You Are What You Eat

Food has not always come in packaged form. There was a time when our very own ancestors harvested their own crops and skewed their own wild boars. Im not sure when food started to get packaged and exported world wide but i'm sure it started only in the past few centuries. That does not mean that all people were once totally aware to the sources of their food. People have not always hunted their own animals and gathered their own crops , in fact when we were born we were 100% detached from the source of our food. So what makes feel so proud to gather our own food to cook? When Steven Rinella stumbled upon Escoffier's Guide Culinaire, hes was immediatley overcome with the virile spirit of Ernest Hemingway who decided it was his mission to create a three day 45-course meal made up mostly of exotic animals stuffed inside other exotic animals. When I continued to read the details of this epic feast, I myself felt Heminways spirit creep through my arteries. If one can gain some valuable life memories in putting together such a haute feast, I absolutely would commend such an empowering experience and would be extremely tempted to join in the consuming of such a gluttonous celebration. I think that if I were to dedicate myself to re-creating to Escoffier's I would love the journey of collecting all the ingredients to make it work, but the dedication for me is lacking. I really do admire and value a person who collects food for themselves and other; I think Escoffier's meal is a dramatic inflation of the love for food, but the admiration is still there. A feast of this magnitude is pretty unhealthy and somewhat sinful, but I think personally it's alright to have that meal at least once in yourself if you really desire it enough to gather up all the ingredients. For me the best part about a meal is being in the kitchen turning something completely unappetizing and inedible into quite the opposite. Here's are a few books that might interest the reader:

Kelly, Ian. Cooking For Kings: The Life of Antonin Caréme, The First Celebrity Chef. New York: Walker & Co., 2003.

Dubowski, Cathy East. The Story Of Squanto: First Friend of The Pilgrims. Milwaukee, WI: Gareth Stevens Pub., 1997.

Harvesting Food

Harvesting your own food could be very advantageous. If everyone knew everything about the food they ate from the day it was planted/born to the day it is consumed, then I believe most people would care much more about the way it was treated. I know that if I was forced to kill and butcher my own meat, I would want an animal that was fed well and led a good life. Also by making a connection with the animal I would probably reduce my meat consumption. However, there is another side to this argument. At the rate the population is expanding there are more and more people living in poverty. The ability to even afford the luxury of harvesting your own food is not an option. If they did not have the choice of cheap, mass produced food then many people would not be able to feed themselves or their families.
Hunting can be very moral. In fact, often hunters find that same connection to their kill as those who “harvest” their own meat. By hunting an animal, killing it quickly and correctly, and then using a majority of the carcass for either food or even decoration, most hunters use more parts of the animal than the mass producers. Extravagant meals like those of Rinella and Harrison are just another show of wealth and power. In my eyes it’s about the same as buying several different sports cars and barely driving any of them. These types of people do these things just to show they can and to be talked about by others in articles in the New Yorker.

Prose, Francine. Gluttony: the seven deadly sins. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Bringle, Mary Louise. The God of Thinness: gluttony and other weighty matters. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992.

4th Blog Assignment

I personally think that it is a good thing to know where your food is actually coming from. However, in our society today, we all live off of our own personal schedules and our lives are often fast paced. Therefore, we do not have the time to sit and read every ingredient on that can before we buy it. I personally want to go to the grocery store, buy my food, and get out of there as fast as I can. I guess what I am trying to say is that when it comes down to it, I am lazy and I have better things to do. I do know though that if I had to kill the animal, I would not eat it. When we see videos about how the animals are butchered, it is torturous to watch, it makes you think. When I am presented with chicken on my plate however, I tend not to even think about those videos that I had previously watched. Eating chicken and beef has been a lifestyle to me ever since I was a child and I don’t think that I would be able to give up meat all together. It may sound selfish, but that is just the way I have lived my life for the past 20 years.

I don’t think that hunting is moral for those people above the poverty line. I know of some people who simply hunt for a hobby. They get a thrill out of it. I would never be able to go hunting and shoot an animal just for the fun of it. I do believe that it is a necessity for those people living under the poverty line. In those cases, I feel that it is okay. The first thing that came to my mind when thinking about hunting were Native Americans. Hunting is a way of life for them.

We as American’s are served HUGE portions. It is simply not necessary. I know that when I go out to eat at restaurants, the food is so good I eat my whole meal. If the portions were smaller, I would be satisfied instead of feeling sick. I don’t feel that it is necessary to harvest that much food just for one meal. I feel that it is wasteful.

Bringle, Mary Louise. The god of thinness: Gluttony and other weighty matters. Nashville: Amingdon Press, 1992.

Hayes, Ruth. Gluttony. Seattle, WA: Random Motion, 1985.

A really big lunch...Guide to Haute Cuisine

I feel that harvesting your own food is indeed a way to feel a stronger connection to the source of that food. If i were to grow my own garden, hunt and kill a deer, and raise a dairy cow for milk, then use all of these sources for my own personal consumption throughout the year, i would feel a sense of accomplishment and connection with the land. It would feel like i did my part to sustain myself, versus just going to the grocery store and buying whatever is on the shelf. I think that it is a good thing to feel this connection because life wasn't always how it is today. There wasn't always a Haggen or Fred Meyer or Farmers Market. At some point in history people had to grown and hunt their own food and most people will agree that it is good to know our roots and how our ancestors used to live. I think it is advantageous for sure, but the question on the assignment assumes it is only advantageous if you were to eat meat more often. I think it is advantageous for the experiences you would get growing or harvesting your own food, not just because you may or may not eat more meat. In reality, most people would probably be eating less meat than normal because we all simply do not have to the time to go hunt animals and butcher them. Our busy schedules would have to be rearranged to allow time for this.
On the issue of whether hunting is moral or not, I think that it is. The people who hunt and kill wild animals tend to eat what they kill and not the stuff at the grocery store. By doing so they are bypassing the moral shortcomings of slaughterhouses and are getting their meat in a more humane way. (This is all just my opinion keep in mind). Whether you live above or below the poverty level, hunting your own meat is much more humane than buying store bought for the simple reason that up until that animal is killed, it lived a completely natural, good life. It wasnt in a cage, given growth hormones, and then brutally killed. I think for these reasons it is actually better to hunt your own animals.
I think Harrison's meal is a bit extreme. It is gluttony for sure and not necessary at all. There were 37 courses in the lunch, and it was gluttony because there was no way he needed all that food. If you hunt, or eat meat, or vegetables or anything, i consider it gluttony if you take way more than you need. If you overeat by a bit, thats one thing, but a 37 course lunch is likely to make you pass out. I think because so many animals were killed for the sheer reason of one big lunch, that it probably isn't moral. It is moral to kill what you need, and only what you need, but as soon as you go to this extreme, it no longer is moral.

VanDerwarker, Amber. Farming, hunting, and fishing in the Olmec world. 1st. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006.

Frison, George. Survival by hunting : prehistoric human predators and animal prey. Berkely: University of California Press, 2004.

A Modest Proposal

The thought of selling humans as food had never really crossed my mind until this article. I think it rather strange about the authors ideas for such a system. When he talked about how horrible it was that all these women were wandering around the streets in Ireland with kids trailing behind them and that it would be more humane if we just ate the kids as food instead. I believe he would prefer the kids were sold as meat rather than murdered in an abortion. I hope the affairs of the world never gets into such a desperate position that selling babies as a food source becomes morally acceptable. He makes some very good points claiming his plan will help relieve the economic depression as well as helping control population growth. In a world whose population has been growing exponentially in the last few decades, overpopulation is a serious problem. Converting people into a food source may have some positive aspects to it, but I don't think there's anyway way we can do it without more drastic negative effects. When dealing with cannibalism, I feel I can accept it only on a cross-cultural level and would be pretty shocked to see someone from my own culture commit to it. Even quantifying humans into rations for families makes me think the author thought way to much about to subject. Well maybe you can think about cannibalism more by checking out this source:

Yue, Gang. Hunger, cannibalism, and the politics of eating : alimentary discourse in Chinese and Chinese-American Literatures. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon, 1993.

Thoughts on "A Modest Proposal"

The way in which Swift presents his idea makes it seem like cannibalism is a real possibility. He statements are so matter of fact, and his ideas and reasoning make cannibalism seem not so different from us raising cows to eat later on. In my opinion though, the fact of the matter is that humans have no reason to prey on each other. The reason we are having a shortage of food is because there are so many of us, and families in poorer third world countries, who cannot afford food as it is, are having the most children. This makes feeding them near impossible. So, while logically Swift’s ideas make sense, I don’t agree with its morals. As humans, we are smart enough to exercise population control. We don’t have the animal instinct to reproduce so our species doesn’t go extinct. We know that everybody doesnt need to have three or more children a pieve to keep the human race alive. We can impose certain regulations on how many children are allowed in each family, as China does. I also think that I, or anybody I know for that matter, could get over the “abhorrence” of raising a child for food. If children suddenly had a per pound dollar value put on them, women would be getting paid to have as many children as they could. Women would suddenly have one main purpose, to have children. Children would be cooped up and fed, and probably even be given growth hormones to make them big, just like the cows, chickens, and other animals we harvest now. Most of us can agree that what we do to other animals is bad enough, and that inflicting these moral wrong doings on ourselves would be even worse.

Calabro, Marian. The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party. New York: Clarion Books, 1999.

A modest proposal

I’ll start off this post by saying that I obviously do not think that I could eat another human just for the taste, nor do I think that mother’s would be willing to have babies solely to raise them just enough to make money from their sale. However, I do feel like this article brought up some interesting points. If Ireland would have started this trend back in the 1700’s whose to say that by now it wouldn’t just be seen as “just something the Irish do.” Many Americans see their dogs and cats as humans and the fact that some cultures breed them for food has just become a fact of life. Many countries in poverty are having more children than ever with even less food and money then generations before them. If baby meat was turned into a highly sought after commodity, then many of these families may be able to greatly increase their quality of life. There is also the problem of over population which in turn is destroying our environment. Women will eventually become too old to bear children and many men also lose the ability, so if they were then consumed it would drastically shorten the “circle of life.” Along with the consumption of babies, we would drastically reduce the world’s population which would in turn allow this planet to sustain life for much longer. These ideas seem about as crazy as Swifts and I even feel pretty ridiculous as I write this. But I think it’s interesting that if this concept was accepted by the world some 200 odd years ago, today it would just be the way of life.

Read, Piers Paul. Alive; The Story of the Andes Survivors. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1974.

A Modest Proposal

Before reading A Modest Proposal, I was prepared for the worst. After looking over the assignment, I was somewhat worried to start the reading simply because it had to do with cannibalism, something we as individuals do not talk about on a daily basis. I appreciated the fact that Jonathan Swift didn’t go into graphic detail for his argument. In all reality, the reading was not what I expected it to be. After completing the reading for last week’s assignment, I felt awful. Though cannibalism is not something that I necessarily believe in, I do feel that the author took a good stand in delivering why he thought that cannibalism can help out our economy. The word cannibalism has a bad reputation and I was surprised that what I had just read actually made sense. This could actually help our economy. However, being a believer of human life, I do not feel that it is fair to just make a child “plump” so that you can enjoy them in the future. It is true that we do this with some animals (without consciously thinking about it) but I believe that some animals were put on this earth for many reasons, one of those reasons being as a food source for humans.

After thinking about this article for a long while, I came to the realization that this could actually help out our economy but at the same time, women would be valued simply as “food producers.” Knowing that women are the soul providers for children, it would be sad to see what a women’s role would be as soon as she is no longer able to produce babies. Do you think women would be treated differently if cannibalism of children became a way of life?

Arens, W. The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology & Anthropophagy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.

The Cost of Change

Having been exposed to PETA material before, I expected the violent mistreatment that was shown in the video. What I did not expect was my complete reaction to all the material shown. It was the point at which the cows were shown struggling in dire pain as they were hanging upside down slowly bleeding to death from the neck that I began to weep for the suffering of these animals. To think for a minute that these animals don't have personalities like you and me, or even so much as to ignore the pain and suffering that all living things feel is downright ignorance. After reading the article assigned, "The Cost of Cheap Chicken", I began to wonder if eating meat was seriously worth the cost. Certainly I have been convinced that factory farming is downright unethical and unhealthy for both the animals and us as consumers. Environmentally, factory farms are damaging to their surroundings. They also are breeding grounds for disease and illness which no doubt alters the very DNA of the chicken or cow that you are consuming for the "benefit" of your own DNA. I figure I can easily save myself from these bad karma sources of nutrition and protein, but my personal shopping choices alone won't stop the cruelty. As a culture and as a country in a globalized world, we must take much bigger measures to establish laws and guidelines in the production of food we ourselves eat and rely upon. I remember from the article the Tyson corporation claiming to be America's #1 source of protein. Well if that's all the have to offer us, perhaps we need to learn to turn our backs like we are beginning to do with the oil corporations and find alternate sources of protein for our diets that don't have such a moral toll on our bodies and consciousness. I found these two books that expand on the subject:

Ford, Barbara. Future Food: Alternate Protein For The Year 2000. New York: Morrow, 1978.

Call #: TX53.P7 F67 Location: Wilson 4w

Bharadwaj, Monisha. India's Vegetarian Cooking. London: Kyle Brooks, 2006.

Call #: TX837 .B535 2007 Institution: George Fox Location: Newberg, Main Stacks

2nd Blog Assignment

To be completely honest, I was not prepared for the video that we had to watch. The content of the video was too much for me to handle. I watched maybe half of it and I had to turn it off.

It is amazing to think that people in our society can be so cruel to animals. Like we have talked about in class many times before, we typically don’t think of the way animals are handled when we are eating them. Actually, we don’t think of them as an animal at all. It makes me wonder how the handlers of these animals view them as food. I would think that if they are able to be so cruel to animals while they are actually alive, then they would view eating the animals as okay. Do you think that there are some handlers who are unable to eat meat because of what their job entails?

I think that something needs to be done in order to keep these animals in better conditions. After seeing the way the humans treat the animals that we as Americans consume each and every day makes me feel sick.

This video has introduced me to many things that I had never seen before. Not only did the video provide me with these necessary insights but the reading “Hidden Cost of Cheap Chicken” seemed to reflect on much of the things that the video “Meet your Meat” showed. Explaining that many chickens are actually conscious while having their necks snapped gave me chills. I eat chicken almost everyday and whenever I eat it I never think of the way that these chickens were handled before.

All I have to say is that what happens to these animals is not right. Something needs to be done. If they are going to be killed for food, it needs to be done in the most painless way.

Two sources that I have found:

Williams, Erin. Why animals matter: the case for animal production. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus, 2007.

Pyle, George. Raising less corn, more hell: the case for the independent farm and against industrial food .1st ed. New York: Publishing Affairs, 2005.

How animals are treated when raised for food

In American society, there tends to be an idea that if we don’t see it, it doesn’t bother us as much. If we don’t know about it, it is all the better. The movie “Meet Your Meat” and the article “Hidden Cost of Cheap Chicken” gave some horrifying, yet necessary insights into the world of meat production. Most Americans don’t know exactly how the slaughter process works, but we have an idea that it can not be all that humane. As pointed out in “Hidden Cost of Cheap Chicken,” we are more likely to dismiss the horrors of a slaughter house and buy the cheap product, because we still need to be able to pay the bills and save time. If everybody had to face the reality of how their meat was raised and killed, they would probably be disturbed, but would continue their current practices because they have no other way of getting meat, and are not open to becoming vegetarians. “Meet Your Meat” also gave insight into how other animals are killed. Sometimes the animal is still alive while having their throat cut, being dismembered, and skinned. It is a terrible, yet all too real way of life.
It is my opinion that eating meat is acceptable, but as long as the techniques to harvest the meat are done in the most humane way. For example, my grandma and grandpa used to raise beef cows. They would usually have two at a time, and when it became to slaughter them, they did so in the quickest and least painful way possible. Start to finish, the cows were treated with respect, fed and watered correctly, and taken care of. When they were slaughtered, it was with a high powered rifle that would kill in an instant, so no suffering occurred. And after it was all said and done, they had enough meat for quite a few people. I believe this to be an acceptable process for harvesting the meat you would like to eat. Because this is not feasible for most people, we have turned to other, more inhumane ways of slaughtering.

I found a few good resources with more good information about the raising and slaughtering of animals for food. The first deals with hunting and whether or not it is moral and the second deals with the unheard stories of American slaughter houses.

Laney, Dawn. Hunting. Detroit: Thomson/Gale, 2008.

Eisnitz, Gail. Slaughterhouse : the shocking story of greed, neglect, and inhumane treatment inside the U.S. meat industry . New York: Prometheus Books, 2007.

American Food

I had trouble writing this blog because I couldn't really define what culture had really influenced me growing up as a child. I know I was feed Ethiopian injera with lentils and similar legume dishes before I even began school. But during my elementary years I ate meals influenced by Indonesian cooking which almost never had pork. Once my family settled down in the north west though, I was introduced to ham and for a short while my school lunch consisted of a bologna sandwiches with a juice box and some carrots. I remember getting sick and tired of eating salmon and pasta all the time for dinner, but now those dishes never cease to interest my appetite. After reading the article assigned, I checked the library for information on any strange foods that might have originated from North American culture in general. As most of us know, the discovery of the "New World" introduced the use of corn and corn maise into the culinary palletes of cultures around the world; not a weird food but definitely functional. While reading from a source entitled "Foods America Gave The World," which was written mind you in 1937 I was surprised at how fondly the author talked about cooking raccoons, opossums, wood-chucks, and even praising skunks as being "far superior to the popular gray squirrels." One would think a cultural affinity for skunk meat would give new meaning to the phrase "love stinks." The North American Indians used to collect crickets and grasshoppers and crush them into patties similar to latkes and eat them. I would try a grasshopper patty, I think it sounds kind of crunchy, like hash browns but with more flavor. Anyway that's 200 words+ so here's some research material if you want to learn more about strange North American foods and food related customs!

Verrill, Aepheus. Foods America Gave The World. Boston, MA: L. C. Page & Company, 1937.

it can be found on Wilson 4W its call number is TX260.A5 V4

I also found this book about the various food phobias found in cultures throughout history:

Ferriéres, Madeleine. Sacred Cow, Mad Cow: A History of Food Fears. New York: Colombia University Press, 2006.

this one is also located on Wilson 4W its call number is RC622.F47613 2006

Culture and Food

The “culture” that affects my eating habits the most would have to be my family. Growing up as a child my mom would cook dinner for my family around five days a week and we were required to be there unless we had a really good excuse. My mom is a good cook but she only makes so many different kinds of dishes, which seriously limited my exposure. Also, when I was younger I used to emulate my dad in pretty much everything, including the foods that he didn’t like to eat. This prevented me from eating things like beans of any kind, salmon, or peppers. At this point in my life I have tried some foods that most Americans would not, however, because of my childhood feelings towards these three specific foods, I still try my best to completely avoid them. My college experience has helped some with my narrow minded approach to food. Over the last four years I have met several people who have broadened my outlook on food. Due to this, I feel that when I am surrounded by others who press upon me that a certain dish is good I will often give in and at least give it a taste. Therefore, my immediate “culture” is a huge part of the shaping of my eating habits.

Inness, Sherrie. Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.
Call #GT2853.U5 K57 2001 Location: Haggard 3

Robertson, Marta. Starving in the Silences: An Exploration of Anorexia Nervosa. Washington Square: New York University Press, 1992.
Call # RC552.A5 R63 1992 Location: Wilson 4W

Culture and Food-First Blog Assignment

I feel that my family is somewhat limited to what we eat. I remember hearing a story when I was little that my mom had an allergic reaction to fish while cooking it. Ever since she had that allergic reaction she has never touched it again. Because my mom never eats it, I have grown up thinking that fish is disgusting and that the smell is terrible. I have attempted to try salmon, shrimp, and calamari. I have to admit that the salmon I tried was terrible. However, the shrimp wasn’t bad because I thought that it kind of tasted like chicken. The calamari was gross to me simply because of the texture of it. The taste wasn’t all that bad but the texture steers me away from wanting to eat it again. Now that I think about it, fish has always been a “don’t” in my family. A “do” in my family is “peanut butter.” I remember my dad taking out a jar of peanut butter along with a loaf of bread. He would spread a ton of peanut butter on one slice and fold it over. He could eat maybe three of these for a meal. At one time in my life, in elementary school, lunch meat made me feel sick (it sometimes still does today) so everyday in my lunch I would eat a peanut butter sandwich. I thought this was interesting because after watching the video in class yesterday, I found it quite odd that people from other cultures really thought peanut butter was the most disgusting thing that we as American’s eat. To wrap it up, I will probably never like fish and I was always love peanut butter because that is the way I was brought up.

Ishige, Naomichi. The History and Culture of Japanese Food. New York: Kegan Paul, 2001.

Pollan, Michael. In Defense of Food: The Eater’s Manifesto. New York: Penguin Press, 2008.

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