5th Blog Assignment - The Future of Food

For this assignment you will be required to watch the film The Future of Food which is on Video Reserve and available for check out at the Media Desk. The call number is TP248.65.F66 F88 2004

This is an 88 minute film, and the easiest way to watch it is to get a group of students together and use one of the viewing rooms adjacent to the Media Desk. Don’t wait until the last minute for this one!

In your blog post please comment on some of the issues brought up in the movie:

genetic ownership, patenting of genetic makeup, corporate control of food, issues of genetically manipulated food, alternative food movements, etc.

Also address the following questions:

1.) Do you have any qualms or fears about eating genetically modified foods?

2.) Can you think of any reason why foods shouldn’t be labeled as containing genetically modified foods?

Feel free to consider other questions as well.

Your post should be a minimum of 200 words.

Include the citation for one full-text article you find on Ebsco or ProQuest that pertains to any spectrum of this topic. Please use MLA Citation Style for your entry.

Your posting is due by Midnight Sunday, 5/4/08.

American Food Production

The Pew Research Institute recently came out with a report that claims the way America produces meat, eggs, and milk unsustainable. The report claims that the mass and factory farming procedures create substantial health risks, from antibiotic resistance and disease to environmental damage, to unnecessary harm to animals. Check it out if interested.

Paul

The New Future of Meat

Some of you may have seen the news item about PETA last week -- it turns out they are offering $1,000,000 to anyone who can develop in-vitro meat...in other words create a way to manufacture meat from fetal tissue, so that live animals will not have to be harmed in its production. One company that is already working on this issue is New Harvest
Check them out if you've the taste.

Paul

4th Blog Assignment - Harvesting Food

For this second Blog post, please read pgs 1 – 17 of The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine, and feel free to check out the rest of it if you want. The book is on Reserve for this class. I also want you to read the article on Reserve Jim Harrison’s “A Really Big Lunch: Annals of Eating” from the New Yorker.

For your post I want you to consider the following questions:

Assuming that harvesting your own food, (whether it’s shooting a deer, catching a fish, or growing carrots) gives you a stronger connection to the source of your food (as opposed to buying a package of meat and not thinking about where it comes from) – is this a good thing? Is it advantageous to have a stronger connection to where your food comes from? Or put another way, would you be more or less likely to eat meat if you had to kill and butcher the animals you ate?

Is hunting moral? Is it morally justifiable to kill a wild animal for food when there is so much food already killed and for sale? The situation is obviously different if the hunter is living below the poverty line, but I’m talking about typical middle and upper class hunters.

What was your reaction to Steve Rinella’s plan to kill a fairly substantial number of different animals for the sake of putting on a mammoth feed in honor of Escoffier’s Guide Culinaire?

What is your feeling about Harrison’s meal? Is this gluttony? Is this a moral act? Is it OK to harvest this much food for one meal? What are your feelings about this?

Feel free to consider other questions as well.

Your post should be a minimum of 200 words.

In addition to your post, please include, at the end, a recommendation for two books that Summit owns (but this library doesn’t) dealing with the issue of harvesting your own food and/or gluttony.

Include the citation for the books. Please use MLA Citation Style for your entries.

Your posting is due by Midnight Sunday, 4/27/08.

WWU Sustainability

Happy Earth Day!
Check out what your fellow students are doing around campus. Have you heard of the Student group: Students for Sustainable Foods? This campus group works on getting more local foods on campus as well as educating the campus community on sustainable foods. Here is a link to the groups information in case you would like to join. http://www.as.wwu.edu/clubs/categorical/?type=ENV

And, be sure to check out this awesome video created by WWU students.

Locavores

Locavores are people or groups of people that concentrate on attempting to eat locally produced and/or harvested food. Hand-in-hand with locally produced or harvested foods is the fact of seasonality -- certain foods are only available at certain times of year. With the cost of gasoline accelerating, more and more people are looking into the costs of transporting food across great distances. Others are more concerned with taste and freshness. Local production in some cases is becoming as inexpensive, or less expensive, than alternatives. An example is the price of asparagus. Much of the asparagus in the stores now comes from Peru or Mexico. It typically sells for $1.99 and up a pound. Although much of the seasonal asparagus we eat around here comes from eastern Washington, this is still much closer. When this asparagus comes in, it typically runs from .99 cents/lb. to $1.99/lb as is much fresher. One of the big issues to grapple with however is the luxury we now have for eating asparagus whenever we want, rather than just when it's in season. As gas and transportation prices go up, prices for imported foods will increase, and some foods may become truly luxury items. For more information, visit Locavores http://www.locavores.com/

Paul

"Humanely Raised"

Several people in the class have expressed interest in learning about how to find information about where your meat, eggs and dairy come from and how to find out how the animals have been treated.

One thing that that everyone can do is just ask about it, ask at the restaurants you go to, ask at the grocery stores, etc. These folks should be able to tell you where your meat comes from and if they can't, make it clear that it is important for them to know because their customers want to know. If more people start asking about where their food comes from this will encourage the food suppliers to be more responsible for knowing and providing accurate info to their customers or else they may lose business.

In addition, please check out the following links for important info about your food.

American Humane Association Announces Free Farmed Label
http://www.egginnovations.com/articles/a_h_a_free_farmed.pdf

"Happy eggs: free range, cage free, organic - what's the story? - Eating Right"
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1594/is_3_14/ai_101763358/pg_1

The Humane Society of the United States - Factory Farming Campaign
http://www.hsus.org/farm/humaneeating/rrr.html

A Guide to Egg Carton Labels and Their Relevance to Animal Welfare
http://www.hsus.org/farm/resources/pubs/animal_welfare_claims_on_egg_cartons.html

Industry Impacts on Animals
http://www.hsus.org/farm/resources/research/

"The Meat of the Matter" How and why to buy meat that's better for you and the environment.
http://www.epicurious.com/bonappetit/features/meat_of_the_matter

Site for Grass-Fed Food & Facts
http://www.eatwild.com

Two contrasting viewpoints, same industry
http://www.unitedegg.org/
http://www.eggindustry.com/

Facts on Food Labels
http://www.eatright.org/ada/files/Get_Smart.pdf

Information about Veganism

Here are some excellent links to some resources on the vegan lifestyle.

The first one is the NPR podcast about reducing meat consumption by 20% and the impact that would have on the environment
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89676010

This next one is a website that deals with the health aspects of being vegan and also ethics in medicine and accuracy in advertising. They are the group that is primarily responsible for forcing the meat and dairy industry to curtail their false and misleading “milk your diet” campaign that tried to make a connection between weight loss and dairy consumption. (Three of the main doctors, Dr. Ornish, Dr. Barnard, and Dr. McDougall are vegan for health reasons and also have written some great cookbooks and nutritional books.)
http://www.pcrm.org/

This one is just a website with other vegan-related links.
http://www.coolvegan.com/resource.html

This one is another list of resources written by the authors of “vegan freak,” a really great book about being vegan in a “non-vegan world.”
http://veganfreak.net/index.php?s=resources

Third Blog Assignment – Eating the Young

For this third Blog post, please read A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift (on Reserve for this class) and comment on it. The author deals with the issue of cannibalism. Although we may, in our mainstream culture, have abhorrence for this topic, it is certainly a phenomenon that has occurred throughout history and within the animal kingdom. Perhaps one of the most interesting examples is the Preying Mantis – the female often eats the male while they are copulating, which adds another dimension to “oral sex.” In A Modest Proposal however, Swift imagines how if we can overcome the abhorrence we have for cannibalism, we could solve some rather dire social crises.

So in this post, consider the remarks of this great and noted writer, and respond to them.

Your post should be a minimum of 200 words. Please include, at the end of your post, a recommendation for a book in Worldcat that addresses cannibalism. Include the MLA citation for the book. No call number is needed. However, in a departure from the norm, I would like you to order this book through ILLiad.

In addition, please comment on someone else’s post on a blog other than your own. This can include the main class blog.

As always, your posting and comments are due by Midnight Sunday, in this case, 4/20/06.

Freeganism

Thanks to Sanna for mentioning this phenomenon in her post, but it's a rapidly growing movement. I remember "dumpster diving" when I was in college, but this is a more socially conscious, organized movement. Check it out http://freegan.info/

Paul

Meet Your Meat

Bellingham Farmers Market

The Bellingham Farmers Market starts this Saturday April 5th, watch out for the flying cabbage!

The market will take place Downtown on Railroad at Chestnut, April through Christmas 10am to 3pm every Saturday.

I added a link to the Farmers Market blog in the Local Info section, check it out.

Hope to see you all at the market!