Summer Bridge Observation

Do you know what is in the food that you are fueling your body with? Eating locally grown food or growing your own food allows you to know exactly what is in your food and where it is coming from. Award winning author Barbara Kingsolver ditched her urban life full of pesticides and GMOs, and uprooted her family to a farm where they were going to eat all home or locally grown food for a year. The Kingsolver family documented this one-year food journey in their non-fiction book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Barbara Kingsolver wants to educate, persuade, and inspire her readers to live healthier lives by first forcing them to question the food they are consuming. She uses allusion, figurative language, and rhetorical questioning

Thinking about the importance and significance of food respective to our health, ethnic culture and society can cause cavernous, profound, and even questionable thoughts such as: “Is food taken for granted?”, “Is specialty foods just a fad or a change in lifestyle?”, and even “Is food becoming the enemy.” Mark Bittman, an established food journalist, wrote an article called “Why take food seriously?” In this article, Bittman enlightens the reader with a brief history lesson of America’s appreciation of food over the past decades. This history lesson leads to where the social standing of food is today and how it is affecting not only the people of America, but also the rest of the world.

This gap has lead people to become “passive consumers” that are ignorant towards the origin of their food, how it is produced, and their role in the modern food industry. Berry argues that the pleasure of eating cannot be known without understanding that eating is involved in the agricultural process. He urges people to look into where and how their food is produced and under what conditions. He asserts that food is now a product of industry meaning the food industry no longer cares about the quality of food and how healthy it is, but how much can be produced at a small price. Berry then gives seven suggestions that can help people eat responsibly and understand the pleasures of eating. By being active in our world and in how we eat, people can eat with the fullest pleasure by being connected with the world around them and eating with understanding and gratitude

When considering differences between organic and conventional foods often the first thing people comment on is the nutritional value. Organic foods have grown in popularity due to the perception that they are better nutritionally. Barbara Hey (2009), health reporter and author of the article, “A Different Health Debate: Conventional versus Organic Food” and Smith-Spangier, Crystal, et al. (2012), emphasize that the benefits of organic foods and farming are important to society. That organic food can help protect what’s most valuable to people, their health. They suggest that eating a healthy diet rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants is a good investment in preventative care. Jeff Gillman (2008) agrees and states, “ …preventing disease is much more cost effective than treating disease. Organic foods can play a vital role in keeping people healthy” (139).

Part 1 Pros – Organic foods can be costly but you also get what you pay for. Understandable not

 Local farming is healthier than eating processed foods.  Organic foods have more nutrients in the food than processed foods. The author says, "A regular trip to a farmer's market is one of the best ways to connect with where your food comes from. Meeting and talking to farmers and food artisans is a great opportunity to learn more about how and where food is produced." The author also says, "Buying from the local farmer helps safeguard your health. Knowing where your food comes from and how it is grown enables you to choose safe food. Buy food from local farmers you trust. The farmer then circulates his profits throughout the community with local merchants creating a cycle that helps to build a strong local economy." This means that local farming is better than processed foods and people just care about their health and how they can stay healthy.

I chose the topic “food” because is a very essential factor of the human life. The United States surrounds itself with a variety of fast food chains that causes obesity and death. In order to prevent the negative health risks, there must be amends made. Finley suggested that growing your own food benefits you, your health, your health, and even your children.

In chapter thirty-two of the kitchen as laboratory, César Vega and David J. McClements discuss what it means to cook from scratch in the context of modern society. Vega begins the chapter by introducing the topic of the importance of knowing where our food comes from, and how it is modified into the ingredients we know today. Although consumers should know where their food comes from, Vega and McClements claim that the consumers should also educate themselves about the process of how food is transformed to provide a better understanding of their food. The authors cite Michael Pollan, an author who writes primarily about food. Pollan claims that consumers should purchase food with a limited number of ingredients, or ingredients that are easy to identify. The authors disagree with Pollan’s point, citing that some foods are enriched to make people healthier, and if the additives were removed there would be a impact on everyone’s health.

Barry is asking the public to take care of their health and learn more about the food industry. He is asking us to participate in food production by growing our own food and preparing our own meals. He suggests we need to buy directly from local farmers. Even though this article was written twenty seven years ago, it is still relevant to today’s society. Wendell Berry's “The Pleasure Of Eating” is a strong article about how and why people take for granted the food they eat. I agree with Barry that eating is a cultural and agricultural act. I also agree that the food industry has fooled us into buying prepared food, and fooled us to believe that chemicals in our food is good for us. However we need to eat responsibly, by knowing where our food comes from. We also need to buy from local farmers, and prepare our own meals. I agree that we need to grow our own food to feel the reward and labor that farmers feel.

When I first arrived to the AT&T Summer Bridge, one of the first people I meet was Tim Willis. He was heaver involved the project aspect of the camp, but still present in that time. The more I talked to him the more interesting his experiences were. He then invited me to check out the Sooner off-Road team, and joined the team. Tim is in his senior year of school and is the person with a lot of experience in the Mechanical Engineering field before graduation.

I feel that if one knows the how, where, and when of the products they use the more flavorful the resulting dish will be. I purport that flavor is dependent upon times of harvest. I am also a proponent of education, especially in foods for the young. Waters’ project, Edible Schoolyard at Berkeley, California Martin Luther King, Jr., Middle School, teaches young people the basics of growing, harvesting, and preparing food. This project inspires knowledge as well as values that help to build awareness about a sustainable

Thesis Statement: These human and environmental consequences are what lead people to eat organically. Today, there are a few points I would like to discuss with you all.

The suspension bridge is a very popular type of bridge all over the world. It’s hard to build but can be built in a lot more places than an arch or beam bridge. Scientists do not know when it was invented. They believe it was near the 15th century. Whom it was invented by is also unknown. A suspension bridge can span distances from 2,000 to 7,000 feet, longer than any other type of bridge in the world.

I have always enjoyed baking and cooking, as a result, I often bake with my family members. This means that I do have some prior knowledge of importance of nutritional values, convenience, safety and shelf life of foods. Food Science has actually been integrated into our everyday lives, and that is what makes it so appealing to me. The food industry is one of the largest industries in the world and I am eager to be part of this important industry, researching on how to produce food that is of better quality. Research that has previously been done by Food scientists have largely contributed to the higher quality of life experienced in many countries today, as compared to that of previous decades. To work with food is a heavy responsibility as people place their trust in those who produce the food they consume. I believe that it would be of great satisfaction for me to see a food

My more intimate meeting with organics was in August of 2016 when I flew to Washington D.C to visit a cousin. This cousin, Christina, is a vegetarian and she also lives organically. The street that she lives on, and the surrounding area, is filled with very vegan, vegetarian, organic and natural positive restaurants. Unlike me, Christina had a way deeper knowledge of the meaning of the word organic, and she knew a lot of people who knew even more about it than her. Luckily, those people where more than willing to truly introduce me to their world.