HW 26

Some insights:
-Many people could live but health insurance companies deny care for them and they die
-Other countries have universal health care and do better than us and yet the U.S. refuses to switch to universal healthcare
-Death is hidden in hospital and separated from everything else
-Social norms around illness and dying

I think the sources that were the most helpful for me understanding the culture's dominant social practices around illness and dying have been: having Beth come in to talk to us, the Sicko movie, and just talking about ideas in class with other people. Beth helped me understand because it was her personal experience with sickness and dying with someone very close to her. I haven't had this experience so it helped me understand what it's like. The Sicko movie helped me understand how our country, government, and health insurance companies deal with sickness and dying. This helped me understand because it showed me what's happening in the bigger picture. And lastly just our discussions in class helped me because there were a lot of social norms around illness and dying that I didn't really think about and other students brought ideas up in my mind.

Some questions and areas I think are most important to explore in the final weeks of the unit are how the social norms around sickness and dying came to be. There has to be some reason why we have this certain way of dealing with sickness and and death so it would be interesting to see why people act like this when people are sick and dying. Also I would like to know how sickness and dying can be approached in a better way and how it can not be so separated from the society. I'm not really sure how we could explore these topics/questions though.

HW 25

There are 50 million people in America without healthcare. That's not what this is about though. It's about people that DO have health insurance. Even people with healthcare are not getting the the medical care they need. The health insurance companies are corrupt, their aim is not to help the people but maximize profit. The companies will find any way they can to refuse care for a person in need, just so they don't have to spend money on you. Universal healthcare in other countries seems to work in every country that has it, but yet the U.S. government refuses to switch to universal healthcare. They use fear of communism as an excuse to stay away from universal healthcare and other things such as long waiting time for medical attention and doctors just being controlled by the government as excuses. There are many other parts of America that are already socialist but still healthcare hasn't changed even though some have tried.
A piece of evidence that Michael Moore used in the film was showing how Hilary Clinton tried to make the healthcare in the U.S. universal and failed. The government and healthcare companies created propaganda to scare people out of universal healthcare and it was successful. 100 MILLION dollars were spent to defeat Hilary Clinton's health care plan. Then it showed how she was highly criticized and pushed down into doing less significant things. She became the second largest recipient in the senate of health care industry contributions. I checked the facts and this was true. "According to Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group that tracks campaign finance filings, Clinton has received $781,112 in contributions from the health-care sector during the current election cycle, which makes her the No. 2 recipient of funds from that sector, behind only Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., who received $977,354",(http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/12/news/newsmakers/healthcare_clinton/index.htm). This shows how the government and health care companies are corrupt because they'll do everything they can to keep the health care system the way it is.
Another piece of evidence used in the movie was that people in France (who have universal healthcare) can expect to live longer than people in America. Although there must be a lot of factors to this it can show how universal healthcare actually works and is better. I looked up the evidence and also found it was true. The average life expectancy is long for both males and females in France than they are in America. (Source:https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2102.html).
I liked this movie because although it may have over simplified things it made a lot of things more clear to me. It was another disappointing movie about America though. It didn't surprise me to see the corruption in the government and health care companies. This is because all these big powerful people are going to do all that they can to make as much money as possible. They don't really care about what's better for the people but what will make them more money. I think the part that really got to me the most was how other countries were so much better off. The universal health care seemed to work so well and overall I just felt like the people in the other countries cared about one another and looked out for each other where our country would just let those people that can't afford the expensive health care just die off. It kind of made me want to move to another country...

HW 24

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom (1997)
Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group; Random House Inc.


Precis:
Morrie is getting even closer to dying. He needs someone to wipe his ass now. Even though he's very independent, he still manages to not be embarrassed and has a positive view point about it. He tells Mitch how he doesn't mind aging because he has been all the younger ages already and as he gets older he gets more knowledge and understand life and death more.

Quotes:
"I'm an independent person, so my inclination was to fight all of this-being helped from the car, having someone else dress me. I felt a little ashamed, because our culture tells us we should be ashamed if we can't wipe our own behind."

"It's like going back to being a child again. Someone to bathe you. Someone to lift you. Someone to wipe you. We all know how to be a child . It's inside all of us. For me, it's just remembering how to enjoy it."

"Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that's what we do in this country, Owing things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good... You can't substitue material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship."

Thoughts:
I think the ideas Morrie shares are very interesting and true. I noticed that most of them the answer to all of the problems is love. Also that society leads to a lot of the problems. I agree with this, I think because of this it makes it very hard to enjoy life and see things clearly. Society can brainwash people (as he says in the 3rd quote above) and you can easily get caught up in everyday life and basically sleepwalking around every day without experiencing life to the full extent. These things can make it almost impossible for someone to really enjoy life. We are automatically brought up in this mindset because of how society is shaped. The most important thing in someone's life is often related to money, you have to do well in school, so you can go to a good college, so you can get a good job, so you can make good money. But in my opinion money definitely is not the most important part of life. So what's the point?

HW 23

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom (1997)
Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group; Random House Inc.

Precis:
Mitch is visiting Morrie every Tuesday. He has to travel very far. He is recording the conversations and becoming closer to Morrie. Morrie is giving him a lot of insights on life and death. He talks about how people aren't actually living and fully experiencing the world and looking at their lives as a whole. Mitch is starting to realize problems in his life and question certain decisions he made in his life.

Quotes:

"Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live."

"'Most of us all walk around as if we're sleepwalking. We really don't experience the world fully, because we're half-asleep, doing things we automatically think we have to do.'"

"He nodded toward the window with the sunshine streaming in. 'You see that?' You can go out there, outside, anytime. You can run up and down the block and go crazy. I can't do that. I can't go out. I can't run. I can't be out there without fear of getting sick. But you know what? I appreciate that window more than you do'".

Thoughts:
I think that this book is very true and I can relate to a lot of the things mentioned. For example the second quote. I think this is 100% true, I feel like very little of the people in the world are fully experiencing the world and life. But it made me wonder is it possible. People can't just drop their jobs and do whatever they want because they need their jobs for money because mostly everything revolves around money. The book is making me want to live differently but I'm not really sure how and I realize how easy it is to get caught up in every day life opposed to looking at life as a whole.

HW 21B

My comments posted on others:

Sophia,

Niiiice. I really liked how you explained thoroughly what your views on a hospice was before and how Beth brought you to a different realization/view of hospices opposed to dying at home. You made a strong connection to your father's story and about this "still feeling" there is when someone dies. I like the idea of having some type of closure and not wanting to die in an accident or in a sudden.


Elizabeth,

Niiiiiiice. It was beautifully written. You did really well analyzing the insights Beth gave us on a deeper level. I thought it was good that you connected back to your own experiences in the second paragraph. My favorite part of your post was "And left me personally with these words ringing in my ear, "The only way to not be hurt by death is to die first"." I thought this was written beautifully and it is a strong statement that also stuck with me.


Chris,

Niiiiiice. I like how you went deeper into what Beth said in the 2nd paragraph... "Personally if I was being introduced to someone while I was in one of the worse states in my life, I wouldn’t be want to be viewed by my lowest moment, just like Beth tried to do I would want to be loved for the things I have done, the people I have help, and anything I have helped created." I really liked this part because I completely agree and I think it is easy to easily get labeled as a disease. I also think you make a really good point in the last paragraph because I felt like everyone knew it was his last 10 days but it's not like he "had an expiration date" like you said.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Comments posted on my post:

Sophia-
I liked this part, because you used things associated with a hospital to describe it, as opposed to only descriptive words:

"It just seemed so much more peaceful being at home opposed to the hospital which is just doctors in white coats and note pads in an isolated place. Home seems like a much more comfortable place and you can be with the people you love and you don't get covered with a blanket and wheeled away after you die."

You could have expanded on why you thought home seemed more comfortable, but other then that, the whole paragraph was really good.

Chris-

Hey Burt,

I think that the strongest paragraph you have in this was the second paragraph. In that short paragraph I think you stated something that not many people have stated in their blogs and it is one of the most key pieces to what was being said by Beth. You mentioned that we normally don't see people die. I think this was the beginning of a really good paragraph but you failed to make a follow up statement about this. I think your work could have been much better if you would have talked about this more or staying home helping someone more considering that you said it was something that jumped out to you immediately. Posing some questions and trying to dig deeper is something that I really encourage you to do for the remainder of the blog post. Also you seem to answer the questions pretty well but the questions do say compare and contrast the insights that you have and I would like to see how some of what you think. Then for the questions you do ask, I feel like some of these could have been questions that you tried to answer when you talk about other things in the beginning of the post. So what you overall need to focus on for later is expanding on your ideas because they will probably be good, maybe adding in something from personal experience and making sure you compare and contrast your thoughts. Doing this will completely answer the homework question.


Elizabeth-
Jasper,
This was a very nice, thoughtful post. I enjoyed how the last paragraph was full of insightful questions that would leave the reader thinking; not only about Erik's death, but of the overall picture of society's way of dealing with illness and dying.

What I think you could improve on is the beauty/grammar. This is just my personal opinion, but I think that grammar can be quite beautiful; adding semi-colons or commas here and there can make a piece look and flow beautifully.

There are a few places where I wanted to sneak in commas and semicolons or switch words around. Here is an example:
"It just seemed so much more peaceful being at home opposed to the hospital which is just doctors in white coats and note pads in an isolated place".
I would have changed that to:
"It just seemed much more peaceful being at home, as opposed to the ___(add adjectives here) hospital; an isolated place full of doctors wearing white coats and carrying note pads.

By changing around words in sentences and adding more punctuation (but not TOO much punctuation), you can create a beautifully flowing piece that will hit the reader even harder than it already did.


-Cecilia (Mom) comment

"Home seems like a much more comfortable place and you can be with the people you love and you don't get covered with a blanket and wheeled away after you die." I agree and it was not that long ago when it was common for families to take care of older people. Houses were bigger and it was common for grandparents to move in with the family if they became lonely and could not take care of themselves. They died at home with their family around them. Women stayed home so there was always someone there. Today women must work and it may very difficult to have someone at home and care for them during sickness and dying. You can further develop this idea and compare care of old people today and how both people in a couple are forced to work today to cover cost of living and care for elderly or sick.

HW 22

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom (1997)
Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group; Random House Inc.

Precis:
Mitch became very connected to Morrie during college. But he easily lost contact with him after college and forgot about him. He had his first experience with death, his uncle whom he always looked up to got sick and died at a young age. This changed Mitch's life and he wasn't really sure how to go about life if he could just get sick and die any time. Then he heard about Morrie on TV and saw a special on the news about him, and he went to go visit Morrie and his last lesson began.

Quotes:
"After the funeral, my life changed. I felt as if time were suddenly precious, water going down an open drain, and I could not move quickly enough."

"Instead, I buried myself in accomplishments, because with accomplishments, I believed I could control things, I could squeeze every last piece of happiness before I got sick and died, like my uncle before me, which I figured was my natural fate."

"When all this started, I asked myself, 'Am I going to withdraw myself from the world, like most people do, or am I going to live?' I decided I am going to live-or at least try to live-the way I want, with dignity, with courage, with humor, with composure."

Response:
I think this book is interesting so far even though I haven't got very deep in. I have made a few connections to the book. I have felt some of the feelings for example the feeling described in the first quote. I also think the book portrays some of the social norms when it comes to illness and dying for example Morrie talks about how usually people are embarrassed when they are dying and they withdraw themselves from the world before they even die. Also the fact that people get together and talk about the good things and memories and about someones life after they die so they're not there to hear it that's why Morrie decided to have a celebration of his life before he died so he could be there to hear everything.

HW 21

Some insights:
-Death is something that is distant and we are separated from it
-The last 10 days of her husbands life were some of the best days of their marriage
-Telling her husband to let go
-Taking care of her dying husband opposed to having him in the hospital
-It was not peaceful when her husband was dying like they show it in movies and his looks drastically changed
-She accepted that Erik was going to die

The fact that Beth took care of her husband at home with no help stood out to me immediately. Prior to this I had never heard of anyone doing that, usually someone dying is kept in the hospital. I totally agreed with this decision she made, if I had a dying family member I would want to do the same thing. It just seemed so much more peaceful being at home opposed to the hospital which is just doctors in white coats and note pads in an isolated place. Home seems like a much more comfortable place and you can be with the people you love and you don't get covered with a blanket and wheeled away after you die. I know I would much rather die at home.

Another insight was that we are separated from death in our society. I never really thought about this at all. I guess because it has always been normal to me that we're disconnected from death. It has become normal to put someone in a hospital behind closed curtains isolated from the everything. You don't see people die. The person is dying in this unfamiliar uncomfortable place with people they don't know maybe a couple family members.

There are so many questions I still have. How can you accept the fact that someone you love is dying? What do you say to someone during their last days? Is there anything that can really put you at peace? I haven't had much experience with death but I just don't know how people cope with losing people. I also was wondering about our society. How did it become that death is so separated from everyone? Also I was wondering why do they show death differently in movies than it actually is? Why is it covered up and changed so much?

HW 19

My beliefs that my parents were more towards the holistic way of dealing with illness was correct. Both my parents have the same approach to dealing with illness. My mom said that your body is designed to fight off sickness, so a lot of the times people will take medicine when they don't even need it. Instead of taking Tylenol cold pills you can rest and do other things to get rid of a cold. There are many home remedy things my parents tell me to do for example gargling hot salt water when you have a sore throat, putting Vicks in boiling water and put a towel over your head and breath it in to clear your sinuses, and drinking tea with honey. This was how they were brought up, both of my parents said that it was very seldom that they went to the doctors only if they were really sick. Another point they made was that they respect antibiotics and how well they work but when you take medicine so much your body becomes resistant to the drug and your bodies natural defense system gets weaker, so if you take it less it will be more effective when you take it and your body can fight sickness off better when you don't take medicine.
I think one thing that changed from their time to now is that now people always want to see a specialist for something. This is an overlap from my parents time to now that I noticed. I think people need to let their bodies deal with things by themselves, opposed to depending on a drug to fight off sickness. My mom said that she and my father are like this in general they like to figure out things themselves and not always just go to someone else.
I also connected this to the last unit and fastfood. I think that in our society people want everything to be fast and easy. For example like with fastfood people want their food as fast as possible and cheap it's all about whats the fastest and easiest. So if people can take a couple pills and feel better fast they'll do that instead of staying home and getting more rest and doing things that are better for your body. I think this is wrong but I also understand the other side very much. If you have that option of taking medicine even if you know you don't necessarily need it, it's hard to turn that down. When I get a headache I automatically think to take a couple Advil pills. If you get a headache you can go lay down and rest but if you have the option to take a pill and keep doing what you were doing it is more convenient.

HW 18

My experience of this Thanksgiving fit into the anti-body vs body centered practices of our culture. The food pleasure supplement completely dominated and focus of the event. This is always the case with thanksgiving. Everyone from the family makes some food and brings it to one place and everyone has a huge feast. No one worries about what they're eating they're not worrying about their body but just eating and connecting with each other. The food wasn't completely unhealthy so in a way it was both anti-body and body centered practices.
This year there wasn't really many other pleasures practiced. Usually the family is more active and doing fun things but this year everyone just sat around. Some of the family all sat together and watched a movie. The others just sat around in other places and did things like talking, playing pool and watching TV. I think the rainy day out kind of affected everyone. Maybe if it was a sunny nice day out everyone's mood would've been different and everyone would have been more active.
The only background element related to illness and dying I could think of was the lack of movement. Like I said it was really rainy and dark out so I think this may have affected everyone where maybe people would've been out in the back yard or playing basketball or going for a walk. For me personally I felt good, I had a lot of energy and was happy as could be. The weather wasn't affecting my mood. I feel like there wasn't really any relation to illness and death because this is a holiday and everyone is getting together and having fun, so no one is trying to focus on negative things instead everyone is happy. Overall it was nothing special but a gooooood Thanksgiving none the less.

HW 17

I have little experience with illness and dying.  I have been very lucky I still have all of my grandparents and none of them have any serious illness and they're all in their 80's. Why is this though? Is it because my ancestors have been healthy with no diseases for generations? I have been sick but never really badly that I needed to be in a hospital.  My second cousin developed diabetes when he was about 11 or 12. It came out of nowhere, none of his father's or mother's families have had diabetes. He is the same age as I am, he has to give himself insulin and he has to always think about his blood sugar level, he knows what to do when it's too high and he can feel when it's too low. This makes me wonder how can we be healthy if something like this can happen? A disease just comes out of nowhere.. How can we prevent that? In our countries we may survive some serious illness that may cause death in other poor or 3rd world countries. I know someone that is sick with both diabetes and kidney disease. He needs to go into the hospital for dialysis once every week. But in this case both of his parents died from diabetes in their 50's. If he would've stayed in his country he would have probably not have survived to be as old as he is now.  
For dying, I've had a few family members pass away recently from old age and a heart attack. I don't know anyone dying now.  I've been taught that dying is part of the life cycle, everything that is alive will eventually die. I've been taught that everyone has there time to go, that's why it's good to fight illness because if it's not your time to go you'll survive. It's important to take care of yourself and celebrate life to understand your purpose in life.
I think the social norms around illness and dying is that you have to support that person.  Everyone sends in get well cards and flowers when someone is sick in the hospital.  When it comes to dying it is the same and people try to comfort the family and the person that may be dying. Another thing in our society is that you're not allowed to help a dying person that's suffering by letting them go. It's illegal to stop treatments and let the person die. I don't think this is necessarily right, I understand that it's a difficult decision and who can make the decision is also difficult but I think if the person is hurting and suffering and is ready to die they should be allowed to do so.

HW 11 Group Video

Group video-

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3gKJoHMYaA

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap3KwU1gZO0

My ending-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr5WpOzAPTw

HW 12

Thesis:  Many of the dominant social practices in our society - practices that define a "normal" life - on further investigation turn out to involve nightmares and industrial atrocities.

Main claim:  Through our dominant culture we view our foods as normal but when it is further investigated you can see that our food is being made differently then we imagine.

Claim 1:  Slaughterhouse conditions

Evidence:  Fast food nation- Animal treatment

Evidence:  Injury statistics in slaughterhouses

Evidence:  E. coli statistics

Claim 2:  Food is sold to society without information about how the food is produced.

Evidence:  Food labeling

Evidence:  Cleaning meat (bleached)- Food Inc.

Evidence:  Overcrowding animals at farms/slaughterhouses

HW 10

The food industry is very corrupt.  Fast food has made a few certain food companies have all the power, these companies then control everything, have too much power and take over and put the smaller farms/slaughterhouses out of business.  The mass production companies try to make all farmers farm their way instead of the healthier ways and they have control of farmers because they're usually in debt so they basically own them.  Many people in the government used to be part of the big food companies, so there isn't any significant changes being made to make our food healthier.  

I felt like the movie made me feel like the companies were so corrupt and powerful because they're tied to the government and it made it seem like it's impossible to beat the mass production food companies.  For example like when the movie was talking about saving seeds and the farmer told the story of when people were following and breaking into his farm trying to get him.  Also a part that I felt was emphasized more was how the big companies make it almost impossible for farmers to do produce food the healthier ways.  That way they make it easier on the farmers if they just do it the way the big companies want it to be done.  On the other hand I felt like the book showed a lot more statistics and that really gets to me because it helps me understand it in numbers and a lot of the statistics were insane and hard to believe.  I felt like the book focused more on the problems in the food industry and not as much on the corruption.   

Something that really stuck with me is how corrupted the food system has become and how it is was able to become like this.  It's pretty scary and it seems very hard to change for example the Kevin law still hasn't past and it's been years.  I can't really blame the people running the major food companies though because I feel like that's how our society/world made them, money is the most important thing everything revolves around money in our society so people will do whatever it takes to make money and that's all they'll think about.  It's messed up though because the farmers that seem like they really care, are forced out of doing things the healthy and proper way.  I'm wondering if there if there's a realistic way to eat healthier and stay away from the bad stuff while staying cheap.

HW 7D

Chapter 9-
Precis:  Beef is unsafe because of the conditions the cattle are kept in they're more likely to spread E. coli.  Many people get food poisoning from eating beef mostly children and some even die at a young age.  Burgers were considered food for poor people and unsafe to eat a long time ago but after World War 2 it became very popular because the cattle prices were low and fast food industry was growing.  There are still thousands of people who get food poisoning each year because of E. coli.

Gem:  "In the eight years since the Jack in the Box outbreak, approximately half a million Americans, the majority of them children, have been made ill by E. coli O157:H7.  Thousands have been hospitalized and hundreds have died."

Thoughts:  I never knew that Burgers used to be considered food for the poor and considered unsafe and unhealthy to eat.  I would've never known nowadays because it is a very popular food.  Once again I think it's sad how because the companies aren't careful enough with their cattle so many people get food poisoning and children are dying just from eating these burgers..  Oh and I was pretty disgusted when it said there's video surveillance of fast food employees sneezing in their hands while preparing food, picking their noses and flicking their cigarettes into meals about to be served, this book really makes you scared to eat anything at all, is it even possible to eat something that is done right and safe to eat?


Chapter 10-
Precis:  Fast food companies are making even more money by being spread around the world now at a much higher rate than before.  The fast food companies are targeting foreign countries in the same way, targeting children all over the world.  Other countries starting to pick up our fast food ways and it is showing people all over the world are getting fatter and fatter especially teenagers and children, but they're also starting to become "Americanized" in a bigger sense.  Although some countries are more human about it for example Sweden cut off all advertising towards children.

Gem:  "A decade ago McDonald's had about three thousand restaurants outside the United States; today it has about seventeen thousand restaurants in more than 120 foreign countries.  It currently opens about five new restaurants every day, at least four of them are overseas."

Thoughts:  This chapter made me realize how much fast food is expanding by the day.  I didn't think it was still expanding at such a high rate.  Also it made me realize that our country may be the worst but fastfood is a problem all around the world.  There is no need for one company to open about five new restaurants a DAY.

Epilogue-
Precis:  It is possible to still successfully farm healthy and make healthy meat, there are still farmers that do it and are good in business and the product they make has much less fat and tastes more.  The natural way is easier and makes better food.  It is possible to change the food industry, even do fast food better a perfect example is In-N-Out.  The government needs to get on top of inspections and ways to make foods healthier and prevent things like E. coli, they need to make laws and create one food safety agency to actually protect the public's health.

Gem:  "Every month more than 90 percent of the children in the United States eat at McDonald's."

Thoughts  After this whole book about how everything with our food is so horrible, this last chapter gave me hope and made me think that it is going to be possible to turn the food industry around.  I think the people just all have to demand it.  Like it said that McDonald's is very quick to respond to costumers protesting at one part, everything revolves around what the costumers want.  Also the In-N-Out part was really interesting to me because I traveled out west before and I had In-N-Out and I thought it was just like any other fast food place and I actually thought their food was really good, so to find out that they don't do things like other fast food restaurants was interesting because if they can do things different then  all the fast food restaurants should be able to.  I think it's going to be hard to get the food industry to change and a little while but I'm sure it'll come eventually.  

HW 7C

Chapter 7-

Precis:  Monfort figured out that if cattle were fed grain instead of grass they got fatter and made better meat that was more fatty and lean.  The idea spread and got out of control.  The slaughterhouses changed over time and went from a high paying job to a low paying dangerous job that was designed to move more efficiently and require less skill.  The business was corrupted by rich people at the top trying to make more money than they already were.  

Gem:  "Memorably, a workplace accident in which a man fell into a vat and got turned into lard.  The plant kept running, and the lard was sold to unsuspecting consumers.  Human beings, Sinclair argued, had been made 'cogs in the great packing machine'".

Thoughts:  This chapter made me realize how the idea of fast food wasn't just applied for the food being served fast and cheap but they tried to make the whole business like that.  The meat packing industry was taken over and made into a dangerous low paying job.  They broke up the jobs at factories so they didn't require skill and people would just do one thing and stand there and do that same thing over and over all day such as making a certain cut in meat.  The whole fast food industry is corrupted and people are forced to play into it.

Chapter 8-
Precis:  The meatpacking business has became one of the most dangerous working in slaughterhouses.  There is a very high injury rate, the workers are pushed to work at a faster rate but the faster rate they work at the higher a chance of injury there is.  Workers are usually poor, or illegal immigrants, so they don't want to complain because they can easily be fired and replaced.  This leads to many injuries, the people are often lied to about their injuries so they can get back to work faster.

Gem:  "While Kenny Dobbins was recuperating, Monfort fired him.  Despite the fact that Kenny had been with the company for almost sixteen years, despite the fact  that he was first in seniority at the Greeley plant, that he'd cleaned blood tanks with his bare hands, fought the union, done whatever the company had asked him to do, suffered injuries that would've killed weaker men, nobody from Monfort called him with the news.  Nobody even bothered to write him."

Thoughts:  This chapter showed me even more about how people don't care about others and just want to get things done quickly and make as much money as possible.  It's all money.  The people working at the slaughterhouses are so desperate for money they'll kill helpless animals all day and put up with horrible conditions and they don't even really have a choice.  The story about Kenny Dobbins really showed this to me because this guy had like 10 severe injuries and almost killed himself many times working, saved another workers life, and would do anything for this company and then they just fire him.  They don't care at all.  They don't want there workers taking any days off even if they are really hurt.  I didn't even talk about the killing the animals too...

HW 8 Growing our own food

.....My sandwich.....  It's a sandwich with turkey, cheese, mayo and my own grown sprouts!  This is experience was not necessarily bad but not special to me either.  My first sprouts never grew and I was told to consider if I am cold hearted and not loving, so then I took more seeds and loved them more and sure enough they grew.  I found it kind of annoying to have to remember to water them twice a day but it wasn't bad at all.  On the sandwich it seemed something like putting lettuce on a sandwich it wasn't one of the main tastes of the sandwich but it was there.  I didn't think it tasted bad but I didn't find it special and something I really enjoyed on my sandwich.  The only thing bad was that it took me like 2 weeks to get some sprouts grown and it only lasted one sandwich, that was eaten in a couple minutes.  It's all good though because I grew my own food.

HW 7b

Chapter 4-

Precis:  Small businesses such as pizza shops get sold out by bigger fast food chains.  Local businesses are go out of business because a fast food restaurant such as McDonalds is being built across the street.  The government gives more money to the larger chains.  

Gem:"None of it matters"-Christopher Reeve

Thoughts:  At the end of it all it's not worth it to have so much money.  Christopher Reeve is being connected to the fast food chains because they have all this money and they're not caring about small businesses and they're making peoples lives horrible but at the end of the day Christopher Reeve points out that all the money that they're making none of that really matters.  I thought this connection was very interesting.  

Chapter 5-

Precis:  Drying potatoes and onions began during World War 2 to feed people in the military.  It is now used for fast foods making the potatoes are dried and frozen eventually made into french fries.  They're made with technology, they are given a certain fragrance to make the food more appealing to people. 

Gem:  "About 90% of the money that Americans spend on food is used to buy processed food"

Thoughts:  This is insane, these fast food chains really will do anything to make you want their food.  It's pretty insane how far they will go, making a food smell different then it actually does to make people eat it…. They're brainwashing everyone!

Chapter 6-

Precis:  The fast food chains took over the poultry and now are taking over the meatpacking industry.  This gives the top 4 companies almost all the power and makes it almost impossible for local small companies.  The fast food companies purchasing the meat have control over the meatpacking industry and they buy the meat for very cheap and the ranchers get less money for their cattle.  All this puts farmers and ranchers in a bad situation unless they are part of the top 4 meatpacking firms.

Gem:  "The suicide rate among ranchers and farmers in the United States is now about three times higher than the national average."

Thoughts:  This chapter just is sad once again, the fast food companies are just doing what works out best for them and what will make them the most money.  They aren't thinking about the people's lives they're ruining.  They are making people go out of business and even kill themselves.

HW 7

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser 

Intro-

There is a military base inside Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado, the only food close are fast food restaurants which is what the workers eat mostly,  if it were all to be bombed the only thing people would find would be remains of fast food.  Fast food has become a huge part of American society.  Hundreds of millions of people buy fast food every day without thinking about it and what that really means. 

"A survey of American schoolchildren found that 96 precent could i denitrify Ronald McDonald.  The only fictional character with a higher degree of recognition was Santa Claus."

I agree with everything that was said in the intro but I don't know myself about all the bad things associated with fast foods.  I think that this book is going to teach me about how fast food has turned into a really bad thing.  I have a feeling there will be many scary statistics relate to fast foods.  

Chapter 1-   

Carl N. Karcher was one of the founding fathers of fast food.  He was a regular guy who grew up on a farm, he started with his restaurant and traveled around the country with his ideas.  The people that started fast food were just regular people trying to make money and spread this idea of getting people food fast and conveniently.  Then fast food's progress exploded.

"Thinking that he'd misunderstood the question, I rephrased it, asking if he ever missed the old Anaheim, the ranches and citrus groves.  'No,' he answered.  'I believe in Progress'."

I think it's interesting that the people who started fast foods had no idea on how it would expand and become such an important thing.  They just had the intentions of selling their foods and spreading the idea of convenient food.

Chapter 2-

Fast food restaurants often target towards children which introduces fast food's to their life styles.  The fast food restaurants have commercials all over TV and give children toys with the food and advertising with cartoons and characters.  The fast food chains are brainwashing as many people as possible to buy their food. 

"The chains often distribute numerous versions of a toy, encouraging repeat visits by small children".

I think this chapter is disturbing because the food that fast food places sell often is unhealthy.  They're using methods that they know will lure children into asking for the food, and then if they keep getting fast foods it becomes part of their lifestyles.  It's one thing if you're trying to get adults to buy your food but children don't understand as much and are lured in just from bright colored toys.  

Chapter 3-

All around America places are starting to look almost identical with tons of fast food restaurants side by side.  Colorado Springs is a place in America that doesn't quite have an identity yet, it is open to new things and it is often used as a place to test fast food ideas, problems that were in California where fast food started are now showing up in Colorado Springs.  The fast food restaurants employ so many people, they employees are not paid very well or trained, they base who they chose for employees based on obedience.  

"The three corporations now employ about 3.7 million people worldwide".

I think this chapter is scary.  To me it seems like the fast food companies have a whole system where they lure people into buying there food in many ways and there a strict system to it.  It seems like an art of brainwashing people and getting people to buy your product.  They find out where the best places for the restaurants are, how to draw in different groups of people including children and how to keep people coming back more and more.    

HW 6 - Food Diary

 Aha classic...  Subways footlong oven roasted chicken breast on italian herbs and cheese bread, with cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and honey mustard.  I like this sandwich for many reasons.  Chicken is one of my favorite foods, I like all the other things I put on the sandwich.  Also because it is a good amount of food for a relatively cheap price.  I think this is one of the healthier things I eat for lunch and it's $5.44 for this sandwich that's good bread.  Not quite as good as dollar pizza and dollar menu at McDonalds but it's good enough.  I don't really know how to explain how I feel while I eat but I'll try...  I was pretty satisfied the tastes go good together with the chicken and cheese and the vegetables and honey mustard.  Although this specific time the tomatoes tasted kind of weird and the bread was a little too hard, so I have had better experiences but satisfying none the less.

 This was dinner that my father made Wednesday night.  I'm not the biggest fan of this but I eat whatever's put in front of me, plus it's healthy so it's good to get some healthy in my diet so I don't die from a heart attack.  This is a salad with spinach with sweet potatoes.  I had three servings of the salad because it takes more to fill me up because it's a salad.  I also had two pillsbury biscuits which I really like.  This happens usually I will eat healthy dinners because it's what my parents make and they like eating healthy.  I don't have a problem with it usually because it isn't horrible and sometimes I like how it tastes but even if I don't I know it's good for me.



This was breakfast Thursday morning. I had left over biscuits from the night before with jelly on them, a peach yogurt, cantaloupe, strawberries, and chocolate milk.  This is a bigger breakfast then I usually eat, I usually have a bowl of cereal and some type of fruit.  I enjoyed this meal because I like the biscuits, the fruits were sweet, the chocolate milk had just enough Nesquik in it and the yogurt was just a normal yogurt.  I ate more then usual so I would stay full for longer and not be as hungry at lunch because I didn't have much money to spend.  That worked successfully and the meal was on point.


I couldn't exactly figure out the calories that I ate over the 48 hours.  But I have figured out before how many calories I should be taking in and how many calories I do take in and I figured out that I take in more than I am supposed to but I don't pay too much mind to it.  I know that I really like eating and I don't believe in counting calories (I was just interested in seeing that one time).  The nutrition for the meals above that I ate vary.  I think that all of the foods that I posted up are somewhat healthy, the other two foods I had were beef tacos, and a crispy chicken deluxe meal from Wendy's.  So I think that some of my foods are healthy but some are also very unhealthy.  I feel I picked the food I did because I like the  taste of the food and because it is cheap, there were also foods that I ate that I didn't pick but was just meals that my parents made for me.  I feel good about the food I ate over the past 48 hours because I thought it all tasted good and there was a balance in the healthiness.

HW 5 - Dominant Discourses Regarding Contemporary Foodways in the U.S.

The way I would put a dominant discourse is how something is being viewed at the time based on what many people think but at the same time how the media decides to show it.  There may be many views on the topic, but the dominant discourse is the view that is showed and focused on the most.  I do believe that the dominant discourses that are related to food today are definitely that food is poison or that food is medicine.  Eating healthy is a much bigger issue than it used to be and the media is showing how some foods are bad for your health and/or showing what foods are good for your health.  People believe what they hear on the media because often the information is being displayed with evidence done in tests.  This way it's not just anyone giving their ideas it is doctors and scientists that found evidence of foods being bad for your or foods being good for you.  Usually for foods that the media shows is good for you are foods that are low on fat.

Fast food restaurants are shown as selling unhealthy food that's bad for you.  So in this discourse fast food places are the bad guys.  I found an article about the public school's food system.  "In the past three years, the government has provided the nation's schools with millions of pounds of beef and chicken that wouldn't meet the quality or safety standards of many fast-food restaurants, from Jack in the Boxand other burger places to chicken chains such as KFC, a USA TODAY investigation found", (http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-12-08-school-lunch-standards_N.htm?csp=34&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+usatoday-NewsTopStories+%28News+-+Top+Stories%29).  This quote is basically saying that the government is feeding schools with food that is very unhealthy.  They use fast food restaurants as an example to show how unhealthy the meats are.  They use fast food as if it is impossible to get worse food then fast food uses.  The meat fed to the schools gets much less testing for contamination than fast food restaurants get.  This shows the dominant discourse because an investigation was done on the food in the schools and is showing how the food the children in our country is poison, it's worse and less safe then fast food.  

I came across another article that is about the same thing as the previous article.  This again stressed how bad the food being fed to children at schools was unsafe and unhealthy.  "According to the New York Times, if changes like this are enacted, it will mark the first time since the 1970s that nutrition rules for school lunches are updated. Expect Congress to start its review after the first of the year", (http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2009/12/school_lunch_nutrition_worse_t.html).  This quote is saying that the government is going to look over the nutritional rules for the school systems foods.  This also shows the dominant discourse because this will be the first time since the 1970s that the rules for the schools food have changed.  This means almost 40 years and the foods rules haven't been changed, just now is the healthiness of  the schools foods is being payed attention to.

Based on these articles it does seem that the writing does think that we are living in a time where significant reform of U.S. foodways might occur because they think that the investigation will cause the government to change the rules for the schools foods.  They are writing these articles to show how the schools food system is unhealthy and unsafe, that way people will be aware and it will be changed.  I imagine that the food practices of a reasonably well-informed member of our society whose worldview gets sculpted by the dominant discourse might be that they eat very healthy with many fruits, vegetables, low fat and low sugar foods.  I think that person thinks of food as a necessity, something they need.  They need to have food but they have to keep track of everything they're eating and the fat and calories so they can stay healthy and in shape.  

HW 4 - Your Families' Foodways

         We all approach food in different ways.  My mother said that her mother was the one that always made dinner for the family.  It was the same for my father's parents.  They did have different foodways though.  My mother's mother wasn't very into cooking, she was interested and busy with many other things.  So usually she was just making a simple meal to feed the family like a soup and grilled cheese, or meat and potatoes.  My father's mother had to feed many kids so she made a lot of food and she enjoyed it because she's a caring person so she makes what people want to eat and gets joy out of feeding people.  Her meals were usually some type of meat, some starchy type of food like potatoes, bread, a variety of vegetables and a salad.  Both my parents say that the food their parents made was usually pretty healthy.  Also my parents said that a big difference was that was when they were kids their parents always had to make food at home, food wasn't as easy you couldn't just go out and buy something to eat they always had to cook.  

My parents foodways are different from their parents though.  One difference I noticed immediately was that my father makes dinner a lot because my mother usually works until the time we usually eat at.  Opposed to their parents where both of their mothers always made food for the family.  I my own experience I know that my parents eat differently from my grandparents.  My parents told me that they always like to make food at home because it saves a lot of money, and you can make something for much cheaper then you can buy it it already made.  They told me that they base what they cook around:  what is healthy, something that my brothers and I would like to eat, and what they like to eat.  This is similar to their parents.  I know that to my mother food is sacred she loves cooking and baking.  So that is a difference from her mother who just made food to feed the family.  A big difference that my parents told me that there is much more information on food and more research being done.  They will often make salads for dinner because now they said that now they found that to eat meats every single day is not good for you which is what my father's mother used to usually do.  That was a big point they kept bringing up for their difference in foodways from their parents because more and more things about food and what is good and what's not good for your health.  

Lastly my foodways, I have very different foldaways from my parents.  I do have a balance in my diet.  I eat healthy and focus on doing that sometimes and then I pig out and just eat whatever I want to eat sometimes also.  I like foods that I know are not good for me and I still eat them.  I asked why my parents think that my foodways are different then theirs.  I told them that I don't really care much about if my food is healthy but mostly I focus on what I think tastes good and what I like to eat.  My father said he really thinks that's just youth.  He said teenagers think they're invincible and nothing can harm them.  He said that over time my views on food will change and I will start to see that I can't always just eat whatever I want.  I hope my foodways don't change because I like eating whatever I want and I feel like if I can't I won't enjoy food as much because then it becomes just another thing I have to worry about instead of something I look forward to.  

HW 3 - Food - Fast Food Insights and Green Market Realizations

The comparison between Wendy's and the Green Market in Union Square was very interesting.  When we went to Wendy's it was packed, I saw  a diverse group of people there were young, middle aged and old people but mostly there were minorities.  Also there were many people overweight. I noticed that there were advertisements all over outside and inside the Wendy's.  There was even a man outside trying to sell us coupons, one dollar for a book that would get you 10 frostys.  The advertisements aimed towards all different types of people.  People that were trying to get a large amount of food, people trying to eat healthier, and people trying to eat for cheap.  The people we talked to said that they were eating Wendy's because they thought the burgers and fries were decent and because the food is cheap opposed to other food places in the area.  When we went to the Green Market it was also very crowded with many costumers.  Almost all the people I saw were fit middle aged white people.  I didn't see any teenagers, I didn't see many minorities,  and I saw about three overweight people.  I also saw many advertisements in the Green Market of course because people are trying to sell their products.  The Green Market had a lot of fruits and vegetables and definitely sold much healthier foods. 

I think fast food is so successful because it is fast you can go in and come back out with your food in a few minutes.  Also because the food is cheap a meal can be bought for around five dollars this is very important to people especially because of the recession people are trying to save money.  Lastly because people like the food even if it is not good for your health.  I think fast food chains are responding to the sort of health-consciousness that the Green Market represents by making healthier foods on their menu or at least trying to make their food seem healthier and better for you.  I think this is good because I believe that they are making the food slightly more healthy and it's moving in a positive direction.  The different people we met had different approaches towards food.  The people that we talked to in Wendy's seemed like food was just a commodity to them and they just ate it because it was cheap and they were eating it because they need food.  Although I must say a couple people I saw in Wendy's actually looked like they were really enjoying the food.  In the Green Market the people seemed just focused on eating healthier and in my opinion it seemed like food was more sacred to them.  Out of the two locations I definitely visit the fast-food normally.  To me this is fine because when I'm outside I'm spending my own money and I want food that's fast and cheap and that I think tastes good, but when I'm at home I'm usually eating what my parents make and my mother shops at the Green Market all the time so in the end I do both types of food and a balance is cool with me. 

HW 2 - Food - Initial Thoughts

FOOD!  I love food.  It is one of my favorite things in life.  It's so good, it makes me happy just thinking about it.  This might sound bad but I don't care if the food is bad for me or when people want me to care about what's in whatever I'm eating.  I think this is because I don't believe in things like that, if you try to do everything perfect you're going to go insane, so it's just important that the food I'm eating tastes good to me.  Although I don't always eat unhealthy, in fact I think I have a pretty balanced diet.  My parents cook dinner for me almost every night and they usually make healthy food.  Also I eat fruits and vegetables and a little bit of everything, even things I dislike.  I play basketball a lot, run around a lot and have a fast metabolism so I don't worry about getting fat.  I like all different types of food and I don't have any ideal meal or typical meal because I like switching it up.

Food is a very important thing in the world today and it has always been.  Food is a big part in society, it is a daily routine and it is also something people use to socialize, entertain and connect with others.  You can tell a lot about a person by what they eat.  Whether they just go for the cheapest foods, what they think tastes best, or what they think is the healthiest and best for their body.  I think that people's preferences for food get developed at a young age based on what they are fed by their parents and what is available to them.  Also your nationality may be a part that has an effect on what you eat.  Different parts of the world have all different types of food and ways of preparing food.  I think this is because food wont be the same everywhere, which probably goes way back in time.  Not every place in the world would have the same resources and food available in the area.  I think this is a big reason food is so special because there are so many different types and ways of preparing food so it can never get old.

In the end food is the best and just one of the great things in life, I think everyone loves food.