HW 12 - Final Food Project 2 - Outline

Thesis: The dominant social practices of our society demonstrate how the "normal routines" of our society are leading to a nightmarish industrial revolution in which demand outweighs the need for safe and clean practices.

Major Claim: The ever growing demand for food has caused the mass production of food to become dirty and unhealthful.

Supporting Claim 1: Tainted meat outbreaks in the U.S.A. are more present then ever.

Evidence: E' Coli outbreaks (http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/07/first-case-filed-in-bison-meat-e-coli-outbreak/)

Evidence: Tainted meat reaching consumers (http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/04/audit-finds-tainted-meat-making-it-to-market/)

Evidence: Salmonella in the eggs (http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/enteritidis/)

Supporting claim 2: The growing demand for food is causing animals to be mistreated

Evidence: Foie gras (http://www.peta.org/tv/videos/graphic/326116197001.aspx)

Evidence: Undercover PETA videos (http://www.peta.org/features/butterball-peta-investigation.aspx?search=slaughterhouse)

Evidence: Cat and Dog trade in china (http://www.gan.ca/campaigns/fur+trade/cat+and+dog+fur.en.html)

Supporting Claim 3: Workers are getting injured due to increased line speeds

Evidence: Immigrant workers are misrepresented due to illegal status (http://www.organicconsumers.org/irrad/slaughterworkers.cfm)

Evidence: Very high injury rate (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V6F-466CHK3-29&_user=10&_coverDate=08%2F31%2F1989&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1524841755&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=8bd01493f70bf399a61245daf0c0ce03&searchtype=a)

Evidence: The Jungle-Upton Sinclair

HW 11 - Final Food Project 1

For my final project for the food unit, i decided to try being a vegetarian. From watching Food Inc, and Fast Food Nation i have realized that just by eating meat, i am supporting an industry that is almost comparable to South American Slavery. The workers are put in dangerous positions, doing jobs that no one else will, for next to nothing, every day they risk life and limb to put food on their table. Especially watching the combination of the two movies, i first thought i would fast, but then i realized that i wont get anything out of that, so i decided to try and just be a vegetarian and see what happens if i try not to eat meat for as long as possible.

Day 1: So at the end of my first day of being vegetarian, i feel pretty good, i ate fruit and bread for lunch and had a peach after school for a snack, then i had tofu pad Thai for the Thai restaurant down the block from my house, then i had my last peach for dessert. I kind of wanted some chicken or something in the Pad Thai, but i feel rather good not having any.

Day 2: Today was another strong day, i still haven't had any meat even though my brother and dad had grilled chicken, i went out and got myself frozen veggie burgers. They are surprisingly dry, even though i had rice and beans on the side, it still didn't help, it wasn't the same thing as having a normal burger. At this point, meat still seems appetizing, but i don't really want it as much as i used too.

Day 3: Alright, so today was the deciding day, i wasn't vegetarian today, but the interesting thing is that up until dinner i was, and when my mom told me we were having sausage for dinner, i didn't want it. It didn't seem appetizing to me and i didn't want to eat it, and when i did it didn't taste as good as it used to.

Day 4: Another day of vegetarian, and i actually look at meat and i am strangely repulsed, i no longer think of eating meat when i am hungry, and i am actually feeling a lot more relaxed then i normally am. I know it has only been 4 days and one of them i actually ate meat, but the thing is that i don't feel the same way i used to. I don't feel as dependant on meat anymore, today me and Conor went to a Taco Bell and when i went in, i didn't want anything they had there, looking at the big shiny sign, with all the food that looks better then it normally would, i felt my hunger leave me. I no longer wanted to eat there, and instead of that i had a slice of pizza.

So after my brief experiment, I went in with strong doubts that i would be able to make it, and now all i can think of, is what can i eat that doesn't have meat in it. I want certain foods, like Sesame Chicken, but i want it for its texture, not its taste. I don't think i would eat the chicken if it were put in front of me right now. So after only 4 days, i no longer want to eat meat, i feel more relaxed and laid back, and i don't eat nearly as much as i used to. I used to always be hungry, but not so much anymore. The real question is why? It has only been four days and i already feel different then i used to and i feel like i no longer need to eat meat. Is this just a phase or something more. I feel like this actually uncovered more questions then it answered because i no longer know how i feel about the way i eat. I want to be healthy, but i don't know why. I no longer drink soda, i stopped eating white bread, and now meat. For soda it took me almost 8 months for me to not want it anymore, even though i still do sometimes, but meat, only 4 days. I haven't had a craving for any sort of meat in that time, and when i was actually eating it, i didn't want it. My next question is why? What happens if i keep being a vegetarian?

HW 10 - Food, Inc. Response

Since the 1950's raw food production has grown exponentially. The way food as been grown has been merged with chemicals and poisons, and animals have been mixed with growth hormones. The major companies have had to keep up with the demand for their products, so that means that not only do the product pay the price, but so do the consumer and the people who make it. The only people who profit are the ones who own the whole operation. The corn is sprayed with pesticides as are other fruits and vegetables, pesticides that we can end up ingesting. The chickens are kept in coops and never see the light of day. Cows are kept in feedlots eating corn, chicken manure, old chickens and sometimes old cows, and they walk in their own manure. They are slaughtered and quickly disassembled by immigrants who usually don't speak English. The injury rate is so high because the disassembily line moves so fast, which also leads to the meat being contaminated by dangerous pathogens like E Coli and Salmonella. These companies have made is virtually impossible for normal, everyday citizens to stand up to them by having people on their side in the government. When pressed with issues of the quality of their food, they would rather try new scientific methods to clean the food, rather then redo their process for how they produce it. The days of the American farmer are dead and gone, we are now in the days of the American corporation.

I feel that both the movie and the book were extremely powerful and moving. The biggest difference, i feel, between the Food Inc. and Fast Food Nation was that in Fast Food Nation, you got to experience things from points of view, other then those of the owners of companies. You got to see things from managers, employee's and just even meat workers points of view. You get to hear their stories, which if not for this book, would never have been heard. One particulary moving story was the one of Kenny Dobbins. He worked for the beef company Monfort for almost 16 years. While working for them he severely herniated 2 disks in his back which required a surgery which failed. He couldn't read and was very greatful for the company giving him a job, he felt loyal to them for all they had done for him. He was given the most unsavory jobs, he went to the hospital on more then one occasion for the work he had to do and he always came back when he could. One day while lifting very heavy boxes, he felt a strong pain in his chest, the nurse at the plant told him it was a strained mussel and he should go home, Kenny had actually just experienced a massive heart attack, while recovering, Monfort fired him. After 16 years, he can no longer work; "They used me to the point where i had no body parts left to give," Kenny said, struggling to maintain his composure. "They just tossed me into the trash can." Once strong and powerfully built, he now walks with difficulty, tires easily, and feels useless, as though his life were over. He is forty-six years old." (p.190). This was the kind of emotion that was missing from the movie. The movie tried to get you to feel angry and betrayed towards the big companies and sympathetic towards the little ones, but what about the people? The men and women who work behind the scenes, not in cubicles, but on the floor, who get their hands dirty so we can have dinner? The ones who put their lives on the line for us. The movie spent an hour and a half knocking big corperations and their practices, but never once focused on a person and their struggle. Kenny Dobbins sacrificed everything he had for that company, and now he has nothing. But the movie never touched on that.

HW 7d

Fast Food Nation By Eric Schlosser

Chapter 9 summary: In 1997 about 35 million pounds of ground beef were recalled by Hudson Foods because they were infected with a strain of E Coli. By the time the beef had been recalled, 25 million pounds had already been eaten. Because companies feel the need to make a profit is more important then the safety of their customers, they tend to skimp on the health requirements that the government sets for them, not that they matter because the government holds no power over them at all. Our American government can not force a company to recall meat, much less shut down one of their plants for health violations. Just as typical to a big corporation, the rich get richer and everyone else suffers.

Chapter 9 Quotes: "Throughout the 1980's and the 1990's, the USDA chose meat suppliers for its National School Lunch Program on the basis of the lowest price, without imposing additional food safety requirements." (p.218). "The safety of the food seemed determined more by the personality of the manager on duty than by the written policies of the chain. Many workers would not eat anything at their restaurant unless they'd made it themselves." (p.222).

Questions/Responses:

1. How does the continuous bending and breaking of laws by these big companies show how once again, the government doesn't fully run this country, big business runs this country?
2. What i have noticed is how the author starts out on a mainly historical path explaining where the chains started from, and as the book progressed, he started to get more one sided against fast food and big business. He like the way mass production took place and found it inhumane. It is inhumane, but what would happen if they slowed it down so that they could control the diseases and the people wouldn't get hurt, what would happen to the supply and demand?
3. How does the speed of these slaughterhouses reflect our economy and how we have to be able to keep up with our outrageous demands, that not only put others at risk, but ourselves?
4. What does the powerlessness of the government in situations like these show the people, and how come they aren't as well informed?

Chapter 10 Summary: McDonald's opens about 5 new restaurants a day and about 4 of them open overseas. When they opened a McDonald's in Plauen, Germany, they didn't know what to expect. Now American chains have become a staple of overseas culture just like it is a staple in ours. It hasn't be met with completely open arms though. Protesting in countries such as India and Holland and China have destroyed restaurants who believe that these establishments are destroying or undermining their culture. In some aspect they are right though, with chains in over 12o foreign countries, not everyone is going to be happy.

Chapter 10 Quotes: "In Ancient Rome, the leaders of conquered nations were put on display at the circus. The symbolism was unmistakable; the submission to Rome, complete. Gorbachev's appearance at the Mirage seemed an Americanized version of that custom, a public opportunity for the victors to gloat." (p.239). "In 1996, Indian farmers ransacked a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Bangalore, convinced that the chain threatened their traditional agriculture practices. In 1997 a McDonald's in the Colombian city of Cali was destroyed by a bomb." (p.244).

Questions/Responses:

1. What connection do these fast food chains have with the people around them? How does an American fast food chain make or break in a foreign country?
2. What I've noticed as a reoccurring motif in this book is power, and who steals it from who. It started with everyone "building off of" everyone Else's ideas, and then to corporations buying each other out to build these huge multinational corporations that control, chicken, beef, pork, and corn markets, but can't maintain safety or health requirements. They have the power, so they make their own rules, then it ends with how they can go to other countries and make the people there embrace and become one with their own culture, all through their food. Their food is a drug that makes all those who ingest it want to turn into one of them. It is the power of food.
3. Is this power of food used for good or for bad? What importance does it mean if we can influence the entire world with our corporate mascots?
4. If we can turn people to our sides with fast food, then how can christian monasteries and UN "Peacekeepers" use "American Influences," such as these to do their job and convert the people around them to their mindset? What kind of power does this really hold?

Epilogue Summary: The Lasater Ranch occupies more then 30,000 acres of shortgrass prairie near Matheson, Colorado. It is a profitable working ranch that for half a century has not used pesticides, herbicides, poisons, or commercial fertilizers on the land. Meanwhile, 60 miles away in Colorado Springs, Rich Conway runs his own family restaurant called Red Top. They have 4 locations in Colorado Springs. They work on the same premise that the Lasater Ranch works off of. They use all natural meat that came from cows like the ones at the Lasater Ranch, they cut their own potatoes for french fries, and there isn't a big price hike for the improvement in quality. They want people to eat good, healthy food, and it shows by how successful they are. They refuse to buy from companies that give their cows growth hormones or feed them corn. Unlike Swedish and Dutch slaughterhouses, we are doing almost nothing to stop the spread of diseases. We don't slow down production or use different methods, we just look at what else we can do to the meat so it wont get tainted, they don't think to slow down. That's the beautiful thing about living in a fast food nation though, you can still choose to have it your way.

Epilogue Quotes: "Eggs are regulated by the FDA, but chickens are regulated by the USDA, and a lack of cooperation between the two agencies has hampered efforts to reduce the levels of Salmonella in American eggs." (p.264). "The low price of a fast food hamburger does not reflect its real cost - and should. The profits of the fast food chains have been made possible by losses imposed on the rest of society. The annual cost of obesity alone is now twice as large as the fast food industry's total revenues." (p.261).

"Even in a fast food nation, you can still have it your way." (p.270)

Questions/Responses:

1. How does the Lasater farm represent the dying breed of real farms in America, but how do they show that because of such a large demand for their product, it is often the most business savvy who succeed?
2. What i have noticed about the food industry, is that yes the major corporations are toxic both literally and figuratively, but they are a necessary evil. There is currently 310,534,895 people in the United States of America as of 12:53 a.m on Friday October 22, 2010 (http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html) and if all farms operated like the Lasater ranch did, then we would have major food shortage problems. We need to be able to keep up the supply to meet the demand, otherwise there would be massive inflation. So as bad as they may be, there is still going to be a need for them.
3. How do the necessary evil's such as McDonald's, and ConAgra, support our county and have the power to manipulate it as they please? What kind of system do we live in where the fast food corporations rule the country?
4. How does the final sentence of the book represent how the author wanted to leave us as though he was neutral, even though his goal was to make cracks in the pedistal that we put fast food on and waver our trust just enough so that we think for a little while longer before we go to Burger King or Wendy's? What does that show about him where he wants to leave a positive taste in our mouths even though he just put up a wall of hate against the fast food companies?

HW 9 - Freakonomics Response

In what world does someone turn down $50 to improve their grades, they would rather fail and not be paid, rather then put the effort in that was necessary to make them pass. The relationship here is the money and the grades. The causation is the effort needed to be put in for it. When looking for the specific example of the two children who were offered $50 to improve their grades, and then a possibility of $500 for doing it. The fact is that they didn't do it. They found it easier to not do their work and do what they found easy and enjoyable. No one likes, or enjoys homework, but they do it because we need to get the good grades so we can do good in college and make more money. These kids didn't even have to think about college yet, and they were already getting paid to improve their grades, which is what they were supposed to do to go to college. The point of putting this part into the movie is to represent that there is sometimes a disconnect between causation and correlation. These kids had the opportunity to be rewarded for their work and they didn't take it. The authors wanted to address that the relationship between two things can effect the outcome, and through this example they were able to show just that. They offered money for something that the kids didn't want to do, and the kids didn't do it. This demonstrated the simple fact of putting an obstacle in front of the weak, and the weak will do what they can to avoid it. Only the strong willed have the ability to clear this obstacle and eventually reap this reward. The authors don't entirely believe that their experiment failed because it worked for some children, but not for most. So what can get these children to improve their grades? The idea was for the authors to figure that out and they couldn't.

Statistics is the most common source of evidence for the authors because numbers never lie right? They can be used to see patterns and predict future outcomes. So the authors use the records of sumo wrestlers to tell if they are cheating, and the number of abortions to tell is crime went down. But in both of these situations, there was more then one variable. There was still proof behind their numbers, but more specifically in terms of the crime going down due to abortion being legalized, they needed to address other possible factors, like gun laws and police presence which they did do, and they made excellent proof of it. But what is missing is the importance of it. What is the significance behind these findings. Who cares if the sumo wrestlers cheat? And now if we know that abortion leads to lower crime rates, then how come it isn't legal? What is missing in these situations if what we aren't changing what we are doing, but the evidence is there? There has to be something that we aren't seeing if they are making these statements, using evidence to back it up, but yet there is still no change behind it. That leads me to believe that not everything has been brought to light. Maybe there is some evidence they missed

"Freakonomics serves as an inspiration and good example to our attempt to explore the "hidden-in-plain-sight" weirdness of dominant social practices."

I disagree, very strongly with this statement, because a lot of the statements made in this movie weren't "hidden in plain sight." They were things that people had studied before, and these men just put a new face on the research. As for the names research. They didn't actually prove anything, they just threw facts at us and tried to make it seem like they discovered something. They never were able to prove anything that would positively affect us and make us have a better understanding of what they were trying to prove. There was no inspiration and there was no examples of dominant social practices. So to say that they did a good job is an inaccurate statement at its least. In connection to Fast Food Nation, you can see how these people use the research of other people and use it to build their own "franchise," just like Ray Kroc did with McDonalds. These are examples of people who can fool you because they teach you and please you, but in the end all they really did is get you on their side.

HW 7c

Fast Food Nation By Eric Schlosser

Chapter 7 Summary: The smell of Greeley, Colorado is unmistakable, the smell of meat, manure and death. Greeley is a small meatpacking town, very similar to what once were the meatpacking districts of Chicago before industrialization took over and forced all the small companies out of business. The same process as in the fast food restaurants were applied to the meatpacking companies, to industrialize. The skilled, and highly paid butchers were being replaced by migrant workers who only had to stand in one place and do one thing all day, for half the pay. Slowly unions and smaller companies were pushed out of business by these huge industrial giants who, between three companies, controlled almost the entire beef market, among others.

Chapter 7 Quotes: "Holman and Anderson designed a production system for their slaughterhouse in Denison, Iowa, that eliminated the need for skilled workers. The new IBD plant was a one story structure with a disassembly line. Each worker stood in one spot along the line, preforming the same simple task over and over again." (p.153).

"I met hard-working, illiterate, religious people willing to risk injury and endure pain for the benefit of their families." (p.165)

Questions/Responses:

1. How does the blatant disregard for human safety and well being show how the road to profit can cause people to loose track of what is right and wrong?
2. I've noticed that not only to the people who are in power, but to the people who aren't the easiest way is often the best, and most celebrated by all. By having everyone do the easiest possible job, you can pay them less and they can come right in and work instead of having to teach them how to work and having a period where they adjust.
3. How does this laziness connect back to the degenerating backbone of America and how the basic work ethic is slowly dissolving and being replaced more commonly by foreign, often undocumented workers who are willing to not only work hard, but for a much lower price then we are?
4. How does our reliance on our government to support us even when we aren't working and contributing to society in any positive way give in to this breakdown posed in the last question?

Chapter 8 Summary: The floor of the slaughterhouse was covered in blood, i had to wear knee high boots with my pants tucked in. As we toured the facility we saw workers silently doing their jobs, not talking to each other for fear that they might fall behind. The cows are brought in and a single man is responsible for stunning each one, while another is responsible for cutting their throats. In these types of environments, injury is common and because most of the workers are illegal, these injuries often go unreported. Women are subject to sexual harassment while men take methamphetamines to keep up with the work because they believe it makes them work faster. Often health violations and other safety precautions are ignored or simply fined. The companies use and abuse their workers, forcing them to work even while they are injured. All in the name of making a bigger profit.

Chapter 8 Quotes: "The line speeds and labor costs at IBP's nonunion plants now set the standard for the rest of the industry. Every other company must try to produce beef as quickly and cheaply as IBP does; slowing the pace to protect workers can lead to a competitive disadvantage." (p.175). "Once strong and powerfully built, he now walks with difficulty, tires easily, and feels useless, as though his life were over. He is forty-six years old." (p.190).

Quotes/Responses:

1. In what ways does the way these meat companies treat people connect back to the way they portray them as being treated?
2. How does the misuse of underprivileged "Americans" by these top tier meat producing companies go unpunished and what does this show about the structure of America, where the rich get away with inhuman treatment and the workers are forgotten and ignored?
3. Because of the profit and the tax money that comes from these companies, they can never really be shut down. They are needed and when it takes too much work to replace them and reform them, the powers at be would rather just turn a blind eye and ignore the problem and pay off those who don't do that. That is the American system at it's finest.
4. Because of the necessity of these companies, is it safe to regard these people as expendables as these companies so clearly do? Is their sacrifice really worth it?

HW 8 - Growing Our Own Food

Every summer since i was little my family has been growing tomatoes on our roof deck on our house on Fire Island. I don't much care for tomatoes but the way that my family describes them, they sounds amazing. We also grow Blueberries, Roses, Sage, Chives Basil and depending on what type of seed we buy, either Radishes or peppers. This year we grew peppers. So instead of eating the sprouts that i did grow, and had been eating all summer, but eventually started to rot, i decided to eat one of the peppers we grew.

They were sort of spicy, but mainly just tasted like a not so spicy jalapeno. The fact that i grew them didn't mean much to me, although i was born and raised in the city. I still did spend summers on Fire Island. Although i will admit that it is nothing like living on a farm, it still gives you the same feeling that you need to pay attention to them and make sure they get sun and water and that no little Caterpillar is going to come and attack the plant. For me, growing this plant feels wholesome. I feel like i did achieve something, but it isn't something that means the world to me, it is just a small achievement. When people start to come over to my house and eat the food that i have grown and say "Oh my god Sam, this is amazing!" and i get to say "Well i grew it." It is all about the satisfaction of other people seeing what you have done and then saying to you that they approve of what you did and therefore are proud of you. Although most people say that they do it for their own satisfaction, there is always a long term goal to please the people around them so they look more fondly and compliment you more. It makes me feel that i did something right, to be able to put this picture up of something I grew. It is something sacred between the person and what they grew, and if its good, then the whole world gets to be a part of it. Thats how i view my own food at least.

HW 7b

Fast Food Nation By Eric Schlosser

Chapter 4 summary: When compared to Colorado Springs, Pueblo, CO is decades behind, but as more and more franchises spring up, their differences start to become more subtle. Dave Feamster stands out in his Little Caesars Pizza Franchise, being the white owner among a mainly Latino workforce. They are like a family and Dave himself treats them as such. He pays their college tuition's as long as they maintain a 3.0 GPA. Opening a Franchise isn't easy or cheap. They cost anywhere from $10,000 so $1.5 million. Their contracts are often filled with hundreds of tiny print, where if you don't do something to their liking. Then they can close you for breach of contract and you loose most of what you invested.

Chapter 4 Quotes: "Since Feamster did not have the money, the company gave him a loan. Before selling a single pizza he was $200,000 in debt."(p.102)

"According to a 1995 investigation by Canada's Financial Post, Subway's whole system seems "almost as geared to selling franchises as it is to selling sandwiches." (p.100)

"Becoming a franchisee is an odd combination of starting your own business and going to work for someone else. At the heart of a franchise agreement is the desire by two parties to make money while avoiding risk." (p.94)

Questions/Responses:

1. How does the consistent opening of new franchise restaurants compare to that of non-franchise restaurants? And what is their success rate?
2. Based on the number of opportunities that they provide not only for the owner, but for the new jobs it creates, is a franchise the enemy or the savior, especially in these tough financial times when saving money is key?
3. I am really disgusted by the way Subway is run. The simple fact that people have to keep opening restaurants in order to keep making money, is simply not fair on behalf of those who work in the restaurants and those who own them because there is such a huge disconnect between the two, and therefore a drop in quality.

Chapter 5 Summary: J.R. Simplot is the definition of American Ingenuity. By age 36 he had been one of the principal suppliers to the military for dried potatoes and owned one of the biggest potato farms in the U.S. In the 1950's he began to sell frozen sliced potatoes known as french fries. In 1965 he began selling french fries to Ray Kroc, the owner of MacDonalds. As the number of restaurants Ray owned multiplied, so did the amount of money Simplot made. The Business of french fries is extremely competitive, so what most companies do is they hire companies from the flavor industry to come and make their foods taste and smell better, chemically. Through artificial meals, companies are making their food taste, and smell better.

Chapter 5 Quotes: "J.R. Simplot, an eighth grade dropout, is now one of the richest men in the United States." (p.115)

"Out of every $1.50 spent on a large order of french fries at a fast food restaurant, perhaps 2 cents goes to the farmer who grew the potatoes." (p.117)

"Approximately ten thousand new processed food products are introduced every year in the united states. Almost all of them require flavor additives. And about nine out of every ten of these new food products fail. (p.124)

Quotes/Response:

1. How do artificial additives really affect us in terms of buying one product or another? Does this mean that all artificial flavorings should be added under that level?
2. I think that is very upsetting that ideas and options like J.R. Simplot are so very very scarce now. We can't drop out of school at eighth grade now and expect to have a job then slowly move up. Almost all people with only a high school degree don't get as far as up as he did.
3. How did the revoutionizing of french fries mark an important milestone not only in our own productivity, but in our own laziness, where we would have someone make our food for us, and all we had to do was warm it back up?

Chapter 6 Summary: Hank is a Colorado rancher. He lives and works on his farm with his wife and daughters. He showed me the difference between raising cattle and "Raping the land." When compared to his land, you see the runoff from the city's drainage system and the damage that is doing to the environment. There were trusts such as the Steel Trust, Tobacco Trust and the Sugar trust. They were when a few major players controlled the price of the goods on their own. In the beginning of the 1910's there was a beef trust too, when the owners of the five major slaughterhouses got together to designate the price of beef. Now-a-days the market hasn't changed all that much, you can't report on any misdoings in the market and the cost of being a farmer is so expensive that most farmers are now selling their land in order to be able to pay for it.

Chapter 6 Quotes: "small pieces of reconstituted chicken, composed mainly of white meat, that were held together by stabilizers, breaded, fried, frozen, then reheated." (p.140).

As a result, cattle are much bigger today; fewer cattle are sold; and most American beef cannot be exported to the European Union, where the use of bovine growth hormones has been banned." (p.142)

"It would be wrong to say that Hank's death was caused by the consolidating and homogenizing influence of the fast food chains, by monopoly power in the meatpacking industry, by depressed prices in the cattle market, by the economic forces bankrupting independent ranchers, by the tax laws that favor the wealthy ranchers, by the unrelenting push of Colorado's real estate developers. But it would not be entirely wrong." (p.146).

Questions/Responses:

1. How does Hank's suicide send a deeply personal message about the state that our food economy is in, when the workers are being driven to self mutilation by the intense competition and relentless race to stay on top?
2. Through the different Trusts that used to control the major industries that ruled the economy so long ago, we can see new patterns emerging that these few major companies run all the little ones, so in the end they are still on top.
3. In what ways are the reoccurring symbols such as cheating and a small group controlling most of the power not only significant to the food industry, but to our own government?

HW 7 - Reading Response Monday

My Book is Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Chapter 1 Summary: Carl Kacher was born in 1917, worked on several farms, then saved up enough money and bought a hot dog stand and after enough customers open up a drive in barbecue restaurant because everyone was starting to drive cars. Meanwhile, across the street, the McDonald brothers opened their first hamburger restaurant which featured the Speedee service system. It was the first fast food restaurant that brought the customers out of cars and into the restaurant itself.

Chapter 1 Quotes: "The McDonalds fired all the carhops in 1948, close their restaurant, installed larger grills, and reopened three months later with a radically new method of preparing food. It was designed t0 increase the speed, lower prices, and raise the volume of sales. The brothers eliminated almost two-thirds of the items on their old menu. They got rid of everything that had to be eaten with a knife, spoon, or fork. The brothers got rid of their dishes and glassware, replacing them with paper cups, paper bags and paper plates." (19-20).

Questions/Responses:

1. How does the term "History repeats itself" apply directly to this chapter and how does his very in depth of history of Carl's Jr's represent how he feels by going for one of their lesser fast food cooperation's?
2. Through the quote above, Eric Schlosser is trying to describe how the fast food industry actually helped revolutionize the rest of the country and through our own impatience, actually sped up our own development.
3. What is the significance of titling this section "The American Way?" And how does that represent how our own ways can temporarily blind us and not let us realize what we have done to ourselves in both positive and negative ways.

Chapter 2 Summary: Ray Kroc dropped out of high school served in WWII and eventually opened up the most successful fast food company in the world. He and Walt Disney were born in Illinois a year apart and together they both refaced the world's view on product advertising. Disney was a staunch opposer of communist idealism and worked closely with the government in Un-American Affairs and was very supportive of the Hollywood Blacklist. Disney worked on connecting with the consumer by promoting synergy. Ray Kroc used the cradle to grave technique to catch his support young with toys and happy meals.

Chapter 2 Quotes: "If they were drowning to death, I would put a hose in their mouth.” Ray Kroc says this of the Walt Disney Company as their fortunes declined in the 1960s "(Pg 41

"In 1988 a federal investigation of web sites aimed at children found that 89 percent requested personal information from kids; only 1 percent required that children obtain parental approval." (Pg 48).

Questions/Responses:

1. How does Ray Kroc's rise to success mark both the beginning and the end of the American dream?
2. How does the rivalry and eventual friendship between Ray Kroc and Walt Disney reflect on our main ideal which is that Money comes first?
3. I believe Fast food to be both one of the biggest turning points in American history, both as a good thing and as a bad thing, they were revolutionizing the world and how the world looked at us and at the same time they were starting the downfall of unhealthy, processed food that eventually would become the countries biggest vice.

Chapter 3 Summary: WWII brought military bases to Colorado Springs, which brought people and with people comes change and modernization and the fast food industry. Which has a workforce that is primarily made up of adolescents. They are trained to work a certain machine and do set tasks when they work, so it takes no real skill or getting used to, so when they move on like they undoubtedly do, they can be easily replaced. Since they are paid such low wages, they often take it upon themselves to make more money, which means that they go back and rob the places they once worked because they know the layout and they do it to get back at their jobs where they are treated unfairly.

Chapter 3 quotes: “No other American industry is robbed so frequently by its own employees.” Joseph A. Kinney, the president of the National Safe Workplace Institute, says this about the fast-food industry when he urges restaurants to pay their employees higher wages in addition to updating security measures (86)

Questions/Responses:

1. How does this mind washing process of teaching the employees to use machines that pretty much work themselves, connect to school and how we are brainwashed to follow certain rules and guidelines without question?
2. I think the connection between the robbery's and the former employees is that as it was pointed out in the book was because the people wanted to get back at their establishment that they had felt caused them some personal harm and affected them in a negative way. They viewed their job as a prison.
3. Based off of the previous statement, how come there isn't more violence in schools against the Establishments. There is no pay, the work is difficult and we have to be here for 7 hours. Yet we all accept it, at most we complain. How come there aren't more school based attacks?
4. What is the significance behind the Owners of McDonald's being so against unions? How does the refusal to reset or break the formula show how the bigger a business gets then the slower and more stubborn it becomes? And what does that mean for developing businesses.