Blog 5

In this week readings, I found very interesting to read. I found chapter 17 to be more interesting to me than chapter 16. In chapter seventeen, Pollen takes about how eating animals is more thought of than any other subjects. Animals are in the food chain and if people are not to eat it then who is? Other animals? I just think that it is part of life even though I do agree that the way we treat and slaughter animals is inhuman. If every famer would take time to treat the animals better than the cost of would most likely rise and the way the economy is many people would not be very happy. Whatever anyone does is going to make the other mad. No one in the world is going to get what they want to make them happy. I could never see myself as a vegetarian but watching movies like Food Inc. makes me think that the way we treat animals is wrong but I can’t help but eat meat. I grew up on eating meat, just like what pollen says that we are connected to history through food. For example he says were turkey for Thanksgiving or hotdogs at a baseball game are all traditions that connect everyone with history. All in all chapter 17 sparks the ideas of eating meat is wrong in some senses.

Blog 4 Writers Resource

In this week’s readings we had the choice of blogging about either Omnivore’s Dilemma, They say, I say, and Writers Resource. I choose to blog about the Writers Resource. In the Writers Resource there are 3 types of citation style that we can use throughout the course of this semester. We only had to read about one that we would be using. I read about MLA style citation because that is the one I am more familiar with than APA and Chicago. In tab 6 of the Writers Resource it explains how to cite your sources from books, periodicals, electronic and or web site. It also explains how to do an in text citation. This basically is summarizing or quoting what another has to say in your sentence and putting the author name in parentheses after your sentence.

I have looked at the other tabs; APA and Chicago in the Writers Resource. The APA style citation I am also familiar with because I have used this style in writings I have done in the past but I prefer the MLA style better than the APA style. For the Chicago Style goes I have never heard of this style of citation before so I wouldn’t be comfortable using this in my writings.

Blog 3

The word that comes to mind when reading chapter 13 in Omnivore’s Dilemma is “wow”. The way Pollan describes the way animals are slaughtered is amazing. I am usually not the one who reads and get a picture in my mind of what the author is taking about or explaining but the way Pollan details the process just permanently places a picture in my mind. This chapter was really interesting to me because it fascinates me, not because of the killing of animals but the process that people go through to kill the animals and also the rules and regulations that slaughterhouses have to follow in order to keep in operation and not get shut down by USDA. I was surprise about all the rules and regulation that the USDA has for slaughterhouses for example, “federal rules stipulate that every processing facility have a bathroom for the exclusive use of the USDA inspector” (Pollan pg. 229). To me that is a ridicules rule which make processing facility have to spend more money on building a bathroom which takes away from spending on other things which mean a rise in prices of meats.

I like the part where Pollan is at the kill cone for the chickens because it reminds me of high school biology when I had to dissect a frog. Of course, the frogs were already died but it was the same concept of cutting up an animal. To be honest I was scared of cutting up the frog even though it was already died. Joel made a good point saying that no should want to kill animal every day. I know I wouldn’t want to.

Post 2 Chapter 9

In chapter 9 of Omnivore’s Dilemma, the main topic of this chapter was about having foods labeled “organic”, “free ranging” or “not injected with growth hormones”. I thought this chapter was very interesting and got me to think. What makes a meat from a box that says “free ranging” more expensive than just a box of meat from a store like Safeway or Wal-Mart. In my opinion you can’t really tell the difference between one thing that has a label of “free ranging” and one that does not have that label. I think that companies are manipulating society with words such as organic to make us believe that it is better for us and to make more profit for the company. If you look at it everything is labeled something different to make it more expensive. For example designer clothes are more expensive because of the name that is on the clothing and I think that it goes for the food industry also. Instead of having the name of a person it is the name of something that is supposedly good for you.

I am not saying that buying organic foods or things in that nature is bad and it is a waste of money, it is just that I can’t really believe in what companies have to say. I have had prior information in high school in my nutrition class where we talked about products having the label “organic” and how the producer has to follow certain guidelines to put the name on the product along with paying a fee. But who is regulating this process? How does one know if it is truly organic? In a society full of lies no one can be trusted especially the food companies that are out to take your money.

Welford, Win, SUPERMARKET SEMANTICS: The Rhetoric of Food Labeling and Advertising, ETC: A Review of General Semantics; Spring92, Vol. 49 Issue 1, p3-17, 15p