10/10/2016 Integrative Essay First Draft
The Pleasures of Eating - Summary:
In “The Pleasures of Eating” (1990), Berry argues that people have become detached and unknowledgeable by taking food for granted, and should eat responsibly by preparing their own food, learning its origins, and shopping locally. Berry first claims that people in today’s society have become disconnected with what they consume. He says that people have a lack of knowledge that stems from wanting food to be effortless and efficient. He also states that the industrial food industry is somewhat behind this change, and wants to continue to streamline eating until it’s zero effort. He also talks about politics existing in food, with regard to the fact that people cannot
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He says this has partly stemmed from the fact that food is so heavily doctored in media and advertisement that we fail to appreciate the individuality of it. He also states that most consumers wouldn’t want to know where their food came from as it would just make them feel bad. He then goes on to start providing solutions for the problems we face. One major way to eat responsibly is for one to grow their own food. This allows one to become acquainted with how food is really produced and really appreciate it as a labor of love. Another key thing Berry mentions is the preparation of one’s own food. One should be able to cook as it is cheaper and again makes one closer to what they are eating. A last main point is one properly learning the history of their food. He states this is all important because one can then truly enjoy all parts …show more content…
One of these points is that with enough passion and grit one can start a serious social movement. The example here is Alan Chadwick gaining a huge following despite coming on campus to just be a gardener. The man was so influential that he literally effected people for the rest of their lives, “Chadwick was so great a teacher that Lingemann 's interest in gardening became her life 's focus” (p 279) This line of logic is strong because Chadwick went from a nobody to one of the most influential people in his field. He built up his reputation and following with pure passion. One other strong point is the connection between nurturing a garden and nurturing a person. Waters makes the point that humans intrinsically want to protect something growing and look after it, “Watching something infinitely fragile sprout in warm, fertile earth and nursing it along to the point where it can survive and grow strong is practically definitive of what it is to be human.” (p 280) This point is strong because there truly is no joy like raising something small and weak to become strong. The evidence here is that people innately feel the need to have children and then protect them. One weak point in the essay is Waters subtle persuasion that the best way to do agriculture is the most natural way. She states, “Alumni apprentices have started their own farms,
“Food as thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating,” is an article written by Mary Maxfield in response or reaction to Michael Pollan’s “Escape from the Western Diet”. Michael Pollan tried to enlighten the readers about what they should eat or not in order to stay healthy by offering and proposing a simple theory: “the elimination of processed foods” (443).
There are many different beliefs about the proper way to eat healthy. People are often mislead and live unhealthy lifestyles as a result. Both Mary Maxfield and Michael Pollan explain their own beliefs on what a healthy diet is and how to live a healthy lifestyle. In the essay, “Escape from the Western diet” Michael Pollan writes about the flaws of the western diet and how we can correct these problems to become healthier. In the essay, “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating”, Mary Maxfield criticizes Michael Pollan’s essay about eating healthy, and explains her own theory on how to be healthy. She believes that Pollan is contradicting himself and that what he is stating is false. Mary Maxfield ponders the
Michael Pollan, an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism (Michael Pollan), writes in his book In Defense of Food, the dangers of nutritionism and how to escape the Western diet and subsequently most of the chronic diseases the diet imparts. In the chapter “Nutritionism Defined” Pollan defines the term nutritionism. Pollan’s main assertion being how the ideology of nutritionism defines food as the sum of its nutrients, and from this viewpoint Pollan goes on to write how nutritionism divides food into two categories, with each macronutrient divided against each other as either bad or good nutrients, in a bid for focus of our food fears and enthusiasms. Finally, Pollan concludes that with the relentless focus nutritionism places on nutrients and their interplay distinctions between foods become irrelevant and abandoned.
I am used to living a very busy life style, so I never paid close attention to where my food was originating from. Usually when I look at my food it is more to find out its nutritional value rather than its origins. After reading Kelsey Timmerman’s “Where Am I Eating?”, it has opened my eyes to some of the horrors of the food industry. Regardless of what I have learned, changing my eating habits would be very challenging, and I do not believe it is entirely necessary. Yes, there are many negatives in the global food economy, but it is not totally corrupt as Timmerman suggests. I believe it would be very difficult to change because of the many misleading food labels, the United States has become unfamiliar with how to produce for the entirety
He stated that as the society’s technology improves their way of life we seem to forget the significance of the common knowledge about the land. Also he looks down of the competition within the culture that is competing with one another. He despises the fact that some small farmer cannot compete with the bigger farms because small farms lack money, resources and manpower to keep up. All of this replaces the distraction of the farming culture
Pollan states that food is not just a necessity to survive, it has a greater meaning to life. Pollan explains how food can cause us happiness and health by connecting us to our family and culture. Warren Belasco, in “Why Study Food”, supports Pollan’s idea that food is something social and cultural. In Belasco’s description of a positive social encounter food is included, whether it involves a coffee date with a colleague or a dinner date with a loved one. Belasco states that food forms our identity and brings our society together.
Although the two authors do not refer to each other directly in their works, both their perspectives share a common ground that no enough income make people eating less healthy. Pinsker argues that the actual barrier that stops people from eating healthy is the lack of income (129-130). He uses studies to show that poor families choose processed food because children like those tasty processed food (Pinsker 129-134). Whereas poor families cannot afford the waste if children refused to eat healthier but less tasty food parents provided (Pinsker 129-134). Cortright also suggests that income matters the most to why people do not eat healthy. He even further discusses income as the most influential limiting factor by addressing that other factors such as physical proximity to local food sources do not cause people to eat less healthy (Cortright 135-138). The two authors, in general, reach a consensus and mutually prove that income plays as the biggest limiting factor for people to have healthy
For instance, in Sam’s chapter, a young boy named Royce is introduced. He is an African American teenager that Sam hires to help him plant something in the garden. People automatically assumed he was a trouble maker or someone who couldn’t be trusted. Later in Amir’s chapter, it is revealed that Royce was one of three men who stopped a robber trying to steal a woman’s purse. This is when everyone forgets about the previous stereotypes and realizes that Royce is actually a very generous, trustworthy teen. So in addition to helping people overcome their prejudice, the garden also helped the people who were victims of stereotyping. It made them feel like a real citizen in the community. On page 50, Nora explains, “Many people grew plants from their native lands- huge Chinese melons, ginger, cilantro, a green the Jamaicans call Callaloo, and many more.” Later on the page she continues, “We, like out seeds were now planted in the garden” Nora’s first quote explains that people that may have been judged for bringing their culture to Cleveland, now felt proud to show off all of the unique parts of it. Her second quote explains that the garden was making people finally feel welcome because all of the stereotypes were melting away. This shows that when people from different communities come together, it can make them stronger and more
George Ripley endeavored to create one of the first utopian societies in West Roxberry, Massachusetts. The community was called Brook Farm, and was established in 1841. Everyone in the community shared labor and leisure time equally. Ripley believed that leisure was the most important step to understanding yourself. The problem with Brook Farm was that the residents ended up believing in a form of communism, despite its objective of being a community where the individual would be able to become ‘whole’. A fire late in 1847 caused the community to disband and separate. Brook Farm is important because not only was it one of the first utopian society experiments in the 1800’s, but it proved that people were confident about trying new things. Critics of Brook Farm said that the point of the community was nothing more than the desire to become better than other people. This demonstrates that (even though it failed) Brooke Farm was created solely for the purpose of bettering the way in which people lived.
In Wendell Berry’s “The Pleasures of Eating,” this farmer tells eaters how their separation from food production has turned them into “passive consumers” who know nothing about the food they eat, or their part in the agricultural process (3). They are blindsided by a food industry that does not help them understand. Berry argues that the average consumer buys available food without any questions. He states consumers that think they are distanced from agriculture because they can easily buy food, making them ignorant of cruel conditions it went through to get on the shelf. Humans have become controlled by the food industry, and regard eating as just something required for their survival. Berry wants this to change as people realize they should get an enjoyment from eating that can only come from becoming responsible for their food choices and learning more about what they eat. While describing the average consumer’s ignorance and the food industry’s deceit, he effectively uses appeals to emotion, logic, and values to persuade people to take charge, and change how they think about eating.
Time is another big struggle for college students. I know the feeling of applying for classes because it’s tough to decide on if there’s time to get from one class to one another; also if there’s time to get a bite to eat. Wendell Berry’s “The Pleasures of Eating: In What Are People For?” article suggests taking pleasure in eating a few ways to help anyone be a healthier eater, but “time” is an obstacle for the solutions. First off, both Berry and actually Pollan suggest students grow their own food in gardens. Specifically, Berry says to “Participate in food production to the extent” and “You will be fully responsible for any food that you grow for yourself, and you will know all about it. You will appreciate it fully, having known it all
In Galway Kinnell’s poem, “Blackberry Eating,” assonance, alliteration, and refrain are used in reinforcing the poem’s meaning that just like the speaker’s interest for “ripest” blackberries as described throughout the poem, words are also rich and intense, thus one is eating straight from the tree of knowledge.
When we think of our national health we wonder why Americans end up obese, heart disease filled, and diabetic. Michael Pollan’s “ Escape from the Western Diet” suggest that everything we eat has been processed some food to the point where most of could not tell what went into what we ate. Pollan thinks that if America thought more about our “Western diets” of constantly modified foods and begin to shift away from it to a more home grown of mostly plant based diet it could create a more pleasing eating culture. He calls for us to “Eat food, Not too much, Mostly plants.” However, Mary Maxfield’s “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating”, argues differently she has the point of view that people simply eat in the wrong amounts. She recommends for others to “Trust yourself. Trust your body. Meet your needs.” The skewed perception of eating will cause you all kinds of health issues, while not eating at all and going skinny will mean that you will remain healthy rather than be anorexic. Then, as Maxfield points out, “We hear go out and Cram your face with Twinkies!”(Maxfield 446) when all that was said was eating as much as you need.
In the article by Wendell Berry titled “The Pleasures of Eating” he tries to persuade the readers of the necessity and importance of critical thinking and approach to choosing meals and owning responsibility for the quality of the food cooked. He states that people who are not conscious enough while consuming products, and those who do not connect the concept of food with agricultural products, as people whose denial or avoidance prevents them from eating healthy and natural food. Berry tries to make people think about what they eat, and how this food they eat is produced. He points to the aspects, some which may not be recognized by people, of ethical, financial and
Nutrition and health have become more popular in today 's society. Our generation is becoming more and more indebted to the idea of being healthy and eating nutritious meals. However, in “The American Paradox,” by Michael Pollan he argues that our unhealthy population is preoccupied with nutrition and the idea of eating healthy than their actual health. He also mentions the food industry, nutrition science and how culture affects the way we eat and make food choices. While Pollan is right about all these factor that affect our eating habits, there is more to it than that. Convenience, affordability and social influence also affects our food choices making them inadequate.