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Sociological Approaches To Risk

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Sociological approaches to 'risk ' can contribute to an analysis of public concerns about food. It is controversial as to whether food hazards have alarmed any risks that it presents to public health, environment, and wider society and in the case of genetically-modified foods. 'Risk ' is a concept which has been much theorized within sociology (Beck, 1992). Risk is seen as subjective and social: "the perception of risk is a social process" (Douglas and Wildavsky, 1982). In the sociology article, the writer found out a number of results from a qualitative research and it is based on two sociological theories: Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction (Bourdieu, 1979, 1994) and symbolic interactionism (Solomon, 1983). Symbolic interactionism …show more content…

More precisely, for many of those who see dissimilarity in social value depending on venue, the difference comes from the political desire to help producers. They employed words such as “political involvement” and “activist”. Turning now to the Bourdieu’s theory of distinction, participants talked about economic capital required to buy organic foods, e.g. the higher price of organic food, the more the added time costs of going to market or CSA. Thirdly, organic food consumptions are associated to other symbols to have full social value. Some participants see organic food consumption as a way to ease one’s conscience; implying that such people did not exhibit other environmental behaviors. Signs, quantity sold, recycling behavior and product origin are the criteria exhibited by the seller when they choose whom to buy the organic foods from. Results from our focus groups do not give clear results about social class and organic food consumption. Holt’s (1998) approach of cultural capital specified that individuals who value the cultural skill they obtain from belonging to a CSA are those from higher social classes (in terms of culture, social references and behaviors) in the CSA focus group. Regardless of venue or other behaviors, it is more often linked with high purchasing power than …show more content…

Firstly, on the topic of food, sociology explores the relationship of food consumption to the class, social status, function and also the social value of organic food in various venues whereas to scientist, their major concern is mostly on the impact of GM food on human and the possible health threats and problems. Sociologists use group interview to gather qualitative data while scientists tests their hypothesis of GM food by using the past research case studies. The sociologists’ research design involved three group interviews: the first round (People who consume organic foods from Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) then supermarket and market respectively.) For the second round, it is a mixed group interview in terms of venue (E.g. CSA+Market, Market+Supermarket). Lastly, the motivation of study, sociologists are keen to study the food consumption and class because the result can reflect the problem of inequality. Do those people who consume organic foods considered to be higher up than those who don’t purchase it? Scientists are motivated to study the GM food safety issue because they can raise the awareness and persuade people to accept GM crops and foods since no scientific reports proven that they bring harms to human. It may then change people’s views to understand

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Today’s consumers no longer consider where the food is coming from nor do they understand what it takes to prepare soil, grow food, and its logistic all the way to consumption. Some of his audience may understand the logistic or chain of events from soil to consumption, yet choose otherwise. Berry said: “Many people are now as much estranged from the lives of domestic plants and animals (except for flowers and dogs and cats) as they are from the lives of the wild ones”.

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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

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Herman Webster Mudgett, most commonly known as H. H. Holmes, America’s first serial killer, was born on May 16, 1861 in the town of Gilmanton, New Hampshire. Born to Levi Horton Mudgett and Theodate Page Price, he was the third child of five. As a child, he was raised on a farm and often displayed signs of violence by torturing animals and from being abused by his father. He married Clara Lovering at the age of 17, and had a son together two years later. He enrolled at the University of Vermont in Burlington when he was 18, but did not like school and tried again a year later at University of Michigan’s Department of Medicine and Surgery, where he graduated in 1884.

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The three essays assigned this week had several common threads running through them. The strongest core theme is the rapid change in the food cycle in America and the vast changes that have taken place in the way by which we grow, produce, and process the food that average Americans eat. The food we eat now is drastically different from what our grandparents grew up eating and the three essays each examine that in a different way. Another theme is the loss of knowledge by the average consumer about where their food comes from, what it is composed of, and what, if any, danger it might pose to them. “Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear” by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele is a harsh look at the realities of food production in a country where large corporations, like Monsanto, have been allowed to exploit laws and loopholes to bend farmers and consumers to their

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With the help of appealing strategies and literary devices, guidance is provided to us which gives a clearer comprehension of the book itself. Especially the logos strategy gives the readers a sign that Pollan tries the best to get involved with the dilemma for understanding it better than just the obvious. Setting his unique tone throughout the book, Pollan provides his critical attitudes towards the phenomenon that the industrial farms are taking advantage of the ignorance of people’s knowledge of what they are eating, making large profits regardless the health and safety of people. The purpose of informing people what they are eating and what goes behind the food is reached with his investigation and observation expressed throughout the book, bringing the awareness of knowing the truth to the

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