Social Good reporter for Mashable, Katie Dupere, published an article on October 16, 2016 titled 6 Startling Facts That Show How Climate Change and Hunger are Interconnected. Dupere chose to address this topic on World Food Day. Her article discusses the main reasons why global warming shouldn't be left out of the food insecurity equation. The six major facts stated are as follows:
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In a news article by boundless.com titled “The McDonaldization of Society”, sociologist George Ritzer’s theory of McDonaldization is explained with connections to society and modernized Western culture. McDonaldization is the rationalization in bureaucracies, extended to fast-food chains under globalization. Traditional values such as sitting down for dinner as a family are replaced with options that are quicker and more rational. The four main components of McDonaldization – efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control – are exhibited in things such as junk-journalism. Junk-journalism is news served in palatable portions to make it non-offensive. The article discusses another example, McUniversities. A degree from a McUniversity comes from adjusted curricula and a fast-paced education to satisfy students tastes while also saving them time. However, the quality of the education will diminish if these McUniversities keep adjusting and shortening the academic process. Like in Food Inc., modifying a traditional process can have adverse effects on those that are working for the project or receiving goods. Just like the customers receiving meat from majorly controlling companies such as Tyson, students with degrees from a McUniversity are sacrificing a quality education because it is easier. As explained and demonstrated in Something From the Oven, our society is trying to market the idea that faster is better, and this isn’t a new idea. This idea started with the industrial food revolution, and has only progressed since. This idea does not take into account the compromise in quality of the product, this product being an education. Western culture has developed enough to rely on fast transfer of information and knowledge, and continues to demand a faster pace. Will it be possible to de-McDonaldize our education system? Or is it too late? This weekend, I found an article titled Hunger in America: 2016 United Stated Hunger and Poverty Facts. This article describes the prevalence of hunger, poverty, and food insecurity in the United States, their causes, and ways that can help these issues. Did you know that one in eight households in the US are considered food insecure? That is about 15.8 million households. That was a shocking fact to me. I had no idea that this rate was so high. In addition, 13.5 percent of households in the US are considered to be in poverty. This is also a very high number that I was not expecting. These numbers are even higher for minorities in our country. There are three main causes of poverty and hunger in the US: poverty in the world, the operation of the political and economic system in the United States which has tended to keep people from poor families poor, and actual physical and behavioral issues among some people who are poor. The two main ways that a person in poverty can increase their income are by trade and immigration. Take immigration for example. Like the families in The Harvest, people from impoverished areas in countries outside of the United States are not making enough money to support their families needs. Victor's father decided to migrate his family into the United States from Mexico to increase his wages and be able to provide for his family. However, he needed to make sacrifices when coming to the US, and work extra hard when he got here in order to bring his two daughters that he left behind in Mexico into the US with the rest of their family. Fifty-nine percent of food insecure households in the United States participate in at least one of the three largest Federal food and nutrition assistance programs. These programs are SNAP (the new name for the food stamp program), WIC, and the National School Lunch Program. Together, these three programs have provided supplements to families that are below a certain level of income and helped them to support their families. However, there is a bit of a stigma behind the use of these programs. Some may find it a bit embarrassing to not be able to provide for themselves or their families, and want to take pride in their work without any help. As described in Joan Gross and Nancy Rosenberger's The Double Binds of Getting Food Among the Poor in Rural Oregon, many find it hard to adjust from a higher class to a lower one. This can be summed up by means of double binds. When a family is used to a certain lifestyle and their income level changes or they fall to a lower class, they have the desire to live the same lifestyle as they did before, but no longer have the means to support it. They are resistant to change and do not want anyone to have a negative view on them. This is a reason that not 100% of all eligible US citizens participate in these very helpful programs. The article I chose to compare to our readings on migrant farming is titled Migrant Farm Workers: Our Nation’s Invisible Population. Migrant farming is necessary to market non-blemished produce to the public. Walking into a grocery store, nobody wants to grab a bag of squished, wrinkly grapes. Migrant farm workers rise at early hours in the day and spend their entire day in a field, harvesting and packaging produce. This work is done for extremely low wages, a median income of $7,500/year. Migrant farmers do their jobs mostly because it is necessary for them to provide for their family. A majority of migrant farmers are undocumented citizens that are not legally allowed to work at big corporations, so they do not have many other options. Working for low wages allows corporations and fast food companies that use the farmer’s products to sell their processed versions of these fruits and vegetables for very cheap. Processed foods, like noted in Food Inc., are inexpensive to make and to buy, but can be detrimental to our health. This article can also be paralleled to Tracie McMillan’s The American Way of Eating. McMillan discusses that she was the only “white girl” working in the fields, which were filled primarily with illegal workers from Spanish speaking countries. Their work is done with pride; they are proud to support their families and make low wages, because anything helps, “it adds up” (34). In the article I found titled "How Industrial Food Impacts Your Health", I was able to parallel a few of our recent readings and films in class. The opening statement of the article makes a point to say that industrial foods are now causing diseases that shorten the human lifespan, such as cancer, obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. The chemicals that are added into foods now are compromising the nutritional value of our meals. I found this similar to the Hispanic family in Food Inc., struggling to make the decision to feed their whole family at McDonalds, or to buy a small amount of healthier foods at the grocery store, on top of paying for their father's diabetes and heart medications. The cause of his illnesses is likely to be the food choices he has been making with low wages just to be able to survive. Although fast food may be cheaper, it ended up costing this family much more than they expected when it came to additional costs such as medical bills. The article also mentions that farmers and corporations are cutting corners in their methods of food productions because "the significant corporate consolidation of global food production has created a food system that values quantity over quality". This reminded me of chapter four of Pandora's Lunchbox, which discusses that cereal corporations began to use only the centermost parts of corn in order to cut cost and optimize profits. This in turn jeopardizes the nutritional value and overall safety of the product, because not even a whole kernel of corn is being processed to make the cereals that we eat and feed our families. |
Meet the Author: Rachel KonchalRachel is a sophomore Pre-Med Biochemistry & Molecular Biology major in the Honors College at Michigan State University. Rachel also is working towards a minor in Environmental Studies & Sustainability. This web page was created for use during her time in the class ISS 310 001H, Eating Industrial. Archives
November 2016
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