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.