Orr Ecological Education

Regardless the person, everyone still orders from restaurants, or they microwave a frozen dinner meal once in awhile. In contemporary society, it 's much more efficient to order take out rather than to cook and prepare your own food due to the lack of time. Sadly people even forget the taste of fresh, home cooked meals. Nowadays people don’t know what it’s like to sit down and enjoy a nice hearty home cooked meal, instead they’re always on the run grabbing a quick bite here and there. Unfortunately with such busy lives people don’t have the opportunity to watch cooking shows, go to cooking class, or even cook for their children. People just want to come home and relax they don’t want to have to worry about cooking and all the preparation that comes with it, they would much rather order take out and avoid all the hassle of cooking. In Berry Wendell’s Essay “The Pleasures of Eating”, we are given insight on how very little common people know about where their food comes from and what it goes through. “When a Crop Becomes King” by Michael Pollan reveals how corn, a single crop could be involved in such a wide array of industry and be used in almost everything. David Barboza’s article “If You Pitch It, They Will Eat”, focuses on how in modern society advertising is everywhere and it is taking a big role in everyday life. Through the work of Berry, Pollan, and Barboza we are shown that ignorance is a defining human trait.

1. “Hundreds of millions of people buy fast food every day without giving it much thought, unaware of the subtle and not so subtle ramifications of their purchases. They rarely consider where this food came from, how it was made, what it is doing to the community around them. They just grab their tray off the counter, find a table, take a seat, unwrap the paper, and dig in” (Schlosser 10).

He probes them to learn the what, where, and how of dinner – knowing what is going into the body, knowing where that food came from, and knowing how that food was made. By first knowing what is being consumed, people can make better informed decisions about their purchases. Nutrition, or lack thereof, is a key component in the battle against obesity. Food giants are hoping to hide the often unnecessary filler present in their products by use of dodgy claims and socially engineered advertisements. In general, most consumers probably couldn’t say where their food came from. This usually boils down to the fact that shoppers typically don’t think about it. Breaking this reliance on mass-grown foods is the second part of Pollan’s proposition. The third and equally important element is how the food is produced. More specifically, Pollan is concerned whether or not the food has been produced in a sustainable manner. Preserving the biodiversity of food, maintaining fertile land for future generations, and ensuring consumers receive food that does not compromise health are all factors of sustainability. Without informed consumers, what, where, and how will continue to be unanswered questions. Whether it is for nutritional or ethical choices, a particular food’s history is something that needs to once again become common

McDonaldization of society- the process by which ordinary aspects of life are rationalized and efficiency comes to rule them, including such things as food preparation p. 173

Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser, is a stark and unrelenting look into the fast food industry that has ingrained itself in not only American culture, but in culture around the world. There is almost no place on earth that the golden arches has not entered. Aside from Antarctica, there is a McDonalds on every continent, and the number of countries that have fast food restaurants is growing on a daily basis. Schlosser describes in detail what happens behind the scenes, before the hamburger and fries come wrapped in environmentally safe paper and are consumed by millions of people daily

Fukuoka main point of this article is to inform people that there is more to eating than just the nutritional value and now the Western culture values the wrong ideas when it comes to fueling your body. He starts his article off by comparing the daily meal of ancient farmers to todays Western mothers. This comparison shows that even with out scientific facts the farmers were able to live long healthy lives with a simple diet of brown-rice and vegetables. The Western mothers he referred to force bad tasting food down their children’s throats because they believe that is the only way they will live long and strong. Another point Fukuoka makes is that the Western diet separates people from nature, “The diet that results serves to isolate human beings from nature. A fear of nature and a general sense of insecurity are often the unfortunate results” (72) this quote suggests the diet is pushing humans farther and farther from our roots. With this separation we are becoming more isolated and distancing ourselves from nature causing us to fear our very own

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.

Over the last several decades, the diet of society has been continually changing. This has resulted in different formulas for nutrition and the proper portions of foods that must be consumed. To fully understand the various arguments requires looking at numerous viewpoints. This will be accomplished by focusing on Michael Pollan's Escape from the Western Diet in contrast with Mary Maxfield's Food as thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating. These views will highlight how diet and nutrition is based upon individual opinions. This is the focus of the thesis.

Pollan divided The Omnivore's Dilemma into three parts. This book review will focus solely on part I of industrial corn. Part 1 described the consequences that America is facing due to the overproduction of corn. Pollan traveled to a handful of farms to witness the farming practices for himself. He witnessed how America has transitioned from local farming to industrial farming. One significant factor that stood out to Pollan during his travels was learning about the many uses that corn has as compared to that of earlier years. For example, at one point of time, corn was used as feed for animals such as cows and chickens. Nowadays, corn is used to make corn syrup. According to Pollan, "there are some forty-five thousand items in the average American supermarket and more than a quarter of them now contain corn. Corn is in the coffee whitener and Cheez Whiz, the frozen yogurt and TV dinner, the canned fruit and ketchup

In “Michael Pollan's, In Defense of Food starts with a broad sketch of a key social change: how control over what families ate shifted from cultural factors, such as mothers and traditions, to marketing and the food industry. The result is that more health claims are made for food than ever before—but people are less healthy. The goal of In Defense of Food is to analyze the reasons for this seeming paradox. As Pollan does so, he makes other arguments as well, such as the idea that people should spend less time worrying about health and food and that the current Western diet makes people sick”(Pollan). This relate to my others source because I am talking about the culture of food and how my grandma is an Liberian and how in her culture their

The story of the fast food industry and its effect on the world is well told in the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Schlosser makes the claim that, what started out as a special treat for the kids eventually ended up defining a way of life. During a brief period of time, the fast food industry has helped transform not only the American diet, but also our countryside, economy, workforce, and popular culture. The book thoroughly describes how important the two factors of money and power are in today's society. The book clearly establishes the broader thesis that as consumers, we should know what we eat even if it makes us uncomfortable by the knowledge.

Knowing what is in your fast food might make you think twice the next time you devour it. As the rise of the fast food nation in America has increased to an all-time high, so has the weight and waists of Americans all around the country. Not only has the United States grown to love the acquired taste of greasy golden fries and juicy burgers, it has also grown ignorant to the way their food is prepared. In the novel, “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal”(2002), by Eric Schlosser, he makes compelling points in his position against the fast food industry.

Raj Patel’s Stuffed and Starved analyzes the paradoxical content in its title statement. Patel demonstrates how the world food system has created two opposite, but inherently linked epidemics: obesity and crippling hunger. Throughout the course of this book, it becomes painfully clear that the majority of the world’s population is being manipulated by our global food system and by the corporations and their CEO’s who control it. Patel encourages his readers to make themselves politically responsible (313) and through Stuffed and Starved, highlights the discrepancies and major imbalances of our world food system, the small percentage of people who benefit from it, and the vast majority of humanity who does not. He does all this while

What society is faced with are these specific questions: “Is McDonaldization good for society?” and “How will it affect our future?” These questions will be unanswered for many years to come as humans digest the likability of social control.

The word "McDonaldization" was first used by George Ritzer（2010）. Ritzer describes McDonaldization as “the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as to the rest of the world.” McDonaldization provides a model of increasing unification and standardized in modern society. For example, a large number of companies use the model of McDonaldization in their local businesses to make employees work more efficiently and effectively. The method of McDonaldization is one of the models of globalization that helps local enterprises and economies work more efficiently and effectively. In other words, culture globalization does not threaten the