HW11

Activist (do something to build a movement for better food - consider the Food, Inc website, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the Slow Food Movement, and the School Food issue)


With my project, I made a flier to address the points about fast food that I found most important, I made the flier attractive and able to catch the reader's eye. I passed it out among the adults on the street, there were a lot of business people who were on their lunch break, I figured that adults more so than teenagers could change their mindset and decide to invest in a better lunch. We passed them out outside of a chinese restaurant and a subway sandwich shop. I feel this project was effective, because it caught the eye of the passers-by and we talked to each individual who was interested in the project. We explained to them the major points about their food, and what was really in it. We explained animal cruelty, disgusting ingredients, and what they could do to change their foodways. We tried to get them informed as to what was in their food. We did come into a small problem with the manager of 'Press' he said that he sold chicken and that this might hurt his business, we respectively moved. He told us that he was a strong supporter of free range and etc. So I don't understand why he should feel we were endangering his business, I felt we were helping him, because his establishment seemed to be a really hip health savvy restaurant.
All in all, I believed it was a good project, that if nothing else, helped to inform and educate. 

HW 12

Dominant social practices in our culture - nightmarish industrial atrocities they may be - evolved to fit this culture's demands, as most things have. They have helped in numerous ways and have helped show what capitalism stands for.



Supporting claim 1: The fast food corporations are using our social system to their advantage. An executive doesn’t think about morality, he thinks about turning a profit. And that’s what capitalism is all about.

Evidence: private ownership
Evidence: expanding accumulation of profit
Evidence: theiving of Indian land. What America started on.

Supporting claim 2: Fast Food ♥ Capitalism, We should be grateful

Evidence: Made getting food easy
Evidence: Made getting good cheap
Evidence: Did this all with the help of capitalism.



Gem Quotes:
"As it is, citizens of every social and economic standing have daily access--in minutes--to a balanced meal denied to kings only two centuries ago." -http://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=131


"Only the advent of capitalism, particularly in America, made this possible, and fast food has played a key role in our times in making it so."



Bibliography

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capitalism
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Capitalism.html
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/GLOSSARY/CAPITAL.HTM
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=capitalism
http://www.allshookdown.com/newhistory/CH01.htm

HW 10 - Food, Inc. Response

Fast food is a huge industry that essentially abides by their own rules, they cut corners without consideration for the consumer, the worker, or the laws set in place that are supposed to mandate it.

The film offers a visual representation of the major points presented in the book, it shows us rather than telling us the coming and goings of the fast food industry. It has more of an ability to churn your stomach and show what really happens.
The book, on the other hand, goes into more detail and offers more facts and statistical evidence to prove the point. The book raises questions that you hadn't considered whilst answering them.

After reading and viewing, I have strong feelings against the fast food industry and their outright abuse of our society and economy. While they may be seen as evil or manipulative, they epitomize everything that capitalism stands for, and I don't believe that that is a bad thing.

7d

Chapter 9

Fast food has a history of harboring foodborne diseases.

"One of the first to become ill, Lauren Beth Rudolph, ate a hamburger at a San Diego Jack in the Box a week before Christmas. She was admitted to the hospital on Christmas Eve, suffered terrible pain, had three heart attacks, and died in her mother's arms on December 28, 1992. She was six years old."


(pardon my french)
Somebody needs to kill the motherfuckers who allow for shitty beef to be used. This is horrendous. I'm so repulsed. I wan't to kick in Ray Kroc's door (and every other fast food exec) and punch him in the fucking kidney.



Chapter 10

Fast food is a huge enterprise, in 120 countries, the golden arches are present. Fast food corporations are everywhere

"Mikhail Gorbachev was in town to speak at the Twenty-sixth Annual Chain Operators Exchange, a convention sponsored by the international Foodservice Manufacturers Association."

Is there anything the cant do? (

Epilogue

We can still be independent and break the conformity that has been built around McDonald's.

"Even in this fast food nation, you can still have it your way."

We can still fight the large corporations that have essentially dictated our way of living. We can organize, and organic-ize. We can fight it.

Freakonomics

2. Like any documentary filmmaker or novelist, Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, the authors of Freakonomics try to prove their point while also appearing to be completely factual and without bias. So while they don't say that certain things are directly caused by certain variables, they are strongly suggestive when regarding their main point.
As any adequate non-fictional novelist, the authors give you the straight facts and will attempt to remove as much bias as possible. So there is a equal amount of causation and correlation

3. The sources that mostly rely on are statistics. Seen in the sumo wrestling chapter and the education chapter. They also use statistics in all of the other chapters, but you can see it heavily used in those chapters afformentioned.

7C

Chapter 7
Eric Schlosser
Fast Food Nation

The fast food business is corrupt and is very sketchy behind the scenes.

"... a prime example of how a mainstream corporation could be infiltrated by the mob"

The mob? It's a corporation, not a small business, and the mob can gain control of it? How can the fast food industry thrive when it involves itself with such dealings.

Chapter 8

Slaughterhouses are some of the most dangerous places to work, harm comes to many who work in them.

"...Richard Skala was beheaded by a dehiding machine."

The lack of safety in slaughterhouses is absolutely revolting, and to think OSHA doesn't have the balls to stand up to them is even more revolting.

7b

Chapter 6

Fast food corporations essentially control the cattle and poultry industries.

"... soon developed a new breed of chicken to facilitate the production of McNuggets. Dubbed "Mr. McDonald," the new breed had unusually large breasts."

Fast food companies control what we eat, how we eat it, when we eat it, and why we eat it. It may seem far fetched, but I wouldn't be surprised if our country becomes The United States of McWalMart.

7b

FFN
Eric Schlosser
Chapter 4

Fast food is one of the most successful businesses to get into. I have found out that fast food franchisees abuse government subsidized programs.

""Of the 755 new Subways opened that year, 109 relied upon the U.S. government for financing."

It's fucking disgusting that fast food corporations can abuse a program that was started to help small business owners. They're ruining America

Chapter 5

French fries are one of the biggest hits in America, and have been since flash freezing became popular. They taste so good because they are subtly flavored with beef flavoring.

"Toward the end of the list is a seemingly innocuous, yet oddly mysterious phrase: "natural flavor." "

That's disgusting, to think that french fries are flavored with, meat. Plenty of vegetarians find it okay to eat McDonald's french fries, they should seriously reconsider their thoughts.

KFC 2

Watch more videos at KentuckyFriedCruelty.com.

Chapter 3. FFN

Eric Schlosser Fast Food Nation Chapter 3

Fast food restaurants cut costs through labor. Being employed at a fast food restaurant isn't the nicest job.

Gem: Turnovers are more common in fast food than any other industry

It's really interesting to see that kids like working at McDonald's and places like that. It's also funny that about 2/3 of fast food robberies are committed by employees or ex-employees.  

**It's really sad that auto check on a computer knows the correct way to spell McDonald's 

KFC

They may not be as cute as little puppies, but they're still living breathing animals, and they still feel pain.

"KFC lets frustrated factory-farm and slaughterhouse workers handle live birds, so many of the animals end up being sadistically abused. At a KFC “Supplier of the Year” slaughterhouse in West Virginia, workers were documented tearing the heads off live birds, spitting tobacco into their eyes, spray-painting their faces, and violently stomping on them. This was discovered more than two years after KFC promised PETA that it was taking animal welfare seriously."


http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/

HW 7 - Reading Response Monday

Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation. Introduction

Fast food plays a huge role in our society, and throughout this book, I will go into depth on the positives and negatives of it's impact. I think fast food can be considered a main representative of America.

"Hundreds of millions of people buy fast food every day without giving it much thought, unaware of the subtle and not so subtle ramifications of their purchases."

This book is going to be interesting and might possibly change my eating of fast food, but I doubt it will heavily impact my life.

Chapter 1

McDonald's started a trend, and many followed. Among those who followed are some of the biggest names in the fast food.

"Entrepreneurs from all over the country went to San Bernardino, visited the new McDonald's and built imitations of the restaurant in their hometowns."

It's extremely interesting to see where all of the companies we know so well came from. I now realize why McDonald's is the best. Because it was the first. 

Chapter 2

McDonald's employees are taught a certain way, to do certain things, in order to uphold the McDonald's image.

Market towards kids. 

"...there was something trippy about Ronald McDonald..."

Corporations feed on youthful ignorance. Cigarettes. Fast Food. Clothes. You name it.

HW 6 - Food Diary

Over the course of forty eight hours, I consumed 2,258 calories. The average is 2000  a day.

The first day, as usual I didn't eat breakfast. At lunch I ate a Subway footlong BLT sandwich, which is the only thing I will eat from Subway. An establishment that I consider slightly better than most other fast food "restaurants". That was a usual experience, nothing exotic or unusual. It was bland for the most part, but good enough to satisfy. Then that night I had three slices of plain Dominoes pizza, which I find absolutely revolting. I mean, it doesn't even look like real pizza. 

After eating that I felt nauseous, and didn't eat anything for the night. It just doesn't feel right in your mouth. It's kind of like miracle whip to mayonnaise. You're eating something that is trying to be like the original, but in the end is totally something different and is made of god knows what. Dominoes' is a lot like that, it's supposed to be pizza, but being from New York, I know what pizza is. Dominoes is not pizza. It is something else altogether. 

The second day, I skipped breakfast, again. I never eat breakfast, because I always feel sick in the morning. So for lunch that day, I had a plain toasted bagel with cream cheese, a food that I love. It was very satisfying and it just tastes great. That night I had a cheese burger with mushroom and fries and onion rings. I ended up only eating the fries and onion rings. I can only eat beef if it's near burned, I can't stand the taste or the sight of pink meant, or anything less than extremely well done. And it was medium rare. Ugh.

I hate looking at pictures of meat, it makes me feel sick, I dont know why, but for some reason it does. 

I now realize that everything I ate was pretty unhealthy, minus the bagel.