The documentary Food Inc is an expose of the food industry. It shows how corrupt the industry is through interviewing farmers and laymen who are affected by the industry. The video is trying to show that certain food companies have monopolies and take advantage of this by pressuring their farmers. It criticizes how companies don't produce animals but produce food, don't work in healthy and clean ways, don't specify whether foods are genetically modified or not on labels, have made it cheaper to buy unhealthy foods than it is to buy healthy foods and are so far reaching consequences that they have control over most government agencies.
Though the information that the movie provided was interesting and I don't think I would have learned it anywhere else, I did not find it influential. One reason that it did not influence me is because I keep kosher, and do not eat all the same foods that the movie discussed. So although I'm sure there is curruption in the production of kosher foods as well, I did not learn about that from the film, and found much of the information did nto apply to me and the food I eat.
The main reason that I did not find the movie influential is because it was so clearly biased. It only gives one side of the story, which portrays the government and big companies as the villains who are out to get you, and never once gives an explanation from the other point of view. It does say that many of these companies and people refused to be interviewed for the film, but if they tried they could probably have found people who were willing. Furthermore, the people who refused probably did so because they knew that no matter what said in the interview, it would be cut and edited until it fit with what the movie was trying to say about them. We see this throughout the movie, and especially at the very end of the movie, when there are a number of scenes with propaganda-y statements about the industry and about what consumers can do to fight back. These scenes are meant to influence viewers and remind them that they have the control. However, I did not find them influential. Not only did they make me feel like there were probably subliminal messages in the background, they did not provide information for how consumers could fight back as they were encouraging us to - all it said was that we should buy healthy foods. The fact that the film was so biased and full of propaganda made it extreme and untrustworthy.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Consider the Lobster - questioning the convenient
Consider the Lobster is an article published in gourmet magazine by David Foster Wallace. In his article, Wallace explains what goes on at the Maine Lobster Festival and tells of what it is like to attend. After describing the lobster fest, he goes on to ask and discuss important "questions about the connections...between aesthetics and morality" (CTL, 8) that one usually tries to just block out of their mind when eating or discussing where their food comes from.
Wallace asks a question that many people try not to think about - is it right to boil an animal alive as we do to lobsters? He knows that it's easier to tell yourself that it is okay and that the lobsters don't feel it, but he doesn't just accept the answer that would make him most comfortable and move on. He goes on to discuss many possible answers that people give and explores the science behind them. Towards the end of the article, he asks if future generations will see these actions as savage and barbaric as we do the actions of our ancestors. Wallace doesn't just accept the convenient conventional wisdom, but thinks about these issues and researches them to find his own answers and ask his own questions. I think this is very influential, and believe that we can all learn a lot from Wallace's attitude.
2 examples of stream of consciousness in the article -
Taxonomically speaking, a lobster is a marine crustacean of the family Homaridae, characterized by five pairs of jointed legs, the first pair terminating in large pincerish claws used for subduing prey. Like many other species of benthic carnivore, lobsters are both hunters and scavengers. They have stalked eyes, gills on their legs, and antennae. There are dozens of different kinds worldwide, of which the relevant species here is the Maine lobster, Homarus americanus. The name “lobster” comes from the Old English loppestre, which is thought to be a corrupt form of the Latin word for locust combined with the Old English loppe, which meant spider.
Moreover, a crustacean is an aquatic arthropod of the class Crustacea, which comprises crabs, shrimp, barnacles, lobsters, and freshwater crayfish. All this is right there in the encyclopedia. And an arthropod is an invertebrate member of the phylum Arthropoda, which phylum covers insects, spiders, crustaceans, and centipedes/millipedes, all of whose main commonality, besides the absence of a centralized brain-spine assembly, is a chitinous exoskeleton composed of segments, to which appendages are articulated in pairs.
Lobster is essentially a summer food. This is because we now prefer our lobsters fresh, which means they have to be recently caught, which for both tactical and economic reasons takes place at depths of less than 25 fathoms. Lobsters tend to be hungriest and most active (i.e., most trappable) at summer water temperatures of 45–50°F. In the autumn, some Maine lobsters migrate out into deeper water, either for warmth or to avoid the heavy waves that pound New England’s coast all winter. Some burrow into the bottom. They might hibernate; nobody’s sure. Summer is also lobsters’ molting season—specifically early- to mid-July. Chitinous arthropods grow by molting, rather the way people have to buy bigger clothes as they age and gain weight. Since lobsters can live to be over 100, they can also get to be quite large, as in 20 pounds or more—though truly senior lobsters are rare now, because New England’s waters are so heavily trapped.7 Anyway....
2 examples of meta-narrative in the article -
Your assigned correspondent saw it all, accompanied by one girlfriend and both his own parents—one of which parents was actually born and raised in Maine, albeit in the extreme northern inland part, which is potato country and a world away from the touristic midcoast.
We’re coming in by cab from the almost indescribably odd and rustic Knox County Airport9 very late on the night before the Festival opens, sharing the cab with a wealthy political consultant who lives on Vinalhaven Island in the bay half the year (he’s headed for the island ferry in Rockland). The consultant and cabdriver are responding to informal journalistic probes about how people who live in the midcoast region actually view the MLF, as in is the Festival just a big-dollar tourist thing or is it something local residents look forward to attending, take genuine civic pride in, etc. The cabdriver—who’s in his seventies, one of apparently a whole platoon of retirees the cab company puts on to help with the summer rush, and wears a U.S.-flag lapel pin, and drives in what can only be called a very deliberate way—assures us that locals do endorse and enjoy the MLF, although he himself hasn’t gone in years, and now come to think of it no one he and his wife know has, either. However, the demilocal consultant’s been to recent Festivals a couple times (one gets the impression it was at his wife’s behest), of which his most vivid impression was that “you have to line up for an ungodly long time to get your lobsters, and meanwhile there are all these ex–flower children coming up and down along the line handing out pamphlets that say the lobsters die in terrible pain and you shouldn’t eat them.”
Wallace asks a question that many people try not to think about - is it right to boil an animal alive as we do to lobsters? He knows that it's easier to tell yourself that it is okay and that the lobsters don't feel it, but he doesn't just accept the answer that would make him most comfortable and move on. He goes on to discuss many possible answers that people give and explores the science behind them. Towards the end of the article, he asks if future generations will see these actions as savage and barbaric as we do the actions of our ancestors. Wallace doesn't just accept the convenient conventional wisdom, but thinks about these issues and researches them to find his own answers and ask his own questions. I think this is very influential, and believe that we can all learn a lot from Wallace's attitude.
2 examples of stream of consciousness in the article -
Taxonomically speaking, a lobster is a marine crustacean of the family Homaridae, characterized by five pairs of jointed legs, the first pair terminating in large pincerish claws used for subduing prey. Like many other species of benthic carnivore, lobsters are both hunters and scavengers. They have stalked eyes, gills on their legs, and antennae. There are dozens of different kinds worldwide, of which the relevant species here is the Maine lobster, Homarus americanus. The name “lobster” comes from the Old English loppestre, which is thought to be a corrupt form of the Latin word for locust combined with the Old English loppe, which meant spider.
Moreover, a crustacean is an aquatic arthropod of the class Crustacea, which comprises crabs, shrimp, barnacles, lobsters, and freshwater crayfish. All this is right there in the encyclopedia. And an arthropod is an invertebrate member of the phylum Arthropoda, which phylum covers insects, spiders, crustaceans, and centipedes/millipedes, all of whose main commonality, besides the absence of a centralized brain-spine assembly, is a chitinous exoskeleton composed of segments, to which appendages are articulated in pairs.
Lobster is essentially a summer food. This is because we now prefer our lobsters fresh, which means they have to be recently caught, which for both tactical and economic reasons takes place at depths of less than 25 fathoms. Lobsters tend to be hungriest and most active (i.e., most trappable) at summer water temperatures of 45–50°F. In the autumn, some Maine lobsters migrate out into deeper water, either for warmth or to avoid the heavy waves that pound New England’s coast all winter. Some burrow into the bottom. They might hibernate; nobody’s sure. Summer is also lobsters’ molting season—specifically early- to mid-July. Chitinous arthropods grow by molting, rather the way people have to buy bigger clothes as they age and gain weight. Since lobsters can live to be over 100, they can also get to be quite large, as in 20 pounds or more—though truly senior lobsters are rare now, because New England’s waters are so heavily trapped.7 Anyway....
2 examples of meta-narrative in the article -
Your assigned correspondent saw it all, accompanied by one girlfriend and both his own parents—one of which parents was actually born and raised in Maine, albeit in the extreme northern inland part, which is potato country and a world away from the touristic midcoast.
We’re coming in by cab from the almost indescribably odd and rustic Knox County Airport9 very late on the night before the Festival opens, sharing the cab with a wealthy political consultant who lives on Vinalhaven Island in the bay half the year (he’s headed for the island ferry in Rockland). The consultant and cabdriver are responding to informal journalistic probes about how people who live in the midcoast region actually view the MLF, as in is the Festival just a big-dollar tourist thing or is it something local residents look forward to attending, take genuine civic pride in, etc. The cabdriver—who’s in his seventies, one of apparently a whole platoon of retirees the cab company puts on to help with the summer rush, and wears a U.S.-flag lapel pin, and drives in what can only be called a very deliberate way—assures us that locals do endorse and enjoy the MLF, although he himself hasn’t gone in years, and now come to think of it no one he and his wife know has, either. However, the demilocal consultant’s been to recent Festivals a couple times (one gets the impression it was at his wife’s behest), of which his most vivid impression was that “you have to line up for an ungodly long time to get your lobsters, and meanwhile there are all these ex–flower children coming up and down along the line handing out pamphlets that say the lobsters die in terrible pain and you shouldn’t eat them.”
Friday, September 16, 2011
FDA website
The USFDA website includes lots of information, with topics ranging from the safety of apple-juice, to the regulation of nail care products, to news and events from as recently as yesterday! They even have a section for the reporting of emergencies. Some of the main sections on the home page include food, drugs, cosmetics, vaccines, science and research, and recalls and alerts. The information is very organized, so if you go to the website looking to find a specific piece of information, chances are you’ll be able to find it relatively quickly. But the copious amount of links makes it quite overwhelming, especially if you’re just going to the website for general information. The home page is covered with links from top to bottom, and for each link you click on, you are lead to more and more links! It’s exasperating when you need to click on multiple (sometimes up to 5 or 6) links to get to an actual story or piece of data.
One thing I found helpful in navigating the crowded website was its site map, which you can get to by clicking on the link towards the middle of the very bottom of the page. Other than the refreshing fact that it only takes one click to see it, a good thing about this map is that it organizes all the information available on the site into clear labeled sections. Here, there are no distractions making it hard for you to find your way – just a plain white background and the list of links. I found this to be the most useful link on the website! Another thing I really enjoyed about the website is that on one of my visits, they asked me to take a survey about how I enjoyed the website or thought it could use improvement. I appreciated this because it showed that they really want to make it the best it can be to help protect and educate the public, and that they care about the opinion of the public.
The website includes information about the US Food and Drug Administration itself, with basics about the agency, explanations of their programs, information about how to get a job there, and more. It explains how the FDA is an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (http://www.hhs.gov/). It protects American citizens by regulating and ensuring the safety of food, drugs, tobacco products, cosmetic products, dietary supplements and electronic products, as well as helping to speed up product innovations and provide the public with the accurate information they need to stay safe.
The website also provides readers with information about the agency’s current activities. For example, in the what’ new for biologics section, you can see that yesterday they posted about a public workshop entitled “Data and Data Needs to Advance Risk Assessment for Emerging Infectious Diseases Relevant to Blood and Blood Products” that is to take place in Gaithersburg, Maryland on November 29th. As this shows, the website is updated very often.
After some research, I learned about a few controversies regarding the FDA. One of these happened a few years ago, when a federal judge ruled that the agency based their decision about an over the counter morning after pill on politics instead of on science. The judge said that the FDA did not make its’ decision legally, but that the agency’s leadership (not scientists and physicians) made the capricious decision. When I tried to find information about this controversy on the website, I could not find any information about the court proceedings or ruling.
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