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.