Whenever I mention that one of my favorite foods is salad, most people usually tell me that it is a pretty boring choice. Although I love a good slice of pizza, salad has always been one of my favorite healthy snacks. My love for salad can be explained by several social factors. My first dinner at Penn was what inspired me to consider vegetarianism. I knew that eating in college was going to be hard since I was so used to eating home cooked meals. When I had my first bite of meat in the dining hall, I knew that I was going to have trouble adjusting to the food choices at Penn. The only meats I enjoyed prior to moving into college were chicken and fish. Although there are some chicken and fish options in the dining halls, they did not …show more content…
It was convenient for my mother to pack me salads for lunch, and there was a wide variety of salads in the school cafeterias. Salads at school were cheap, fresh, and versatile. I enjoyed having a new combination of vegetables and dressing in my salad each day. It was during Lent when I realized that it is hard for me to get sick of salad. There are hundreds of salad dressings, and each of them give the food a unique taste. The versatility, accessibility, and convenience of salad allowed me to begin my journey to vegetarianism every year during …show more content…
This is where the sociological imagination comes into play. From the sociological perspective, a vegetarian diet or love for salad might be explained by one being opposed to factory farms. Factory farms are plantations where cows, chickens, turkeys, and pigs are locked in tiny cages, starved, and injected with growth hormones so the farmers can have more meat to sell (Calderone). These growth hormones can have negative effects on our health, and they have often been linked to various types of cancer (Factory Farming). Not only are factory farms incredibly cruel, but they are also unsanitary. Animals are forced to live in crowded, dirty cages. The failure of the farmers to clean animal waste can transfer a lot of bacteria to the meat that they sell, and this can lead to a lot of health problems for the consumer. In order to avoid supporting cruel and unhealthy practices like these, many members of our society choose to become
In the articles “An Animals Place,” by Michael Pollan, and “The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals,” by Blake Hurst, the controversial methods of farming in today’s society are examined. Modern farming methods are a relevant topic of discussion because the foods that people consume have a direct impact on their health, therefore they should be aware of the procedures that farming methods employ. Pollan and Hurst have differing beliefs on farming methods, but similar interests in the environment, people, and animals. In the article “An Animals Place,” the author, Michael Pollan sheds light on the barbaric institution of American meat-packing.
A Rhetorical Analysis of “Against Meat” by Jonathan Safran Foer The standard way of thinking about vegetarianism has it that you either are one or you are not. While it is rarely discussed between omnivores and herbivores over dinner, vegetarians often fall into a category more accurately described as conscientious meat eaters. In Jonathan Safran Foer’s essay, “Against Meat,” he describes his personal plight to become, and remain, a vegetarian through-out his life.
Introduction In this article “Against Meat” (2009) Jonathan Safran Foer explains his experience from a young age until the present struggling whether being a vegetarian or an omnivore because he doesn’t want to hurt animals at the same time he can’t resist food because it tasted good. Jonathan Safran Foer is an American novelist (born February 21, 1977) He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in philosophy, in his freshman year he took a writing class from the novelist Joyce Carol.
Even through things might not happen as bad as once was but still it happens today where and how we slaughter the animals are not always done in a sanitary way. In the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan also talks about slaughterhouse in the United States in chapter twelve. He mentions how the slaughterhouse that he visited made sure that there killing was clean because the buyer could come and watch them kill the animal. They then discuss that they how most factories don’t have people that allow to see them kill the animals.
Within four decades there has been change, but perhaps in the wrong direction. Animals still live in confined areas with diseases and illnesses. The only change that has been made is that of the use of antibiotics, ammonia, and bleach to “purify” the meat. As is the saying you are what you eat could not be truer as it has been shown these chemicals added to our food (for the sake of high demand in meat and an ever higher demand for cheap goods) have caused harm to those consuming it. Cohen addresses this problem by adding, “But this is an unusually promising moment for food safety.
In the book The Omnivores Dilemma, by Michael Pollan he brings us on his journey with him through analyzing the model of “four meals” and how our thinking habits have changed the way we choose to eat and go about eating throughout the years and the role our society and the different expectations put on individuals has effected their thoughts and relationship to food. Each section and chapter of the book is broken up into different fads, opinions and findings that Pollan has found along his journey. Throughout the book his pre determined notions and thoughts around our society with food is challenged but also is backed up by different healthful and food activists like himself and how like minded people can differer in opinions and thoughts on how our society has changed involving
Instead, big companies are choosing to risk their client’s health by feeding animals what they are not supposed to eat and pumping them with e Coli and stuffing them in a tiny barn where they can’t flap a wing and are forced to stand in feces which may or may not be their own . In The Jungle, they described how they treated dead animal meat, now just imagine how they must have treated the alive animals. This next quote is describing how they kept the meat . “Every Spring they did it; and in the barrels there would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water- and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat, and sent out to the public’s breakfast” (Pg. 143, The Jungle)
Eating Factory Farm-Raised Meat The American diet focuses heavily on animal products and factory farm-raised meat. Factory farming is a system of large-scale industrialized and intensive agriculture that is focused on profit with animals kept indoors and restricted in mobility. Factory farming is a very profitable business and seems to be growing daily and supported my many Americans purchasing these products. Most people don’t know where the meat they eat comes from, let alone know how these animals are treated during the entire producing process.
Look back at what you ate at school and ask yourself if it is healthy. Is there healthy alternatives to school lunch? Is there a variety of choices to choose from? Are there any vegetarian choices for the students? These are just some of the basic questions you would ask yourself when thinking about the risks of school lunches.
Growing up I always had a deep connection with animals and always felt like there was something wrong with consuming them. However, like most people at a very young age I was taught that consumption of meat was essential in order to be healthy despite all of the issues that come along with it. Most of my life I consumed meat and dairy because I chose to believe what our government, health intuitions, and society said. I had on my blinders like most people. During my junior year of high school, I made a blog for my English class about the environmental impacts of consuming meat and dairy as well as the health risks.
The author of this article is Mark Bittman. This article is about American’s meat consumption and the health and environmental problems that come with it. Mark’s argument is that Americans should cut down on meat consumption, because it causes environmental problems, health problems and a lower standard on animal welfare. The first point Mark presents is that meat consumption causes environmental problems.
Michael Pollan’s alternative to Factory farming has given a huge insight into a better ethics on food. In “The Animals: Practicing Complexity” Michael Pollan writes about a polyface farm and how it works. The goal of a polyface farm is to emotionally, economically, and environmentally enhance agriculture. Everything on a polyface farm has the potential to be helpful to something else on the farm. Pollan states “The chicken feed not only feeds the broilers but, transformed into chicken crap, feeds the grass that feeds the cows that, as I was about to see, feeds the pigs and the laying hens” (Pollan 345).
This is seen through her inability to display and consider opposing views, through her one-sided style and tone of writing, and through her incapability to present sound and uniform evidence throughout her essay. First, Garretson’s inability to consider opposing views, ultimately, affects the strength of her argument and lessens the credibility of the points she provides. Second, although Garretson’s writing may be effective and strong, the partial style and tone that she expresses seems to help reinforce a tactic that does not rely on facts, statistics and so forth, but rather, relies on emotional appeals to pity, fear, and trust, as a way to help sway the reader into trusting and believing her points on vegetarianism. Lastly, the evidence that Garretson supplies proves to not demonstrate soundness and uniformity. As a result, the claims that she makes cannot be considered seriously to demonstrate her points on vegetarianism effectively.
Imagine a day in the life of a common farm animal. Far from the peaceful grazing life one would envision, the livestock of today endure horrific conditions - from suffering painful diseases to being separated from their mothers at too young of an age. Not only are these conditions harmful to the animals, the food produced by them is unnecessary to humanity’s well-being and can even be damaging to society’s overall health. Since the definition of ethics is having well-founded standards of right and wrong, this process of producing meat for our consumption is unethical.
Today the modern American is not vegan, but what is commonly known as a “meat-eater,” or more specifically an omnivore. It is widely known that eating meat comes with various positive and negative attributions. Though for non meat-eaters, where does their health state stand? Becoming vegan for one's health,