Mark Bittman Essay

“The solution, in his view, is to replace Big Food’s engineered, edible evil—through public education and regulation—with fresh, unprocessed, local, seasonal, real food.” (Freedman). Pollan has increased spite for “nutritionism,” which is the idea behind packing healthier ingredients into processed foods which is what Freedman is advocating for. Pollan’s view is much the same as some scientists, food activists, nutritionists, and celebrity chefs. He has had such an influence that the Silicon Valley caters to the wholefoods movement and the progression to familiarizing the masses with simpler eating habits (Freedman). However, being an area full of technological endeavors, the Silicon Valley sees technology as the culprit as well. The New York Times Magazine’s food writer, Mark Bittman also shares views with Pollan. In fact, Bittman has even written a cookbook on how to eat better. While most are more wholesome there are still few recipes that are high in fat. One of his recipes consists of corn being sautéed in bacon fat and then topped with bacon (Freedman).

Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto is an eye-opening analysis of the American food industry and the fear driven relationship many of us have with food. He talks in depth about all the little scientific studies, misconceptions and confusions that have gathered over the past fifty years. In the end provide us with a piece of advice that should be obvious but somehow is not, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He follows the history of nutritionism and the industrialization of food, in hopes to answer one question….. how and when "mom" ceded control of our food choices to nutritionists, food marketers and the government.

Journalist and novelist Michael Pollan writes about the trials and tribulations surrounding food in North America and raises questions regarding Western diet, which is mostly comprised of refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup and corn in general. He reiterates that chemically generated food is creating disease in North Americans; If we eliminate these factors and adopt the eating habits of less industrialized places in the world will we in our lifetime see rates of heart disease, type two diabetes and obesity decline dramatically? The western diet has evolved drastically in the last sixty years, so much so that people have become codependent on the government, dietitians and food agencies regarding their health and what to consume. The land is suffering from pesticides and singular plant farming, the alternative to this is to buy organic but at a higher price. Media has influenced the consumer to read the label and accept and trust the daily vitamin percentages on the box, as this is what is best for them. Money is the key factor in all of this and the government, scientific research and media know that, therefor the public is in for a shock when they realize that the very labels that are supposed to save them have fooled them.

Bittman stated that “Every family had a cook, usually a mom. And those moms bought and prepared food. It was like your romantic vision of Europe.” Bittman also stated that “Fats, carbs, proteins, they weren 't bad or good, they were food. You ate food. Hardly anything contained more than one ingredient, because it was an ingredient.”. You are probably thinking where am i going with these examples. Well from using these context clues it is easy to infer that Bittman isn 't a fan of the evolution in the food industry. As Bittman continues on with his lecture he talks about how food production became more industrial. For example, Bittman stated that “Many people became fat-phobic. Others worshiped broccoli, as if it were God-like. But mostly they didn 't eat broccoli. Instead they were sold on yogurt, yogurt being almost as good as broccoli. Except, in reality, the way the industry sold yogurt was to convert it to something much more akin to ice cream.”. What Bittman stated in the previous quote is hir reasoning behind his perspective on the evolution of food.

In Pollan’s “Voting with Your Fork,” he first develops a controversial question by examining the food we eat, the production of food, and the health consequences. Pollan counterbalances his argument on food, and health being manipulated by the food industry by providing supporting evidence and expressing his opinion on the issue. Pollan identifies in his article that as the food industry produces cheaper food the unhealthier the food becomes. Pollan explanation to cheap food is, “While it is true that this system produces vast quantities of cheap food (indeed, the vastness and cheapness is part of the problem), it is not doing what any nation’s food system foremost needs to do: that is, maintain its population in a good health.” In increasing the consumption of cheap food, can result in lethal health problems. “For most of history, the food problem” has been a problem of quantity. Our shocking rates of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, foodborne illness and nutrient deficiency suggest that quantity is not the problem- or the solution.” The purpose of Pollan’s article was to trigger society to acknowledge the food being consumed, the production of cheap food, and how certain foods can lead to negative health consequences. In comparison to Pollan, Konstantinovsky also used an argument of facts to state her claims as to why

The article states that most eaters are passive consumers, who know nothing about the food they eat, They buy what they want within the limits of what they can afford. However most eaters just buy food and believe that vegetables and fruits come from a farm, they pay without protest what they are charged.The point of Barry’s writing is to urge people to look into where their food comes from, how it was produced and what chemicals it might contain, he realized that the food industries has tricked consumers into buying prepared food. He also says that the food industry is not worried about our health, they only care about how much they sell and the price.

You may have heard people talking about how the weather is very different today than it was ten years ago. You may have noticed changes in the weather yourself. The earth's climate has changed many times over millions of years. And you may have heard about Global Warming. You may ask what Global Warming is. I remember the first time I ever saw and heard about Global Warming when I was just a little girl. I was watching the TV and a commercial came on, it was a cartoon with two kids and an adult. They were in the park enjoying the day. The adult started talking about Global Warming, the kids didn’t know what he was talking about, so he fast forward the time and showed them what the earth is going to look like when they are

Climate change, global warming, greenhouse effect—even if you only watch the news periodically, these are phrases that you have most likely become aware of. In short, climate change is the change global and regional patterns regarding climate; this is due to possible changes in the Earth’s axis, human activity modifying the composition of the atmosphere, or geographical activity such as volcanic eruptions [1]. Many have speculated and argued whether climate change actually exists. Regardless of your opinion, a staggering amount of scientists have accepted climate change as a reality. In fact, the much-admired astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson claims that individuals denying scientific facts is the “beginning of the end of an informed democracy” [2]. The article Climate Change: No Hiding Place supports Neil deGrasse Tyson’s notion stating “those who doubt that greenhouse gases are quite the problem they have been cracked up to be by most of the world's climatologists” [3]. While it may be difficult to see climate change presently, there are many indicators of its existence with the higher temperatures and acidity levels in the ocean, the melting of Arctic ice caps,

“Less meat, less junk food and more plants” that’s the main slogan of Mark Bittman’s talk. According to him, eating habits of modern society dramatically differs from earlier times: people found convenient buying prepared food (fast food, frozen food), that doesn’t need much time and effort, which, consequently, harms our health and contributes to disease can cause diabetes, cancer and heart diseases. Moreover, as he said meat is not that healthy to our organism as it believed to be. Firstly, cattle are mostly forced to eat can and soy, in place of natural grass to stay alive longer. Secondly, even if they’re called organic and packed tightly, it does not mean that they save freshness and will be good as they were at first, because they travel

Our food wars a much make up as actors (Berry 232). Berry expresses that the food industry wants little to do with our health but more to do with volume and price of their product. As scales increase, diversity declines when this happens so does health. From there the dependence on drugs and chemicals becomes necessary. Food advertising leads up to believe that what we eat is good, tasty, healthy and guaranteed to give us a long life (Berry 233).

“Global warming, along with the cutting and burning of forests and other critical habitats, is causing the loss of living species at a level comparable to the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. That event was believed to have been caused by a giant asteroid. This time it is not an asteroid colliding with the Earth and wreaking havoc: it is us.” This is the statement that Al Gore made in his movie, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It. For the last several years, movies like this have been in the mainstream. The environment, climate change, and global warming have been at the forefront of global sociopolitical issues. But what is “global warming” truly? According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, global warming refers to the recent and ongoing rise in global average temperature near Earths surface… caused mostly by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Global warming is causing climate patterns to change.” (EPA) The EPA, NASA, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, along with 97% of climate scientists all agree – humans are the major cause of global warming and climate change. (NASA) To determine whether or not this is true, one must look at the evidence for rapid climate change itself, and then the evidence of all the causes, and

Bittman’s call for greater awareness, responsibility, and sustainability of the welfare involved with the food industry is admirable. The widespread access to food from all over the world has certainly created great ambiguity around food sources. As a result, food production and transport methods can evade public awareness, individuals

My presentation speaks about Global warming is the current increase in temperature of the Earth's surface (both land and water) as well as it's atmosphere. Average temperatures around the world have risen by 0.75°C (1.4°F) over the last 100

We live in a fast track society, and the goal of the typical consumer is simple: get the best product for the least amount of money in the shortest amount of time. When at the supermarket, it is easy to quickly scan boxes and cans for signs that assure us of a quality product. Among these familiar signs are the stamps of approval from the American Heart Association and the Smart Choices program. In many cases, however, these assurances of quality and nutrition are not what they seem to be. The use of deceptive health marketing by corporations on food products is unethical. Many of the names consumers trust to guide them in a better lifestyle are actually paid large sums of money by corporations for the privilege of putting a logo on their

You hear about it from television news broadcasts. You read about it in newspapers and magazines. You talk about it with friends and co-workers. There have even been movies made about it. The “it” is global warming. “Global warming refers to the global-average temperature increase that has been observed over the last one hundred years or more” (Spencer). Some experts argue that global warming is a result of human activities, while others believe the warming and cooling of the Earth’s atmosphere is a natural cycle. Supporters of human induced global warming stress that since the Industrial Revolution we have released excessive amounts of carbon dioxide, a known “greenhouse gas,” into the atmosphere and increased the Earth’s