HW 25

Precis: The american health system sucks. It is true that many people don't get insurance and are in very bad positions medically. However, even people with health insurance don't get good coverage. Insurance companies incentive is money not the health of their clients. Insurance companies find ways to deny coverage and leave people with huge co-payments that many time put them in debt. We should have a socialized healthcare system instead.

Evidence:
A. 1)Interviews with Canadians on thier healthcare system
2) US ranking 37 for healthcare in the world

B. The ranking of the US healthcare system shows how poorly the US is ranked despite being the richest country in the world. One would think that with the weatlh the US has it's healthcare system would rank higher. This piece of evidence helps drive home Moore's point that the current system we have is not taking care of the American people. The interviews with Canadians on their healthcare system helps provide a feasible alternative. In interviewing them he shows that the people are generally satisfied and they don't have to pay. Canada a country which is far less wealthy than the US is providing better healthcare for their people.

C.I believe Moore gets to angry when arguing and that weakens his response but he responds correctly by saying he will post all the facts again on his website. He is being questioned by repbulicans who he showed in his film are funded by these insurance companies. It is obvious that they would like to attack his points because they are funded by the people Moore is attacking in his film.

Response: Moore did a good job of pointing out the flaws in the system we have. He showed how although one may have coverage it does not necessarily mean they will be taken care of. He showed alternatives that worked in other countries. The part that stuck out the most too me was the relationship between the insurance companies and politicians. It is obvious that republicans would support the insurance companies and pass bills to help them because they are being funded by these same companies.

HW 24

Paul Farmer was a very admirable man who dedicated his life to help the poor with medical issues. His biggest belief was that you must treat every patient and through that model he helped build a small village in Haiti where all the poor received medical care. His model then started to spread to other countries. Farmer was showing the medical world a new way to deal with patients and although it is unlikely there will be many people like him, he showed what a small dedicated group of people can do.

It's a parallel universe. There really is no relation between the massive accumulation of wealth in one part of the world and abject misery in another. (Farmer, 218)

He is being sarcastic and showing that money is intertwined with the health care system and that those who have little money get bad healthcare. I think because he understand the relationship between money and medical care and is truly there to help the patient he is such an extraordinary doctor.

"Paul is a model of what should be done. He's not a model for how it has to be done. Let's celebrate him. Let's make sure people are inspired by him. But we can't say anybody should or could be just like him." (Jim Kim, 244)

this is a very important quote because it is unrealistic to hold someone to the standards of Paul Farmer because they are extraordinary but people should follow his goal which is to help all that are sick. People should use him as a model but not copy him.

"It's embarrassing that piddly little projects like ours should serve as exemplars. It's only because other people haven't been doing their jobs."(Farmer, 257)

Farmer understood why medical care for the poor was so terrible. He understand the issues in the system and knows that is the reason that people in Haiti have such terrible health care.


I think this book did a very good job of showing the suffering of the poor but also showed how people are being helped. Farmer focuses on helping the poor particularly because they receive the worst healthcare if any. The book shows an alternative way of dealing with illness and dying from the norm which is very uncommon. However, it also educates us on why things are the way they are medically.

Hw 22

Mountains beyond mountains, by: Tracy Kidder, Random house, 2004

Precis: Paul Farmer is a young doctor working in Haiti. He is "a doctor for the poor". Meaning that he has devoted his life to working with the poor particularly in Haiti and providing them with medical services they normally would not receive. He lives a very chaotic life and has devoted his entire life and given up a "normal life" to serve the poor.

Quotes: "In Haiti. I knew per capita incomes came to a little more than one American dollar a day, less than that in the central plateau."(Kidder,20)

This shows the immense poverty of the majority of the Haitian population.

"The world is full of miserable places. One way of living comfortably is not to think about them or, when you do, to send money." (Kidder,4)

This is the classic way of not feeling guilty about the horrific issues going on in the world. Of course it is good to give money to charities and such but that does not fix the problem.

I can't sleep. There's always somebody not getting treatment.(quote from Farmer) (Kidder, 24)

I think this is a great example of Farmer's mindset. It shows his devotion to helping those who are in dire need of help and have no other options.

Thoughts

Paul Farmer is a very admirable man. He is doing something extremely uncommon and courageous. Having said that, the book is showing me a lot about Farmer's life and what he does however I have yet to grasp the morale or direction the book is taking. Although Farmer is doing a lot of good what are his solution to the world medical issues. After all he is only working in small areas.

hw 21r/w group comments

Abdul, I like that you took the most interesting parts out of Beth's presentation and related them to yourself. That makes the connection and importance of what she is talking about all the more real. You also did a very good job at showing the extraordinary in what Beth did. Finally, I think your last paragraph ties together the rest of your blog post very well by bringing out the most interesting and insightful point you got from her presentation.

HW 21

1. People often refuse to admit their sickness because they are embarassed/scared of showing vulnerability.

2. Insurance and other medical issue were also a problem, as they are for many people, however the medical attention once the insurance was acquired was sufficient.

3. It's essential to the morale of someone who is ill, to treat them and show them to others as human

4. Treating others like humans rather than tools

Beth's experience was obviously much more intense than any personal experience I have had with illness and dying. She dealt with a very difficult illness in a very extraordinary way. However, her struggle to get health insurance is a very common problem and leaves many people feeling stuck on how to take care of themselves and whether or not to even bother going to see the doctor or going to a hospital. She also spoke about how her husband refused to admit he was sick and go to the hospital when he first starting getting sick. She added that she has found this quite common in men. I can relate to this feeling, whenever I am sick or hurt I try to continue my daily life as normal as possible even though many of the times I should take extra caution to make sure my illness or injury does not get worse. This is probably closely connected with the fact that illness is a natural part of life that feels very unnatural to us because we have a somewhat invincible sense about ourselves.

The 3rd and 4th insight that I pulled from Beth's presentation are very closely connected and I found this too be the most extraordinary thing about how she handled her husband's illness. What she did was not particularly difficult but it was extremely uncommon. The fact that she made sure to treat all the hospital staff as well as her sick husband as people was something that is pretty unseen. The hospital staff are usually treated as a tool to heal the patients or at least viewed in that way. This is the same for the patient, they are treated as work by the doctor. However, by taking the small extra step to make people feel more like people she not only helped the morale of her husband but increased the quality of her care by having many of the hospital staff on her side.

I think the biggest the most significant thing I pulled from Beth's presentation is that there is a different way to deal with illness, especially serious illnesses. What she did was very rare but not that hard, especially taking in to account the difference she mad for her husband as well as many of the hospital staff. She was obviously a very strong woman to deal with everything in the fashion she provided me with a concrete alternative in dealing with illness and dying.

HW 19

I spoke with my mother on the topic of illness and dying. Her views basically coincided with mine, not surprising. She first shared that she thinks death is seen as something almost "unnatural" in our society and for this reason we are so uncomfortable around it. She then tried to think of more to say on how we deal with illness and dying on a personal level however found that she did not have much to say on the topic, and "did not really know what she thought". She concurred that society does not teach a "right" way to deal with the ill and dying and therefore we always feel so uncomfortable in situation that involve people who are ill/dying.

She then talked about the correlation between the treatment of the ill and dying with their socio-economic level. She made the point that the working class are much more susceptible to catching diseases and illnesses because the living and working conditions of the working class are many times under par and the same precautions to prevent illness that are available to those with money are not very common in the working class. She also made the point that those who are rich have the funds to help them beat diseases and buy medicine to cure them, or at least keep them alive, and even if they do die it is more likely that they will die a more peaceful death then someone who is poor.

It is pretty obvious that her views have affected how I approach this topic a great amount. I completely agree with her. people who have a lot of money can deal with illness and dying easier on a physical level, however on a personal level and in terms of how we deal with ill and dying family or friends I think it is equally uncomfortable for the rich and poor. I am completely confused in trying to answer why we are so uncomfortable around the ill. I can come up with reasons on why I would be uncomfortable, but I can't quite put my finger on that weird feeling you get when you go to visit someone who is sick in the hospital. One thing my mom said made a big impression on me, she said "if you are someone poor, especially an immigrant, you are seen as something expendable." This made such a big impression on me because not only is it terrible but it is true. If someone does not have the money to pay for hospital bills, or a heart transplant, or medication for a fatal illness, then they are pretty much tossed aside and unless they can get the money together they are left to die. No valued human life should be treated in that manner, and therefore it is obvious that the lives of normal working class people are not valued to the extent any human life should be valued. This is not to say that all the doctors and nurses are terrible people but rather the system in which everything operates does not accomodate the needs of everybody and therefore some people have to be excluded, unfortunately this ends up being those who don't have enough money to pay...the majority.

HW 18

Thanksgiving this year was the same as it was every year. We got together at my grandmother's house and had a big dinner and a lot of deserts. Then we watched the football game and talked to each other about what was going on in our lives. My thanksgiving was very traditional in the sense that it was the typical anti-body holliday experience. However, this is not to say it wasn't enjoyable. Although I enjoyed it very much, I could feel the affects on my body from stuffing my self so much and then just sitting around. The issues of illness and dying were not really present at all during my thanksgiving. However, when my family was giving thanks for what they are proud of a very common answer was our good health. Maybe this relates to the way we handle illness and death in our society.

It is a bit ironic that at this holliday in which we spoil ourselves with large amount of food and desert we speak of how we are thankful of our good health. I would describe thanksgiving dinner as healthy. Although it is not really the case with my family it is very common that family issues arise during thanksgiving and I think this is somewhat related to uncomfortablness of seeing a family memeber in the hospital. People do not communicate very well and I think the uncomfortable feeling that we all fell when we see family or friends sick is due to a lack of communication. We are confused on how to act because we don't know how the other person will feel. We are all unsure about eachother and that causes for the uncomfort that is so common in our culture, whether it be in a hospital room or a family get together.

hw 17

Dying and illness is something that our society has become very accustomed to however we still are unsure how to act when around the ill and we many times feel uncomfortable. I have had personal experience with being sick and having to be in the hospital a few days. I got MRSA and had to stay overnight in the hospital a few nights. The doctors had caught the MRSA at an early stage so it wasnt yet dangerous enough to threaten my life, which is the case when the bacteria enters your bloodstream, so it was not to bad. However, they were constantly pumping anti-biotics into me using an I.V and it caused me to be drowsy as well as soreness in my arm. A cyst had formed on my leg and the infection had spread to the majority of my thigh although the cyst was relatively small. The cyst was very painful and I was very tired however, throughout my entire stay I could hardly sleep as they had specialist, students, and other doctors come look and evaluate me constantly. It felt as if I was some sort of science project and hardly did they ever explain to me what was going. Now that I am in perfect health and not in the hospital I would like to think I would want family and friends to come visit. However when I was in the hospital for the few days I was there my mom was with me almost the entire time and that was the person who made me feel the most comfortable and took care of me. It seems that we are all very accustomed to sickness and dying however when we are sick or go to see the sick we many times feel uncomfortable and sometimes ashamed or awkward.

I think we have become very used to illness an dying and alot of the problems in the way we treat the sick that it just seems normal to us. There are many problems with the way our hospitals run, the way healthcare works. The hospital is there to help people but its main incentive is money and that exposes itself often when people do not recieve the care they need due to lack of money. Our society has turn the ill and dying in to a way to profit. Due to the fact that the main incentive for hospitals is to make money, helping people can not be the most important thing to them and therefore the care they provide does not match the care needed. The way we deal with the ill and dying is inhumane and many times uncomfortable.

HW 11

For my experiment with food I decided to eat vegetarian for 4 days. For the first two days it seemed that this would be easy, after all it's only four days until I can eat meat again. I never realized how addicted I am to eating meat. By the end of the second day I was sick of pasta and was craving some kind of meat. I almost gave up at one point, the temptation to eat meat was so strong and it was so easily available and cheap. However I stuck with it eating alot of pasta, sandwhichs without meat, fruits, vegetables, and anything else I could find that would satisfy my hunger but did not have meat in it.

The most difficult part of being vegetarian was the balance between taste and size portion with the cost of the meal. A good filling lunch was easy to find at place such as Organique but a simple sandwhich with cheese, tomato, and basil along with a water came out to 13 dollars. I could have just as easily bought two satisfying non vegetarian meals with that money. Another day I tried to eat ramen noodles from a deli which came out to 8 dollars with a drink and it failed to fill me up. One of the other days I decided to have pizza which filled me up and wasnt to expensive however I felt that it was defeating the point of eating vegetarian because it wasn't particularly healthy. It was a hard balance to find.

Although many movies provide eating healthy although not neccesarily vegetarian I proved my point to myself that it was not that easy. The food industry is so heavily controlled by fast food and other unhealthy sources of food that its hard to find your way around it. Yes you can go to the farmers market or to a place like Organique or the energy kitchen but not everyone has enough money to spend 10 + dollars a day on food. The healthy things to eat are very expensive and money plays a huge factor in what people decide to eat, hence the success of cheap fast food. A dollar pizza slice, although not very good, is much more filling than an apple or some fruit if your running low on money; it is very hard to escape cheap fast food.

Finally the health side of the experiment. Eating vegetarian definitely makes your body feel much better. Eating healthy even if it's not vegetarian makes a very big difference in how you feel. Last week on the day of a soccer game I ate at the energy kitchen and my body felt great during the soccer game and eve after. The day after i decided to have a grease filled pepproni roll from Bravo's and could hardly stay up in my last two classes. Although it was only a four days change I still did feel a positive change in the way I felt, it was enough to make me more conscious about what I eat.

HW 10

Our food system is dominated by industrialized plants. The plants are filthy and contain many harmful bacteria. The animals are treated as objects rather than a life. They are fed corn, due to the fact corn is subsidized and therefore cheap to use in feeder for the animals. Although there have been many problems with meat packing plants and big food corporations in the past they don't change they way they go about the business they simple find a simple cover up that is many times even more unhealthy; It's like trying to fix a broken leg with a band-aid, just because you put a band-aid on it, it doesn't change the fact it's broken. There are however organic farms such as the farm of Joel Salatin; Mr. Salatins farm is completely organic. The animals are given space to move around rather than being cramped up and living in their own shit. The animals also do all the work for the farm and they are all grass fed. The animals are also slaughtered in the most humane way possible.

The movie offers a visual of the actual plants which has a much more significant affect than the book does. It shows what actually goes on in industrial plants and on organic farms. The movie also offers much more insight in to the life of a farmer and how they are exploited. Fast food nation on the other hand did a much better job of showing the system in which the actual fast food companies and the meat packing plants support each other and work together. It such the choke-hold the two industries have on the diet of many americans. The movie also shows a very adequate alternative to the industrial/ fast food way of life; this being Joel Salatin's farm. Salatin also provides a very philosophical explanition for why things are the way they are. It truly shows the difference of mentality from the organic farmers and the industrial plants. It can be simply put as the industrial farmers treat all relationships(food, animals, workers) as I-it relationships. Meaning the use the latter for their personal benefit and exploit the latter in as many ways as possible to maximize their profits. Where as organic farmers have a more I-thou view in their relationship with the animals and workers. The animals are treated humanely as are the workers. They value life rather than viewing at as simply a means for profit. This was Salatin's conclusion which was one of the best ideas in the entire film. The fact that an organic farmer that they interviewed came up with one of the best insights in the film says a great deal about the difference in the two options.

95 percent of this film was very good. It showed what the problems are that are arising from the exploitation done by the industrial meat packing industry, and coruption in the political side of the food industry(USDA, etc.) and what alternatives there are, as well as the cause of the problems. The movie shows the true nature of the owners of these companies and how little regard they have for life in general. However the ending of the film, in my opinion, ruined it. It provided the most naive solution possible. It made it seems as though a change was so simple and the answer to all our problems was so simple. It spent the film giving information to make the average ignorant american much less ignorant but then in the end gave such a simplistic, ignorant, and naive alternative that it was not as effective as it could have been. Rather than go back in to an ignorant way of thinking it could have provided a realistic insight in to what we can do about the problems we face and rather than having people informed about the problems but still stupid in what the solutions should be. It could have made the people think about actual solutions because the fact of the matter is, there is no one simple solution.

7d

Chapter 9
Précis: the meat that is distributed nationally coming from the big
meat packing plants is very dirty. Since meat packing has become
industrialized all the cattle are packed together in small space and
therefore disease is spread much easier, living conditions are filthy,
and the treatment of animals is inhumane. There was a national
shipment from a meat packing plant that was contaminated with a
dangerous e-Coli bacteria, the plant was aware that the meat was
harmful but did not recall it for several weeks and by the time the
meat was recalled 25 million pounds was already consumed. Prior to the
industrialization of meat packing plants contaminated food would only
affect the local town in which the food was grown; now that meat
packing has become industrialized one plant that distributes
contaminated meat can affect people nationwide since the majority of
meat distributed nation wide comes from a select number of very big,
and hardly regulated plants.

In all aspects the meat packing plants and they industry are causing
harm to the people of America. There is an immense amount of political
corruption and the filthiness of the meatpacking plants is directly
physically hurting and in certain cases killing people. The system
which is set in place has so many faults and the bosses in charge of
major meat packing plants and fast food monopolies refuse to change
the system but rather find ways to cover up the faults in their system
rather than fix them.


Chapter 10
The fast food phenomenon has spread world wide and obesity is now the
second cause of death only behind smoking. Obesity is a new epidemic
that is spreading world wide. The poor wages and conditions are
correlated with the beef consumption in general. In conclusion the
fast food restaurants must be boy-cotted to make significant change.

"today about 44 million americans are obese"
"in 1991 only four states had obesity rates of 15 percent or higher; today at least 37 states do."

The fast food empire has not only taken over the US but has spread across the world. The fact that obesity has begun to increase at such a drastic rate shows how bad the food is for you, and is a good enough reason to get rid of the system set up. The political side is equally as terrible. Simple regulation will not fix the problems we face. The system in which are food is processed, made, packaged must be completely re-arranged. The people in charge of major meat packing plants and fast food chains don't care about human life, this is obvious since they have killed many people to make money and have no regrets. The only way to make ensure the food we eat is healthy is to have a radical change and too create and enforce a completely new system.

epilogue

it is possible for people to rebel and to fight the system which is set in place. Although one organic farm or one person can not make a difference by themselves. If as a collective people do their part it can be the start of a real change. We simply have to do our part and stop buying fast food.

Although the solution he offers seems to be reasonable, it is not as simple as it sounds. I believe Scholsser realizes its more complex than just "stop buying fast food". Fast food is embedded in our society it seems impossible. The economic side heavily comes in to play and stops many people from being able to rebel against big food companies in the way it neccessary to take them out of business.

HW 9

The authors of freakonomics used several tools they used in generating and proving their theories on the issues sealt with in this movie. The 3 tools i saw used most frequently were 1) Questioning the common assumptions on certain aspects of our society 2)Figuring out the incentives of the people who have influence over this certain topic and how different situation help or hurt them 3)Finding statistics relevant to their study/theory to help them prove the point they are making.

1) A perfect example of this tool in use is during the portion of the film in which the protagonists examine the possible reasons for the drop in crime from the 1990's to the 2000's. Mr. Levitt takes the common reasons people give for the crime drop and examines how much of the crime drop can truly be attributed to these different reasons. He then questions what can truly be the determining factor and comes up with the idea of abortion for which he provides multiple data tables and presents an arguement complete with numerical data to prove his theory.

2) A good example of exploring the incentives is the Sumo wrestling part of the movie. They go in to depth on cheating in the world of sumo wrestling. To analyze the statists in an efficient way they think about incentives which lets them see the data and ways it had not been looked at before. The incentive they find for cheating is when a sumo wrestler already has enough wins they can lose one on purpose and the numbers of wins in situations where the sumo wrestlers can afford to lose a fight were much higher. Another example of this was when Levitt was explaining how he saw patterns in the test answers from schools in chicago and when looking at the incentives of the teachers it became clear that there was cheating occuring.

3) The two protagonists found statistics that were not only relevant to their studies but also bery persuasive. For example the abortion data in comparison to crime rates. Not only was the data relevant and had correlation but there were multiple examples of how abortion can lower crime rates. Although the evidence left room for interpretation they used data that help them create and explain an arguement with solid evidence that logically made sense.

On the topic of correlation versus causation I believe the makers of this film could have been a bit more clear on their stance as it was a bit fuzzy. However their film argued that correlation does not neccessarily mean causation but that in some cases correlation does have a somewhat or very significant implication or factor. For example many of the common causes people attribute the crime rate drop to did have somewhat of an affect on the crime rate but could not be solely held liable for the drop in crime rate. They did a good job at not disregarding common opinion as pure lies as many extremeist often do but showed that the issue is much more complex than what is shown or explained which is often the case.

I do think the movie did a good job at showing examples of hiden in plain sight weirdness but nothing they showed in the movie particularly stood out to me as a great discovery. This is partly because our course this year and last year has pointed out many of these hidden in plain sight abnormalities. I would not call this movie an ispiriation but it did have many good aspects although if they were to show the actual evidence rather than saying "we examined the data" it would make the movie much stronger. I think that the idea of examining data through incentives in the way they did was a very useful tool and could be of great use during our food unit and throughout the whole year. Rather than looking at what normal people think, examing the incentives of infulential people in the food business could give us a very different, deeper, and more interesting view on food in our society.

Hw 7C

Chapter 7

The meat packing industry has turned the job of packing meat into a low skill factory like job, very similar to McDonalds. This changed the meat packing idustry and hurt the workers as the new system allowed the owners to exploit their workers more easily and efficiently to increase their profit. These modern meat packing plants are cautious of labor unions and do all they can to prevent them as that would cut in to their profits. The modern meat packing industry has also greatly hurt smaller communities.

"far from being a liability, a high turnover rate in the meat packing industry - as in the fsat food industry - also helps maintain a work force that is ahrder to unionize and much easier to control"

This chapter once again shows the different parts of the food indusry that are relevant to the fast food industry and how just like the fast food industry the exploit and mis-treat their workers. It shows how the intentions of the heads of these companies is purely financial and they would go to many lengths and screw over as many people as they can to increase their profits.

Chapter 8

The working conditions in meat packing plants are absolutely terrible. It is a very dangeraus and unsafe job, the actual labor is dangerous and the contamination of the plant is equal as dangerous. It is not uncommon that body parts are lost on the job. In the case of Kenny Dobins he was a man who was very loyal to his meat packing plant and endured and immense number of injuries and somehow continued on working. One time when he was ill and was hospitalized the company fired him without notifying him and he was given nothing, basically left to dead.

"they used me to the point where I had no body parts left to give."

I think the quote from Kenny is particularly saddening. As a very hard and loyal worker, soemthing most employers praise, Kenny was simply thrown away and given nothing because that would save the company the most money. The greed and exploitation of the bosses in the food industry does not only get more and more evident but also more and more horrific. They truly have no care for human life.

HW 8

I took some of the seeds from class and grew my sprouts on my own and they got moldy and gross so I threw them out. The process of growing the sprouts was not particularly fun for me and was just another thing I did because it was an assignment. I did not find myself to interested in the sprouts which is probably why they turned moldy. I did not care for them as much as I should have. The process did not lead to many realizations for me because I lacked interest in this project.

HW 7b

Fast Food Nation

Chapter 4, Success: As fast food restaurants continue to expand cities such an pueblo, CO which prior to the opening of many fast food restaurants lacked much of anything are starting to catch up to the more hip cities of Colorado. Fast food nations have used the method of franchising to expand thier business but now currently run it in more of a real estate way because it gives them more control over their franchisee's.

This chapter focuses on both sides of the franchising process and how the fast food companies have become stricter with the way franchisee's run their business. It shows the fast food chains from the franchisee's perspective which is more innocent and is more of some one trying to make a living where as the company who is leasing space to the franchisee exploits the franchisee and the workers as much as possible.

Chapter 5, Why the fries taste good: JR simplot when from a potato farmer to one of the largest potato distributors and then the success of mcdonalds and its need for french fries gave way from Simplt to be their provider and make alot of money. Since it is in the best interest of potato providers to be suppliers for fast food chains they sell their potatos at lower prices in trun helping the fast food chains but hurting common farmers who now are run out of business or make very little profit because its ahrd for them to compete with the bigger potato suppliers. The fries used to have more saturated beef fat than a hamburger, per ounce. This was due to the oiled they were cooked in. The oil the friess are cooked in gives them their signiture taste but is very unhealthy.

Out of $1.50 fries the farmer only get 2 cents

This chapter does a very good job of showing how the nature of the fast food industy in itself is exploitative and the more the fast food chains find ways to maximize profits the more that their workers and other workers connected to their business and in anyways are hurt and face more difficulties. The maxmization of profits for fast food chains comes at the expense of common farmers and workers profit. It is a classic example the rich getting richer and poor getting poorer.

Chapter 6: Meat packing industries have done the same to farmers as what has happened to potato farmers. Big meat packing industries have taken over the market running local hard working farmers out of business. The chicken industry is regulated by large companies and farmers are in debt and have very little control over their own chicken. Mcdonalds has ended the age in which local farmers could successfully grow crops and make a good profit from thier cattle and other crops.

The author sympathizes with small scale farmers because bigger companies have run them out of business. Mcdonalds and other fast food restaurants are dependant on exploitation and by nature cut out many workers profit to maximize their own, this is simply another example.

HW 7

Fast food nation, by Eric Schlosser, chapter 1:

Fast food restaurants were started by common people trying to find new was to make money in the food business. All the biggest fast food chains were started by common people who ended up becoming rich and being able to expand or have their company bought out. Carl Karcher was a good example of an ordinary man who had a fast food chain that got famous and he was able to open up his own company.

Most of the people who started fast food chains seemed to be honest businessmen but the only way to run a fast food chain is to exploit people so in the end they were greedy although the book didn't give that tone. I think the book did a very good job of showing the process of how Anaheim went from being farmland to buildings and how the fast food culture blew up and increased the rate at which farm land was disappearing. In general I thought the book has been started off pretty slow although the first chapter showed interesting changes specifically in California.

Fast Food Nation, Chapter 2:

The founder of disney and the founder of Mcdonalds are very similar man and had a very similar path to wealth although Walt Disney's happened a bit quicker. The owners of McDonalds have realized that kids are a very efficient group to advertise to and have went to great lengths to advertise to kids and other fast food chains and big food companies have done the same. Dan Derose for example helped many schools get funding from big soda companies look to advertise to children.

This chapter got much more interesting. The amount companies are willing to spend to advertise shows how truly effective and important it is. The companies went from giving schools about 27 cents to about 27 dollars per student in schools they advertise in. Advertising to the kids that big companies do has greatly influenced our society. Much of television consists of that and almost 90 percent of children go to Macdonalds in a month. This shows the effectiveness of their advertising.

Fast Food Nation, Chapter 3:

Fast food chains target teens and the poor or unemployed as workers due to the fact that they can pay them low wages, not give them benefits, and control them with relative ease. Fast food chains are strongly opposed to unions and in the past have gone to great lengths to stop any efforts of unionizing amongst workers. Fast food chains treat their workers with very little respect and not surprisingly the majority of robberies of fast food chains are committed by former or current employees.

"and senator Kennedy's pushing hard on a $7.25 minimum wage," he continued. "that'll be fun won't it? I love the idea of that, I sure do - strike me dead!"
"I see the possibility of union" the thought "chilled" him.

These quotes are both from Norman Brinker the owners of the Chili's restaurant chain at the Annual Multi-Unit Foodserver Operator Conference. To me these quotes say it all; a group of millionaires gather together and complain about workers making $7.25 and hour and trying to unionize. The disgusting nature of the conference in itself say enough about these fast food corporations, although they are all in competition they all meet to figure out new and more effiecient ways to exploit their workers and in turn increase their profits.

HW 6

To start the day off I had to natures valley granola bars and a bottle of water. The bars were 360 calories together and water of course no calories. For lunch I then ate two slices of pizza which is approximately 300 calories. All the grease on the pizza didnt help either. To go along with the pizza I had a vitamin water which is 150 calories. To finish the day off i had some frozen burritos which were 500 calories and a glass of orange juice which is 110 calories but my serving size was quite big so I think 200 calories would be more accurate. That means for the first day I consumed 1510 calories which is less than what my daily intake should be. However I did not eat to healthy.

The second day I ate a bacon egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast which is about 500 calories. I had orange juice with that which is 110 calories. For lunch I ate pizza once again. I had two slices therefore it was about 300 calories. Finally for dinner I had pasta and meatballs which is around 650 calories. I drank a tall glass of orange juice once again so that is another 200 calories. All together that is 1860 calories.

It seems although I am not eating particularly healthy I am still under the amount of calories I should. Obviously my count of calories is not completely accurate and they may have been higher than what I recorded. However both days I did a lot of physical activity and felt fine both times. My decisions for food were mostly based on convinience and what was available to me at the moment.

I do not think much when I am choosing what to eat during the day. It is like a repetitive motion, I am so used to it I just do it rather than think about it first. My choices on what to eat are not thought through but the decision is made on simply what I feel like eating. I am so used to just picking whatever sounds tasty that I dont think about what I am eating. I do feel a difference when I eat healthy and when I dont but I can still get away with eating unhealthy since I am young and play sports constantly. I think because eating unhealthy does not have any affect on my appearance although i know i should have a better diet it is not a priority for me and therefore I don't follow through with eating healthier food.

HW 5

It seems as though most experts in our society are saying that it is very important to eat healthy. In turn much of the view of common people is that we need to eat healthier. However, it doesn't seem that the idea of eating healthy is being stressed as much as it should be. All food experts speak on eating healthy and staying away from fast food but still fast food is immensely popular. It is becoming more popular to become healthy and therefore healthy eating is one of the dominant discourses. Any well informed member of society can tell you it is important to eat healthy.

A well informed person in our society, if they have enough money, probably eat at healthier lunch places. Stays away from fast food. If they can afford it they probably shop for organic food. I think people are well informed about health or informed enough. However, eating healthy takes effort and is not always the most convinient and I think that a large amount of people still value convience over health. There are also the people who do not have enough money to consistently eat healthy. It is quite expensive to eat at healthy places for lunch or shop for organic food. It is not made as easy to eat healthy as it is to eat unhealthy.

HW 4

My family is semi-traditional when it comes to food. At least a few times during the week we all sit together and eat dinner. One or both of my parents cooks and we set plates, forks, and knives down on the table and we all eat together. The same thing when I lived with my grandmother she would cook and we would eat dinner together. This was a tradition since I was little and that my parents also had and we still do it today. However, other meals such as breakfast and lunch we don't eat together. No one cooks for every, everyone just makes their own meal and usually eats doing their own thing, such as watching t.v or using the computer, etc.

My family's cuisine is pretty diverse. My parents cook many different types of meals. Even when we order food, we order indian food, or mexican food. There is alot of variety in my families diet. We don't have a particular way of eating our food. When we sit together people talk throughout the whole meal. My mother makes sure people have good table manners usually when we all sit to eat, pretty typical for the most part. However there is no one way we eat or food is approached. The most important thing is taste and then health is considered as well but not to emphasized.

I can see how my ways of eating are similar to my parents. I enjoy sitting down with my friends to eat rather than eating on the go but at the same time I enjoy it not being formal. Ways to eat or approach food is not strict in my household and therefore I am pretty flexible with how I eat and my main criteria is taste. My food ways are heavily influenced by my parents.

HW 3

Green markets and fast food places are basically opposites. I think it's safe to say most people shopping at the green market are against fast food. The green market has stands full of organic and locally grown food. It is emphasized that the food is organic and much healthier and green markets generally appeal to people who are conscious about what they eat and whether it is healthy or not. Where as fast food is completely different, it's cheap, hot, fast food thats unhealthy and usually isn't to sanitary. Yet I find myself at fast food places all the time and millions of other people eat fast food quite frequently. On the Mcdonalds sign it says "billions and billions served." Fast food consumers in general are much less concerned about where the food came from and how healthy it is. Fast food emphasizes convenience rather than health.

Green markets pose a threat to fast food places such as wendys and mcdonalds and therefore they have switched up their advertising. People have become more worried about health, as it is one of the new trends. It is evident in the mcodonalds commercials where the say their food is 100 %fresh and they advertise organic food where in reality the quality hasn't change. Mcdonalds response to green markets and their strategy is staying successful is adapting and pretending to be on the side of the people who sell food at the green markets and pretending to be healthy.

This is what makes fast food successful. They tailor their advertisements to fit the concerns or obsessions of people and they provide convenient fast, tasty food to people. Convenience is the most significant part to me, for the most part we are obsessed with convenience. We always try to find the easiest way to do things and fast food is one of the easiest ways to get a meal.

HW 2

Food is one of the many things in our society that is essential to us as human being but we still don't take much time to think about it. This is including myself. When i eat I am most concerned with taste and whether or not what I am eating will fill me up. This is porbably because I have yet to have a problem with my weight and therefore pay less attention to eating healthy and such. But when I think of an ideal meal which for me is being able to sit down and enjoy my food with friends I realize that my typical meal is very different from this. I hardly eat breakfast and when I do I'm busy doing other things and am in a rush to get to school. At lunch we don't have that long to eat so I find myself being a bit rushed as well. As for dinner it is a much more relaxed meal but I usually do not eat dinner with my friends. My typical meal is hardly ever my ideal meal.

Food and diet is becoming more of a topic of interest in Americans. There are much more health and food shows on now and people are becoming much more worried about what the eat. However it seems almost like a fad, it has become cool for some people become vegetarians and such. However this is a fad mostly amongst middle class people and much less amongst working class people. There are also a very high amount of people with food disorders and many celebrities suffer from food disorders. This is a very harmful thing that is not surprising to be found in our society.

We have a lot of different things connected with food in our society many of them being negative things and many being positive. We are so accustomed to some of the aspects of food in our society that we dont think much about the food were eating and the process it has gone through before we eat it.