HW 7 - Reading Response Monday

Book: The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Introduction

     Precis
       In the advent of agriculture, our efforts to become more efficient have complicated the process of choosing foods to eat and in turn, have made us extremely cautious of foods that could potentially kill us.  As a species capable of eating almost anything, even ourselves, the abundance of food has developed our reliance on certain aspects, all pertaining to the ways we evaluate what foods to eat: ethics, health, rituals etc.  To achieve full-consciousness of the foods we eat, we must be aware of the three principal food chains that sustain us and engage us with the natural world.
     Gems
       I found some profound lines of writing: "Many of these species have evolved expressly to gratify our desires, in the intricate dance of domestication that has allowed us and them to prosper together as we could never have prospered apart" (Pollan 10).  Through this line of writing, the author resonated with me through beautifying his writing using metaphors like "the intricate dance" while describing agriculture.
     Thoughts
       Hesitant at first, I read the first chapter and wondered about the difficulty I go through every day when choosing what to eat.  Agriculture really has developed our perspective of foods as poison and medicine.  The idea of tracing our foodways then, to gain a better understanding of how our foodways became, sounds practical but, questionable because accurately tracing back to our old foodways is difficult.

Chapter One (The Plant: Corn's Conquest)

      Precis
       Though there may be aisles and aisles of foods to choose from in your local supermarket, these foods cannot be categorized as a variety because most of what we eat is ultimately corn in different arrangements.  This manifestation of corn plays a big role in our food culture because corn has provided us with an almost undying food that flourishes and thrives with its ability to adapt and grow rapidly in changing climates.  Without corn, many of america's great victories and hardships would have never been conquered.  The virtues and versatility of corn did not go unnoticed and so, we had indulged in its benefits and have somehow been domesticated by corn itself, participating in its success.
     Gems
        Insightful lines: "There is every reason to believe that corn has succeeded in domesticating us...it makes just as much sense to regard agriculture as a brilliant evolutionary strategy on the part of plants and animals involved to get us to advance their interests.  By evolving certain traits we happen to regard as desirable, these species got themselves noticed by the one mammal in a position not only to spread their genes around the world, but to remake vast swaths of that world in the image of the plants' preferred habitat"(Pollan 24).
     Thoughts
       I had always thought that science and agriculture had allowed us to conquer plants to modify them in any way, or rather, any capable way possible and agriculture had.  The idea of plants domesticating us had never registered considerable in my mind but, now that I think more about it, this idea is potentially plausible and not terribly crazy.  Our reliance on corn scared me more than it shocked me.  Now as a conscious member of "the corn people," I wonder, where we would we be without corn?

     

Chapter Two (The Farm)

     Precis

       Having to farm food for a large number of people, farmers carry a big responsibility on their shoulders.  While corn and soy beans are high in demand, farmers struggle to keep their farms because of the growing number of advance modern factories that harvest specialized foods.  As time went on, policies and laws began taking place stating an alloted number of vegetables that could be grown as well as the number of animals that could be raised.  However, the hybrid corn allowed farmers to plant more resulting in a bigger surplus.

     Gems

       "A mere 2 percent of the state's land remains what it used be...every square foot of the rest having been completely remade by man.  The only thing missing from the man-made landscape is...man" (Pollan 38.) 

     Thoughts

       I'd be lying if I said I really understood the importance of farming.  Had I not lived in the city for most of my life, maybe I would have said differently.  I am not fond of either farms or big factories but, I do fear as more factories develop, the more foods I will not be able to identify.  In the near future, will food just be packaged in plastic bags with obscure labels I don't understand? How many hybrid foods will develop 10 years from now?  Are we in danger of a food revolution?  Are government food restrictions legitimate?

Chapter Three (The Elevator)

     Precis

       The surfeit of corn in the Iowa Farmers Cooperative is overflowing while the government's aim is only to keep production high and drive prices of corn down to its fullest extent.  Farmers are struggling and losing their farm land because their profit is less than the cost of production, however, corn will live on because of its massive abundance and on-going production.  Quantity has ruled over quality and so, the surplus of cheap corn, in large heaps around the world, must be consumed, processed, and farmed again and again because corn is our sustenance and is essentially one of the many things that keep farmers employed.

     Gems

       "In America before the 1850s a farmer owned his sacks of corn up to the moment when a buyer took delivery, and so bore the risk for anything that went wrong between farm and table or trough.  For better or worse that burlap sack linked a corn buyer anywhere in America with a particular farmer cultivating a particular patch of earth" (Pollan 59).

     Thoughts

       The entirety of abundance scares me.  The more and more corn that will be farmed and processed need to be utilized in a sort of way and I wonder, how many ways can we actually utilize corn and is there a limit to our consumption of corn?  I'd like to say I disagree and heed the government's decisions and choices but, if I did, where would I be without the food and produce I buy from my local grocery store?  How far can our main source of the nutrients of corn go?  Am I really processed corn, walking?

Chapter Four (The Feedlot)

     Precis

       As Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations begins taking its toll on farmers, more factory farms have utilized the surplus of corn through cattle feed.  Although cows possess the rumen, which help them make grass into high-quality protein, they are taken away from their once grass filled prairie to teeming feedlots, confined in pens and taught to eat foreign foods.  Scientists never registered the idea that corn-fed cattle was unassailable, therefore, scientists had disturbingly introduced mad cow disease to their own species. 

     Gems

       "Hell, if you gave them lots of grass and space, I wouldn't have a job" (Pollan 79).

     Thoughts

       If the cons of feedlots are apparent, why does the industry try so hard to disguise them?  In having such a huge reliance on corn, we sacrifice many things that are necessary for progress and efficiency but, along with progress, comes several problems.  I'm sure over the years, researchers will resolve small sanitation problems but, by then there will be more problems than there are resolutions.  We are stuck in a limbo, where all we can do is produce more corn while also attempting to be rid of it.  There is a line the industrial food industry has passed, which is not considering sanitation as a major issue.

Chapter Five (The Processing Plant)

     Precis

       A fifth of the corn river at Iowa Farmers Cooperative's elevator makes its way to wet mill plants to become numerous products that we feed off of.  The wet milling process allows us to retrieve various vitamins, nutritional supplements, oil, and rich carbohydrates from corn.  Though Cargill and ADM rejected our request to observe the wet mill process, Larry Johnson from The Center for Crops utilization Research told us the process is the industrial version of digestion where all the rules of regular digestion pertain except the additional bath of sulphur dioxide.  In the advent of wet mills in 1840s, came Corn Syrup, the cheapest domestic substitute for sugar.  As more processed foods began to arise in the market, food security changed and the work that goes into making the goods became highly secretive.

     Gems

       "The problem is, a value-added product made from a cheap commodity can itself become a commodity, so cheap and abundant are the raw materials" (Pollan 96).

       "When fake sugars and fake fast are joined by fake starches, the food industry will at long last have overcome the dilemma of the fixed stomach: whole meals you can eat as often or as much of as you like, since this food will leave no trace.  Meet the ultimate-- the utterly elastic!-- industrial eater" (Pollan 99).

     Thoughts

       Our dependence on corn makes me question: If not corn then what?  What happens when our supply of corn completely wipes out?  What will we depend on then?  Although, I highly doubt our supply will wipe out due to the overflowing river of corn, even with our constant consuming of it.  In the future, will everything just be processed fake foods?  Will I be able to distinguish processed foods from all natural foods in the next 20 years?  What am I really consuming? Is it really as healthy as it is advertised to be?

HW 6 - Food Diary

ANALYSIS is after the pictures and descriptions.

9/28/10 - Dinner + Some Snacks 

Descriptions and Circumstances for the the foods I ate on the 28th of September: Above are boiled flat noodles.  I don't eat them without some kind of sauce, preferably oyster sauce.  The sliced mushrooms with scallions tasted both sweet and sour. The chicken was plain with no added sauce and in turn, made me wince because there was no sauce.  The chicken I eat, must have some kind of flavor.  The White rice felt a bit dry and tasteless but I don't mind the texture. The juice that squirts out of the lovely purple grapes onto your taste buds leaves a cold sweet taste.  Warm or room temperature grapes don't taste as delicious as cold grapes taste. The rice crispies bar looked sugar coated to the maximum and left me drooling. The shiny layer of the rice crispies looked appealing. The boiled veggies were thin and stringy.

9/29/10

Above is Penne Pesto pasta.  The color is sickly green and unappealing but, after you get past the color and taste the food, you won't heed the color anymore.  The shreds of cheese on top of the sauce makes me want to chew even faster so I can get onto the next bite.  The sauce is thick and warm that urge you to utter the words, "mmmh". / Next are boiled veggies.  The color is a vibrant green.  I really love the taste of the stems.  I always bite the stem first and then eat the rest of the piece.  The shine of the oil just makes it more appetizing.

Above is a dish of Chicken with Mushrooms.  The mushrooms had a slippery and squishy texture.  There are also some crunchy peanuts.  The color palette of this entire dish is very brown and beige. /   Fish with ginger and scallions.  I don't eat fish without some kind of sauce in it.  In this picture, there isn't any.  I'd usually eat it with soy sauce.  Without any kind of sauce, fish is ultimately tasteless to me.

Mayo Potato Egg Salad.  This entire dish includes things that I think taste good.  Eggs, boiled or scrambled, are delicious.  Potatoes, in general, are filling and fun to bite out of.


I wen't a little over my average intake of 1414 calories for each of the two days.  The amount of calories I intake vary from time to time based on several variables.


ANALYSIS:

     Though my love for picture taking prevails, I have never taken so many pictures of food in my 15 years of youth until these past 48 hours.  Through my camera lens, I found that the balance of my diet doesn't derive fully from my choosing and preference.  When I am alone, without people to criticize my food choices, walking on par with the fast pace city of New York, I'd choose Penne Pesto over a caesar salad without a hint of hesitation.  Obviously, nutrition isn't big in my line of sight when I search for foods to eat, therefore, I don't usually spend my money on pricey gourmet salads.  At home, dinner is served and made by my mother and whatever is on the table around 6pm, is a suitable dinner.  In my second day of photographing the foods I eat, I acknowledged that every dish was boiled or steamed, not one fried or roasted.   I do not choose to take a daily dose of healthy boiled or steamed foods but rather I impulsively accept my mothers healthily cooked foods.  It has been this way for as I as I could walk. 

     The physical appearance of foods had never phased me.  I had known for a while that even foods that were placed beautifully on a plate, didn't mean the food tasted as good as it looked.  Although I am aware of this, the sickly color of a food doesn't stop me from inching away, just wondering, "What could have given the food such a ugly color?"  As fascinating as colors may be, I prefer the experience of food rather than using my sight to evaluate the quality of food.  As I skimmed through the pictures I took of my food, the first thing I thought about was the texture and sound of each food when I bit into it.  When I devour a chicken piece, I have to gnaw at the piece a few times before the taste becomes distinguishable and consumable.  The elasticity of the chicken's skin is an obstacle because I must permeate through the skin to be able to consume the flavors.  The experience of food is questionable.  What plays a bigger role in how I distinguish whether a food is good or bad, the texture or the color?  Would it matter if my chicken was neon blue but had the most wondrous taste? 

     I'm not so much worried about how I feel after I eat foods but, how I am feeling as I eat the foods.  I value the present and moment when eating foods.  Maybe a stomach ache is a consequence to pay but, at the time, the food I eat serves a delicious purpose.  After coming to grips that my choice of food, is not entirely my own, I feel food may be the most significant thing that brings people together.  My experience of food may not be what it is all put out to be because everyone's experience and point of view is different but, inter-related at the same time.  Ironically, I have learned more in depth about my ritual of food eating but also have feelings of disappointment because my choices of food were not entirely my own.

HW 5 - Dominant Discourses Regarding Contemporary Foodways in the U.S.

     In the past few years, talk of healthy food has become a fad.  Food debate is almost always controversial in the least but, as discourses rage on, we seek food advice from only from those who are reputable and eminent.  But why? Isn't a farmer's critique of unhealthy food just as legitimate than that of a doctor's? Is it magazines and publicity that make us believe the nutritionists who promote healthy foods?  Through mainstream media, we are taught to think that the elite way, is the right way.  The voices of doctors, physicians, surgeons, and other people in the medical field don't immediately urge us to doubt their knowledge but instead, believe in the words they speak.  These voices maintain their position in mainstream media because they are part of the dominant discourse.  This dominant discourse, a discussion that goes on through multiple people, is constructed by parameters sustained by knowledge and ethics.  Boundaries are set where there are limitations and restrictions to the language used, to who can speak, and ultimately who be involved in the discourse.  The boundaries are controlled by abundant ideologies that serve purposefully at the expense of the elite: people who are on television, are famous, and are simply known for their respected insights and prestigious jobs.

     One contemporary dominant discourse regarding the foodways of the U.S. is that the consumption of healthier foods is beneficial.  Fresh and organic food overrules greasy fast food any day.  As highly as healthy foods may be promoted and advertised, health initiatives have failed ultimately because of the high cost of organic foods compared to convenient fast food.  In Kim Severson's article, Told to Eat Its Vegetables, America Orders Fries, she evaluates America's government and food companies efforts to promote health: "Despite two decade of public health initiatives, stricter government dietary guidelines, record growth of farmers' markets and the ease of products like salad in a bag, Americans still aren't eating enough vegetables".  Through Severson's evaluation, we can see that change is not easy.  Reform will not happen overnight.  People who are concerned about food have hopes of reform but realize the steps to the solution to their problems is easier said than done.

     People who seek convenience and low cost are less likely to make an effort to eat healthier simply because they have no time.  Even doctors who have spent most of their life studying some factors of health, do not put a huge emphasis on their efforts to eat healthier.  Melissa MacBride, who pursues a career in a pharmaceuticals company, expresses the pains she must experience to acquire healthy foods: "An apple you can just grab.  But what am I going to do, put a piece of kale in my purse?"   I spotted MacBrides immediate inclination towards making efforts to eat healthier but, should we trust her word?  I wasn't surprised to find that she worked in the medical field as did the majority of the people cited and interviewed in Told to Eat Its Vegetables, America Orders Fries.  These pediatricians and doctors were interviewed because of their extent of knowledge compared to someone who didn't have a degree declaring the legitimacy of their knowledge.  Their publicity in articles improve their reputation as an intellectual, worthy of being listened to. Harry Balzer, the chief industry analyst for the NPD group, said "The moment you have something fresh you have to schedule your life around using it." In order to succeed in adapting to a culture of healthy foods and run easily along the path of the dominant discourse of food in the U.S., one must make an effort to change their practices and become more patient.

Bianca C

A1

^I thought this was funny and ironic because they are promoting health through fast food.

HW 4 - Your Families' Foodways

     Chinese food is traditionally cooked with round bottomed cooking vessel, a wok.  As a small child, I always enjoyed watching my mother cook with a silver long handed spatula with a wooden handle.  The spatula against the wok made the most glorious sound, a sound that meant food was cooking and the aroma was only a few steps away.  I'd look over a wooden fence-like barrier to only hear my mother say cautiously in Cantonese, "Don't come near the kitchen.  You don't want a burn."  By then, I had known this saying as a song but, it didn't stop me from taking tiny soundless steps towards the kitchen because everything about food seemed magical and secret.  My mother once had a song, passed down from her mother, that she recited impulsively in her mind as she cooked, "Soy Sauce, corn starch, cooking oil, salt, and sugar."  My mother, still till this day, cooks everything with these simple ingredients.  She smiled a nostalgic smile as she said it was what gave food the flavor she came to know so well.  In my continuous years of watching, I realize the way my mother approaches food derives from the wise years of cooking from her own mother.  The food culture of Hong Kong is in her blood from the food utensils to the mere ingredients.
     Not only has the food culture of Hong Kong sunk into my mothers bloodstream but, American food culture has taken its place in her heart and through the hands she cooks with.  My mother immigrated to America in 1984 as foreign student and resided in the famous city of New York where she tasted indian , malaysian, mexican, halal food, and several other foods of unfamiliar cultures.  Having settled in America for 27 years, my mother was inevitably influenced by american culture and its food ways.  She incorporates american culture into the many traditional chinese dishes which in turn become chinese-american dishes.  My mother has said to me or rather still says to me with a serious tone, "Eating a little bit of everything is good.  Variation is good."  Though she says this, she is binded to her culture and cooks, with second-nature, the way she was taught originally.  Two different food cultures have overlapped in my mother life.  Through time, different kinds of food become fond and develop one's approach to food.  Time and place have a huge influence on ones approach to food on several terms.
     Though I can stare mesmerizingly at my mothers food with a certain drool slipping out the side of of my mouth, I don't have much motivation to learn how to cook the meals she cooks routinely.  However, I'm quite aware of chinese culture and its food ways.  My mother buys her food at Chinatown ultimately because everything is fresh for the day.  Buckets and styrofoam bins of fish and crabs mounted over ice never scared me as they probably would to tourists.  "Freshness is the key to good food," my mother says.  My fridge is almost always empty with a certain cooling chill because everything that is fresh, is cooked the day it is bought but, living in New York, I can't resist the temptation of convenient fast food.  Though I sometimes eat unhealthily, I am health conscious and understand the importance of health.  Dinner, always made by my mom, is cooked always using ginger, scallions, and garlic.  I was reluctant to ask why these three ingredients were so important but my mother just simply answered, "Because they're are all healthy in foods.  Garlic lowers cholesterol." 
     Health is a factor that will always be important to me.  As much as I love greasy, crunchy, and crispy foods, I eat a balance of both unhealthy and healthy foods.  My mother almost never fries anything but instead, boils or steams food until everything is cooked well.  Because she was not as financially fortunate as I am now, her food choices were limited.  The foods we eat are based on what we have access to and what we believe to fit our standards.  These concepts change as our surroundings and the cultures we are exposed to.  My concept of food is different from that of my mother because she grew up in a different time and place.


Todays Dinner: (9/27/2010)

 Almost everything below is cooked with a wok.

In this bowl, there are sticky-rice balls, sausage, asparagus, mushrooms, ginger, sliced pork, scallions, and garlic.  My mother mixes chinese tradition with today's american culture of variations.  

 The dish above is also cooked traditionally with soy sauce, oil,  ginger, and scallions.

My mother always steams the fish.

The food above was not made by my mother but instead bought, already put together, for my mother to steam.  My family only eats this once in a while.

Above are boiled veggies.  There's no added sauce but a mixture of oil and water.

HW 3 - Food - Fast Food Insights and Green Markets

     After wandering around Wendys and the Union Square's Farmers Market, I found they both had one thing in common: both places made an effort to accentuate their healthier foods.  As odd as it may seem, the larger pictures of food above the Wendys cashiers were of salads and not of foods that contain fried chicken, greasy fries, and sugar filled sodas.  However, while I examined the several consumers of Wendys, I found the majority chose the crispy greasy foods over the potentially healthy caesar salads.  Quick to make their food choices, customers were reluctant to answer my questions which led me to question: Why were they unable to answer simple questions concerning their food choices even though it took less than a second to tell the cashier what they wanted?  Was it because they were uncomfortable or rather ashamed of their choice?  And if they were as ashamed as I assumed them to be, did they have the same conscience when they ordered the same on another day?  Two middle-aged African American men answered jokingly about why they chose Wendys, "'Cause it's healthy.  Good Quality."  I realized then most people avoid such questions and evade the truth by covering their true feelings with a silly anecdote or joke.  These facades reveal the the health-consciousness in some people and their attempt to evade health because of the tempting low cost and convenience of fast food.
     The ideal food mind-set of the regular New Yorker is convenience.  Convenience is key, the thing we strive for, and the light we see at the end of narrow tunnel.  In the hustle and bustle streets of the N.Y.C., everything is fast moving: the people, the lines, and the conversations.  Having noted this, convenience most definitely pertains to food.  Dodging people left and right in the farmers market, I walked with uncertainty and began to wonder how what I was seeing then, different from another time?  Eyes glaring and scoffs headed my way, some food salesmen just ignored my sincere questions and concerns and just said, "Are you going to buy something?"  Disgusted, I walked with a steady stride and saw lines of perfectly stacked canned foods of all sorts: canned honey, sauce, fruits, and relish.  Most people walked toward to canned food vendors assuringly because they were either too lazy to buy fresh goods or make a sauce.  Some people said, they had been shopping in the green market for years while I saw tourists with gleaming eyes mesmerized by the variety of healthy foods.  Different people have several approaches to food like that of New Yorkers, we seek effortless tasks.
     Food ultimately defines who we are.  This may be a very cliche saying but, nonetheless is very true.  The way we choose what foods to eat reveal how we make judgements, how we favor one thing over another, and how we make certain decisions.

Bianca C
A1

(NOTE TO SELF: Work on transitions.  And make sentences more concise.)

HW 2 - Food - Initial Thoughts

     Food is essential, ultimately the crisp of a perfectly textured fry.  Food is a magic show and my taste buds are the audience.  Food brings out new and old memories that bring a web of emotions gushing out. My emotions are at its peak during the night while I bite out of the bread of culture and the meat of life.  It is dinner that I look forward to, the time where I can eat in the comfort of my home and family.  Eating together buffet style at one table is something my family does not question but, is a rule or rather an important ritual that goes un-said and without performing the ritual, I'd feel some uneasiness.  My routine meal include plates of just cooked stir-fried vegetables, fish, meat and a big pot of soup.  Though I've never thought about what qualifications the food I eat, must fit, I came to a conclusion quite quickly.  My top priorities for food are that it must be hot and be a reasonable portion large enough to satisfy my stomach.

     The heat of food radiates a delicious smell that drives me forward and after I eat, I feel a satisfying warmth.  Some may say that feeling is an uncomfortable ache but to me, it is an appeasing feeling.  After I eat something drenched in thick sauce, which tends to be pasta, I become drowsy and my eye lids feel like anvils.  Most of the time I fall asleep after I eat a big meal but, it's alright because I feel full and alleviated.  The combination of food and sleep always sounds good to me.  The next immediate move I make after I arise from my momentary coma is look for a nice cold refreshing drink in the depths of my refrigerator.  In the mountains of food in my fridge, I don't think about the amount of fat there is or how many carbs there are rather I just look for something I like and am familiar with like the shine of the sugar and oil glazed over a buttery pastry.  

     I've come to comprehend that food is sacred.  Eating foods at different times of the day is a ritual.  It is a ritual I enjoy because I find that I usually only eat things I have already tasted, an ambience of familiarity.  I apprehend foods I have never tried nonetheless without food, my voids of hunger are longing to be filled.  Food serves a purpose and a role that grant me the joys of several flavors, tranquil naps, and sometimes an uncomfortable bloated stomach.  But that's the beauty of food, not everything is sweet but has a tang of bitterness.

Bianca C

A1