Draft 1 of Final Paper; Clips of what I'd like to include in final paper

Millions of people are convinced that the life they live is good and meaningful. “When posed with descriptions that were not flattering, most adults rejected those adjectives. For instance… only one out of every five [people] (21%) are "feeling unfulfilled with their lives." (George Barna). We live in a world controlled by the media who is constantly dictating to us, telling us how to look, act, dress--how to live our lives. It is hard to be a unique individual because everywhere we go we are influenced by corporate messages. We see the same messages repeat themselves through different forms. These messages influence our desires and worldwide views. For example, the corporate messages argue (in general) that a good and meaningful life is one filled with material possessions, social conformity, and popularity. However, I believe a good and meaningful life is one where you can find true purpose in your life, build character, learn more about yourself and learn more about how you can and do identify yourself. A meaningful life means to grow and develop as a person but only for the better. These are some of the qualities that make up living a meaningful life. How can we change our ways of living in order to live a truly good and meaningful life? Due to the American corporation, for most, living a meaningful life is impossible. We are constantly being brainwashed by all the messages the media is sending to us and are unaware of what the true definition of living a 'good' life means. Corporate messages about how we should live distract most of us from living truly meaningful lives. The messages they are sending us may help lead us to fit in with society but will not help us to live our life to its fullest potential and make it truly meaningful.

The media displays reiterating messages in many different ways. The media presents these messages by posting them on the internet, through television, music, books, billboards, magazines, etc. We are surrounded by so many messages that we have lost touch with what makes us truly happy vs. what we are doing mainly for show.
Music: Pop, Rap, Hip Hop, R&B are four out of the many genres of music that most teenagers listen to. Almost every song in these genres repeats the same idea. What better to deconstruct then Kanye West’s, a very popular rap and hip hop artist, song called Welcome to the Good Life (Graduation, Track 5). Money is the biggest idea that Kanye portrays in his song because he constantly talks about splurging on materialistic items—going on shopping sprees and having nice car—the things you can do once you have money and being able to show it off by topping everyone else around you. "Whether you broke or rich you gotta get biz, Having' money's the everything that having' it is I was splurging' on trizz... I always had a passion for flashin'..." Being famous is another big idea. Of course you can not just be rich, people have to know who you are: "I'ma get on this TV mama, I'ma, I'ma put shit down… Now I, I go for mine, I got to shine…" Also, you have to look good and have a nice body, or else you will not get a 'good' man: "Where we like the girls who ain't on TV, Cause they got more (Ass than the models)..." And last but not least, having style is crucial because when you have style/swagger - along comes followers & 'haters': "Yo it's got to be cause I'm seasoned, Haters give me them salty looks..."(Kanye West song lyrics). In order to have a "good life", according to Kanye, you must have lots of money, “be rich”, be famous and look ‘good’. Our culture has always portrayed the same message through songs, movies, etc. It has always been about having money and 'being up' on the latest things such as sneakers, cars, clothing, etc. Having money and girls seem to always emerge in every song. It is most interesting how all the famous people try to tell us having all this money is not everything in life and there are more important things meanwhile they are also the ones telling us, through song, the exact opposite. Whether they believe that money is everything or not, it is the people who have the most money in society that influence the common Americans. It is only when we stop and analyze these things do we really see how screwed up our society is. If money is not everything then why are people working hard to get more and more. Now-a-days, living average just does not cut it. The messages that teen role models, song writers, famous people, tell us seem to take hold in our minds and end up being the norms of what a person who fits in society abides by. Agreed, the following may lead to feeling happier because society will accept you but having money, getting woman, owning more materialistic items, etc is not the way to a good and meaningful life. Instead the messages in the music portray complete opposite images on what is truly the good and meaningful life; one where you can extend your mind and learning ability, spend time with those who matter in your life, be more active, do more productive things with your time, and so on.

I personally completely disagree with the media. Although I can’t be 100% sure on my answer for what a good and meaningful life is, I have developing ideas on what I can include and insight into what doesn’t belong.

A lot of teens (including myself) separate old people from our generation. We exclude old people as if they're a different type of species because we feel like we can't relate to them. They grew up in a different time period with different values and social standards. Our generation (teens and young adults) has modernized technology and really changed our values and social standards since then. The crazy thing is, as we get older and time progresses and more new things come out, we're going to be looking at the younger generation the same way we look at old people. I guess to the old people now its kind of depressing to see time change. They used to cook, clean, help raise brothers/sisters.. etc, and earn most their money. We might do some of these things but we tend to blow them off more to go hang out with our friends, text, go online, watch t.v, etc. We have so many distractions from our lives that we miss out on the important stuff. I feel like at this point in time, trying to connect with old people is useless. We've already given up and we both make incorrect assumptions about the other and put them into false stereotypes that aren’t true for all old people.

In the book of Genesis, it explains how God created earth. And in what order exactly. The book explains God to have made animals before humans, but humans being the concluding creation. It tells us that God made humans in his figure. The book says specifically man is supposed to rule over the animals. “Then God said let us make man in our image, in our likeliness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the earth and over the immense.” (Genesis 1: 26-28) According to Genesis, because it clearly states man is supposed to be ruling over animals (says God himself), it gives us this idea that we are somehow more advanced than animals; that we humans were chosen by God to rule over them. This separation from any other species makes us believe that God made the earth for us.
Religion is extremely powerful and highly influential on the way a lot of people act, feel, and think about certain things. If the book of Genesis is telling us we are above animals, most people will believe the same. Besides, what else is telling us otherwise?

Science classifies the web of life (evolution) through what species are more intelligent. Humans and many other animals are all on the web of life but humans are separated. According to science, we are more intelligent than animals. It tells us that we are a different genus (class) from other animals known as Homo sapiens sapiens. This idea puts a wedge in our train of thought. Scientific classification tells us we are a separate species of animals (only close to monkeys/chimps in which we share 99% of our DNA with them) yet we somehow are still above them.
Science is also known to be another form of religion. Some people practice the studies of science because it gives us evidence. Visual proof to see that we are more intelligent therefore higher beings than other mammals.

“You tend to identify with who you hang out with” (Andy 3/10/09). Everyone knows this is true. While keeping this in mind, studies show that we (humans) spend about 95% or more of our time with other human beings and not other mammals. We go about our daily lives interacting with other humans. While it is true that some humans have animal pets (such as a dog for instance), they don’t necessarily identify with them. We constantly try to humanize them by making them obey our rules and do some activities we do. We don’t give them any freedom to do as they please (just as we do). We feel the need to rule over them and control their lives by making them live in a house, making them eat the food we give them at the certain time period we put it out, making them potty trained (just as we do babies) and try to teach it to be more “civilized” just as humans believe we are. We are out of touch with our ‘animalistic instincts’. We sit in classrooms learning all day, have a certain place to go to the bathroom, buy our food (sometimes already made), we buy clothing, we have jobs to make money in order to buy different things we say we need. What’s wrong with going about our days just as a regular animal would? If we were to, many of us would think its absurd and crazy to act like an ‘animal’ and not like a human. From both who we hang out with/identify with and not acting like an ‘animal’ really helps separate us from classifying ourselves as animals.

Then there is Descartes theory of “I think, therefore I am”. Descartes was a philosopher who had many theories about us humans. One of his theories believed that the human mind and body are completely separate. We humans think with our mind and not our body therefore our minds must be separate from our body. He thinks we only experience things with our mind because we’re constantly thinking “I” rather than “My body”. Other living animals however do not say “I”, but in fact do not speak at all. Descartes believes that other living animals don’t think therefore are not. Because animals can’t think, they can’t feel or experience pain, etc. This idea is argumentative considering other animals do in fact feel (for example, if you’ve ever stepped on a dogs tail, they squeal. Descartes believes this is out of reaction and not the animal thinking “I’m hurting because someone stepped on my tail”). This idea of humans being able to think and other animals not being able to think separates us from identifying with them. Although a recent newspaper stated that while studying a (I believe it was an Ape/Monkey) in its cage, it showed the Ape collecting pebbles/rocks and then later launching them at people. This example clearly shows how this animal was being able to use its mind to think. We may not have proof that animals think in the “I” sense, but this does not mean that they do not think of themselves as “I”. This idea makes humans separate themselves from other animals and not classify themselves as one. We believe we are able to think and they are not therefore adding to our belief that we are superior to animals. “Bottom line is Descartes mind and body split (dualism) convinced us to see non human animals as unconscious things.” (Andy 3/17/09)

The idea of subject vs. object (Peter Singer – Animal Liberation) exemplifies how we often treat ourselves as objects because we’re constantly referring to ourselves as “my body”. Although we often treat ourselves as objects, compared to animals we like to think of ourselves as subjects. We treat animals like objects because we like to make them do as we say. We presume they don’t have a mind or soul (like we believe we do) therefore we must show them what to do. We don’t take the animals feelings into consideration. We see ourselves as subjects making us believe we are better and have the power to rule.

In this culture, fitting in has also been defined by what foods you eat. People are constantly afraid of what other people would say/think if they eat certain foods. They’re also afraid of being unhealthy. They want to seem more appealing therefore go through different lengths to achieve that goal – one being doing whatever it takes to stay thin. I do believe Pollan’s argument is true. We have lost touch with our natural ways. Instead of focusing on what we like to eat and what we have been eating for thousands of years, we’re focusing on what’s “healthy” for us and what will get us slimmer the quickest /easiest way. We look to experts for guidance. They seem to know the most about the foods we do eat so why wouldn’t we listen to them, right? Wrong. I don’t think the experts know too much about what is really healthy for us. They may know what foods we can eat that’ll make us skinnier and what not but usually these foods are not the healthiest for us. Both the amount of food and what we obtain from it (protein, carbs, etc) isn’t so much of a good balance. Most experts seem to believe by cutting out for example carbs, you can still remain healthy and be skinny. Personally I don’t believe this to be true but I’m no expert.

In terms of what we can do about this problem, I truthfully have no wise suggestions. There is the obvious which is to try to ignore what experts say and prioritize taste over what’s healthier because that’s what we used to do and as far as I’m concerned, that did us pretty well. In my case I eat whatever I want but play a lot of sports. This helps me because I’m constantly working my body out and staying active after I eat. I wouldn’t say I’m completely healthy but I don’t feel horrible about the way I eat or treat my body or what I feed myself.

Honestly I don’t think my (immediate) family pays much attention to experts. My father was raised on very indigenous foods. Foods that people from Puerto Rico have been eating for many years. Being a single father supporting three, he works too much to have time to listen to what is healthier for us to eat or just anyone’s point of view at all. Me and my sisters were raised on foods that experts would claim aren’t healthy for us. We never worried about things being low in carbs or high in fiber, etc. We ate foods that we liked whether it be pasta, steak, fast food, greasy foods, and so on.

However, a lot of times when my father goes food shopping, my sister will accompany him and practically be in charge of what my father buys. She likes to watch the food channel and tries to think healthier (based on the opinions of the chefs on television). Personally I don’t cook and most of the time I’m too lazy to go to the grocery store with them because it usually takes forever. I mainly eat what’s available in the house for me to eat and I base that on what I actually like to eat the most rather than what is considered healthy for me to eat.
We are staring into the near future, looking at the end of our lives, as we know it. It is for a fact that America is bound to collapse, the question is when. What exactly will cause the collapse? Too many reasons to count. One major reason being our lack of respect for our environment. Oil is a majorly used product that we use to produce energy. This energy could be used for anything but the fact of the matter is, the amount of oil that we’re using is soon going to be more than what we have.

Some say we’ve already reached our peak oil point. Oil is not renewable resource. We only have a certain amount of oil so by saying we’ve already reached our peak oil point, we’ve already used up half of the amount of oil we have. “Oil currently accounts for about 43% of the world's total fuel consumption [PDF], and 95% of global energy used for transportation [PDF]. Oil and gas are feedstocks for plastics, paints, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, electronic components, tyres and much more. Oil is so important that the peak will have vast implications across the realms of war and geopolitics, medicine, culture, transport and trade, economic stability and food production. Significantly, for every one joule of food consumed in the United States, around 10 joules of fossil fuel energy have been used to produce it.” (Peak Oil Primer) Without oil, our society will collapse. It is a main factor in our every day needs. Americans are highly dependent on economic growth. “– growth based on ever more readily available cheap fossil fuels.” (Peak Oil Primer). Oil is important to our society because everything we have contains oil to either produce it, or use it.

Collapse Assignment 2

We are staring into the near future, looking at the end of our lives, as we know it. It is for a fact that America is bound to collapse, the question is when. What exactly will cause the collapse? Too many reasons to count. One major reason being our lack of respect for our environment. Oil is a majorly used product that we use to produce energy. This energy could be used for anything but the fact of the matter is, the amount of oil that we’re using is soon going to be more than what we have.

Some say we’ve already reached our peak oil point. Oil is not renewable resource. We only have a certain amount of oil so by saying we’ve already reached our peak oil point, we’ve already used up half of the amount of oil we have. “Oil currently accounts for about 43% of the world's total fuel consumption [PDF], and 95% of global energy used for transportation [PDF]. Oil and gas are feedstocks for plastics, paints, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, electronic components, tyres and much more. Oil is so important that the peak will have vast implications across the realms of war and geopolitics, medicine, culture, transport and trade, economic stability and food production. Significantly, for every one joule of food consumed in the United States, around 10 joules of fossil fuel energy have been used to produce it.” (Peak Oil Primer) Without oil, our society will collapse. It is a main factor in our every day needs. Americans are highly dependent on economic growth. “– growth based on ever more readily available cheap fossil fuels.” (Peak Oil Primer). Oil is important to our society because everything we have contains oil to either produce it, or use it.

Exactly how Easter island collapsed due to their abuse of natural un-reliable resources, America’s collapse will be contributed by that same reason.

In response to Chloe’s last paragraph for this assignment, I kind of disagree. Chloe mentions how she believes big strong places such as America and China will collapse a lot slower than small countries because we are richer. The way I see it is the small poorer countries that won’t be able to afford oil might still be better off than us because they don’t solely base their society/economy around it. I’m sure they will find a replacement for oil and they’re already used to working harder due to their lack of advanced industrialization. We on the other hand will be screwed because we’re not used to working so hard for our products. We’ll probably starve a lot quicker than they will because Americans have lost touch with their natural instinctive side because of how advanced on technology we are.

Collapse Assignment 1

I think one of the most interesting aspects of Easter Island was how they did everything without technology, pure resources and hard work. I especially thought how they used the stones around their soil to block wind and to keep it moist was interesting.

As for important aspects of Easter Island history I think mainly how they were using their resources and the way they were as people was specifically important. There weren’t a lot of people on the island, and all the people that were, were in clans. The clans were always competing to be the best or even known as the best so they would build statues and always try to make them the biggest and thickest. (I think part of the reason why being the best clan was represented as having the biggest statues was because the bigger the statue was, the more you valued god. Also if you have a big statue, the amount of work and strength that went into that statue would be looked up to- I guess).

As for resources, Diamond talked about how there were native birds on the island but soon after, they all died due to the Easter Islanders using them as a source of food. Granted the Easter Islanders are smart but in terms of domesticating animals their only successful one were chickens. The Easter Islanders also used trees for many reasons. They used the wood to burn fires, make canoes, move them to create gardens, furnishing timber and rope to move the statues, etc.

I do see some similarities between Easter Island and our civilization. Their collapse was based on their ignorance on their cultural values vs. environmental reality. In our civilization, we use a lot of resources that aren’t reliable. Soon enough we’ll run out of those resources which will contribute to a big collapse just like the East Islanders had. Also in one paragraph the excerpt talked about how the Easter Islanders ‘toppled’ their ancestral moai and how this lead him to believe that the Islanders must’ve been filled with ‘pent-up anger’ at their leaders. I honestly feel some day in the future, the Americans are going to be so overwhelmed and tired of the government that we might overthrow it and construct complete chaos. Just a thought.

So just like how the Easter Islanders collapse was based on pretty much two main ideas, so are ours. Their cultural values are founded on religious and social ideas. (socially they value what clan is the best whereas we value who looks better and is socially higher-who has money, etc.) Our civilization is fundamentally dependent on economic growth which will soon lead to our collapse.

Final Food Assignment.

Americans are known for wasting and constantly updating. We especially do this with our food. Americans don’t care about how things get done, just as long as it’s done. Majority don’t care about what they’re eating, as long as it tastes and looks good. Food is an essential in which Americans will only eat what is comforting to them. They will eat what other specialists will say it’s ok to eat. They don’t understand much about the food they eat which is why they turn to experts (Michael Pollan). When buying food at Supermarkets, Grocery stores, Markets, etc., what the average American considers to be ‘fresh’ food is truthfully known as artificial.They very rarely go to the actual source of which the food was raised and/or made.

Efficiency is one of the most important criteria in which Americans will buy their food. What is most convenient for them, the least time consuming, easiest. And because food corporations don’t exactly explain the background information of the food, most times fast food places or already made food is what they aim for. Compared to centuries ago, where farmers had to grow, hand pick, raise, and kill the animals for food all by themselves, we now have fossil fueled machinery that has made the job 100 times easier. Along with this much advanced efficiency comes the amount of pollution that the machinery releases. The ‘way’ may be getting easier, but we sure are paying the price for it now.

Growing up I never thought about where my food came from or what kind of conditions animals had to withstand in order to be turned into food. I always thought about the ‘yummiest’. Most times I’d even eat whatever my parents told me to. I was raised on certain foods and I grew to love them. The foods weren’t quite the healthiest but they were what I was used to and now that I’m old enough to make my own food choices/habits, I stick to what I know best; The comfort food I grew up on. This is a typical example of how Americans are so ignorant to their surroundings. But for one, you can’t quite blame them. The food corporations do a good job at not making this information so public. It wasn’t until I saw the videos for myself that I started to think more about what foods I’m eating, where they are coming from, what they are made of, what they do to my body, what they do to my mood, overall how they affect me, etc. At home I’m used to eating foods that are from animals. Even when my family orders out, we eat the kinds of food we know. We hardly ever try new foods, and I think part of that reason is because we grew up with those foods so we find them comforting and keep them as a reminder to our childhood. We never saw a problem with them before, why should we now? My family doesn’t use the grocery store as wisely as I’d like them to. Every time we go food shopping, usually we buy a lot of fatty, oily, and greasy foods. Refreshments usually consist of sugary substances such as different types of Soda. We buy a lot of different types of meat (steak, pork chops, hamburgers, etc) and we’re always using oil to cook them in. We buy regular milk instead of the fat free or less fat milks. We buy a lot of canned easy-to-make- foods because it’s not that common for us to cook. We rarely buy vegetables except for the occasional tomatoes. When we buy fruits (mainly apples) we only buy very little (usually enough for one or two people—lasting about a day). My family, I’d say, doesn’t eat healthy. Our diet can be most compared to the common American who eats fast food or what ever they’re craving that day, not necessarily thinking about what would be better for our bodies. I think this is because of the foods we were fed as young children. We (me and my sisters) weren’t raised on your typical ‘healthy’ food. Mainly it was Spanish, take out, or restaurant food. In a typical week, I probably consume less than the amount of fruit/vegetables that you’re supposed to eat in one day.

In the typical grocery store, I noticed that the things they present (eye-level) are a ‘healthier’ variety of foods. Usually more expensive foods are the ones that are to your convenience. On the sides of the isles (the shorter way where you can walk by many isles as you continue walking), you notice usually the foods that are there are on sale and most of the time not so healthy. When you first walk in to the grocery store, you notice fruits and vegetables and like lots of greens, yellows, reds, whites, etc. As you pass by the isles, most of the foods are packaged and are made with preservatives, artificial products, etc. Another thing I noticed that they have in supermarkets are mirrors on the side isles (when you’re walking past many isles). My guess is that as you pass by and look at yourself you’re constantly judging yourself up to society’s standards. The mirror is like a reminder, if you’re ‘fat’, to go for the more expensive ‘healthy’ foods so that you too can become skinny, and “fit in”.

The American food culture is based on fast foods, literally. No one ever takes out time to cook food and think about what’s healthiest unless it’s some nutritional place. There are two main categories for our food culture, fast foods, artificial, chemical induced (usually all of these are found in the same products) vs. healthy food/diets. You’re either eating one or the other. American food is usually made with artificial seasoning such as lemon juice, adobo, Italian seasoning, garlic powders, peppers, onion powders, salt, ‘all-purpose’ seasonings, poultry seasoning’, etc. All of these not so healthy for us but it is our way of thinking our food is being made from scratch. Somehow this makes us feel better about what it is we are consuming.

In terms of what we can do about this problem, I truthfully have no wise suggestions. There is the obvious which is to try to ignore what experts say and prioritize taste over what’s healthier because that’s what we used to do and as far as I’m concerned, that did us pretty well. In my case I eat whatever I want but play a lot of sports. This helps me because I’m constantly working my body out and staying active after I eat. I wouldn’t say I’m completely healthy but I don’t feel horrible about the way I eat or treat my body or what I feed myself.

In all honesty, I’ve just peeped open my eyes to the industrial food ways. Seeing the way they treat animals and the confinements in which they are forced to live in was drastic. They are severely beat and mistreated, given hormones and a whole bunch of other chemicals to make them grow faster, etc. In my last assignment I mentioned how I thought ‘if you’re killing an animal it wouldn’t matter if you mistreat it’ but the more I think about it, the more I completely disagree. That’s like saying because us humans are going to die anyway, we might as well have someone kill us faster or even torture us and then kill us and turn us into food. I don’t think it’s fair. I think this is disgusting and it makes me think more about how much I’m really enjoying the food I’m eating. What the animals have to endure for merely my 5 minute pleasure. Is it worth the pain and suffering? And if people knew the truth about what was happening to the animals, would they still continue to eat it?
(Taken from previous post – wanted to make sure these ideas were included in paper) I think one of the reasons people don’t mind eating the food provided to us by the butchered animals is that the media doesn’t exactly make this a dominant message. When you think of bacon, eggs, steak (and other various meat), you don’t think about the animals or the way they were treated. You think about the taste of the food being brought and the quality of it. There’s no picture of a man slicing a cow while fully conscious and hanging upside down or a picture of a cow with its limbs completely broken due to its massive weight gain in a short period of time on top of meat packages or in front of milk cartons. We see happy things. Even on commercial, (not sure if you’ve seen it) but the one that advertises “Happy cows come from California”, etc where the sun shines and its beautiful weather. That’s not the case at all. In fact it almost makes it seem as if those ‘happy cows’ are willing to share themselves (or what we call food). I remember when I was younger I went to this small convention on this farm with my elementary school and we got to milk a cow. I remember how cool it was to me and how much I thought it was ok but now I realize it’s like someone taking a pregnant lady and squeezing out all her breast milk and serving people who are willing to pay for it. Also I feel like reading about these ways isn’t enough for our culture. I’m sure if I read about the mistreatment it wouldn’t affect me as much as it would if I saw it because it brings it to a more personal level. You see exactly what’s happening, without the sugar coating.

The money that goes into growing, ‘caring’, and slaughtering the food is a lot more expensive than we think or are shown. The amount of money we pay for the whole farmer factory people to do what they do is ridiculously higher in costs than meets the eye on receipts. Not to mention the damage we do to our society through pollution, global warming, ozone depletion, and to ourselves (health wise- through the chemicals being put into the foods we eat). Even farm workers (300,000 a year) put themselves in danger due to exposure of pesticides causing poisonings. Compared to back then, there were around 7 million American farmers. Now there’s only 2 million. And along with the vast depletion of the quantity of farmers, comes the major loss of communities. “Between 1987 and 1992, America lost an average of 32,500 farms per year”. Most the money we spend on this goes to the business owners. Not even the farmers themselves!

What’s crazy is that even vegetarians are secretly forced to support this through tax dollars. I mean the real cost of food is unreasonably high. “Among the most outrageous subsidies is the $659 million of taxpayer money spent each year to promote the products of industrial agriculture, including $1.6 million to McDonald's to help market Chicken McNuggets in Singapore from 1986 to 1994 and $11 million to Pillsbury to promote the Doughboy in foreign countries. Taken together these subsidies add almost $3 billion to the "hidden" cost of foods to consumers.” I now feel like I semi understand why saying ‘industrial food is cheap’ is a complete understatement. We are misguided into believing our culture and society’s ways are not so bad when in reality, they’re horrendous. (Industrial Food Isn’t Cheap’ article).

As I listened to the song ‘Cows with Guns’ I thought about how much we underestimate animals. How dumb we think they are. How foul we treat them. Then later on in the song, the author talks about the cow getting smart. Joining together, they free themselves and take revenge from the horror they’ve known all their life. I also felt like some parts in the video were like metaphors. For the example when the cow kicked down the truck and spilled all the fuel, it’s like showing us how much fuel we waste. I liked how the song made the cows want to be free because I feel like that’s how they probably feel now. Only thing is, they don’t have enough power (vs. our machinery/technology, etc) to fight back. I also thought that the part where the cows were almost screwed and the chickens came to save them was like saying animals stick together. And in a way, we are all animals so shouldn’t we be helping them not killing them for our food? This song shows us just how much the animals are trapped and have no way out. They don’t really have guns. They are prisoners of farmers and will be no other than food in our stomachs.

The system and ‘ways’ of America are all fucked up. No matter what we will never truly be free, have justice, or liberty. It’s all propaganda and the media and corporations know how to spin it in a way that we think we are doing whatever we want when really we are all just being brainwashed. “We’ll tweak and adjust the system behind closed doors but no one likes challenging the big system” (Andy) Food is just another way of taking over for America. We don’t really care about the animals which is why we’re still slaughtering them and making them our food. We won’t know what hit us when we start to run out of resources.

Industrial Food

As I watched the animal cruelty video I couldn’t help but feel utterly guilty. I had absolutely no idea that the factory farmers treated the animals was this bad. It reminded me a lot of a concentration camp how a lot of them are confined in small areas packed together. Only difference is at least the prisoners of the concentration camp can still make it out alive. These animals have no chance what so ever. They are severely beat and mistreated, given hormones and a whole bunch of other chemicals to make them grow faster, and have no health care. In all honesty I guess if you’re killing an animal it wouldn’t matter if you mistreat it but then again you have to think about all the animals that don’t make it to the slaughter house that they end up killing so that those animals don’t ‘waste feed’. I think this is disgusting and it makes me think more about how much I’m really enjoying the food I’m eating. What the animals have to endure for merely my 5 minute pleasure. Is it worth the pain and suffering? And if people knew the truth about what was happening to the animals, would they still continue to eat it?

I think one of the reasons people don’t mind eating the food provided to us by the butchered animals is that the media doesn’t exactly make this a dominant message. When you think of bacon, eggs, steak (and other various meat), you don’t think about the animals or the way they were treated. You think about the taste of the food being brought and the quality of it. There’s no picture of a man slicing a cow while fully conscious and hanging upside down or a picture of a cow with its limbs completely broken due to its massive weight gain in a short period of time on top of meat packages or in front of milk cartons. We see happy things. Even on commercial, (not sure if you’ve seen it) but the one that advertises “Happy cows come from California”, etc where the sun shines and its beautiful weather. That’s not the case at all. In fact it almost makes it seem as if those ‘happy cows’ are willing to share themselves (or what we call food). I remember when I was younger I went to this small convention on this farm with my elementary school and we got to milk a cow. I remember how cool it was to me and how much I thought it was ok but not I realize it’s like someone taking a pregnant lady and squeezing out all her breast milk and serving people who are willing to pay for it. It’s atrocious. And the saddest part to me is that I didn’t even know this. I mean, I had an idea of what was going on but fuck. That video was brutal.

Honestly I don’t know exactly how much of my eating habits are going to change but I do know that I actually want to make that change. I wish these videos were mandated to be on front of each package of meat, eggs, in front of the milk cartons, etc. Just to remind people of what animals go through or better yet what humans put these animals through just for our satisfaction.

Also I feel like reading isn’t enough for our culture. I’m sure if I read about the mistreatment it wouldn’t affect me as much as it would if I saw it because it brings it to a more personal level. You see exactly what’s happening, without the sugar coating.

Then I went on to read about ‘Industrial Food Isn’t Cheap’ article. I learned that the money that goes into growing, ‘caring’, and slaughtering the food is a lot more expensive than we think or are shown. The amount of money we pay for the whole farmer factory people to do what they do is ridiculously higher in costs than meets the eye on receipts. Not to mention the damage we do to our society through pollution, global warming, ozone depletion, and to ourselves (health wise- through the chemicals being put into the foods we eat). Even farm workers (300,000 a year) put themselves in danger due to exposure of pesticides which cause poisonings. When I read about the loss of the farmers, it was quite ridiculous also. There were around 7 million American farmers a couple years ago. Now there’s only 2 million. And along with the vast depletion of the quantity of farmers, comes the major loss of communities. “Between 1987 and 1992, America lost an average of 32,500 farms per year”. PER YEAR ! That is quite an amazing loss. And then to find out that after all the freakin’ money we spend on this shit, most of it goes to the business owners. Not even the farmers themselves (total B.S)!

What’s crazy is that even vegetarians are secretly forced to support this through tax dollars. I mean the real cost of food is unreasonably high. “Among the most outrageous subsidies is the $659 million of taxpayer money spent each year to promote the products of industrial agriculture, including $1.6 million to McDonald's to help market Chicken McNuggets in Singapore from 1986 to 1994 and $11 million to Pillsbury to promote the Doughboy in foreign countries. Taken together these subsidies add almost $3 billion to the "hidden" cost of foods to consumers.” That’s fucking insane!
I was blown away by reading the facts. There’s so much shit we don’t know. I mean here I am thinking they kind of just raise a couple animals, take what they need and kind of just I guess let them go. I even thought they took dead animals so not to waste the ‘good’ ones. I feel like an idiot now for not doing anything. I also feel like the corporations do a very good job at hiding this information. I now feel like I semi understand why saying ‘industrial food is cheap’ is a complete understatement. We are misguided into believing our culture and societies ways are not so bad when in reality, they’re horrendous.

…and to think we’re animals to. This is what we do to our own kind? Jesus Christ.

Recipe

Baked Potatoes (taken from my aunt)

Ingredients:

Potatoes
Butter
Garlic salt
Parsley
Olive oil
Salt

Directions:

Fill a pot half way with water. Put on stove on medium fire. Add a pinch of salt and wait till water comes to a boil. Cut potatoes in half. Add the half potatoes the boiling water till they become tender and soft. Take potatoes out and season with butter or olive oil, and garnish with garlic salt and parsley.

Picture:



Response:

I didn't like the way I made it. My dad ate some and he said he enjoyed it. We saved the rest in the fridge and reheated it later and it tasted worse. Why does food always taste worse through microwave? I hate that. Some poeple say you have to cook with love. This dish was not made with love at all.
I enjoy eating meals cooked by elder people. I think its because I trust them and I'm sur ethey have much more experience with cooking. I don't trust myself cooking. I don't usually like it, but others do.
My dad always complains that my generation needs to learn how to cook. That we're too stuck on our computers, television, phones, video games, etc. According to my dad, we're spoiled and we like everything handed to us. I kind of think he's right. I am spoiled in the sense that I'd much rather have someone do something for me that I know will come out better rather than do it myself and practice and keep learning.
Back when my father was younger, him, his friends, and family were used to playing outside. Hardly talking on the phone, spending time in the kitchen, eating dinners together, etc. We don't do that anymore. We've taken advantage of our family-time and culture. Food used to be a really big part of culture in terms of bringing family together. Now-a-days I feel like even though food is still a part of our culture, it doesn't really bring family together as much.

Comments..

"I never thought about Pollan's argument that way. It's interesting how you thought about the american culture and how we are so diverse and connected it to not knowing what to eat and back to Pollan's argument" (to Yu Xi)

"I don't think Lauren and my Father look for the 'cheap knockoffs' but instead whats on sale. I think (and so does my family) that the cheaper foods (well the cheap immitation foods) taste worse than the high priced foods. I'm wondering if the cheaper ones are healthier though? Idk, but I prefer to find a high price food on sale rather than look for cheap knock offs. I'm sure thats a bad way to shop though." (to Gavin)

"I find it interesting how you say when you go to Hong Kong you don't eat as much. When i go to puerto rico, I don't eat as much either. Everywhere you go, you need a car and obviously I can't drive yet so I'd take walks to the store. Also maybe after 2 or 3 days in PR, I usually get tired of how much grease is in the food so I hardly eat." (to Chloe)