listen to. Therefore I believe that Pollan is right that America has a huge lack for a food culture. And those food opinions should be taken as advice and not something that needs to be done to conform to the “American food way,” which basically is just doing whatever the media tells us to do.
cheddar burgers with balsamic onions and chipotle ketchup
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IngredientsOnions:
1 pound red onions, cut crosswise into 1/3- to 1/2-inch-thick rounds
Olive oil
3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar Chipotle ketchup:
1 cup ketchup
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped chipotle chiles from canned chipotles in adobo* plus 2 tablespoons adobo sauce from can
2 teaspoons (or more) balsamic vinegar Burgers:
2 1/4 pounds ground beef (15% to 20% fat)
Coarse kosher salt
6 thick slices sharp cheddar cheese
6 large English muffins or hamburger buns, split, cut sides grilled
6 tomato slices (optional)
2 cups fresh spinach leaves
Preparation
For onions:Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat): Arrange onion rounds on baking sheet. Brush with oil; sprinkle with 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt and pepper. Transfer onion rounds (still intact) to grill rack; close cover. Cook until grill marks appear, about 4 minutes per side. Reduce heat or move onions to cooler part of grill. Close cover; cook until onions are tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer to medium bowl. Toss with vinegar. DO AHEAD: Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover; chill.
For chipotle ketchup:Mix ketchup, chiles, adobo sauce, and 2 teaspoons vinegar in small bowl. Season with salt and more vinegar, if desired. do a h e a d Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and chill.
For burgers:Shape beef into six 1/2-inch thick patties. Sprinkle patties on both sides with coarse salt and pepper. Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Place burgers on grill. Close cover; cook burgers until bottoms start to darken and juices rise to surface, about 3 minutes. Turn burgers; cook to desired doneness, about 3 minutes longer for medium-rare. Top with onions and cheese. Close cover; cook until cheese melts. Place muffin bottoms on plates; spread with ketchup. Top with burgers, tomatoes, if desired, spinach, and muffin tops. Serve, passing remaining ketchup separately.
IngredientsOnions:
1 pound red onions, cut crosswise into 1/3- to 1/2-inch-thick rounds
Olive oil
3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar Chipotle ketchup:
1 cup ketchup
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped chipotle chiles from canned chipotles in adobo* plus 2 tablespoons adobo sauce from can
2 teaspoons (or more) balsamic vinegar Burgers:
2 1/4 pounds ground beef (15% to 20% fat)
Coarse kosher salt
6 thick slices sharp cheddar cheese
6 large English muffins or hamburger buns, split, cut sides grilled
6 tomato slices (optional)
2 cups fresh spinach leaves
Preparation
For onions:Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat): Arrange onion rounds on baking sheet. Brush with oil; sprinkle with 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt and pepper. Transfer onion rounds (still intact) to grill rack; close cover. Cook until grill marks appear, about 4 minutes per side. Reduce heat or move onions to cooler part of grill. Close cover; cook until onions are tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer to medium bowl. Toss with vinegar. DO AHEAD: Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover; chill.
For chipotle ketchup:Mix ketchup, chiles, adobo sauce, and 2 teaspoons vinegar in small bowl. Season with salt and more vinegar, if desired. do a h e a d Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and chill.
For burgers:Shape beef into six 1/2-inch thick patties. Sprinkle patties on both sides with coarse salt and pepper. Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Place burgers on grill. Close cover; cook burgers until bottoms start to darken and juices rise to surface, about 3 minutes. Turn burgers; cook to desired doneness, about 3 minutes longer for medium-rare. Top with onions and cheese. Close cover; cook until cheese melts. Place muffin bottoms on plates; spread with ketchup. Top with burgers, tomatoes, if desired, spinach, and muffin tops. Serve, passing remaining ketchup separately.
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