Hello Class,
This blog is a means for us to share ideas about the readings. Your participation by way of posting comments following a specific format will be evaluated as part of your final grade. A description of the format follows. You are expected to post comments on a weekly basis. You are also welcome to go beyond the required number of comments. Hopefully you will find this to be a creative and fun way to communicate!
ASSIGNMENT
The blog comment assignment is worth a total of ten points.
Over the duration of the class you are expected to post a minimum of ten comments on ten different readings; each comment is worth one point. You are expected to post one comment per week, at the conclusion of the week's readings. The deadline for posting will be Monday nights at 11:59 PM.
Each comment you post must refer to one specific reading from class. Choose a new readings for each comment. Your comment should follow a particular format:
1) Select a quote from the reading that you believe captures an important idea from the piece. Enter this quote, indicating the author, the source, and the page number in the reader.2) Explain how this quote represents the reading.
3) Explain your impression of the entire reading. Do you agree or disagree with the author? What did you find to be provoking or challenging about the piece?
4) Sign your name in the comment, using your first name and last initial.
You are welcome to post more free-form comments as long as you post the minimum ten comments following this format.
Please always sign your first name and last initial.
--Brent W.
I am very excited to start reading your comments!
ReplyDelete--Brent W.
"Before food companies could take on the tasks of preparing and cooking our foods, for example, the ingredients would need to be altered, often significantly, to become more manufacturable- with results thats haven't always been in consumers' interests" Paul Roberts, The End of Food, pg. 31 in Food, Wine and (Agri)Culture.
ReplyDeleteThis quote is in direct reference to the reading because the chapter "It's So Easy Now" is all about how companies alter food to make it more convenient for the consumer. there is a specific example of how time is getting so scarce for people that they can't even make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So a company developed a product that someone can squeeze peanut butter in their mouth. This is making it more convenient for the consumer to eat on the go and not have to prepare anything at all. My overall impression of this reading is that I'm scared of the direction of food. Since everyone is losing more and more time in a day, food companies are finding ways to enable people to eat for short periods of time. Eliminating families from sitting down and eating dinner. I agree one hundred percent with what the author is portraying in this work. The more people demand quicker and easier foods the more processed the foods will be. Like the quote I chose that is not always in the best interest of the consumer. The part of the work that i found provoking was how little money actually goes to the farm that produces the food. It is amazing to me that majority of the money goes to packaging and marketing. When in actuality it should be going to the farm that produced the food from the beginning. It just really scares me to think about the direction food is headed in.
-Arthur P.
“according to data monitor, as companies continue to tailor the snack concept to specific demographics – working parents, for example, or teenagers whose hands are full of iPods or cell phones – the critical thresholds for product development will be whether it “can be consumed one-handed, and whether packaging causes a mess”. The future of food is as an accessory”
ReplyDelete(Paul Roberts, The End of Food, pg. 19)
The reading to me represents how for better or worse food is evolving into something that is less like food. This quote for me represents that idea of evolution in that it states that food has become a one handed thing meant for continence and also it has evolved from food into an accessory.
As to the piece as a whole, he seems to discuss a generalized problem but doesn’t present a solution. His basic issue with today’s food is much better addressed by Michael Pollan. Even Pollan’s book “Food Rules” gives a great and simple way to combat the ever evolving and processing of modern day foods. As to whether or not I agree with the author. I agree that this is happening to our culture. Our farmers are not receiving enough for their efforts and our culture is moving away from an understanding of what true food is. Packaging and processing of foods has become something of a generalized convince. People expect to have their food easily and not worry about what went into making it and as a result this is how food as evolved…maybe not a bad thing but not a great thing for us as cooks. The thing I find most provoking about the reading is it makes one think how best we can combat this issue. That’s why I really like Pollan’s writings.
Jameson F
“here too the concerns is with the disconnect between economic activities and their environmental and social context… the growing globalization of markets demands compliance with its own laws rather than with the laws of contest specific environmental, social and culture systems. “ (O’Hara, Sabine U. and Sifrid Stagl. “Global Food Markets and Their Local Alternatives. 2001. 43.)
ReplyDeleteThis quote represents my understanding of the reading by summing up the disconnection of the industrialized global food system from the environmental and social system. Because of this connection many questions are raised about re-embedding global markets. The reading states the pro and con of our current food system and how the alternative markets will help. In my opinion the local alternatives such as CSAs will continue to increase and make a larger difference in our food system. Although with our current food system there is positive aspects quantity wise, but in a long run is where the system raises questions about physical, biological, social and environmental conditional. It is important not to deny the importance of the large scale production industries, because of the made major contribution in bring the nation forward in terms of agricultural production. On the other hand the growing of CSAs will contribute to the re-embedding of markets in to their ethical contexts.
Yolanda B