Summary Of All Over Let's Eat By Dave Barry

1. In his article, “The Pleasures of Eating” (1990), author Wendell Berry says that the food industry and its consumers are analogous to Hollywood and its relationship to its consumers. His analogy states that people don't care how bad a movie is, they just care that its a movie and they finally have some form of entertainment, very much like how people tend to do today with their food, eating gross and unhealthy just for the kick of it. He claims that a person who doesn’t realize “the connections between eating and the land” is “passive and uncritical” and therefore, “in short a victim” of Although they sound similar, being a passive consumer of entertainment is different than being a passive consumer of food, because although watching bad movies watching many bad movies is not that bad for your health, eating too much junk food is really bad for you and eventually takes a toll on your body.

There are many of us who are disillusioned by the American Political system, over the years we have become increasingly cynical, viewing politicians as extensions of Corporate America, the good OLE boys from the South and the Eastern Elite. For such politicians, politics itself was a life long destiny, full of ambition, finesse, and struggle for power, yet a severe lack

From the rousing introduction, Christopher Matthews’ Hardball is presented as a godsend to aspiring politicians, businessmen, and frankly, everyone alike. Adopting a pompously self-assured tone, Matthews divulges his reasoning about sharing his wisdom collected from his own experience and other major players of “Hardball.” However after finishing the book, his audacity could be forgiven by the enjoyable nature of his work, the information that it provides, and the uncanny resemblance to Benjamin Franklin’s writing style. In the first section of Matthew’s self-proclaimed “classic” and political manifesto, he presents the world of politics (Hardball) through a series of informative—if not redundant—phrases, historical examples, and his own experience

From the rousing introduction, Chris Mathews' Hardball presents itself as a godsend to young aspiring politicians, businessmen, and frankly, everyone alike. Pompously self-assured, Mathews discusses his reasoning to sharing his wisdom collected from his own experience and other major players in "Hardball". However after finishing the book, his audacity could be forgiven by the enjoyable nature of his work, the information it provides, and the uncanny resemblance to Benjamin Franklin's writing style. In the first section of Mathews' self-proclaimed "classic" and political manifesto, he presents the world of politics through a series of informative--if not redundant--phrases, historical examples, and his own experience in Washington.

Throughout the time in class, we have discussed a variety of different topics relating to the culture of American politics. While Susan Jacoby, through her book The Age of American Unreason, highlights quite a few important ideas about the lack of intellectual thought in American politics, due to the time lapse between the publication of the book and our class, some ideas are not as thoroughly explained as they relate to the current American political atmosphere. Two presidential terms have passed since the release of the book leading to a distinct break from the current political climate. While the fundamental reasoning that Jacoby presents is accurate, the rise of polarization between liberalism and conservativism have created a culture that prompts anti-intellectual thought even more so than eight years ago when Jacoby first wrote The Age of American Unreason.

Food politics, one of the most complicated discussions of all. Four authors, four articles, and four opinions. The first article is “The Pleasures of Eating”, by Wendell Berry, is about health. His article is not only about our health, but our foods health. Berry speaks of blind eating and clueless purchasing, that we don’t know what we are eating. Some questions asked by Wendell Berry were “How fresh is it? How pure or clean is it, how free of dangerous chemicals? How far was it transported, and what did transportation add to the cost? How much did manufacturing or packaging or advertising add to the cost? When the food product has been manufactured or "processed" or "precooked," how has that affected its quality or price or nutritional value?”

Fukuyama asserts that political gridlock is a source of political decay, and the “bottom line is that given how self-reinforcing the country’s political malaise is, and how unlikely the prospects for constructive incremental reform are, the decay of American politics will probably continue until some external shock comes along to catalyze a true reform coalition and galvanize it into action” (Fukuyama, “America in

So, have you ever taste the difference between a homemade meal that’s cooked with whole foods for a meal that been processed in a factory. Michael Pollan, a food journalist and professor, argues how processed food companies only care about the profit their brand are made and not caring about the nutrient that is in the product. In “Escape from the Western Diet”, Pollan argues that there is no kind relationship between them to decide the types of nutrient and whole foods are in it. Some other people like Gyrory Scrinis, who in the article just says that he coined the term “nutritionism”, which he considers that the industry and homemade meal with whole foods are two different types of groups. Michael Pollan ideas that there is no connection between the process food industry and nutrient will be something that I will agree with him because nowadays industry only care about their profits so it is harder to separate our bodily health and the health of the environment you live and eat in.

In ‘Let’s Make Food Issues Real’ an op-ed article from the New York Times, author Mark Bittman claims that food is not taken as serious problem even though there are many problems with labeling and the overall production it. Mark Bittman supports his claim by giving examples of food companies, and how they are removing ingredients or adding harmful substances to cut down the costs of the production of cuisine. Mark Bittman purpose is to inform the reader about the problem with food production in order to bring relevance to these issues, and to get others to start questioning these companies and to start voting for laws/people that will stop further harm. Based on his serious/educated tone about this pandemic author Mark Bittman is writing to

In Michael Nelson’s Why Americans Hate Politics And Politicians, the author presents some very compelling evidence as to why Americans generally detest modern government. He cites several historically recent political scandals as potential explanations for the public’s mistrust of politicians. He blames the modern American political culture as well as the various public media hosts who frequently diabolize politicians and denounce their political actions. He also alludes to the common American theme of displacing blame from oneself, onto another group of individuals serving as political scapegoats. I felt that his arguments were thoroughly grounded in facts, as well as the various statistical poll results that he presents. I also feel that his arguments are still relative to the political world of today, as public opinion has not changed that much since this essay was published. Americans still share a general hatred for politics, even though the American public is often to blame, and not their elected officials as they wish to believe.

“The Pleasures of Eating,” by Wendell Berry is an informative piece challenging us as consumer to be more aware of what we are eating. Berry points out most times we are unaware of the processes of food production which puts our health at risk. One of Berry’s strongest arguments is that most times as consumers buy food without asking critical questions that will affect the nutritional value of the product. Consumers are so passive that they buy some of the most expensive foods with very little protest. We have become so trust worthy of the food industry that we see no need to be critical of types of food products they give to the public.

The Pleasures of Eating In the article “The Pleasures of Eating” by Wendell Berry we are asked by Berry to question everything we do when it comes to food. He talks about how our entire life we are thought to not question where our food has come from and just keep going to the grocery stores like Wal-Mart and Smiths. We want our food fast and cheap and have become so accustomed to just that very scenario. We hardly go to the farms where the produce is fresher than in the stores.

Between 1988 and now, at least one media outlet has reported during each political campaign “This is the nastiest campaign we have seen yet.”1988- New York Times, 1992-Los Angeles Times, 1996-CNN, 2000-Baltimore Sun, 2004-Boston Globe, 2008-Washington Times... so on and so on. Political Discourse in the United States have not changed much, Society has. Social Media, and yellow journalism have had an influence over the voters. People who voice their conflicting views may be subjected to ridicule from friends, family and in some cases strangers.

Micheal Pollan is “an author of Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire, which was all New York Times bestsellers. He was a longtime contributor to The New York Times Magazine and is also a Professor of Journalism at Berkeley. In 2010, Pollan was named one of the one hundred most influential people in the world by Times Magazine.” (Table of Contents, About the Author) Micheal Pollan starts off with “What should we have for dinner,” which sets the stage for the book. A question that seems so difficult to answer. Throughout my reading, I find that Pollan is more bias on the use of organic and sustainable farming based on his experiences throughout the book. One can understand Pollan's opinions

There were a few key points that stood out in the reading of chapter 4 and the articles provided. One point that stood out to me in chapter 4 is located on page 102. In 1996 Dr. Peter D’Adamo the author of “Eat Right for Your Type”, was able to tell which foods a person would process best, and which foods would produce useless calories. This was all determined by your blood type. The small reference towards the Dr’s program goes on to say “while there are many serious critics of Dr. D’Adamo’s program, and the research that supports it, there are also testimonies to the programs life savings values”. Another couple points that stood out in the reading of chapter 4 are both located on page 104. The first point noted was the variety of cancers and mortality rates that are high in regions where the population had a high rate of meat consumption. The other point which stood out from chapter 4 is that “ ½ of the harvested agriculture land in the U.S. is planted with feed crops which brings up a fact that grain which is being fed to cattle is not being fed to the many people who are starving”.