Essay on Slaughterhouse Blues: Book Review

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

In almost every culture, one of the most cherished pass times is food. We eat to sustain or health, to celebrate, to morn, and sometimes just to do it. Yet, how often do we question were that food comes from? Most everyone purchases their meals from the grocery store or at a restaurant but have you ever wondered where that juicy steak grazed? How about how those crisp vegetables? Where were those grown? The Omnivore 's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, analyzes the eating habits and food chains of modern America in an attempt to bring readers closer to the origin of their foods. Not only where it comes from, but where it all begins, as well as what it takes to keep all of those plants and animals in

Standage, Tom. An Edible History of Humanity. (Ed) New York: Walker and Company, 2010, Print.

When an immigrant moved to America, the majority of the meat available was full of chemicals. In chapter 14, Sinclair show how the factories had learned to cut corners to save money when he writes “Some of it they would make into “smoked” sausage—but as the smoking took time, and was therefore expensive, they would call upon their chemistry department, and

In Raj Patel’s novel Stuffed and Starved, Patel goes through every aspect of the food production process by taking the experiences of all the people involved in food production from around the world. Patel concludes by eventually blaming both big corporations and governments for their critical role in undermining local, cultural, and sustainable foodways and in so doing causing the key food-related problems of today such as starvation and obesity. In this book of facts and serious crime, Patel's Stuffed and Starved is a general but available analysis of global food struggles that has a goal of enlightening and motivating the general Western public that there is something critically wrong with our food system.

Michael Pollan in his book titled ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ takes a critical look at the food culture in the Unites States. According to him, the question that seems to bother most Americans is simply ‘What should we have for dinner today?’ To Pollan, Americans face this dilemma because they do not have a proper tradition surrounding food. ‘The lack of a steadying culture of food leaves us especially vulnerable to the blandishments of the food scientist and the marketer for whom the omnivore’s dilemma is not so much a dilemma as an opportunity; (Pollan). He cites the example of the Atkins diet and how an entire nation changed its eating habits almost overnight. A nation that had deep rooted food culture values would

Why is culturally appropriate food the essence of humanity? Humans are arguably the only animal categorized by diverse cultures, of which food is an essential part; food sustains us and without it we would die out. Humans do not exist outside of cultures, without them we would fail to thrive. After a decade of research and activism on this subject and that of food economy, intellectual property, and traditional lifeways, Vandana Shiva published Stolen Harvest, in 2000 (South End Press). It is an ethical treatise about the inalienable right to food and self-sufficiency that all humans and animals should be afforded, and serves as an excellent primer for novice agriculturalist. Stolen Harvest is a compendium of investigative essays theorizing: monocultures homogenize biodiversity, corporate monopolies augment this destruction, and structural violence clear-cuts sustainable lifeways and food systems worldwide (Shiva 1-15, 70).

Michael Pollan in 2006, published a work that has to some degree changed the way that people eat, or at the very least attempted to change the way that we think about the food we eat. (Shea 54) Pollan demonstrates through fundamentally modern rhetoric the relationship that people, and more specifically American’s have with food and how very distant we are from it. ("History, Old Favorites in" B08) To some degree Pollan, others like him and internationally challenging food shortages and even worse food born illnesses and scares are changing the way that food is understood with regard to an international and national food traceability and accountability movement. (Popper 365) Pollan challenges the “industrial food chain” looking at

Life today in 2014 is vastly different to the period 1500-1800 as described by Blainey (2000). Survival no longer hinges on hunting and gathering food. In fact many people today give little or no thought to food production. Instead, we drive to a supermarket and buy whatever we want to eat. We have access to many restaurants and fast food outlets, so we not only have ample food at our fingertips, we don’t even have to prepare it if we choose not to. Advancements in production and using machines in place of humans (Henslin, Possamai and Possamai-Inesedy 2011, p. 139) mean food is now farmed and produced on a much larger scale (Macionis and

On the contrary, James E. has concluded that the locavore movement causes problems like “industrialized food.” The academic study in 2006 is the ecological matter about a Londoner buying a lamb addressed from New Zealand rather than purchasing lamb brought up in the UK, is said to be absurd if only considering “food-miles.” Paul Roberts claims that this has lead to casting a bright spotlight on the questionable segments of the “modern food economy.” Based on the ideas of Paul, by reason of the “long-distance food shipments promote profligate fuel use[,] exploitation of cheap labour” this has resulted in the rise of “reliance” on foods shipped from halfway round the world.

As you scan the meat aisle of the grocery store, how do you select your meat? Some people choose by brand, price, looks and even organic verses non-organic. But does any of this really matter? Apparently, none of this matters in today’s society when choosing the meat in which our families will consume. According to Eric Schosser the author of the film “Food Inc.” the idea that you would need to write a book telling people about where their food came from is just a sign of how far removed we become. In the past, our food used to come from local farmers that have grown and harvested the fruits, vegetables, meat etcetera themselves, but in today’s society, most of our food isn’t grown locally, it’s shipped from across the world and pumped with many products to increase shelf longevity and some have even been finished growing with gas so the item is ripe by the time it hits the supermarkets.

On the East coast we see a prevalence of small farms producing huge varieties of produce, grains, meats, etc. These regions are heavily populated with most of the food produced being sold locally. In the Deep South, fruits and textiles, such as cotton, are grown. The Entire Mid-west to the west is full of gigantic factory farms that produce goods for the massive factory food systems within the United States. What is so important about knowing the different regions in the US? Knowing what is produced in these regions can help to point out how and why cultures in certain regions develop. In Louisiana where rice is grown in flooded fields a culture of eating Crawfish has sprung up. The rice patties created by Louisiana farmers make a great living space for crawfish. The crawfish population explosion was caused by rice agriculture, and to combat the problem a culinary culture of eating “mud bugs”

Many of the rules that Kurt Vonnegut presents are can be identified through the way the story is presented and by the comments or analysis made by a writer like Jennifer Hicks. The story is presented through the narration of Sonny’s brother. The narration allows us to see the story from the perspective of Sonny’s brother who is a algebra teacher and in a higher social class. Hicks also identifies that “His success in assimilating into the white-dominated society separates him from his brother” (Hicks). Sonny Blues does not try to please more than one type of person. The person Vonnegut refers to are the readers who will want to read the story. The story is in the form of narration. James Baldwin is trying to get the reader to see the things

I’ve always been a big “foodie”. I’ve always enjoyed going out to eat and trying new foods. Sadly, I never thought about how the food I consumed was produced until’ I was transitioning to veganism. Watching food Inc., I observed many disturbing practices that went into the food I consumed such as: the use of minorities and undocumented workers, mass chicken farming and the conflicts of interest in food production. I also witnessed the effects of small scale farming.

Ever since the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution, the major turning point in history and the fundamental shift of food consumption from hunting & gathering to agriculture that led to permanent settlements, humans have been a prosperous species. Humans are constantly searching for new food innovations to satisfy the large supply and demand concept for the exponentially growing population. They are in fact extremely efficient in developing new strategies for food production, management, and distribution through food businesses and big corporations of this manner. In actuality, food companies control all of the agriculture and factory businesses and are in charge of all aspects of the final products sold to the consumers. This is not a positive