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.

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.

Farmers Market

When I was at the farmers market on Friday I noticed that this place had a much natural feel and atmosphere. What I noticed was that all the food there looked much fresher then from the supermarket. I even bought a quart of Apple Cider from one of the stands at the market and since I love Apple Cider I was able to tell that this drink seemed as though it just arrived and off the farm instead of on a supermarket shelf for weeks or even months. Another thing I noticed was that there was no artificial and processed food. In my opinion the closest it got to “artificial,” was the baked goods such as cookies. And the reason I say this was the closest to artificial is because this was the only sweets there. And a lot of the artificial foods are primarily sugar based and that’s why I say the cookies were the closest to artificial.
But after this experience I think I should go to farmers markets more often. I never realized how good things actually are from these places because I primarily do my food shopping at supermarkets or delis. But at farmers markets the products are a lot more fresher and natural instead of processed in a factory by machines assembling them. Therefore I believe this trip kind of changed my view of where I should buy food from because not only is the food cheaper, it is more natural and healthier then what a supermarket can have to offer.

Grocery Store and Habitual Food

I believe that my family doesn’t do a great job at keeping vegetables in the house to eat. Even though some of the time I have access to fruits and veggies, it is very rarely that I do. I feel that most of my food consumption is mostly meats, cheese, and other junk food. I sometimes consume grains, fruits, and veggies in a typical week outside of home when I’m eating my out-lunch at school. Such as healthy Subway Sandwiches or heroes from the corner-store where I can get some of my favorite heroes such as, Turkey with American Cheese, lettuce, tomato, and Mayo. But at home I rarely consume greens, fruits, grains, or etc.
I have noticed that supermarkets now a day are prioritizing their stock by trying to actually get the more organic and healthier things instead of filling the shelves up with all the crappy junk food we Americans are so accustomed to eating. But now a day the U.S is opening its eyes to healthier foods due to there being a high increase in overweight people. But what I have noticed inside my supermarket is that the stock people organized it so that all the healthy, fresh, and organic type foods are on the perimeters of the store. Meaning all the fruits and veggies are on the left hand wall, meats are straight in the back, and the milk/ dairy products on the right hand side. With all the processed and artificial junk crap in the center of the store. Now I don’t know if this is just coincidental organization or this is trying to send people a message?
I think the message it is trying to send is how a lot of people’s favorite snacks and meals are the junk crap which we consistently consume. While these better and healthier foods are on the perimeter of our liking or on the amount we would like to consume them. Therefore all the junk is in the center of our consumption “circle,” where the healthy foods are on the perimeter of it like in the perimeter of the supermarket. Then maybe a supermarket maybe organized by the amounts of certain types of things they want people to consume. If the healthy stuff is in the center as the majority of their stock then the supermarket wants you to consume healthy food.

May Day

I think that realizing and observing that sense of a past struggle is necessary to live a good and meaningful life. In this case, I believe that more people in the U.S should be more aware of certain holidays such as May Day and observe it like any other American holiday such as July 4th. May Day was a day where workers didn’t go to work to exercise their rights to have time off. This was something similar to the civil rights movement because instead of marching out for work, they marched to get their rights as equals. But why is May Day a holiday to many that has just “Disappeared?” I think it is due to our American culture blocking us from the truth of our actually meaningful rights and feelings.
I feel that the American culture has blocked us off from knowing about this holiday because I feel the government is scared of what the American people can possibly do. I bet they feel that the American public will feel that it would be more meaningful if only have like 1 day of work a week. So therefore we are blocked off from this holiday so we don’t have a high potential from not going to work every day so there would be hardly any work days. If this were to happen then there shouldn’t even be consider a “work week,” if there is hardly any work. Therefore in conclusion I believe May Day isn’t observed due to the American government’s fear of their own people’s ability to walk out of work almost every day and force there to be hardly any work week.