Sources 3-29-10

When I am choosing a scholarly source I try to look for the most peer-reviewed article I can find. Searching the internet or any other medium like that is not always the best idea when finding an article for a paper because you never know who may have contributed or wrote that article, so it is not always the most consistent way of going about researching a piece of writing or information. The way that works best for me is by going to the library and finding books that are relevant to what I am studying, or to go on the WorldCat website on the Washington State University website and find a academic article that way. The ways I know that the articles I find are trustworthy and fit for my paper are: it is peer-reviewed, published, or from a source that is well known and trusted in that certain field of study. A proper source is always extremely important whenever you are writing a paper on a certain topic that requires information that is true or required to back up a point you try to make throughout the paper. In order to properly convince your audience of what you are trying to prove, you must include sources that backup your ideas and insure that what you are saying is accurate. Citing the author accordingly is also extremely important when finding suitable sources because if the author is not given the proper citation of his or her teachings then the information in your paper may be considered false by your instructor or reader.

Norman E. Borlaug Article

Biotechnology and the process of genetically altering the food we eat in order to create higher yields of food and to rid the food we eat of diseases is the dream Norman Borlaug worked towards throughout his long-lived career. The question I have is: Is using such technology and man-made feats something we desire to have present in the food that we consume? I feel that the effect man has had on the food he eats may in turn be the demise of our species as we know it. The control human-kind has desired to have over nature throughout the past few centuries may not be as beneficial as everyone says it is. For the millions of years that life has existed on earth, living things have had to fight, work, and suffer for the nourishment they received. Natural selection has, over time, produced the species living today. By using such technology to feed everyone and everything we are bypassing nature and its rules for life completely. Feeding the world through the process of biotechnology will effectively over-populate the earth, which will lead to the over-use of natural resources, which will eventually exhaust the Earth entirely. I am not advocating that humans should not feed others or make sure no one starves, but I do feel that if we continue in this technological direction we are moving towards, nature will eventually fight back in a tremendous way.

Omnivore's Dilemma: 3-1-10

Chapter twenty of The Omnivore’s Dilemma touches on the appreciation of being able to consciously recognize where your food really came from, and this is what I connected to most in this weeks reading. Michael Pollan discusses his journey of how he made and ate an entire meal, which he made and gathered completely. Such knowledge of what you are really eating is knowledge everyone should have in his or her life regularly. The fact that such knowledge can aid in our own well-being and health truly proves that the food we have been eating for our entire lives have been lies time and time again. Not knowing the truth behind what we are feeding our bodies further empowers the corporations with control over our food, to continue lying to us. Unless the modern man fully understands what his food really is, we will continue our downward spiral in terms of our worldwide health problems and future problems to come. Though preparing a meal like the one Pollan did seems incredibly positive and helpful in many ways, it may not be realistic for many people and families. The ability to create such a meal requires incredible amounts of respect, knowledge, and time; most of which most people do not have a lot of.

Omivore's Dilemma: Chap 16 & 17

Eating animals. It sounds like a subject you would think you would hear on the Discovery Channel or something of that nature, but eating animals is habit for us as humans. The thought of killing a living thing in order to satisfy hunger, to me, is disturbing. This feeling, I believe was created by this weeks readings, especially chapter 17 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Though I may never stop eating animal products, I still have a lingering uneasiness about doing such a thing. What gives me this uneasiness about eating animals is the idea that the animals are suffering throughout the process. Michael Pollan writes that he believes that there is a difference between pain and suffering, but to me it seems awfully relative. My understanding of suffering is that if someone is ending another living thing’s life, against it’s will, there will be some aspect of suffering involved. Human nature and evolution seems to have changed and altered the part of our minds that gives us the idea that we have the right to take the life of another living organism and use it for nourishment. Despite the reality that I may never stop eating food from animals, I still feel unease in regard to eating animals.

Omnivore's Dilemma Reading: Chap. 12 &13

In chapter twelve of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan visits a slaughterhouse in hopes to learn more about how animals go from the farm to the consumer. During this experience Pollan receives the opportunity to kill chickens to see what it is like to do such a thing. While slitting the throats of many chickens Pollan discovers that it is more of a senseless murder, and this is what caught my attention most from the reading. What bothers me is that how we live in such a society that can so easily and senselessly kill living things for their own satisfaction. I mean, I’m not one to claim that I’m not going to eat a hamburger because a cow had to suffer, but I do think that it is something that we as a society have taken for granted. It is sad to me that our own selfish hunger can drive us to eat animals that have been killed by the thousands without even a thought or conscious awareness of what actually happened. It is as if there is a curtain between the slaughterhouse and our plate, and we were never meant to look or even want to look in order to know the truth. I just feel like it is our responsibility to reflect, understand, and be grateful for what goes into nourishing our bodies.

Reading #2, 2-1-10

What I connected to most from this week’s reading from chapter 9 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma was Pollan’s very interesting ideas about the organic food market and how not all of it is ever completely honest. Pollan spoke about how labels on foods can trick you into buying one thing and believing another, and I know this is true from my own life. When trying to make the most conscious choice nutritionally, whether it be organic or not, you must be very careful when reading labels because they were not written with the intentions that we as the consumer will be able to understand what they say. The fact that the people who are selling us what we eat, are not telling the real truth about it infuriates me. Another topic that resonated in my mind as I read was about how organic food is becoming “produced”. I think it is so sad that something such as “organic” food, which people look for in order to nourish their bodies, is being turned into more of a company interested in the monetary value versus the health status of its consumers. What I mean from all of this is, is that you cannot produce food that is “organic”; we must leave that solely up to nature.

Reading #1 - 1-25-10

In the reading I connected most with the sixth chapter of Michael Pollen’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Chapter six spoke about how and why administrations such as Nixon’s have helped make us as citizens more unhealthy and disease prone. These administrations did what they could to make their people eat more so that they, in turn, could make more money. I connected to this message because I feel that even after the Nixon administration made these selfish changes in the early 1970s, we still face the same problems today in 2010. The fact that the people in charge are so obsessed with the money and power they have that they feel like they can sabotage their people’s health for their own fiscal benefit is absolutely sickening and rather inhumane. These decisions by our government have led to extremely serious problems in terms of diseases such as type 2 diabetes and other obesity-related issues, and it must stop. In order for our county to be healthy and successful we must not let the government continue to hinder our health, but rather we should do all we can to have a voice of our own and make our own personal decisions about what we put in our body.