Convincing Crichton

I actually finished reading State of Fear during Christmas break. It was a massive book, so I wanted to get it over with, but fortunately I found myself thoroughly enjoying the read. One of the reasons I was so engrossed, was because it was incredibly convincing. Not only did I find myself question global warming, but at times I was actually certain that it must be a hoax, and I blame this all on the rhetoric.

One aspect of the rhetoric that I found especially convincing was how confident, informed, and professionally it was delivered. Every character was either a professor, researcher, or expert on the topic in question. Frequently I had to stop and think, "Wait, remember this is fiction, these characters are not real. They are creations of Crichton." But they were so informed, and intelligent, and they knew all the environmental jargon! Take this passage for instance, that occurs after Evans tells Kenner that he is sure that Antarctica is melting,

"You think that repetition makes something true? The data show that one relatively small area called the Antarctic Peninsula is melting and calving huge icebergs. That gets reported year after year, but the continent as a whole is getting colder, and the ice is getting thicker."

With this statement Kenner has got me. He refutes the only reason I know that makes me believe global warming is real; repetition. I have heard over and over our climate is getting warmer, but have I ever personally looked into the matter? Found evidence that supports or negates global warming's existence? No, I have not. Then he goes on to say, "the data show..." With that phrase he creates credibility. What follows is the data speaking, not his opinion, not speculation, but hard evidence. Then words like "Antarctic Peninsula" and "calving" put me even further under Kenner's persuasive spell. His diction is incredibly specialized and authentic. The average person does not keep these words in their back pocket, and is not this well informed.

And if that's not enough book is filled with all of these real graphs and charts, and also appendixes and citations for them in the back! This made me completely think of Latour. If you didn't believe what the character's were saying, then you must at least believe the graph, and if you didn't believe the graph then look at its citation and find it's study in the real world. All I can say is that I was convinced. By the end of the book I was sure global warming was nothing more than a scam.

But then something from the Author's Message brought me back, "I am certain that there is too much certainty in the world." I was sure global warming existed before the book, and yet I was just as sure it not exist after. Anything can be made to sound convincing. Whether the rhetoric is incredibly persuasive or you've simply heard an idea enough times to believe it. After reading this quote I decided to be more objective and open. If I want to be sure of something, I better put in the research to sure. Otherwise I think I will remain considerate and open to all ideas.

Take an ounce, leave an ounce

I wanted to share this article because it seemed relevant to the class. It was in Sunday's Star Tribune's "Strib," which is the free teaser paper they give me every Sunday to try to get me to subscribe.
Side note: It is interesting that the Strib articles are blatantly aimed at the mom-of-young-children demographic. All articles are related to cooking, child-rearing, exersise/gardening/crafting for busy moms. Examples like "Cloth diapers makin a comeback!" "How to get the most out of your coupons!" and "Mommy and me Yoga" types of articles.
So if it seems like I am shoving my mom-to-be status down your throats all semester, it's not intentional. :P
Anyways..
Here is the article. Has that public health/should gov't intervene/does mom know best? theme(s) we've been discussing

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/118256519.html



EDIT:
speaking of targeted media, here are the Google ads generated by scanning the keywords in this very post:


Thank you google for telling me what my interests are.

Blog posting #7 (due Sunday 4/3, 11:59 P.M.): Who's afraid of STATE OF FEAR?

Michael Crichton's State of Fear is, in my opinion, the hardest book we're reading in this class—nevermind that it's written at about a fourth-grade reading level and the plot and characters are paint-by-numbers formulaic. I'm thinking instead of my consistent response: I'll be reading along through the action and data and 'footnotes,' and find myself thinking 'huh, maybe climate change is a big hoax; this winter was awfully cold after all.'  Then I realize that I KNOW BETTER.  I keep getting seduced by the story and plot; it bloody works. 

Crichton has produced an extremely tight, often inscrutably knotted hybrid of research, rhetoric, ideology, history, publics, blackboxes, seeing devices...and a whole lot more. Our task, over the next three weeks, is to untangle it and figure out how it works. Here, we make the first step.

Your assignment: react to the book — or what you've read of it thus far.

(Try to get about 300-400 pages into it before responding, to get a decent grasp of the whole. It shouldn't take too long.)

Your reaction may take many forms, and go in many different directions, but it should include each of the following:

-- at least one passage from the front or back matter,
-- at least one passage from the text of the novel itself (see the work schedule for the passages I found most noteworthy),
-- at least one term/concept from science studies (hybrids, paradigms, seeing devices, public relations, economics, rhetoric, 'literature' and arguments, black boxes, etc.), and
-- at least one term/concept from literary studies (like, high school stuff: characters, tone, narrative/narrator, language, etc.--how the book works on us).

Don't-bore-your-friends (or your instructor) Prime Directive: when you post, do look at what's been posted already and try to add to the discussion, bringing in new passages and concepts and ideas, rather than rehashing points that've already been made. There's no shortage of material here -- be bold!

when kitchen experiments work

Over the weekend my dad had gone out of town so I spent three days in his townhouse ravaging through his cupboards for things to eat. With an ample kitchen and a whole lotta nothin to do, I was able to cook up some interesting meals that substituted the fast-food processed leftover mush I might have otherwise consumed on my own.

My dad keeps a lot of freeze dried fruit in the freezer, usually to be used for smoothies, but saturday morning I had all the right ingredients, and the stars aligned for a beautiful meal. My girlfriend is a vegetarian (who isnt these days?) so before she woke up I went down and made pancakes from scratch, and I cooked down the frozen strawberries with sugar, cinnamon, water and a bit of gelatin powder stuff--in order to make a nice syrupy substance for the pancakes...and it worked!

I think a major part of my cooking/eating habits have to do with what is easily avalible, I took inventory, and executed. Our family has had its ups and downs as far as income goes, so I was raised in an environment where you cook whatever the heck you can find. This would usually lead to ridiculously spicy meals that my dad would make for us all. So I would constitute the meal as economically sound, and tastey as well. Had it been my apartment I was spending the weekend at, things would have been different (like freezer burrito different).

Using the other available ingredients, I was able to make vegetable curry with rice and beans, and grilled cheese with sundried tomatoes and sauteed onions. A very good day for me as far as cooking goes..but hey, every dog has one.

just thought I'd share...

I don't know if any of you read Mark Bittman's blog on nytimes.com, but he recently posted a TON of links to articles that all pertain to our food unit.

Here's the link to his post, which has links to a bunch of super interesting reads:

http://bittman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/a-feast-of-food-links/

Food Courts.

After last Thursday's class, I walked over to Coffman with plans to eat and sit around for three hours until my next class. I was really hungry, but I didn't want to spend too much. I had eaten fairly little the previous day, which seems to happen pretty often, and it made me worry that I hadn't been getting adequate nutrition. Sadly, even when I eat plenty in a day, I probably am very far from a generally healthy diet. I never really worry about fat, grease, salt, etc., but I do spend a decent amount of time worrying that I'm not getting all the vitamins and nutrients I need. To make myself feel better about my nutritional intake, I bought a 16oz Jamba Juice with a daily vitamin shot. But the smoothie was clearly not enough food to satisfy my hunger, and it alone cost over $4.00. In order to fill my stomach without breaking $7.00, I bought a large fry at Chick-Fil-A and ate that too.

By simply being located in Coffman, restaurants know that their target customer is typically on-the-go, and they play to this by providing many different options that can be purchased individually; it's a similar mentality to the itunes store providing single song downloads: I walked into the food court and bought only what I wanted, rather than spending money on the entire album (meal). If Jamba Juice and Chick-Fil-A weren't located in the same building, I'd have never bothered to go to both, which I think speaks to an interesting dynamic that the food court plays off of. For better or worse, the food court provides more opportunity for meal customization than any other eating environment that immediately comes to mind. In regards to the prevalence of building an individual meal from several different competing businesses, I'd be interested to know whether being located in the direct vicinity of so many other eateries would ultimately increase or decrease revenue for each individual stall: does the consumers' magnified ability to buy less from each company increase the frequency of purchases to the point of making up for the lost profits caused by decreased revenue /per/ purchase? Is there some sort of fiscal arrangement between the restaurants and the venue in which they're all located? Lots o questions here.

Fashion Salad

On Thursday night at 5:30pm, I was standing in line to get food at UDS (University Dinning Services). I was going to stand in the "comfort food" line because, let's be honest, by just calling it comfort food, you think of your grandma making her famous chicken soup and casserole. It's quite a nice feeling. Then, a group of my friends walk in and go straight for the salad buffet on the other side of the cafeteria. Knowing that I would be sitting with them, I chose to get a salad over the chicken pot pie that looked so gloriously rich and creamy that I could almost feel my fingers puffing from all the sodium. That's what I wanted. Salad doesn't do anything for me. I'm hungry again an hour later, and if I had been eating by myself, there would have been no question. Pot pie all the way. But because I was sitting in a group, I knew that I would feel guilty about not making the healthy choice. And I was right. Dinner was great at the time, and an hour later I was ready to kill someone for a big slab of meat. So why is that? Would my friends have judged me for my food choices? No. They're my friends, they couldn't care less, and I know that. But there is still that part of me that will always feel like a third grader on her first day at a new school. If you don't eat healthy, that means that there's something wrong with you. And honestly, I love eating unhealthy foods. I have to remind myself that I am full so as to not finish everything in sight! But I have a guilt about not wanting healthy foods, and a guilt about wanting bad ones. There's really no winning here.

More greens for less green

I have been trying to figure out how to make this blog post different from the food log. I know, this one calls for a lens of a system. Still, I had several dead starts. I kept coming back to why I purchased the food, not so much why I ate it. I reviewed the assignment and it says I can go that way, so, here I go.

Oh, wouldn’t the world be a better place if we just ate organically and locally. No wait, we did that. But sure, my life and my family’s life would be. And I’d feel warm and fuzzy about supporting those local farmers, putting their faces together with my food. I still believe I’d have no global impact, but my hubris could be felt for miles!

My husband, John, and I like Cub. It is close. They often have those warm-fuzzy inducing signs that credit the fresh produce to nearby farms. Our Cub has a Cub Fuel. For every $10 we spend in the store we get one cent off a gallon of gas. By spending a lot and using the maximum amount of coupons at once, we can get giddy knowing we saved as much as two dollars on a tank of gas (jealous, aren't you?) Cub is open 24 hours and has a bank branch inside.

I feel a need to briefly summarize the shopping influences I had growing up. My mother, whom I spent most of my time with, rarely shopped for groceries. Her father would often bring groceries when he knew the cupboards were empty. She spent money on fast food regularly. Almost everything we ate was ready-to-eat. School provided lunch and I never really had to buy food unless I wanted to. My father and his wife were as frugal as they come. Generics, double coupons, calculating the cost per ounce or per cookie compared to other brands, and still a great deal of time debating what to buy. Nothing was purchased if it wasn't on sale. I watched my stepmother beam with pride totaling up her hard earned savings at the end of the receipt. I preferred their thrifty habits.

When my husband and I were first living together, I was making more than enough to buy whatever groceries I wanted. Convenience and desire ranked far above thriftiness. We drank a lot of pop, and living in California we could've returned our cans for the bottle deposit of five cents each, but never bothered, choosing instead to just recycle them through the city. Sales were a nice bonus but not necessary and coupons were far too much of a bother. In our 11 years together we have suffered three serious financial crises that left us with nothing. Those, combined with being in our 30s and being homeowners has currently made us both more aware and concerned with where our money goes. I clip coupons from the Sunday paper (which I don't pay for) as well as the junk mail flyers which I used to recycle without opening. I search the store flyers at Cub as well. There's one thing my husband and I both agree on when it comes to saving money on groceries: we cut costs as long as we don't cut quality. Of all the places to save in one's budget, it's insane to me how many people choose to sacrifice quantity and nutrition in their diets instead of other expenses in their lives. If groceries became so high-priced that our grocery budget was inadequate, we would cut anywhere else to adapt.

So, my last shopping trip to Cub. Before I even leave the house, the coupons are sorted in the same order as my shopping list which is drawn up in the order of how I will physically progress through the store. The only decision-making I need to do in store is in the fresh produce section. Who knows what they'll have and what's looking good this week. Even though seasonal produce has been available year-round or most of my life, it still feels unnatural. How am I able to get berries in March? Why does everything look so colorful and big as it does when it's in season? I know all of the evil answers to these questions, but I focus on the luxury of the availability of delicious food that still has a shelf life. Two for ones are great here considering prices are higher off season. I don't need berries on my cereal but I like some and there's a coupon! Even if there isn't coupon, I'll still likely buy one even though it's pricey for such a little luxury. I choose the organic bananas over the non-organic because they're not much more expensive, they're right next to each other and well listed so I don't have to search for them, and they still seem to last as long as I need . The next stop is the meat alternatives freezer case. Nothing in here is ever a good deal. When they do have a big sale sign under my product, the fine print tells me I'm saving something like nine cents off of a four dollar item. I have only found coupons for these products once. The choices made here go beyond economy. I don't eat meat, my husband does. Of protein sources, he weighs my vegetarian options the same as he does his meat options. We like to eat together and often eat the same vegetarian meals when we can. When it comes to Boca and MorningStar products, the shit is expensive. There's not much there, and it doesn't last long. It's disconcerting that I can keep in the freezer forever and still eat it. I try not to think about all of the processing that goes into making it. But all these reasons are enough for me to not eat it every day but not enough for me to return to meat. I next move to the meat aisle, and I have to decide what meat to buy that I will never eat, but I choose not to eat, yet I will need to cook and get the most money out of for my husband. I won't buy meat if it's not on sale. I've got to have coupons. I've must be able to freeze it in single serving portions and know it may be a long time before I use it. I tried buying meat more frequently, but it went bad or didn't get used because there's only one person was eating it. There's no bigger guilt for vegetarian than buying meat and knowing it's going to waste.

Proceeding through the store I have the list of things I know I will buy it, but there are also coupons for things not on my list. I think some coupon enthusiasts get lost here. They have a coupon for what seems like a great deal and spend the money on a product that they won't use. Sometimes it's something they would even consider trying. I think I'm smart enough to see past the gimmicks.

Just as nearby are a Rainbow Foods and Byerly's. At Rainbow, I can double my coupons; same food, a little bit more savings. Why wouldn't I go where? I get anxiety just entering Rainbow. That's not relevant to this posting, so I'll just say that the way they force their generics down your throat combined with the most unenthusiastic employees you can find outside of government work are enough to keep me away. Then there's Byerly's which has a greater selection of the kind of foods that I like to buy. They're local and organic selection is the best you can find in the supermarket setting in my area. They have a greater variety of vegetarian options and their produce seems fresher than Cub. But damn they cost a lot! Not just on the things where you're getting what you pay for, but their prices on everything are notably higher than Cub; same name brand, same quality, big markup. It would be ideal if I could shop both Byerly's and Cub (and I've tried a few times) but it's outside of my convenience factor.

With spring almost here I'll again attempt to grow my own food in my yard. I've had difficulty in the past. We have a lot of trees so there's limited amount of sunlight for the garden. Gardening is also a lot of work in physical labor of which I'm incapable. I'm willing to make the time commitment but it's still a crunch with my schedule. I know more about home gardening and most city slickers, but I found it's not as easy as doing it on the family farm where the soil has more experience. Still, I'm going to try.

Veganism isn't dead, it just smells funny.

I really had to think about this one. My gut reaction was to write down almost everything listed as a no-no in the “No BS guideline”. I do pay attention to what I eat, but I often eat things without thinking anything about them, except how good it will taste. It was kind of a challenge to articulate the internal cost-benefit analysis of why I eat the way I do.

When I was younger, I ate a very strict vegan diet and thought too much about what I ate. It was hardcore. I didn’t wear leather shoes or belts. I got to the point that I stopped eating broccoli because I found out that it was virtually impossible to wash all of the thrips off and being a vegan and being an entomophagist are mutually exclusive. Hopefully this doesn’t turn anyone else off of broccoli, but thrips are microscopic insects that live on almost EVERYTHING that is a vegetable. (Check ‘em out: Thrips! …and a good picture) I also did a bunch of moderately fruitful research into which of the food additives with unpronounceable names were animal based. Waaaaaaay too much thinking involved there. Plus, meat is delicious!

Anyhow, I definitely try to make my diet as nutritionally dense as I can. I try to eat lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and stuff that isn’t processed very much. I don’t eat very much meat. But when I do, I try to get it from a butcher shop. The meat counter at Sentryz Liquor and Supermarket is usually where I go. It’s not the greatest supermarket in the world, but the meat counter is awesome. And it’s been there so long that they are grandfathered in and able to stock booze in the supermarket, which is kind of neat. I also think that supporting local business is really important, so generally I’m willing to spend a couple of extra bucks whenever necessary to do so. I don’t know about you, but I sleep better at night knowing that my neighbors aren’t starving.

Even though I do think that Michael Pollan’s suggestions for our diets are incredibly bourgeois, I agree with him on many levels. I think that buying locally, supporting family farms, and just generally being conscious of where our food comes from are all really important things to do. But it’s simply not possible for a good number of people. Eating this way costs lots of time and money that many just don’t have. This is unfortunate, because I think that these are the folks who would most benefit. The upswing in the number of urban farms and community gardens in impoverished places like Detroit and St. Louis is a positive sign.

Finally, here’s what I actually ate: yesterday evening I ate nearly an entire tub of Holy Land jalapeno hummus and a bag of Holy Land garlicky pita bread, some pepper jack cheese, a tomato, and some Fresh Express bagged salad with herbs. I ended up working later than I planned and I hadn’t gone grocery shopping all week, so I picked this stuff up on the way home. It was a pretty good meal: relatively inexpensive, mostly local, meatless, easy, quick, and most importantly, tasty.

Choosing Food: Friday Night

I live with my parents. Rather than spending money out side to eat, I would go home and eat what my mother cooked unless I'm with with friends or invited by friends to eat out. Personally, I believe she cooks better than Obento-ya, the Japanese bistro, that is located in Como. Unfortunately, my parents are going back to Japan and we were busy packing and cleaning, so none of our family member could spend time to shop and prepare foods. Friday night, dinner was very simple. It was potato cooked with garlic, broiled chicken and boiled vegetables. And of course, white rice. My family have unusual tendency when we eat. I have three other siblings but we’ve never rushed to eat. We rather leave the last piece and the person who finishes eating last gets it. And my mother cooks a lot and it is not rare to have left overs. Left overs go to fridge. Neither of my parents scolded or told us (me and siblings) to empty plates on the table unless we spoil the foods.

Anyway, I ate at home. Because it’s good and I don’t need to pay. I left some chickens and potatoes. Left over went to the fridge and I finished it next day. All of my siblings are in Japan so usually I eat all, and my parents never eat the last pieces; they always let us eat them.

Fried food

So since I came to the US, I’ve had a lot of different fried food. French fires, curly fries, chicken nuggets, fried fish, fried chiken, fried rice, I have even had fried cookie dough. But over the last week I’ve gotten really sick of it. I’ve had enough of fried food, at least that’s what I thought.

So today I was in the mood for something else. My roommate and I went to the mall and we wanted something to eat. We looked around at the food court, and I was undecided if I wanted pizza or something else. Couldn’t really figure out exactly what I wanted. But we passed this place called Great Steakes and Potato, and they had a delicious picture of a baked potato, with melted cheese, bacon and sour cream. The King Potato. As I was about to order the king potato I saw another picture of Coney Island French Fries. Only 3 dollars. So I got a king potato with fried potatos on the side.

Too chicken to eat at KFC....

This blog topic good not be more perfect for me this week! Thanks to the research I have been doing for my intervention project, I have been learning a lot about the chicken industry, and I’ve recently generated many, many new opinions regarding my feelings for it. What I have ultimately decided is, frankly, it disgusts me.

Before conducting my intervention research I was aware that most of slaughter houses in the United States weren’t as humane as I would like them to be, but I had NO idea just how true this was in the case of chickens. It turns out that there is only one law in this country that protects livestock during slaughter, The Humane Slaughter Act, and this law completely excludes chickens. As a result of this the methods that most chicken suppliers use during slaughter are absolutely outrageous. Not only are the sedation attempts during slaughter usually weak and ineffective (resulting in most chickens being completely conscious while their throats are slit and they are boiled alive), but the treatment that the animals receive from the factory workers is often very sadistic. Undercover PETA investigations reported workers kicking the animals and hurling them against the walls for fun. So from an ethical lens it is easy to see why I think that the consumption of chicken from any supplier who does slaughter humanely is wrong.

Looking at it through a health lens, I also have many qualms with the consumption of inhumanely slaughtered and factory farmed chickens. Often health regulations in inhumane chicken slaughter houses are lax, and the birds end up covered in their own fecal matter and rot for long periods of time. Birds who are raised on factory farms are also incredibly unhealthy to consume. Not only are they incredibly overweight, but they are also pumped full of growth hormone. Free range chickens who are slaughtered in humane ways do not experience these problems and are much healthier.

Finally, if you examine the inhumane slaughter of chicken through a scientific lens, you will also see right away that killing these animals in such cruel ways is absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary. It is not like the technology does not exist to slaughter them in more compassionate ways, because it does. The best example is the "controlled-atmosphere killing". "CAK" involves the removal of oxygen from crates that carry chickens and replacing it with argon or nitrogen. This method results in a completely painless slaughter. Kentucky Fried Chicken franchisees in Canada signed an agreement with PETA in 2008 to reform to the “CAK” method of slaughter. This proves it is a practical solution and has worked elsewhere.

So after having learned all this, when I was faced with my food “choice” I knew right away what to do. You see, I was spending the afternoon with my little brother and taking him to lunch. When one of the options he put on the table for eating was KFC (one of the biggest corporations in the US who does not practice humane slaughter methods), I kindly convinced him that perhaps some macaroni and cheese back at home might be better.

After all, inhumanely slaughter chicken…is pretty fowl (HA!)

Mmmmm Perkins?

At the risk of potentially offending any possible die-hard fans of this particular restaurant out there reading this blog, I will stand by the statement that Perkins is not high quality food. There are many other places that are cheaper, tastier, and healthier than Perkins.

That being said, Thursday night, I went to Perkins.

To me, it seems that going to Perkins forever will be a social event – having very little to do with the actual food that is eaten (as, in my experiences, eating at this restaurant sober happens very rarely), and more so to do with the fact that it is open late and it is a place to get quick food with very small risks of being kicked out for being drunken and disorderly.

Thursday night was the birthday of one of my roommates, and we threw a huge party. By about four in the morning, there were only four of us left awake, drunk, and hungry. So instead of making food, or just bypassing the food all together, we went to Perkins. The owners of Perkins must be absolute geniuses to have such a place open 24 hours, serving BOTH breakfast and dinner at all times. But back to the economics / politics of this adventure: drunken munchies is not a new or novel concept, the craving of food is really normal. But as far as places to gather while drunk and hungry go, Perkins seems a strange choice. In my group of friends, eating is generally where our nights begin and end, centering around food only because it is a nice diversion from a bar or house, and everybody enjoys sub-par pancakes. It is a weird habit we have acquired, turning Perkins into more of a place of memories of past parties or adventures that ended up with the Perkins dining experience. Perkins is, in my mind, something that is more than just a place to eat. Even when not hungry, we are driven to there for a change of pace in a night, to switch locations, etc. It’s a strange habit but centers around socializing; it would be beneficial to go eat somewhere else for the sake of our bodies (plates loaded with bacon, eggs, burgers, breakfast potatoes and sides of muffins and pancakes are not items that should be eaten often) but we are stuck in this rut and have nowhere else to go at four in the morning. Location, time and drunkenness make Perkins the perfect place to go.

Corn? In MY bread?

While out grocery shopping yesterday, I decided to buy a different kind of bread than I usually do. Why? Simple, unlike the bread I was previously consuming, this particular brand of whole wheat bread has no corn product at all.

Over the last week or so, I've become somewhat mortified at the idea that pretty much everything I eat can be traced back to corn in some way. I can't explain why it bothers me so, it's not like corn murdered my pet cats or anything, nor do I have any political/philosophical beliefs that would deter me from consuming the stuff.

However, while thinking about the role corn plays in our diets, I was reminded quite strongly of concepts I came across in George Ritzer's book, "The McDonaldization of Soceity" (a book I highly recommend, by the way). According to Ritzer, the term "McDonaldization" is used to describe the act of industrializing something, applying a model to it so that it becomes as efficient a process as possible. I believe that the way corn has found its way into every facet of our diet is itself a form of mcdonaldization.

Perhaps that's why when I discovered, to my horror, that even the bread I used to make my precious ham and cheese sandwiches (meat and milk undoubtedly procured from corn-fed animals) contained no small amount of corn product, my first reaction was to switch to a bread that contains no corn.

It's a type of food decision that has very little logic behind it. I have nothing against corn, but I detest the idea of consuming almost nothing else. And if you are what you eat, I'd rather be a gentle amber stalk of wheat than a pale yellow ear of corn.

Gopher Groceries

In speaking about the degree to which I am free to chose what I eat, I'd like to analyze the groceries I bought this week.

I made the choice to purchase groceries this past Thursday night when I realized I had only pasta in my cupboards; not fruits, veggies or protein. I stood in my apt around 7:00p contemplating what to do. My first choice would have been to get in a car, go to Whole Foods and spend about $150 on groceries for the next two week. Unfortunately, I have a) no car, and b) little money. I contemplated getting on the bus to go buy groceries. Cold and dark outside....nope!

I complained to my roommate Katrina, who told me she sometimes orders Gopher Groceries when she is too busy/lazy to go to the store. For $2 delivery, I thought, OK!

For the next hour, I sat on my laptop, looking over their website (https://www.gophergrocery.com/index.asp) pondering what to buy. Preferably, I would buy completely local and organic food, as I was raised on. However, Gopher Grocery offers a limited number of organic foods, and I am too time-stressed (and lazy) to look into where the food is grown, so I just buy a variety, almost all organic. Although I was swayed in class to the "environmentally/animal-friendly" food production side, looking for the label "organic" is what I will probably do until I have some time to investigate food companies and determine, as best I can, which are the most ethical.

Psycho Suzie's

Food choice is something that I have always struggled with because of my PKU.  For a large part of my life I had been told what I was going to eat and had very little say in it.  Now that I'm older and trying to take control of my diet I find its very difficult for me to try knew things and I can be incredibly picky, which just adds another layer of how I choose my food.

Tonight my boyfriend and I met up with my parents at Psycho Suzie's because my Mom loves to eat there and hadn't seen the knew location.  That and because it is really close to my apartment so I wouldn't have to drive very far.  My choices were pretty limited to begin with, but they have some awesome vegetarian pizza.  To start the night off we ordered cheese curds, I suggested this for two reasons, one because they remind me of summer.  I usually only get them when I am at the State Fair or Ren. Fest and I thought it would remind me of those times.  And two because they are really, really good as far as cheese curds go.  For dinner we decided to get two pizzas to split between the four of us, I got to pick one.  So I went for The Fastback, mostly because I really like artichoke and spinach.  Its also a type of pizza that I can't get at a grocery store and I cannot for the life of me cook anything with artichoke on it.  But I think the biggest reason is because I've had it before and I really liked it so I just continue to order it whenever I go there.

Everything Tastes Better in NOLA

I think that choosing what to eat has been a point of anxiety for me throughout my life largely because I have always known so many people who identify politically through their diet. Vegans, vegetarians, gluten-free, locavores, and freegans have always been part of my social circle and the ways that this can break down into political fights, frequently of the 'holier than thou' order, is something I've always found to be exhausting and at this point in my life, this kinds of debates are thoroughly overdone. I was a vegetarian for a period of time, mostly because I thought (and still do) that it is one of the easiest ways for people to make an environmental impact through their food choices—the factory farms, the corn that feeds the animals in the factory farms, and the entire petroleum-based system of transit is certainly something that the environment (and people that live in the immediate vicinity of these facilities or downstream) could do without. Still, it seems like shouting into the void because the system is really massive and I don't harbor any illusions that my individual choices really put a dent into the bottom line of industrial agriculture.

This might be why Pete Singer, the author of The Ethics of What We Eat, promotes vegetarianism from a philosophical standpoint but still said that the meal that he ate that was prepared from materials taken from a dumpster was the most ethical meal of all—freeganism and dumpstering allow people to live on the excesses that capitalism produces. It also means that they aren't putting money of any kind into the system, which makes this kind of lifestyle a lot hard to fold back into capitalism. BUT I don't exactly feel like digging through dumpsters or like taking the risk that can sometimes come from eating food from dumpsters—also, it has been my experience that the very act of choosing to embrace freeganism is a mark of privilege. I've worked with various food justice causes over the past five years and it is really hard for me to ignore the fact that a lot of people go hungry in the United States by no choice of their own. It's even harder for me to shake the conviction that people who are poor should not have to scavenge food daily from dumpsters.

Labor issues are also really important to me and this drives me further away from 'the foods movement' because the fact that switching to smaller family farms would impact what little rights farmworkers have through OSHA is constantly ignored under the pretenses that the foods movement is 'doing good.' I don't want to insinuate that the foods movement is not 'doing good,' because I think that it is doing a lot of good. I do think, however, that whatever good the foods movement does has to include rights for farmworkers as more than lip service and as an integral part of their platforms. So I would make an effort to support something like the Domestic Fair Trade Association because it incorporates farmworker rights as required for sustainable production systems instead of as an ancillory fact.

As you guys can see, this is getting really long and I don't really think about all of these things every single time that I eat. In reality, what immediately impacts my decisions about what to eat centers around convenience, cost, and what I feel like eating. So I've been in New Orleans (where I'm moving when I graduate) the past several days and I've really been enjoying the food (and enjoying the food in New Orleans is unquestionably one of the biggest reasons that I'm not a vegetarian anymore). I've heard so many people say that the United States does not have a real food tradition—which is not true of New Orleans. I've enjoyed Fried Catfish Po-Boys (this is actually my favorite thing to eat) because they are really conveniently available at most corner stores and they are affordable—my friend and I split a 12 inch sandwich that we bought for $6. I've had boudin (because I can't visit southern Louisiana and not have any) which is not as conveniently available but is frequently found in the French Quarter for reasonable prices ($5 at Thirteen—a Marigny establishment with some of the few vegetarian options available in New Orleans). The barbeque here is amazing! New Orleans is also a heavy drinking city, so I'm still refusing to think about how much I've been drinking because it hurts my feelings. So today we decided that we should probably eat some vegetables (which you actually have to try to do here) and we made an enormous salad—none of the ingredients were organic because it's really inconvenient to find organic food here (although they are turning the old 5^th precinct police department into a co-op which will make organic food available in the 9^th Ward).

This meal sponsored by Prilosec OTC

Thurday Night:

I made Jambalaya mainly using excess ingredients in our kitchen, plus being inspired by watching a clip of Rick Bayless making chorizo.

Why:

Had one of the things I was doing at work actually succeeded I would have stayed late at work, but instead I would have to start again the next day, so I got home with time to cook and wanting to make something. The previous night I had seen Rick Bayless make Chorizo, and I hadn’t eaten much meat since the weekend, so I really craved meat. We had onions, shallots, garlic, a bunch of herbs we needed to get rid of, some bell peppers, and chilies to use (from making other people making Rick inspired food during the week). I got some chorizo and shrimp at the store. We had rice, tomato, and potatoes at home as staples. It was a good combo of having several ingredients with the clock ticking on them and get home early that night, with the impetus to get something made.

Analytical Axis:

Economic: Utilize rapidly depreciating assets. Inexpensive primary ingredients. Unexpected free time lowers opportunity-costs of cooking.

Politics/Ethics: No strong feelings against eating animal products.

Psychosocial: Roommates had previously cooked during the week, engaging reciprocity norms. Unable to plan or organize more complex eating activity in allotted time. Decision priming via Rick Bayless. Psychological need for success after failed experiment.

Physiological: Lack of food during the day stimulates hunger for large meals. Meal contains protein, fat, starch, sugars, salt, and aromatics.

Recipe:

-3/4 Lb Chorizo cut into ¼ inch pieces

-1/2Lb 24Count Shrimp cut into pieces

-1/4 Stick of butter

-One Large Onion, fine dice

-Two Shallots, fine dice

-Three Cloves Garlic, minced

-Two Bell Peppers, chopped

-One Anaheim Chile, julienned

-One Habenero Chile, minced

-Three red potatoes, medium dice

-Fresh Oregano

-Fresh Chives

-Cheyenne Pepper

-Paprika

-Ancho Chile Powder

-Salt

-Fresh Ground Pepper

-1 Medium can diced tomatoes with juice

-2 Cups Medium Grain Rice

-4 Cups Water or Veg/Pork Stock

Using a big, heavy, all-metal pan:

Start browning Chorizo, about five minutes, add in shrimp and cook another five minutes. Remove the meat leaving fat in the pan. Add in butter. Add vegatables and cook until brown, about 10 minutes. Add in herbs, seasoning, meat, and rice and stir well to mix everything together well.

Add in water and stock, I use 2 cups each. Cover and simmer over low heat for 30-45 minutes, or until rice has cooked, stir occasionally.

Serve with NCAA Basketball.