In the beginning of the year, one of our very first assignments was to create a video showing what is meaningful in my life or what makes my life meaningful. My art was, still is, and will always be one of the most important aspects of my life that adds to the meaning of my life. Over the past few months, we have touched upon several different units, all-relating to living a more meaningful life. I have to say when we first started this course I was not sure what to think about living a good and meaningful life. I felt lost at times because I had never taken the time to think about how I am either living a good and meaningful life or not. I felt the video assignment was creative and was a good way for me to think about something important to my life and who I am as a human being, an animal, etc.
Later on, I learned that people base the meaning of a good and meaningful life on their personal experiences and what they view around them. The media runs our society by setting standards of acceptability to abide by in order to live a good and meaningful life. We are no longer the driving force of our decisions because there are many influences us in our daily lives. It is harder to be "original” because someone out in the world has already come up with that same idea floating around in your head. Most often, you think you have come up with a great idea but instead it is Corporate Culture and the Dominant message of how to live a good and meaningful marginal message etc, folk culture
In the beginning, my definition of a good and meaningful life was whatever corporate and folk culture had told about the ways of the world. I was and still am influenced by the media and corporate and folk culture but now I know when I see the media trying to persuade me into buying something new or to try a "new and improved" diet, and when to stay away from this type of advertisement. I can spot the propaganda and follow my own knowledge about what I now know about living a good and meaningful life.
Two of my most favorite units were the health and the animal units because these two units have a lot to do with each other. Health was a big unit; there is physical, mental, and moral health.
The animal unit really opened my eyes to how related we are to other animals, we are animals and we act like animals. This unit was a chance to explore what living like an animal like; following our natural instincts and doing thing that are natural to the human body. We talked about the relationship between humans and other animals and the differences.
At first, I was a bit skeptical about the health unit; I did not understand what it had to do with me living a good and meaningful life. But as we discussed how understanding our physical, mental and moral health played a part in making my life more meaningful I began to want to know more. Learning how to describe your emotions in words will help you understand more about yourself, why you feel the way you do, and how to make yourself better.
We participated in different physical exercises for example we laid out a mat on the floor and all of us would lie down, then one person would lie on top of everyone else and we would work together to roll our bodies simultaneously to roll the one person across the room. Rolling people on the mat was a lot of fun and a great way to exercise your mind, strategically. We also went to the park and played tag as a class, this was an exercise to see how the physical can also affect the mental state. We found that running around in the park, like free animals, we were having fun; we felt carefree and did not have to worry about school and work. We were living in the moment. Running and chasing each other, enjoying the nice weather and feeling energized. The exercise made us feel relieved of everything in the world. The physical affects the mental. I have to say, as childish as some may think this sounds, this unit was some of the most fun I have had in any of my classes all year long.
Being healthy also has to do with what you eat. America's food culture is a complete mess.The major industries that run our country have taken over and converted most natural agricultural farming into a process where products are becoming "mass produced" items and must be grown faster, fatter, bigger, and cheaper, which we now call, industrial farming. Natural, agricultural farming much like, "home grown" produce, is dying out. "If you can grow a chicken in 49 days, why would you one you can grow in 3 months?" Everything about our food culture is so automatic and all about speed and money. The faster the better.
Jared Diamond discusses in The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race he goes on to explain that the adoption of agriculture was in many was a "catastrophe from which we have never recovered." Agriculture has destroyed the land and with it came social and sexual inequality, epidemic disease, that "curse our existence." Before agriculture was adapted by humans our race consisted of hunters and gatherers. We fed on wild plants and hunted for other wildlife. But most of us would not go back to those ways of living lives because we have have become so attached to this new and better way of living. Where "we enjoy the most abundant and varied foods, the best tools and material goods, some of the longest and healthiest lives, in history." And we get "our energy from oil and machines, not from our sweat." Life seems too good to change, why would we want to work more for the food we can get so easily from industrial farms? or at least that is what a majority of people think. Agriculture is an efficient way to get more food for less work, that is why hunters and gatherers adopted this method of living. Not that that is a good thing.
In our last unit we discussed the Collapse of our society, I believe our society will and is (semi) experiencing collapse but slowly. We will gradually over time realize that our way of life is coming to an end. But we won't do anything about it until the last minute because we do not think the collapse is too important today. It doesn't scream to us: IMPORTANT PAY ATTENTION, THIS COULD BE YOUR LAST CHANCE! So we ignore it. Like Global warming, everyone says they are "going green" but what are they actually doing to prevent Global Warming?
Our society is so dependent on oil that we extract and use an enormous amount of it to make most things in the US, for example plastics and used as heat to melt metals. The US does not think about the consequences of abusing the existence of oil. All we care about is that it is there for the time being and we will use as much as we want.
We touched upon the Oil Peak Theory: Our society is based upon a constant growth and oil, the constant growth of oil. We have already found the most oil in many years, so the amount of oil being produced has already peaked and is now declining. Meaning there is less oil being produced and the cost of oil is rising. This can become dangerous because oil production will be volatile during the decline and there may not be a constant source of energy needed to keep a society going.
Entire financial system based on a growing economy, constant growth, our entire society based on oil and fossil fuels, everything is made from oil or oil and fossil fuels must be used to make a product. Ever increasing use of ever decreasing resources will lead to our collapse. (along with many other reasons, which we did not touch upon)
Now that I have been giving all of this information on how food, health, and the effects the economy has on me, I am more aware than when I started in this course. I know have a stronger idea of how to live a meaningful life. You have to learn how to take control of what you do. Make your own decisions based on the information at hand to choose what you feel is right. Make yourself happy, you should also experience other feelings and understand your feelings. Understanding yourself, the world around you, the world you live in, helps to make a meaningful life because once you know the situation you are in, you can then make the decisions that make you happy it is completely up to you, and you must also learn to understand other people.
Jun 11, 2009
Jun 8, 2009
Final Essay June 2009
In the beginning of the year, one of our very first assignments was to create a video showing what is meaningful in my life or what makes my life meaningful. My art was, still is, and will always be one of the most important aspects of my life that adds to the meaning of my life. Over the past few months we have touched upon several different units, all-relating to living a more meaningful life. I have to say when we first started this course I was not sure what to think about living a good and meaningful life. I felt lost at times because I had never taken the time to think about how I am either living a good and meaningful life or not. I felt the video assignment was really creative and was a good way for me to think about something important to my life and who I am as a human being, an animal, etc.
Later on I learned that people base the meaning of a good and meaningful life on their personal experiences and what they view around them. The media runs our society by setting standards as to what is acceptable in order to live a good and meaningful life. We are no longer the driving force of our decisions because there is too much to be influenced by in our daily lives. Its harder to be "original." Corporate Culture, Dominant, marginal message etc, folk culture
In the beginning my definition of a good and meaningful life was whatever corporate and folk culture had told about the ways of the world. I was and still am influenced by the media and corporate and folk culture but now I know when I see the media trying to persuade me into buying something new or to try a "new and improved" diet, and when to stay away from this type of advertisement. I can spot the propaganda and follow my own knowledge about what I now know about living a good and meaningful life.
Two of my most favorite units were the health and the animal units because these two units have a lot to do with each other. Health was a big unit, there is physical, mental, and moral health.
The animal unit really opened my eyes to how related we are to other animals, we are animals and we act like animals. This unit was a chance to explore what living like an animal like, following our natural instincts and doing thing that are natural to the human body. We talked about the relationship between humans and other animals and also the differences.
At first I was a bit skeptical about the health unit, I didn't understand what it had to do with me living a good and meaningful life. But as we discussed how understanding our physical, mental, and moral health played a part in making my life more meaningful I began to want to know more. Learning how to describe your emotions in words will help you understand more about yourself, why you feel the way you do, and how to make yourself better.
We participated in different physical exercises for example we laid out a mat on the floor and all of us would lie down, then one person would lie on top of everyone else and we would work together to roll our bodies ___ to roll the one person across the room. I have to say, as childish as one may think this sound, it was the most fun I have had in any of my classes all year long.
Later on I learned that people base the meaning of a good and meaningful life on their personal experiences and what they view around them. The media runs our society by setting standards as to what is acceptable in order to live a good and meaningful life. We are no longer the driving force of our decisions because there is too much to be influenced by in our daily lives. Its harder to be "original." Corporate Culture, Dominant, marginal message etc, folk culture
In the beginning my definition of a good and meaningful life was whatever corporate and folk culture had told about the ways of the world. I was and still am influenced by the media and corporate and folk culture but now I know when I see the media trying to persuade me into buying something new or to try a "new and improved" diet, and when to stay away from this type of advertisement. I can spot the propaganda and follow my own knowledge about what I now know about living a good and meaningful life.
Two of my most favorite units were the health and the animal units because these two units have a lot to do with each other. Health was a big unit, there is physical, mental, and moral health.
The animal unit really opened my eyes to how related we are to other animals, we are animals and we act like animals. This unit was a chance to explore what living like an animal like, following our natural instincts and doing thing that are natural to the human body. We talked about the relationship between humans and other animals and also the differences.
At first I was a bit skeptical about the health unit, I didn't understand what it had to do with me living a good and meaningful life. But as we discussed how understanding our physical, mental, and moral health played a part in making my life more meaningful I began to want to know more. Learning how to describe your emotions in words will help you understand more about yourself, why you feel the way you do, and how to make yourself better.
We participated in different physical exercises for example we laid out a mat on the floor and all of us would lie down, then one person would lie on top of everyone else and we would work together to roll our bodies ___ to roll the one person across the room. I have to say, as childish as one may think this sound, it was the most fun I have had in any of my classes all year long.
Collapse Assignment 2
"Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon." As this now seems to be the popular thing to say, it is not at all false or a joke, the United States is on its way toward collapse. Whether the collapse is slow and seemingly unnoticeable or a crash and burn effect, which I highly doubt people will just die in the streets, but a collapse is on its way. Our country as a certain energy level it must maintain in order to function properly and not spiral into a meltdown. To maintain constant energy the US must gain the same amount of energy lost. The source of all energy that keeps us from falling apart is fossil fuels and oil.
Entropy-the tendency for everything to chill.
Our society is so dependent on oil that we extract and use an enormous amount of it to make most things in the US, for example plastics and used as heat to melt metals. The US does not think about the consequences of abusing the existence of oil. All we care about is that it is there for the time being and we will use as much as we want.
Oil Peak Theory: Our society is based upon a constant growth and oil, the constant growth of oil. We have already found the most oil in many years, so the amount of oil being produced has already peaked and is now declining. Meaning there is less oil being produced and the cost of oil is rising. This can become dangerous because oil production will be volatile during the decline and there may not be a constant source of energy needed to keep a society going.
Entire financial system based on a growing economy, constant growth
Entire society based on oil, everything is made from oil
Easter Island
Jared Diamond
Life After the Oil Crash
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
Entropy-the tendency for everything to chill.
Our society is so dependent on oil that we extract and use an enormous amount of it to make most things in the US, for example plastics and used as heat to melt metals. The US does not think about the consequences of abusing the existence of oil. All we care about is that it is there for the time being and we will use as much as we want.
Oil Peak Theory: Our society is based upon a constant growth and oil, the constant growth of oil. We have already found the most oil in many years, so the amount of oil being produced has already peaked and is now declining. Meaning there is less oil being produced and the cost of oil is rising. This can become dangerous because oil production will be volatile during the decline and there may not be a constant source of energy needed to keep a society going.
Entire financial system based on a growing economy, constant growth
Entire society based on oil, everything is made from oil
Easter Island
Jared Diamond
Life After the Oil Crash
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
Collapse Assignment 1
Easter Island history is a huge mystery I don't even know how else to describe it. The fact that we only have assumptions of what actually happened and who the Polynesians were, frustrates me because they built such amazing statues with no real evidence of how they pulled it off.
The mystery of the statues (carving erecting, etc.) brings up all of these important/interesting questions: Who were the Polynesians? How, based on the studies of these people and their environment were they abel to move and erect these enormous statues weighing an average of 55-88 tons? How did they grow as a society? and How did they manage to sustain a way of life when they had scattered resources and had a lack of a variety of food? How was any of this possible?
I think the most important part of their history is learning about their environment and how they lived. It tells you a lot about the Polynesian islanders. They didn't have any trees to make other tools for example a form of crane or machinery to lift the statues or a way to relocate and erect them. There is a logical assumption to explain what happened to all of the trees that previously existed in the area but I don't fully believe it answers the entire mystery. "Organizing the carving, transport, and erection of the statues required a complex populous society living in an environment rich enough to support it." So if there were much more than a few thousand people living on the island before the arrival of the Europeans. The Polynesian islanders must have used all of the resources, the trees, to survive for as long as they could. But something must have gone wrong because the population decreased soon after. I believe they Easter Islanders mis-used/over-used their natural resources until they stopped growing back. The soil that the trees grew in may have been over worked, if they islanders continuously chopped down trees for their own benefit and tried to grow more trees in the same area it may not have worked. The soil may have dried up and lost most of its nutrients needed to grow a tree. Which reminds me of what they US is doing over seas. We depend on oil so much and use an enormous amount of it to make most things in the US. The US does not think about the consequences of abusing the existence of oil. All we care about is that it is there for the time being and we will use as much as we want. Which is stupid because the oil will not always be there. We will run into some major problems that could lead to an economic collapse. For example the Theory of Peak Oil, our society is based upon a constant growth and oil, the constant growth of oil. We have already found the most oil in many years, so the oil has already peaked and is now declining. This can become dangerous because oil production will be volatile during the decline and constant sources of energy are needed to keep a society going.
This lack of natural resources could have led to a collapse or at least a decrease in Easter Island's population because there was no environment to support such a large number of people. The Polynesian islanders had a poor environment where most food sources were widely spread apart. The islanders depended mostly on the few crops they grew and their domestic animal: the chicken. They didn't even have fresh water so they would drink sugarcane juice instead. They had very little variety in what they ate, more carbohydrates than sources of protein. The Polynesians were also into the idea of Agricultural Intensification: They had deep composting pits to grow their crops and vegetable fermentation pits. I was impressed that the Islanders were able to come up with such a way to grow crops. They also had stone chicken houses (hare mod) about 20 feet long and some up to 70 feet long. Kind of like industrial agriculture, trying to produce food as quickly as possible. They keep control over the chickens.
Classes and Clans may had a large contribution to the collapse the islanders experienced, leading to a decrease in population and then a crash and burn collapse of their society: There were difference of power among the classes, the chiefs would tell the commoners that they had relations to the Gods and would make promises of better crops and such. But those promises were never kept. Commoners would rebel against the elite chiefs. Then there were clans with different chief leaders and of different ranking. The statues also were a symbol of power among the chiefs, the bigger, the more powerful. Arguments came up and there was fighting between the clans.
The mystery of the statues (carving erecting, etc.) brings up all of these important/interesting questions: Who were the Polynesians? How, based on the studies of these people and their environment were they abel to move and erect these enormous statues weighing an average of 55-88 tons? How did they grow as a society? and How did they manage to sustain a way of life when they had scattered resources and had a lack of a variety of food? How was any of this possible?
I think the most important part of their history is learning about their environment and how they lived. It tells you a lot about the Polynesian islanders. They didn't have any trees to make other tools for example a form of crane or machinery to lift the statues or a way to relocate and erect them. There is a logical assumption to explain what happened to all of the trees that previously existed in the area but I don't fully believe it answers the entire mystery. "Organizing the carving, transport, and erection of the statues required a complex populous society living in an environment rich enough to support it." So if there were much more than a few thousand people living on the island before the arrival of the Europeans. The Polynesian islanders must have used all of the resources, the trees, to survive for as long as they could. But something must have gone wrong because the population decreased soon after. I believe they Easter Islanders mis-used/over-used their natural resources until they stopped growing back. The soil that the trees grew in may have been over worked, if they islanders continuously chopped down trees for their own benefit and tried to grow more trees in the same area it may not have worked. The soil may have dried up and lost most of its nutrients needed to grow a tree. Which reminds me of what they US is doing over seas. We depend on oil so much and use an enormous amount of it to make most things in the US. The US does not think about the consequences of abusing the existence of oil. All we care about is that it is there for the time being and we will use as much as we want. Which is stupid because the oil will not always be there. We will run into some major problems that could lead to an economic collapse. For example the Theory of Peak Oil, our society is based upon a constant growth and oil, the constant growth of oil. We have already found the most oil in many years, so the oil has already peaked and is now declining. This can become dangerous because oil production will be volatile during the decline and constant sources of energy are needed to keep a society going.
This lack of natural resources could have led to a collapse or at least a decrease in Easter Island's population because there was no environment to support such a large number of people. The Polynesian islanders had a poor environment where most food sources were widely spread apart. The islanders depended mostly on the few crops they grew and their domestic animal: the chicken. They didn't even have fresh water so they would drink sugarcane juice instead. They had very little variety in what they ate, more carbohydrates than sources of protein. The Polynesians were also into the idea of Agricultural Intensification: They had deep composting pits to grow their crops and vegetable fermentation pits. I was impressed that the Islanders were able to come up with such a way to grow crops. They also had stone chicken houses (hare mod) about 20 feet long and some up to 70 feet long. Kind of like industrial agriculture, trying to produce food as quickly as possible. They keep control over the chickens.
Classes and Clans may had a large contribution to the collapse the islanders experienced, leading to a decrease in population and then a crash and burn collapse of their society: There were difference of power among the classes, the chiefs would tell the commoners that they had relations to the Gods and would make promises of better crops and such. But those promises were never kept. Commoners would rebel against the elite chiefs. Then there were clans with different chief leaders and of different ranking. The statues also were a symbol of power among the chiefs, the bigger, the more powerful. Arguments came up and there was fighting between the clans.
Jun 7, 2009
This message is for Andy:
I apologize, there was something wrong with the computer at school and I did not realize until now that my final food assignment: Big Food Paper was not posted, even though I posted it at school on WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2009.
Anyway its posted now.
Anyway its posted now.
Jun 1, 2009
Final Food Assignment
The major industries that run our country have taken over and converted most natural agricultural farming into a process where products are becoming "mass produced" items and must be grown faster, fatter, bigger, and cheaper, which we now call, industrial farming. Natural, agricultural farming much like, "home grown" produce, is dying out. "If you can grow a chicken in 49 days, why would you one you can grow in 3 months?" Everything about our food culture is so automatic and all about speed and money. The faster the better.
In Jared Diamond's The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race he goes on to explain that the adoption of agriculture was in many was a "catastrophe from which we have never recovered." Agriculture has destroyed the land and with it came social and sexual inequality, epidemic disease, that "curse our existence." Before agriculture was adapted by humans our race consisted of hunters and gatherers. We fed on wild plants and hunted for other wildlife. But most of us would not go back to those ways of living lives because we have have become so attached to this new and better way of living. Where "we enjoy the most abundant and varied foods, the best tools and material goods, some of the longest and healthiest lives, in history." And we get "our energy from oil and machines, not from our sweat." Life seems too good to change, why would we want to work more for the food we can get so easily from industrial farms? or at least that is what a majority of people think. Agriculture is an efficient way to get more food for less work, that is why hunters and gatherers adopted this method of living. Not that that is a good thing.
People started to domesticate plants and animals because it was an easier way to control them and then the animals were at a close reach when needed. Then this agricultural revolution began to spread and the hunters and gatherers who continued their original way of living began to die off. Agriculture still continues to spread today. I think now more than ever it is becoming even more apparent that industrial farming is a huge problem and creates many concerns: animal cruelty, sanitation, overdose of hormones, the spread of disease, etc. How is this affecting the food we eat? How is it or will it affect us short-term and long-term?
The life styles of Hunter-Gatherers vs. Farmers: Hunter-gatherers were better off because they had a wide variety of food to choose from, they gathered fresh plants, berries, and nuts everyday. While farmers grew fast growing crops that were high-carbohydrates like wheat and corn. Not a nutritious variety like the diet of Hunter-Gatherers, whose monthly intake of calories was approximately 2,140 and about 93 grams of protein. They also eat about 75 wild plants. Rather than a diet which contained mostly rice and potatoes. [If most of our food is derived from corn, where is the variety and nutrients in that?]
Much like Diamond's argument about Hunter-Gatherers adopting agriculture not by choice but because there was no alternative to surviving...
There are two films which show the effects of industrial agriculture and what it has been doing to the food we eat. In the movie Vrrrooomm! Farming for Kids, an introduction to industrial farming the man in the film tries to convince little kids that "industrial farming is cool!" You get to use big machinery and you don't have to do much work at all. The film has an underlining message that industrial farming is good and helpful to harvest crops. A similar sort of message is implied in a German film, Our Daily Bread, were the entire film takes place in the industrial farms of Europe. Their industries are immensely large and very clean (compared to the industrial farms of the United States). Whatever cattle they have they grow in numbers and most everything is machine automated, like a factory. The people in the film show no emotion, they are just there and they do their jobs.
One thing that surprised me the most was the job one woman had that was to use an air-pressurized clipper and when the pig carcass would swing by her on a hanging conveyer belt, she would just snip off the the pig hooves and let them fall into a bucket by her feet. She did this task with ease and senselessness. It bugged me because she did it so causally, without a care. Maybe she had no emotional attachment to the dead pig so it did not bother her to disembody the ligaments heedless and absentminded.
http://www.mnforsustain.org/food_ag_worst_mistake_diamond_j.htm
In Jared Diamond's The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race he goes on to explain that the adoption of agriculture was in many was a "catastrophe from which we have never recovered." Agriculture has destroyed the land and with it came social and sexual inequality, epidemic disease, that "curse our existence." Before agriculture was adapted by humans our race consisted of hunters and gatherers. We fed on wild plants and hunted for other wildlife. But most of us would not go back to those ways of living lives because we have have become so attached to this new and better way of living. Where "we enjoy the most abundant and varied foods, the best tools and material goods, some of the longest and healthiest lives, in history." And we get "our energy from oil and machines, not from our sweat." Life seems too good to change, why would we want to work more for the food we can get so easily from industrial farms? or at least that is what a majority of people think. Agriculture is an efficient way to get more food for less work, that is why hunters and gatherers adopted this method of living. Not that that is a good thing.
People started to domesticate plants and animals because it was an easier way to control them and then the animals were at a close reach when needed. Then this agricultural revolution began to spread and the hunters and gatherers who continued their original way of living began to die off. Agriculture still continues to spread today. I think now more than ever it is becoming even more apparent that industrial farming is a huge problem and creates many concerns: animal cruelty, sanitation, overdose of hormones, the spread of disease, etc. How is this affecting the food we eat? How is it or will it affect us short-term and long-term?
The life styles of Hunter-Gatherers vs. Farmers: Hunter-gatherers were better off because they had a wide variety of food to choose from, they gathered fresh plants, berries, and nuts everyday. While farmers grew fast growing crops that were high-carbohydrates like wheat and corn. Not a nutritious variety like the diet of Hunter-Gatherers, whose monthly intake of calories was approximately 2,140 and about 93 grams of protein. They also eat about 75 wild plants. Rather than a diet which contained mostly rice and potatoes. [If most of our food is derived from corn, where is the variety and nutrients in that?]
Much like Diamond's argument about Hunter-Gatherers adopting agriculture not by choice but because there was no alternative to surviving...
There are two films which show the effects of industrial agriculture and what it has been doing to the food we eat. In the movie Vrrrooomm! Farming for Kids, an introduction to industrial farming the man in the film tries to convince little kids that "industrial farming is cool!" You get to use big machinery and you don't have to do much work at all. The film has an underlining message that industrial farming is good and helpful to harvest crops. A similar sort of message is implied in a German film, Our Daily Bread, were the entire film takes place in the industrial farms of Europe. Their industries are immensely large and very clean (compared to the industrial farms of the United States). Whatever cattle they have they grow in numbers and most everything is machine automated, like a factory. The people in the film show no emotion, they are just there and they do their jobs.
One thing that surprised me the most was the job one woman had that was to use an air-pressurized clipper and when the pig carcass would swing by her on a hanging conveyer belt, she would just snip off the the pig hooves and let them fall into a bucket by her feet. She did this task with ease and senselessness. It bugged me because she did it so causally, without a care. Maybe she had no emotional attachment to the dead pig so it did not bother her to disembody the ligaments heedless and absentminded.
http://www.mnforsustain.org/food_ag_worst_mistake_diamond_j.htm
Food #8 Industrial Food (revised)
The Meatrix-
I found this example to be a bit corny but informative. As soon as I read the name of the movie I got the gist of what the clip would be about. The Matrix but in a form relating to industrial farming. To show the real world, the truth about the farms we get our food from. The scene where the pigs are in a spacious pen and then are pushed in a smaller and more cramped pen to make room for 3 other pens of similar size, just to make in increase the amount of pigs on the farm, made me sick. I felt disgusted by the fact that in real life pigs are put into these situations and we gone on supporting industrial farming because we don't see it happening around us. We haven't been to an industrial farm to know what the animals go through in order to produce milk and meat for us. All we care about is that we buy our foods from the supermarket where everything is well kept and clean, foods are neatly packed and are in fun colors, so we are attracted to the industrialized food without knowing where it came from or how the animals were treated. We live in the Meatrix, blinded by the world we live in and the lies fed to us.
I thought about why I continue to eat meat while I know what happens to the animals on the farms: it is because I am not on the farm to see these animals up close and personal. I have not created a relationship of some sort with these animals so I have not connection with them whatsoever and feel no sympathy towards them in their poor living conditions, I just don't care. But once when I was in Japan, my great grandparents owned an eel house in the mountains, and Jin and I were able to spend the day there. We go to see eels in the pond and then one of the chefs came out with a bucket and picked out several eels. Then went back into the kitchen, our dad brought us into the kitchen and pointed at the deep sink. Inside were the eels from the pond. My dad said we could put our hands in the sink and touch the eel. When I stuck my hand in the water I could feel the eel sliding though my fingers and hands has I tried to hold them. The feeling was unfamiliar but nice and since I was little, of course it was the most amazing thing in the world! But then dinner was ready and what was in my rice bowl was a bunch of sliced broiled eel. Pop said that they were the ones in the deep sink in the kitchen, the ones I was touching in my hands. I didn't finish my dinner that night.
A food post related to: Michael Pollan on the Colbert Report
Food, Inc: How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter & Poorer
"Food, Inc, a new documentary by Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing many of the shocking truths about what we eat, how it’s produced and who is calling the shots. It takes an indepth look at how this industrialized food system effects our environment, our health, the economy and workers’ rights."
After watching the trailer from the documentary, Food, Inc.
"Faster, fatter, bigger, cheaper." Industrial farming is always trying to expand and increase the amount of product they produce in as little time as possible. The more food they can produce the more money they can make and the larger they are able to grow their industry. "The industry doesn't want you to know the truth about what you eat because if you knew, you might not want to eat it." This I believe, when I found out what were in the main contents of hot dogs, there was no way I would ever try a hot dog, ever.
A modern supermarket now sells about 47,000 products and gives the illusion of diversity. Many of the products we buy are just rearrangements of corn, for example ketchup, cheese, twinkies, batteries, and peanut butter. As for the types of foods offered in your average supermarket: While on a "field trip" to the local supermarket near school, I found that there were 9-11 types of humus and from different brands, but all were labeled as Humus. There were 12 companies of ice cream that all sold their version of chocolate ice cream. 7 brands of whitening toothpaste which all claimed to have the same effect on teeth, and 22 companies which sold bottled water.
The movie trailer also showed a family who has trouble buying healthier foods because of the prices, the mother said, "Sometimes you look at a vegetable and say 'okay, we can get two hamburgers for the same price.'" So you usually choose the better deal.
http://greenupgrader.com/7734/food-inc-how-industrial-food-is-making-us-sicker-fatter-poorer/
I found this example to be a bit corny but informative. As soon as I read the name of the movie I got the gist of what the clip would be about. The Matrix but in a form relating to industrial farming. To show the real world, the truth about the farms we get our food from. The scene where the pigs are in a spacious pen and then are pushed in a smaller and more cramped pen to make room for 3 other pens of similar size, just to make in increase the amount of pigs on the farm, made me sick. I felt disgusted by the fact that in real life pigs are put into these situations and we gone on supporting industrial farming because we don't see it happening around us. We haven't been to an industrial farm to know what the animals go through in order to produce milk and meat for us. All we care about is that we buy our foods from the supermarket where everything is well kept and clean, foods are neatly packed and are in fun colors, so we are attracted to the industrialized food without knowing where it came from or how the animals were treated. We live in the Meatrix, blinded by the world we live in and the lies fed to us.
I thought about why I continue to eat meat while I know what happens to the animals on the farms: it is because I am not on the farm to see these animals up close and personal. I have not created a relationship of some sort with these animals so I have not connection with them whatsoever and feel no sympathy towards them in their poor living conditions, I just don't care. But once when I was in Japan, my great grandparents owned an eel house in the mountains, and Jin and I were able to spend the day there. We go to see eels in the pond and then one of the chefs came out with a bucket and picked out several eels. Then went back into the kitchen, our dad brought us into the kitchen and pointed at the deep sink. Inside were the eels from the pond. My dad said we could put our hands in the sink and touch the eel. When I stuck my hand in the water I could feel the eel sliding though my fingers and hands has I tried to hold them. The feeling was unfamiliar but nice and since I was little, of course it was the most amazing thing in the world! But then dinner was ready and what was in my rice bowl was a bunch of sliced broiled eel. Pop said that they were the ones in the deep sink in the kitchen, the ones I was touching in my hands. I didn't finish my dinner that night.
A food post related to: Michael Pollan on the Colbert Report
Food, Inc: How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter & Poorer
"Food, Inc, a new documentary by Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing many of the shocking truths about what we eat, how it’s produced and who is calling the shots. It takes an indepth look at how this industrialized food system effects our environment, our health, the economy and workers’ rights."
After watching the trailer from the documentary, Food, Inc.
"Faster, fatter, bigger, cheaper." Industrial farming is always trying to expand and increase the amount of product they produce in as little time as possible. The more food they can produce the more money they can make and the larger they are able to grow their industry. "The industry doesn't want you to know the truth about what you eat because if you knew, you might not want to eat it." This I believe, when I found out what were in the main contents of hot dogs, there was no way I would ever try a hot dog, ever.
A modern supermarket now sells about 47,000 products and gives the illusion of diversity. Many of the products we buy are just rearrangements of corn, for example ketchup, cheese, twinkies, batteries, and peanut butter. As for the types of foods offered in your average supermarket: While on a "field trip" to the local supermarket near school, I found that there were 9-11 types of humus and from different brands, but all were labeled as Humus. There were 12 companies of ice cream that all sold their version of chocolate ice cream. 7 brands of whitening toothpaste which all claimed to have the same effect on teeth, and 22 companies which sold bottled water.
The movie trailer also showed a family who has trouble buying healthier foods because of the prices, the mother said, "Sometimes you look at a vegetable and say 'okay, we can get two hamburgers for the same price.'" So you usually choose the better deal.
http://greenupgrader.com/7734/food-inc-how-industrial-food-is-making-us-sicker-fatter-poorer/
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