When buying food, when do you second guess purchasing it because you don’t know where it came from, how much it costed to be manufactured, or if it has been dyed or chemically treated? Consumers of food are quite oblivious to what is done to the food they purchase and eat. In Harvey Blatt’s, America's Food:What You Don't Know About What You Eat, he states, “We don't think much about how food gets to our tables, or what had to happen to fill our supermarket's produce section with perfectly round red tomatoes and its meat counter with slabs of beautifully marbled steak” (Blatt). He also goes to say, “We don't realize that the meat in one fast-food hamburger may come from a thousand different cattle raised in five different countries. In fact, …show more content…
Consumers pay whatever the cost is without asking questions such as how fresh and clean it is, where it came from, is it chemical free, how it was manufactured, and many more. The food industry, like all industries, cares more about volume and price rather than quality and health. People are very ignorant about the foods they eat daily, and Berry argues that they need to become more aware. Readers should feel they can eat more responsibly and restore their consciousness of what is involved in eating after reading this …show more content…
The essay repeatedly states that we do not know what our food goes through, where it comes from, and that we are ignorant to the food industry. Berry says, “The consumer must be kept from discovering that in the food industry, the overriding concerns are not quality and health, but volume and price.” In basic terms, the food industry does not care about the health of their consumers but their profit. The essay also repeats questions that the reader should ask themselves, such as, How fresh is it? How pure or clean is it, how free of dangerous chemicals? How far was it transported, and what did transportation add to the cost? How much did manufacturing or packaging or advertising add to the cost? When the food product has been manufactured or ‘processed’ or ‘precooked,’ how has that affected its quality or price or nutritional value? (Berry) By repeating these questions and statements throughout the article, Berry really makes readers think about things they do not know about their food. Repetition allows him to emphasize his thoughts and draws attention to his main point. These phrases are repeated with the word “how,” because that specific word makes the readers really think. These questions, once people begin to answer them in your head, lead to negatives that the food industry contains. Berry wants the people to know the industry does not care about their health; only about
As a consumer, we feel that when we go to the store, we have freedom to choose what we want to eat. However, that freedom is limited and we do not even realize it. Stores choose what to have in stock and we are persuaded to buy the things they have. Let us go back to where the food we see today started to evolve.
The Food Inc is a documentary film produced by Robert Kenner. Robert has had a huge impact on American consumers and has helped many food products and industries. Food Inc sheds light on the food industry and throughout the movie it shows the movie aims to educate its audience about the truth of their food and to convert the misinformed people to inspire a change against the food industry practices. The Food Industry has been feeding us for generations, and we have the right to know what they’re doing to give us an advantage and a disadvantage. One of the advantages is that the volume of food is increasing which can lower the price dramatically.
In every store, it seems that almost all the food that sits on the shelves are processed. Despite their poor nutrition value, the food industry gives them eye-catching packaging, creates nostalgia and most of all they give them addictive flavors. Eric Schlosser, an investigative journalist from the Rolling Stone, wrote a two-part investigation on the fast-food industry in 1998 and later published the book Fast Food Nation in 2001. During this time, fast food and processed foods were becoming much more popular and the ingredients used in most of them were unknown to the public. In an excerpt from his book called “Meat and Potatoes,” he exposes the industry’s use of chemicals to make food more appealing to the consumer.
Intro: When people eat food they do not think about what is in it, or how it is made. The only thing people care about is what the food tastes like and how much they get. During the 1900’s the meat packing industry had not regulations of any kind. All that mattered to the industry was that they made as much money as possible with as little expenditure as possible. During this times people were often made sick and died either from working conditions or poor food quality.
The director’s assertion, in the film, is also that food companies are in control of what goes in our food and how is it produced. The documentary investigates
In closing, Mary Maxfield does not address the how society should meet there needs. Proceeding through the beginning of her article Mary claims we can eat as we always have and thrive, and her solution at the end is to trust ourselves, our bodies, and meet our needs. Here Maxfield contradicts herself against her own word and straddles the fence without even knowing it. Mary neglects to discuss the cognitive role in this article, yet she gives her own perception regarding the principles of food.
With that being said, most restaurants and grocery stores are declining industrialized foods, giving the name, “food-like substances.” Freedman feels that it is not a realistic way to stop this obesity epidemic by trying to persuade people into completely changing their habits of eating. Instead, Freedman believes that incorporating better ingredients in processed foods will
During the first week of class, four readings were assigned. One of the readings, “Food and Eating: Some Persisting Questions,” by Sidney Mintz, discusses the paradoxes of food. Although food seems like a straightforward concept, it is actually extremely complicated. According to Mintz, there are five paradoxes, including: the importance of food to one’s survival, yet we take it for granted, how people stick to their foodways, but are willing to change, whether the government should allow people to freely choose food or if they should protect the people through regulations, the difference in food meanings according to gender, and the morality of eating certain foods. All of these paradoxes give people questions to think about, making this an extremely philosophical look at food studies.
Upton Sinclair’s, The Jungle is a novel, which affected the food industry in 1900’s but also in America today. People have learned over the years the truths about the food industry, revealed through Sinclair’s detailed evidence. Sinclair meant to aim at the public’s heart but instead he shot straight at their stomachs. One would easily be convinced to never again buy or eat meat again. Fortunately, people have seen changes from 1906 and have been currently trying to repair the Food Industry.
Peter Singer’s lead us in these issues throughout the article to point out how complex our choices of food have become. Moreover, he persuades us in many ways on how the farming
The sociological imagination on food In this assignment I am going to talk about the sociological imagination on food and the aspects it brings with it. Before starting that large process I firstly will explain what the social imagination is and what the key points of the imagination are in able to fully understand the topic; food and its history, biography, and the relation it has in society. This is my first assignment for the module understanding contemporary society so please bear with me as I will do my best to explain it in a logic manner so everybody can understand it.
Author of the essay “Eat Food: Food Defined” Michael Pollan, states that everything that pretends to be a food really isn’t a food. Michael persuaded me into agreeing with his argument by talking about how people shouldn’t eat anything their great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food and avoid food products containing ingredients that are unpronounceable, lists more than five, and contains high fructose corn syrup. He opened my eyes to information I wouldn’t have thought about or researched myself. He got into depth about a type of Sara Lee bread that contains way more ingredients than needed to make the bread, including high fructose corn syrup that isn’t good for you. Marketers are doing this to sell more of their product by making it taste
The claim is that consumers should not be buying a package of eggs for $3.45 when they can buy the same eggs for $.99. Well, that's what is wrong with the society, we want what is cheap and fast, not necessarily whether or not it is better for us. The Industrial chain puts out fast food that is terrible for the body, and uses lots of poisonous chemicals to make the food look and taste “Good.” What the consumers also do not see in Industrial food chain supermarkets is that most of the popular chains failed to achieve decent grades for fresh food, and reducing the amount of food wasted. Over 165.6 billion dollars was wasted over the surplus of foods, and 40% of food was thrown out for being old and modeling(USDA).
Edibility Construct Have humans ever thought about where their food comes from? Nowadays, no one really questions how food ends up on our plates, let alone if it’s healthy. Health is, without a doubt, the most important factor in one’s life. These four articles about food systematics will help demonstrate how the following ideas would benefit our societies food supply and health. Wendell Berry’s article on “The Pleasures of Eating” accurately describes the issues on consumers of food industries and the politics.
It is very important for the Muslim consumers to really know what they have eaten, used, or consumed about certain food products. They have to know the basic of Halal, Mashbooh, and Haram on the products that exists around them. Firstly, the definition of Halal can be examined as ‘permitted and lawful’ in Islam. Halal also involves that a product is ‘thoyyiban’ which means wholesome, safe, nutritious, beneficial and good quality. As Allah S.W.T (God) says in the holy Qur’an: “O mankind!