People need to stop messing with the ingredients in the food. Many food that many people eat today has been so genetically modified, scientists do not know the future effects it has on the human body. The food the public has to eat now cannot possibly end. The product “Soylent” cannot solve the world’s problems. Rob Rhinehart, the entrepreneur of this product says Soylent is a drink that is composed of thirty-five essential nutrients necessary for human-survival and that these nutrients are grinded up and mixed in with water. How can a random tech entrepreneur who barely has any science degree background prove and say that Soylent may be the product that may end or replace all foods? He does not establish any ethos in biochemical sciences yet …show more content…
It conjures up the visions of a world devoid of pizza parlors and taco stands-our kitchens stocked with beige powder instead of banana bread, our spaghetti nights and ice-cream social replaced by evenings sipping sludge” (Widdicombe). Rhinehart is trying to suggest that the drink Soylent are used as daily meals; it cannot replace all of the food being eaten. The nightmare comes in when people see how the daily food and traditions of having pizza on Friday nights might be swept away if Soylent is to replace the food that many people love to eat. But Rhinehart tries to say that there is a significant difference between using Soylent as a substitute for daily meals and also when using food for socialization with friends and family, “He imagines that, in the future, ‘we’ll see a separation between our meals for utility and function, and our meals for experience and socialization.’ Soylent isn’t coming for our Sunday potlucks. It’s coming for our frozen quesadillas” (Widdicombe). The thought provoking idea that Soylent might be replacing precious time with our family is scary. Having big feasts and getting together as a family or with friends to eat is a tradition and is a good way for people to reconnect with each other. As society grows, time becomes more precious and bringing Soylent in may help exclude the time spent with friends of significant
“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).
In “Called Home”, the first chapter of the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year in Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver presents her concerns about America's lack of food knowledge, sustainable practices, and food culture. Kingsolver introduces her argument for the benefits of adopting a local food culture by using statistics, witty anecdotal evidence, and logic to appeal to a wide casual reading audience. Her friendly tone and trenchant criticism of America's current food practices combine to deliver a convincing argument that a food culture would improve conditions concerning health and sustainability. I agree with Kingsolver that knowing the origin of food is an important and healthy benefit of developing a true food culture, but it is impractical to maintain that everyone is able to buy more expensive food. Kingsolver presents a compelling argument for developing a food culture, however this lifestyle change may not be practical or even possible for a poverty-level citizen. The following essay will summarize and respond to Kingsolver’s argument to demonstrate how “Called Home” is a model for novice social scientists.
Do these two ideas truly have to go together? It seems the Soylent miracle is also a challenge to the universal system of chew and swallow, where the aesthetic and taste of food are prioritized before its nutritional value. Rob Rhineheart is correct to point out a deficiency in the system, that food has acquired something of a social life to it, creating complications that increase the time, effort, and difficulty of gaining essential nutrients. In “The End of Food,” Lizzie Widdicombe shows us Soylent’s potential as a dream substance, but also presents potential despair in a future with Soylent. With its characteristics, it seems that Soylent could go either way.
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.
... Nestle’s quote, Bittman makes his editorial plea to ethos, by proposing proof that a woman of reliable mental power of this issue come to an agreement with Bittman's thesis statement. Bittman also develops pathos in this article because he grabs a widely held matter that to many individuals is elaborate with: "...giving them the gift of appreciating the pleasures of nourishing one another and enjoying that nourishment together.” (Mark Bittman) Bittman gives the reader the actions to think about the last time they had a family dinner and further imposes how these family dinners are altogether important for family time. Therefore, Bittman did a magnificent job in pointing into the morals of his targeted audience and developing a critical point of view about fast food to his intended audience leaving them with a thought on less fast food and more home prepared meals.
A major issue that is occurring in America is a phenomena known as “food deserts”, most are located in urban areas and it's difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. Whereas in the past, food deserts were thought to be solved with just placing a grocery store in the area, but with times it has become an issue that people are not picking the best nutritional option. This issue is not only making grocery store in food deserts are practically useless and not really eliminating the issue of food deserts because even when they are given a better nutritional option, and people are not taking it. In my perspective, it takes more than a grocery store to eliminate ‘food deserts’. It's more about demonstrating the good of picking the nutritional option and how it can help them and their families. For example, “Those who live in these areas are often subject to poor diets as a result and are at a greater risk of becoming obese or developing chronic diseases.”(Corapi, 2014).
Throughout the essay, Berry logically progresses from stating the problem of the consumer’s ignorance and the manipulative food industry that plays into that ignorance, to stating his solution where consumers can take part in the agricultural process and alter how they think about eating in order to take pleasure in it. He effectively uses appeals to emotion and common values to convince the reader that this is an important issue and make her realize that she needs to wake up and change what she is doing. By using appeals to pathos, logos, and ethos, Berry creates a strong argument to make his point and get people to change how they attain and eat food.
“Actions speak louder than words” but in this case results speak louder than words. Just because the labels say it’s safe, is it? How can something that’s only recently been discovered be considered safe when we don’t know the long term outcome? Hearing that my food has been ‘Genetically Modified’ just sounds messed up from the start. Our countries people are trusting what they consume by words spoken by people they’ve never even met and people who are only out to make lots of money with whatever it takes. Do you really think that the business owners running the food system actually eats the average food that is in a grocery store? Doubtful. Largely between 1997 and 1999, genetically modified food ingredients suddenly appeared in 2/3rds of all US processed foods
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.
Food is an essential part of everyday life without it one could not survive. Every day we make choices on what we put in to our bodies. There are countless varieties of food to choose from to meet the diverse tastes of the increasing population. Almost all food requires a label explaining the ingredients and the nutritional value allowing consumers to make informed decisions on what they are consuming. However, many may not be considering where that food is coming from or how it has been produced. Unfortunately, there is more to food than meets the eye. Since 1992, “ the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled, based on woefully limited data, that genetically modified foods were ‘substantially equivalent’ to their non-GM counterparts” (Why to Support Labeling). GM food advocates have promised to create more nutritious food that will be able to grow in harsh climate conditions and eventually put an end to world hunger in anticipation of the growing population. There is very little evidence to support these claims and study after study has proven just the opposite. GM crops are not only unsafe to consume, but their growing practices are harmful to the environment, and multinational corporations are putting farmers out of business.
In Michael Pollan’s “The End of Cooking” shares the message of what we are losing something important in this day and age because of all our pre-made and processed foods. This can be compared with Kothari’s “If You Are What You Eat, What Am I?” and her argument that food is part of one’s own identity. By using the examples from these two texts you can analyze the state of food and culture in the United States today. All of the processed and pre-made foods are causing people all across America to lose their sense of Culture. We no longer know what it’s like to make one of our cultures specialty dishes from scratch which can help people identify with their culture. This process helped newer generations see what it was like for those before them to cook on a daily basis and could help them identify your sense of culture.
The question “Is this product genetically modified?” has gained increasing popularity among the health concerned and those who worry about where their food comes from over the past couple of years. A decade or two ago, this question had no meaning and has no significance in society. However, thanks to the development of technology and a larger understanding of the underlying properties of foods, down to the molecular scale, humans have created a new field of engineering to combat worries that have plagued the food industry to centuries upon centuries. And as always, the advent of a new a product or procedure that changes the way we think and create will always usher along with it self opinions from every strata of society. The genetic modification of food in the United States of America has become a pertinent topic of debate, just recently gaining its popularity in the past couple of years. To modify or not to modify? There are both pros and cons to whether or not change the DNA sequences of foods in order to better them in some way or another. However, like every other major, groundbreaking change in this country comes regulation in hopes to appease everyone in the country and give each participant a fair chance in the race, in particular, the race for the production and distribution of foods. Such regulation in the United States has been done in order to protect and support people that have not devoted their time and money to the biological nuance and also to give every consumer in the country products that are labeled, identifying what they are putting into their systems on a daily basis. As time and society progress, how we view tasks that have been usually kept hidden and now placed onto a pedestal for everyone to se...
In her book Semiotics and Communication: Signs, Codes, Cultures, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz describes the wide use of food as signs, and also as social codes. The reason foods are so useful as signs and social codes is because they are separable, easily adaptive to new environments, and it is not difficult to cook, or eat for that matter. Food is a major part of our daily lives, Not only for survival, but it plays a substantial social role in our lives. We will look deeper into the semiotics of food, how food is used as identity markers, and also the role that foods play in social change in our lives. First let us start with the semiotics of food.
Genetically modified food’s, or GMOs, goal is to feed the world's malnourished and undernourished population. Exploring the positive side to GMOs paints a wondrous picture for our planet’s future, although careful steps must be taken to ensure that destruction of our ecosystems do not occur. When GMOs were first introduced into the consumer market they claimed that they would help eliminate the world’s food crisis by providing plants that produced more and were resistant to elemental impacts like droughts and bacterial contaminants, however, production isn’t the only cause for the world’s food crisis. Which is a cause for concern because the population on the earth is growing and our land and ways of agriculture will not be enough to feed everyone sufficiently. No simple solutions can be found or applied when there are so many lives involved. Those who are hungry and those who are over fed, alike, have to consider the consequences of Genetically Modified Organisms. Food should not be treated like a commodity it is a human necessity on the most basic of levels. When egos, hidden agendas, and personal gains are folded into people's food sources no one wins. As in many things of life, there is no true right way or wrong way to handle either of the arguments and so many factors are involved that a ‘simple’ solution is simply not an option.
The Advantages of a Vegetarian Diet Having a healthy dietary method can reduce the chances of receiving many health diseases. These health diseases include obesity, heart disease, and cancer. By consuming certain foods and nutrients in one’s diet, the risk factors for these health diseases can be reduced. A healthy dietary method that is beneficial to reducing and/or improving these health diseases is the vegetarian diet. The vegetarian diet follows a dietary pattern that is characterized by the consumption of plant-like foods and the avoidance of flesh foods (meat, poultry, and fish).