Final Essay

Entering this history class, I have learned a lot that I never expected to learn. I do not see this course of “Life Doesn’t Have to be Meaningless” as like a regular history class that I used to have in SOF looking at textbooks and learn what people back then are doing. It is an inside out class that will really make you be aware and relate yourself to the outside world instead of trying to connect yourself back to the history. I never thought life is meaningless overall at this point of my life, but as kept learning in class, it helped me to look at my life in many different angles which caused me to think life is even more meaningful. Earlier in the class, I said “People are all liars that they are lying to themselves that they are living a good and meaningful life when they are actually escaping the real world and living in their own hallucinatory world.” I think this arguement is too extreme, because not everybody is escaping from reality. I have found that my perspective of looking at how to live a good and meaningful life is still evolving as i learn on. Throughout the course, we looked at life through dominant corporate culture and folk culture by doing interviews of people on street, our parents, looking at films, magazines, music video…etc and related back to our life. Then we focus on holidays that most Americans celebrated and figuring out what is really behind these holidays that affected our life. After that, we look at our life through units of elders, animals, health, food, and collapse. In the beginning of the year, I thought that from learning in this class, my perspective of looking at my own life will change and I will value different things in my life that is consider meaningful. But now, I realized that my aspects of a meaningful life has not change that much as I thought it would be, because I will make a similar video as the one I made in the beginning of the year if I were asked to make a new one.

From the dominant corporate and folk culture, what both value the most is happiness. I still believe that everybody survive in this world are consuming happiness. Looking at life in the dominant corporate culture’s perspective, it enhances the idea of center attention and vanity of human beings. Such as the advertisement, movies, or music videos, it sends out the message of to be superiors and dress/look the best in crowds. Up to this point of my life, I do not think I value these aspects in my life because I never see being the center of attention as one of the meaningful aspects. However, the marginal messages from the dominant corporate culture are the ones that I sort of follow sometimes. Such as be successful, and make a different. I find this as part of my meaningful life because I believe that people should keep making changes and improve in their lives by overcoming obstacles. Learning mistakes I made in my life experiences will help me approach to success by keep making things better. Not all the dominant corporate messages are unreliable, and sometimes there do have ones that are worth to listen as an advice. Simultaneously, being raised up in a folk culture has shaped who I am right now. Before being exposed to many different kinds of things from media, my parents and teachers are the ones who taught me moral, and what human should value in life. I do not find everything my parents or teachers said is worth to listen, but there do have something that I learned from the folk culture. Living a good and meaningful life, we should value our family and friends because they are important in our lives. They are the ones who shaped our identities and lives. Especially when we need support from others, they are the ones who will be by our side. My perspective of looking at dominant corporate and folk culture has not change from the beginning to the end of the year. I still value the same aspects of my life such as overcoming difficulties, approaching to success, family, friends, and happiness.

Moving on learning about different holidays in the United States, it also has not changed the way I look at my own life. Instead, I am being exposed to things that I never being aware of about these holidays such as the Christmas or Thanksgiving. Many of the holidays in the United States has to do with spending time with family and saying nice things to each other as an appreciation. Additionally, there are also things that are prohibited. While spending time with family, you are not allowed to share things that are sad because it will ruin the mood of a holiday. You are also not allowed to bring up how whites have killed the Indians during Thanksgiving. Many of these prohibited messages were not being exposed through media or the folk culture. However, in this class, I am able to see what is going on in different kinds of holidays and how does that affect our lives. Though no major changes in my life, it did caused me to start being aware and not just looking at things that’s on the surface.

Learning about elders is also an interesting unit but did not really change my way of looking at lives. By reading my earlier post about reactions towards old people, I said, “I don't feel we have a distance between each other and I always talk to them as friends. Like my grandpa, although he is slow on computers, I chat with my grandpa through webcam on the internet. Even though it is hard to talk with the old people since they are elders and we should respect them, we still ask them about their health and life.” My reactions towards old people did not change and so far none of the old people in my family are being sent to the senior center. I do appreciate their earlier contributions to the next generation for us to live and have a better life. Perhaps I do not talk to them as often as to my parents or friends, but I think I do values elders in my life. I don’t find annoy by listening to them and I appreciate their advice from their own life experience. It is possible that their advice might not always help, but I guess old people remind us their mistakes are to avoid us making the same mistakes as they do. Therefore, I do not mind when old people are sharing their life experiences with me. One question we asked a lot during this unit is that what is the point for old people to still be alive? My answer to this question would be that because they value their family, and they do want to see their next generations to be living happily. Old people do values things in their life that they find it meaningful, and like Morrie, he has lived his life all the way with suffer in his last days. People gets old does not mean there is no meaning for them to live. As for me, I think old people are important in my life, because they are the ones who has contribute to the society in order to make us live right now.

Finally, the animal unit is one of the topics that did change my perspective of living a good and meaningful life. Before learning about “animals”, I have no idea how this topic will connect to life. But when I start learning about this unit, it changes the way I look at myself. I have accepted that I am actually just an animal like the others. I am not anybody different from them and therefore I should not expect someone will look after me because I am special. Because of the Genesis I, evolution, spending 95% of the time only with the same animals(human), humanizing pets, believe in souls and spirits, we has come to believe that we are superiors and we are special. We think we deserve to take over the other animals and we think that they do not think, therefore, they are like objects while we have feelings. In this unit, I learned that by accepting myself as an animal, I will not be thinking that I am more important than the others. I think this concept is extremely important for me as living a good and meaningful life because it really change my life as seeing every living thing as animals.

When we are learning about health, although physical, social, spiritual, and mental healthy also interacts with us a lot in our lives and all of them are related, I think emotional and moral health are the ones that we have to deal with the most and seems most resonant. People have emotions and we all have feelings towards our surroundings every moment. By learning about the existential therapy, it really has change my way of looking at my own life. At first, I always think making decisions are difficult and hard to make because it will ruin my life. But now, from studying the therapy, it actually makes me feel more comfortable of making choices. I know that as long as I am willing to take full responsibilities of the consequences for making that decisions, making any choices is not that complicated. In addition, it also demonstrates the idea of why people exist in this world. When people are feeling depress and having the desire to suicide, I think this therapy really can test what is the point of living. If the person refuses to commit suicide, it reveals the truth that he/she still wants to live for a reason. So that person will move on their life by following that reason as a goal of living. Moral health is also interesting because we often face many dilemmas in our life deciding what is right or wrong. By dividing moral health into different levels, even though is hard to choose, it categorize the choice into a category of explanation. Learning both moral and emotional health, it did not only deepen my knowledge of health, it also affects my way of living. It builds up more confident for me to make decisions in terms of right or wrong, and direct me to stay in positive emotions for most of the time.

The food unit is another topic that really did changes my life because I never pay attention to what I eat. Not only being exposed to animal cruelty, I also learned to pay close attention to what I am eating with appreciation. I often just eat the food as taking things for granted, and my attitude towards the food is just something that will keep me alive. But when I learn how to focus on my own diet and learning about industrial food at the same time, I start to be aware of what I am putting into my mouth. In addition, making our own food is definitely more delicious than buying food from outside. Simply is because we make it with my own hands so we appreciated more. Reading Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma has taught me the connection of food. I never know that most of the food is actually from corn. Also, I realized that we do rely on a lot of the advertisement and advice from the scientist or doctor to decide what to eat. As Pollan’s argument about food was that that we do not have a food culture in our society like those French or Italians, and we are so anxious about what to eat. I never thought of people will worry about what they should eat instead of just eating it to feed themselves. More incredible was that people do not know where the food they eat came from. By learning this food unit, did not really change what I eat but makes me being more aware of what I am eating. More important, I appreciate what I am eating more.

Follow by the previous food unit that all the food is industrial produced by oil/fossil fuel. Our society depends on oil to make everything work including economic. As I learned from the articles, oils will not just run out, but it required more energy to get it. Energy is something that money cannot buy and it just starts to decline when half of the oil is being used which called “Peak Oil”. A lot of the people predicted the collapse will come but nobody really know when. What happened in Easter Island has been a metaphor of how it will be to us. Although it might not be a perfect metaphor, but at least I am pretty sure it will collapse because of the reasonable predictions I read from one of the article. Whether to question the collapse is inevitable or avoidable, I think what is more important is to be aware of this issue. If is to go back to the major question, what is a meaningful life. I think collapse is definitely one of the meaningful movements because we experience something new. A lot of us do not really suffer pain compared to our ancestors and I think collapse will be one of the things that we might possibly have to get through. As we are living very safe without any panic, I think collapse will change our way of looking at meaningful life and what we really values. Thus, is better to know and be aware of what is going on around us instead of not knowing anything around the place that we are living in.

Overall in the course “Life doesn’t have to be Meaningless, my perspective of how to live a good and meaningful life has not really change. I still see that everything has a meaning to it when you give it to it. But it did keep me thinking about all different kinds of aspects in life. I no longer see things on the surface, but trying to look at them in more perspective. Although my perspective of living a good and meaningful life has not that many difference, but I start to be more aware of all the topics that we went over. In my first post for this class, I said, "To be meaningful is to learn or know something that I never know, so it will stays in my heart. The things that I will remember even though it has past for years, that is meaningful." What I stated earlier is how I still think about how to live a good and meaningful life. This is not like little kids losing their innocence for being exposed to the adulthood. But it is to show how myself has grown in a year, 5 years...etc. What I find it very meaningful in this class is that I am being exposed to new things every single day, like opening boxes of gifts with surprise. Knowing these things I mentioned above, it is not just something for a class. But it is something that actually affect my way of looking at life and something that I will take with me in life. My understanding of these aspects of life will keep evolving, and it will stay in my heart throughout my whole life.

Short and Smart

“Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon.” How all of us will look like when there is no civilization because our society is collapsing? As moving on to an industrial society, oil has become one of our commodities. The phones, shirts, furniture, transportations, vehicles, food…etc, almost everything we used now a day requires oil or fossil fuel to produce. From the “Community Solutions” websites, it has divided into three categories such as food, housing, transportations. These are the ones that we based on in our everyday life. Growing and shipping the food, using energy for the purpose of efficiency, and transportation using cars. All these things has already became part of our lives, is it ever possible not to rely on oil?
In the first collapse assignment about how Easter Island has collapsed from overused their main resources. Will United States resembles a similar result? The Polynesians in Easter Island values beautiful stone statues and their God in their culture. However, they were having competitions over beautiful and tall statues just to show off their distance to god. Eventually, it caused them to cut down more timbers than they needed. The timbers are like the oil to us, it is one of their commodities. They need timbers to make canoes, rope, houses…etc. to make a living. Supposedly, the Easter Islanders were living in a very fragile environment that the possibility of having deforestation is high. But based on what Jared Diamond has said, “Easter Islanders did succeed in getting enough water for drinking, cooking, and growing crops, but it took effort.” If the Polynesians knew their clans would be collapsed, will they still cutting down their last tree just to get closer to the God and look cool? The answer is predictable, because that is what humans do. We think that perhaps somewhere else farther might have few more trees left. Or we think that God will look after us, someone else will solve the problem for us. It is extremely difficult to make someone to disbelief what they are being raised to belief. As for people, we never learn lessons unless we make mistakes. Although America has a different situations compare to the Easter Island, but it is a metaphor of how we might possibly look like, “a society that destroyed itself by over exploiting its own resources.”
Reading the articles of “Peak Oil Primer” about peak oil, the feasibility of collapse in our society is very possible. “Peak oil is the simplest label for the problem of energy resource depletion, or more specifically, the peak in global oil production…Once we have used up about half of the original reserves, oil production becomes ever more likely stop growing and begin a terminal decline, hence 'peak'. The peak in oil production does not signify 'running out of oil', but it does mean the end of cheap oil, as we switch from a buyers' to a sellers' market.” As the Easter Islanders, every culture has their own commodities that they rely on. What our industrial country relies on is oil. From the earlier unit about industrial food, most of the food that Americans eat is made from fossil fuel. From the quote, peak in oil does not mean oil is running out, it means the end of cheap oil. This might be the main problem that causes our society to collapse financially. Based on the annoying visuals from “Limits to Growth”, it said that “Capitalism needs more-and-more natural resources for more-and-more economic growth. In order to supply more-and-more natural resources for economic growth, more-and-more energy is required. Although bankers can print money, they cannot print energy!” The situations that we are facing is different from the Easter Islanders, oil is not yet running out. However, we do not have enough energy to get more oils which means lack of oils/loss of main resources. According to the article “Life after the Oil Crash”, in “What does all of this mean for me”, I think the predictions of how America will collapse is pretty reasonable. Everything is being tie up together and of course one will affect the other. “Permanent fuel shortages would tip the world into a generations-long economic depression. Millions would lose their jobs as industry implodes. Once affluent cities with street cafés will have queues at soup kitchens and armies of beggars. The crime rate will soar. The earth has always been a dangerous place, but now it will become a tinderbox. On the heels of their rapid financial ruin, people will now watch aghast as their food and water supplies dwindle in the face of a climate going awry. Prolonged droughts will spread, decimating harvests.” Lots and lots of predictions are being made by looking at the crash of oil. Which one of these nightmares should we believe?
We all know the problem, but we never get to the solution whether it is avoidable or inevitable. Reading on the article “Peak Oil Primer” about what can be done, it stated that, “Many people are working on preparations for peak oil at various different levels, but there is probably no cluster of solutions which do not involve some major changes in lifestyles, especially for the global affluent.” If people’s lifestyles have to be changed, does this mean civilization end? Nobody knows what will happen in the future, but I believe it is predictable based on what we did to ourselves. However, even the predictions are being made, how do we know which one to choose? People kept talking about when the world will end and when is the last time the sun rise. But we all are still living and breathing on this earth, how can we possibly know when this will really come true? Just like the Easter Islanders, if they know the tree that they are cutting is their last, they would have cut it anyway because they believe it is the last. Same to all the researches about collapse, we seem to know what will happen and probably start to plan something out to avoid it. But what happened if this is inevitable? Lastly, I still believe that knowing it and being aware of it, is better than knowing nothing about it.

Response to the Easter Island Chapter from Collapse

From reading the “Easter Island” chapter by Jared Diamond, what I find the most interesting of is the way he described the people who lived in Polynesia. “Yet Easter Island’s prehistoric Polynesian population had owned no canes, no wheels, no machines, no metal tools, no draft animals, and no means other than human muscle power to transport and raise the statues.” I was surprised that they could do such thing with such effort by erecting the heavy stones to build beautiful statues. As the reactions of the Europeans, “were incredulous that Polynesians, ‘mere savages’, could have created the statues or the beautifully constructed stone platforms.” Followed by his reading, when I read further and find out that the Easter’s geography, I was astonished that they could survive on their native lands. As the geographic factors that Jared Diamond described, the Easter Islanders has fewer food sources compared to the Pacific Islanders, and the weather/climate is not as good as the others’ which has affected the agriculture. However, “Easter Islanders did succeed in getting enough water for drinking, cooking, and growing crops, but it took effort.” Throughout the chapter, Jared Diamond has provided a lot of interesting facts about the Easter Islander’s history. Although they do not have a lot of domesticated animals or food compared to the Pacific Islanders, they are able to use what they have to live the best they can with effort. Such as the rocks they have has benefit them from having better soil to grow things. Though they do not have a lot of water, they have drink sugarcane juice to maintain their lives. More important, “While Polynesians lacked compasses and writing and metal tools, they were masters of navigational arts and of sailing canoe technology.” I thought that the Polynesians are amazing, and they are able to live through their life from advantages and disadvantages. Especially the way they constructed, transported, carved, and erected the statues without any machines. My reactions are similar to Jared Diamond that “what megalomania possessed its carvers”.

When Jared Diamond talks about the competitions that the Easter Islanders have over better statues, it is another interesting aspects that I find it incredulous. “The increase in statue size with time suggests competition between rival chiefs commissioning the statues to outdo each other.” Because of the competitions of statues trying to outdo the others, it caused them to collapse regarding on loss of resources. Such as the way Jared Diamond described, “Similarly displaying their wealth and power by building ever larger, more elaborate, more ostentatious houses”, it is a metaphor of what’s going on in our society. We are very similar to the Easter Islanders that we are competing for power and wealth. It also mentioned that because of the competitions over statues, “the work of constructing them added about 25% to the food requirements of Easter’s population over the 300 peak yeas of construction.” Because people are working so hard to build taller and better statues than the other clans, they have over used the food that they have. In addition to that, they have cut down more trees than they used to be, which lead to the tragedy of collapse. From the botanical surveys of plants, it said that “For hundreds of thousands of years before human arrival and still during the early days of human settlement, Easter was not at all a barren wasteland but a subtropical forest of tall trees and woody bushes.” Since the Easter Islanders used the trees for making canoes, ropes …etc to outdo the others, it caused deforestation. As it mentioned in the chapter, “the sizes of statues had been increasing may reflect not only rival chiefs vying to outdo each other, but also more urgent appeals to ancestors necessitated by the growing environmental crisis”. Without trees, the people in Easter Island could not fuel to keep themselves warm during winter, and it caused them to reduce many activities that relates to fuel. Furthermore, “most sources of wild food were lost”, which leads to starvation, population crash, then to cannibalism. Because of the mistakes that the Easter Islanders had made, it leads their society to collapse. "Easter's isolation makes it the clearest example of a society that destroyed itself by over exploiting its own resources."

“The overall picture for Easter is the most extreme example of forest destruction in the Pacific, and among the most extreme in the world: the whole forest gone, and all of its tree species extinct. Immediate consequences for the islanders were losses of raw materials, losses of wild-caught foods, and decreased crop yields. Raw materials lost or else available only in greatly decreased amounts consisted of everything made from native plants and birds, including wood, rope, bark to manufacture back cloth, and feathers.” The quote basically draws my point of view of parallels between Easter Island and our civilization. In Easter Island, the main reasons that it collapsed are due to human environmental impacts, deforestation, and political, social, and religious factors. In our society, everything seems to be enough and we never thought of the day that things will run out. As what we talked about in class, and the previous unit, now a day everything is industrialized which it requires fossil fuels. If one day the main resources we needed is running out, all the machines will eventually stop. We resemble the Easter Islanders as the way Jared Diamond described one of the theories, “Easter Islander surely wouldn’t have been so foolish as to cut down all their trees, when the consequences would have been so obvious to them.” “Like modern loggers, did he shout ‘Jobs, not trees!’? Or: ‘Technology will solve our problems, never fear, we’ll find a substitute for wood’?” I think most of us think like what Jared Diamond said; we rely on technologies to solve the problems for us instead of paying close attention to what is happening now. Other than that we have different situations as the Easter Islanders, I believe that our consequences will be very similar. I totally agree with what Jared Diamond said in the very end of this chapter that “if mere thousands of Easter Islanders with just stone tools and their own muscle power sufficed to destroy their environment and thereby destroyed their society, how can billions of people with metal tools and machine power now fail to do worse?” What has happened to the Easter Islanders is a metaphor of what is going to happen to us. Especially the way we cut down trees, and doing other things to harm the environment. (Pollution, global warming...etc.) In the end of the chapter, Jared Diamond said that "the reason for Easter's unusually severe degree of deforestation isn't that those seemingly nice people really were unusually bad or improvident. Instead, they had the misfortune to be living in one of the most fragile environments, at the highest risk for deforestation, of any Pacific People." This quote has make me feel even more certain that our society will collapse because we are improvident. Also, we are not in an environment that are highly risk for deforestation. Therefore, by looking at what is happening in our society, I do believe it will collapse. Like what Jared Diamond said, the metaphor is imperfect, but I still think that once the collapse happened, it is impossible for us to flee or turn for help just like the Easter Islanders.

Final Food Assignment

*Intro* (Why should we care/be aware of the food we eat?)

From the day we born to the last moment we die, we need food to survive. All our ancestors have been hunters and farmers who were responsible for their own food in order to make a living. But now, the whole society has transformed to an industrial system that nobody really grow their own food. We use fossil fuels to make the machines work, so everything will be fast and efficient. Simultaneously, harming the environment from pollutions of the machinery used in factories and industrial farms. Therefore, we ignored where our food come from other than knowing we bought it from the super markets, and what is it behind the food that we are eating. More importantly, we start to unappreciated the food we eat, and the animals that died just for us to have more food choices.

*Sources of "A Mother's Tale" and "Cows with Guns"* (Similarities Between Both Sources)

The story “A Mother’s Tale” by James Agee and the song “Cows with Guns” by Dana White are quite similar in terms of animal cruelty. Both enhance the idea of how animals are being born to die, and there are no way to escape from this because human are the superiors in the whole system. Such as the quote from the story by the Mother, “We are brought into this life only to be victims; and there is no other way for us unless we save ourselves.” Although the story are written in a perspective of how human think of the animals as putting the shoes into the animal’s feelings, and we do not really know how the animals feel, we can still assumed that the calves are born for human to eat on their hamburgers as it mentioned in “Cows with Guns”.

*Sources of "A Mother's Tale" and "Cows with Guns"* (Differences - Aniaml's P.O.V.?)

However, the story by James Agee makes the reader felt more pathetic for the animals and it creates a sense of guilt for people who eat meat. Also, it sets up a desperate mood demonstrating the calves because the Mother told the calves what the ancestors said, but no one is able to ensure the story is true. Whoever got on the train never came back or able to tell, which it makes the story more dramatic because it also reveals the reality of the animal’s lives. Their lives are really depending on us, and no matter what they do, it is impossible to escape from human. As it mentioned in the story, how the cow experienced the journey of getting caught and got on to the train. It is all about the issues of animal cruelty that we discussed in the previous class and videos that we watched.

*Sources of "A Mother's Tale" and "Cows with Guns"* (Differences - Natural vs. Animals)

In the story “A Mother’s Tale”, the differences between all other videos that are about animal cruelty related are that it mentioned how optimistic the cows are. Even they got treated badly by living in a place with smells that they are not familiar with, they still think on the bright side that the smell is just what the human been live with. The story delineates a picture of how animals are easily adapted to their nature surroundings that no matter where they got to, they would be able to adjust to it. This also reveals the fact that is us who suppose to adapt to where we are, not the surrounding to adapt to our way of living. That is the way we all living animals live in this universe. However, us, as human, we often try to go against how things are suppose to be. In other words, we go against how things are used to be such as producing industrial food. In one of the class we have discussed what is natural, and we turn out that we do not how to define this word. We talked about what is the natural way of killing an animal and it turned out to be that there is no such thing call natural way of killing. In addition to that, natural doesn’t mean it is right. From discussion, we have come to the conclusion that it is okay to kill the animals, but it is wrong to abuse the animals.

*Sources of "A Mother's Tale" and "Cows with Guns"* (Differences - Animals Put Their Shoes In Human)

Even more surprising were the animals actually thought the way they got treated is the way humans are treated also. “But soon the leaders among them concluded that it was simply the way men must smell when there are a great many of them living together. Those dark buildings must be crowded very full of men, they decided, probably as many thousands of them, indoors, as there were of us, outdoors; so it was no wonder their smell was so strong and, to our kind, so unpleasant.” Though we do not know how animals think or feel as how the story described, it still reveals the innocent of animal lives. Because we think we are superiors, therefore we think we have the priority to do whatever we want to the animals. We ignored the others, and think we are the center attention of the universe. The other animals cannot choose how they live as the discussion we have in class, they “they are not even on the table”. Is us who created the high technologies that caused the issue of animal cruelty and the deconstruction of farms. All these damages that we did to the earth have been ignored by people, and we still consume food that is industrial produced everyday to help the corporations to earn a great profit. Other than harming the animals, we are also damaging the nature. For all those fossils fueled that people used for machines, it pollutes the environment and contaminates a lot of the rivers and lakes. For the purpose of convenience, efficient, and speed, just for human, we have damaged the world to a place that is full of corpse.

*Connect to - Omnivore's Dilemma* (Michale Pollan's Theory & Agriculture of Industrialization caused Unappreciation of Food)

As the society that we live in right now, everything is about efficiency and getting better. Therefore, by using fossil fuels to make the technologies work, it changes our way of living. We no longer hunt for our own food, and grow our own food in a little garden. Now a day, most people go to the super markets and everything they needed would be there. Everything is fast, and easy to get. Therefore, people no longer appreciate the food they had as much as the people who grow their own food back then. People barely think about the meats they are eating are from animals who got treated badly throughout their life. Because we have no difficulties of getting food while thinking what we should eat every day, we no longer feeling grateful for what we have. We would not think about how the animals got put into fences got squeezed in a crowded place. We would not think about how the animals got treated by throughout their life time while we might think of whether it tastes good or the price of the food we are eating. Such as the theory that Michael Pollan has stated in his book “Omnivore’s Dilemma”, America does not really have a food culture like Italians, or French, Americans are obsessed with healthy and anxious about what to eat. This is all because we know so little about the food that we are eating! What most people are thinking, what they should eat that is healthy for them. Other than the problem of what to eat, we do not think of how to decrease the damage of our environments by stop treating animals in a cruel way using machinery, and pollutions from the fossil fueled.

*My Food Ways - connecting to "Our Daily Bread" & "Meatrix"* (Why still meat?)

By knowing all these things behind the food that I eat every day, it actually changes the way I look at food. I start to be aware of what I am eating and where they came from. However, I will still eat meat even though I watched the clips of “Our Daily Bread” “Meatrix”, and some others from Animal Cruelty, because I am being raise to eat meat. From learning the things behind my food, and actually understanding where they came from, it has deepened my knowledge about food, but not enough to change my daily habit of eating. Especially the movie of “Our Daily Bread”, it is not a cartoon like the “Meatrix”, it is real. From looking at how the animals got tortured, and get killed then got hang up to cut into different parts. It is extremely cruel compare with the videos on the “Animal Cruelty”. All these videos have shown the audience how the animals got treated badly, such as cutting into half first, then the feet, the intestine…etc. I personally think it is disgusting and inappropriate for the animals. But in the other hand, the animals are going to die anyway because humans do eat meat. Which raise the question, why does it matter if the animals are going to die anyway?

*My Food Ways* (Draw the difference between KILLING ANIMAL & ANIMAL CRUELTY )

I disagree with the way the industrial farm treated the animals throughout their life time as it shown in the movie “Our Daily Bread”, but I am not really against the way they cut the animals. There is no such thing call the natural way of killing the animals and natural doesn’t mean it is the right way to kill it. Therefore, I think by cutting the animals in that way are fine regardless of the fact that it is using machinery. (If the animals are being put to sleep then got kill, that is better than just killing it to frighten them) However, the way the industrial farm treated the animals are the part that I do not like and extremely against it. Not only just the animals are being treated badly, even the plants are being killed in few minutes with sprays of pesticides according to the movie. Eating meat/plant with appreciation is different from take it for granted. Now a day, in our food culture, what we care is how the food taste like and does it look pretty. We do not even think in our head while we eat that the piece of meat is from an animal who has suffered throughout their life in the industrial farm.

*Conclusion* (Sum up the Food Unit and How Did I Change From Learning this Unit?)

Instead of arguing whether industrialization of agriculture worth it or not, I would say that it is one of the biggest mistakes that we made as human beings. Being exposed to these “truths” about food, it really changes my way of looking at them. Although I still eat meat, my attitude towards the food I eat is appreciation. Not only appreciating the food and animals that died, also to the hard workers who pick the food for us. From going to the super markets looking at varieties of the same food and focus on my food ways to being exposed to the facts behind the food I ate has been a great unit that really changes my life. Because when I was in China, all the foods I ate are from the farmers’ market, and I never know the foods I eat now are from the industrial farm. Though is a change, I learned to appreciate the food more than I use to be. Other than staring at the television and eat my food as I take things for granted, I should have a sense of appreciation and gratification towards what I have.

Industrial Food (2nd Draft)

From watching the videos of “Meatrix” “Animal Cruelty” and more videos in class, it reminds me of one of the TV shows that I watched when I went back to China last summer. My sister and I accidentally switch to a channel about agriculture and farming, and it shows how the meat are being organized and send to the markets now a day, and how efficient those machinery has done all the work. Therefore, I was not surprised when I see how the animals are being killed now a day into meats that we buy in the supermarkets. But I do remember the first time I saw those images from the television, I totally feel disgusted about it and both me and my sister have to switch to other channels from looking at those “images” of cutting a pig from head to organs, then the feet…etc. We both think it is extremely cruel and it creates a picture of how human will look like if we would have been cut like those pigs hanging on those machinery. Perhaps the pigs are big and similar to human size that caused me and my sister to think about it, I still remember that we both screamed out the words, “EW…I WILL NOT EAT MEAT ANYMORE”. I guess that is the reaction that many people have the first time they seen it. But usually after awhile, these images would easily goes away from our mind, because we do not want to believe that is the reality.
What I do not know is how the animals are being treated in the so called “farms”. Is not like I do not know how the pigs are being squeezed into a crowded place, but I never thought of it actually affects them in a negative way. Before being exposed to these truths about animals, I thought that animals are doing okay as long as people feed them and they have a place to live. I never thought of they are being stuck into a place that they barely can move. Looking at the Meatrix videos, it caused me to realize that the animals that we are eating are actually unhealthy or sick meats. In addition to that, I noticed that the baby cows are being separated from their mom and they are fed with cow’s blood. It is extremely disgusted and cruel to the animals that they have to spend their whole life in an industrial farm. Other than the issue of animal cruelty, it also caused massive pollution and destroying community for the purpose of efficient and fast by using machinery with fossil fueled.

After being exposed to these truth facts about the meats that I am eating, I expect myself to feel disgust about it and start avoiding meat from dinners or lunch. But it turned out that I am eating okay. I did not feel disgusted from eating meat even those videos came up to me while I am eating. I came to a reason why I turned out this way was that perhaps I has eat meat for more than 10 years, and it has been a habit like brushing my teeth as daily routine. This habit of eating meat seems to be natural to me, and I do not really have a strong feeling towards it since I have eat it for many years. In addition, I am being raised with meat in my daily life, and a sudden change is not that easy for me to adapt. More importantly, I still did not find a good reason for myself to stop eating meat as a dramatic change in my life from knowing these truths about the animals.
Lead to further thinking, I find it unbelievable that the labels on the milk carton and on the meat packages actually affect the way people look at what they eat. Such as looking at the milk that I drink at home, with a nice green pastures at a farm with cows, it actually makes me to think the milk taste fine although I know that is not how those milks are being produced. Same to the meat, I do know how they treat the animals and how meats are being cut. I still will look at the labels and think the animals are doing fine. I realized that psychologically, it is very easy for people to forget these truths behind the food that we are eating. Like the culture’s dominant food ways, what most people care is whether the food looks nice or tastes good? How many people actually thought of the truths behind the food they are eating? Or even go to the extreme, do people have the time to think about these facts even these truths are being exposed online like the ones we saw. Do people even bother to figure out where the meat on their dish came from? Which it leads to another question, do people really think about the food they are eating in this culture? I felt that in this culture, the way the food looks is more important than where the food came from.
Another thought about animal cruelty is that in spite the fact that the animals are being treated that way, (cutting off cow’s tail, being put into a crowded space…etc.) Why shouldn't we eat meat and why it matters throughout our lives? I understand that the way the animals are being treat is extremely unacceptable, but I also think that if the pig/cow is going to get killed anyway, why it matters they are being treat badly. Such as human life, when we die, what it really matters after all? Same to the animals, once it dies, and we eat it. What is it left there after all? We all know and seen that the animals are being torture in the “factory farm”, but “if” from eating those meats from sick/unhealthy animals do not affect our health, why not? This might sound very cruel, but other than feeling sympathetic for how the animals are being treated, why it matters other than the meat might not taste good or it is not healthy for us.
One reason would be not killing the animals/be a vegetarian. Like what we discussed in class before about this issue, if less people consume eating meat, then everything will get slower and the animals will not be treated cruelly because less people buy it. The reason why the animals are being treated this way is because a lot of people eat meat, and by using machinery, squeezing the animals together would help everything to get faster, therefore, the corporations could earn great profits. I also thought of pollution from looking at the videos. Since now a day what we eat is all industrially produced, it actually harms the environment. Of course, workers are not as fast as machines with fossil fueled, but this mistake has already been made. Rather than discussing does it worth it, what should we do in the long term?
Another reason to response to the question why shouldn't we eat meat would be that antibiotic are being overuse that changes the natural way that animals used to grow. In this case, natural would be how the animals use to live. Now a day, people are trying to rush the growth of animals by giving them shots and medicines to boost the speed of how animals grow. Additionally, the workers are getting injuries from fast speed of working. I think form this reason; it caused me to change a little about eating meat.
My last thought about these issues was that the animal’s size seems to matter. Compare to kill a cow and a chicken, I felt less guilty for killing a chicken than a cow/pig. I did not do further search to find out why, but I guess the size of the animals do matters in some way.
In conclusion, after watching the videos in class and online, I has chosen the second choice that we discussed in class that I will be aware of this issue, but not to make any difference. First of all, I still felt powerless to make a change, and I often felt just myself stop eating meat will not make a big difference due to the issue. Second of all, I feel like I am doing fine in these 17 years from eating meat, and perhaps it might caused some serious problem in the future, at least from now, I am doing okay with eating meat. Lastly, I do understand all these issues that we discussed in class are serious and important, but I still feel like I do not have enough knowledge or ability to lead to a further step to make a right change. Therefore, I choose to be aware of these issues, but not to make any change from my daily life.

School Days With a Pig

The link above is a movie about a teacher who decides to raised a pig with his class then eat it when they graduate, which later on the class has a very powerful debate over whether to eat the pig or not, and I felt that the students have great arguments to support their sides. (It is just a trailer, not the whole movie)

Industrial Food

From watching the videos of “Meatrix” “Animal Cruelty” and more videos in class, it reminds me of one of the TV shows that I watched when I went back to China last summer. My sister and I accidently switch to a channel about agriculture and farming, and it shows how the meat are being organized and send to the markets now a day, and how efficient those machinery has done all the work. Therefore, I was not surprised when I see how the animals are being killed now a day into meats that we buy in the supermarkets. But I do remember the first time I saw those images from the television, I totally feel disgusted about it and both me and my sister have to switch to other channels from looking at those “images” of cutting a pig from head to organs, then the feet…etc. We both think it is extremely cruel and it creates a picture of how human will look like if we would have been cut like those pigs hanging on those machineries. Perhaps the pigs are big and similar to human size that caused me and my sister to think about it, I still remember that we both screamed out the words, “EW…I WILL NOT EAT MEAT ANYMORE”.

What I do not know is how the animals are being treated in the so called “farms”. Is not like I do not know how the pigs are being squeezed into a crowded place, but I never thought of it actually affects them in a negative way. Before being exposed to these truths about animals, I thought that animals are doing okay as long as people feed them and they have a place to live. I never thought of they are being stuck into a place that they barely can move. Looking at the Meatrix videos, it caused me to realize that the animals that we are eating are actually unhealthy or sick meats. Other than the issue of animal cruelty, it also caused massive pollution and destroying community.

After being exposed to these truth facts about the meats that I am eating, I expect myself to feel disgust about it and start avoiding meat from dinners or lunch. But it turned out that I am eating okay. I did not feel disgusted from eating meat even I thought about those videos while I am eating. I came to a reason why I turned out this way, I think perhaps I has eat meat for more than 10 years, and it has been a habit like brushing my teeth as daily routine. This habit of eating meat seems to be natural to me, and I do not really have a strong feeling towards it.

Lead to further thinking, I find it unbelievable that the labels on the milk carton and on the meat packages actually affect the way people look at what they eat. Such as looking at the milk that I drink at home, with a nice green farm with cows, it actually makes me to think the milk taste nicer although I know that is not how those milks are being produced. (They baby cows are being fed with blood) Same to the meat, I do know how they treat the animals and how meats are being cut. I still will look at the labels and think the animals are doing fine. I realized that it is very easy to forget these truths behind the food that we are eating. Like the culture’s dominant food ways, what most people care is whether the food looks nice or tastes good? How many people actually thought of the truths behind the food they are eating? Or even go to the extreme, do people have the time to think about these facts even these truths are being exposed online like the ones we saw. Do people even bother to know? Which it leads to another question, do people really think about the food they eat such as where does this piece of meat come from?

Another thought about animal cruelty is that in spite the fact that the animals are being treated that way, why shouldn’t we eat meat and why it matters. I understand that the way the animals are being treat is extremely unacceptable, but I also think that if the pig/cow is going to get killed anyway, why it matters they are being treat badly. Such as human life, when we die, what it really matter after all. Same to the animals, once it dies, and we eat it. What is it left there after all? We all know and seen that the animals are being torture in the “factory farm”, but “if” from eating those meats do not affect our health, why not? This might sound very cruel, but other than feeling sympathetic for how the animals are being treated, why it matters other than the meat might not taste good or it is not healthy for us. (One reason would be not killing the animals/be a vegetarian. Like what we discussed in class before about this issue, if less people consume eating meat, then everything will get slower and the animals will not be treated cruelly because less people buy it. The reason why the animals are being treated this way is because a lot of people eat meat, and by using machinery, squeezing the animals together would help everything to get faster, therefore, the corporations could earn great profits. I also thought of pollution from looking at the videos. Since now a day what we eat is all industrially produced, it actually harms the environment. Of course, workers are not as fast as machines with fossil fueled, but this mistake has already been made. Rather than discussing does it worth it, what should we do in the long term?

In conclusion, after watching the videos in class and online, I has chosen the second choice that we discussed in class that I will be aware of this issue, but not to make any difference. First of all, I still felt powerless to make a change, and I often felt just myself stop eating meat will not make a big difference due to the issue. Second of all, I feel like I am doing fine in these 17 years from eating meat, and perhaps it might caused some serious problem in the future, at least from now, I am doing okay with eating meat. Lastly, I do understand all these issues that we discussed in class are serious and important, but I still feel like I do not have enough knowledge or ability to lead to a further step to make a right change. Therefore, I choose to be aware of these issue, but not to make any change from my daily life.

Making Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients:
Sugar, Enriched Bleached Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Cocoa Processed with Alkali and Cocoa, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Contains 2% or Less of: Corn Starch, Salt, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Baking Soda, Soy Lecithin.

Directions:
All You Need: 1/2 cup oil, 1/4 cup water, 2 eggs. Get Ready: Set your oven to 350 degrees for metal or glass pan, 325 for dark coated pan. Grease bottom of 13x9 inch pan or cooking spray with nonstick cooking spray. Get Set: Combine brownie mix, oil, water, and eggs in large bowl, stir 50 strokes with spoon. Spread in greased pan. Bake: Bake at 350 degrees for 28 to 31 minutes. For dark-coated pan, bake at 325 degrees F. Cut and serve when completely cooled. Store covered. High Altitude (above 3500 feet): Add 1/2 cup flour to dry brownie mix. Increase water to 1/3 cup. Bake as directed. Traditional Double Batch: Grease bottom of 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Combine 2 packages brownie mix, 1 cup oil, 1/2 cup water and 4 eggs; mix as directed above. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 to 37 minutes. Cake-Like Brownies: Follow basic directions except use 3 eggs.

More Information
I made this with my sister, and we both like it because we like chocolates and is made by us. My brother came home and tatsted it, and he likes them but not his top favorites. My mom dislikes the brownies because she thinks it is too sweet which it is not heatlhy in her opinion. Throughout the process, my sister and I enjoyed making it and we do not have pressures towards cooking, so everything went well.

Comments on Other's Blog

To Sam:

I think this is a great responese, because you went right straight to the point about food dilemma, should we listen to the experts or eat whatever we want that satisfy ourselves.Good Job!=]

To Dylan:

I think you make a good point that nothing is accomplished and it is just one day. Also I like your metaphors "screaming to death ears". But I guess it satisfies the workers somehow although it seems like they got diluted to the fact that they are powerless.

To Dinorah:

I agreed that there would be a chance people are using this incident to slip off and be slothful. However, I think the this holiday should continue for the purpose of honoring the workers who sacrifice their lives for a better life for the next generation.

To Mara:

=), usually the one who cooks have the authority over food choices. I think you can elaborate more on Pollan's arguement to make your post better.

To Zach:

I agree with you that the food opinions should be taken as advice, and not as a necessary thing to follow in daily life. Perhaps you can connect it back to your own life. What experts do you and your family pay attention to?

Response to Pollan 1

Michael Pollan, the author of Omnivore’s Dilemma, has argued that there is lack of stable food culture like French/Italians in the United States, and we as Americans are confused and anxious about what to eat, therefore, we easily listen to experts to tell us what we should eat for dinner. I agree with his argument that most of us do listen to experts and follow the directed food ads to decide what to have for lunch or dinner as a meal. Perhaps way back then people’s habit of eating does not depend on the food fads or experts, and they were able to live through their lives. But in the 21st century, not too much people grow their own food like back then, especially the people who spend their whole life living in the city. It is impossible to know where the food comes from like the farmers; therefore we rely on what others said that we think is reliable. For instance, when most people go to the supermarkets to buy their food, they usually pick the ones that looks nice or the ones that they saw from various sources that said IT IS HEALTHY. Additionally, people living in the cities are mostly busy on something, so as a result, their eating habits will depend on the speeds and convenience too. That is a reason why America is famous for fast food like McDonalds, Wendy’s, Subway, Burger King and etc… Another reason why we rely on the experts is because we do not really know about our body unless we go to the doctors to check. Therefore, our life is really depending on the doctors. They are the ones who save our lives when we are sick, or else we will not be able to heal ourselves if we have certain disease. As a result in the long run, we come to believe that doctors are reliable and worth to trust to be one who guide us what to eat. In my opinion, sometimes we should be concern what we are eating, because we just know too little about food other than knowing it is the main source that keeps us alive. We need certain reliable sources from the experts, so we don’t eat with doubt. However, when it comes to healthiness, I think everybody’s body function differently, some is allergic to certain fruits and some is not. Therefore, there is definitely a chance that the information from the experts does not fit us, but do fit somebody else.
A further thought on Pollan’s argument was that although America does not have a stable food culture like Italians/French does, that might not be the reason why we rely on the experts. It could be simply because of American’s healthiness such as diabetes, heart disease’s rates are extremely higher than the others, that’s why we are so concern with what we eat and rely on the experts. Is not like we wanted to, but the things that we are eating is definitely an issue that we should be aware of regarding on health.

Is it necessary to have a stable food culture?

Americans are concern about what to eat is because we lack a stable food culture in the U.S. or we just care about our health more than the others?

When I type in “American Food” in Google images, is all fast food. Does that consider a food culture for Americans? If yes, can we say that our food culture is not as healthy as the others, that’s why we are looking for a better food culture and more concern than the others?

It is possible that it just happened to Americans that our food culture needs modification?

Does Americans' concerned on food reflected that we wanted to live longer than the others? Or just seeking for better life? Scared of death compared to the others?

In my family, my parents do listen to certain experts to decide what we should eat, but my daily food habits do not have a dramatic change because of what the experts said. To me, it feels like the way we eat is really depending on how our ancestors had passed down to us. We still eat rice, with side dishes of some meat, soup, and vegetables. But what my mom concerns the most is obesity/body health. She does not want us to eat more meat than vegetables, because too much meat will cause us to be fat or even overweight. Also eating food that is too sweet or salty is another thing that she concerns regarding on eating healthy. Overall, we do not really eat depending on commercials or books. Compared to my grandparents, they are the ones who absolutely ignored what the food ads told them to eat. They been farmers and they used to grow their own food, so they sort of know what to eat and have their own food habits from their own knowledge of food instead of relying on what others said. Therefore, it shows that a person’s knowledge on food definitely has to do with how they eat.

Grocery Store and Habitual Food

In my family, my mom usually is the one who goes the grocery store to refill the refrigerator. What our family buys the most is vegetables, fruits, grains and meat. Sometimes she goes to Chinatown to buy the fruits and vegetables as well. In a typical week, I eat around 20 different kinds of fruits and vegetables. But I do not really eat nuts or roots that much. For grains, our family only eats rice, oatmeal sometimes, and bread/cakes. Sometimes when I don't feel like eating, especially during the summer, I eat a lot of fruits to replace a lot of the meals. However, I mostly eat rice/noodles with some vegetables and meats. Twice a week, we have soup with bones of pigs/fish/chicken and some other Chinese herd. I don't think my family has a big difference in our daily diet, and the food is pretty repetitive depending on how it is cooked. I don't really have a favorite meal, I felt like I only enjoy the food the most when I am hungry. When I am hungry, most of the food could be my favorite. In my opinion, I am a picky person and I do not eat certain food such as tuna, balsam pear, pumpkin...etc. Other than certain food that I do not eat, the food that I like (pork, chicken, beef, green/red pepper, tomatoes, green onions...etc.), no matter how they are being cook, I will still like it. I do not dislike specific meals, but I do dislike certain types of vegetables and meat.
What I found out in the grocery store is that they organized the food in certain place. Such as the vegetables and fruits in a group, the grains, condiment, meat, beverages, frozen things, things in boxes. The way they "push" certain food/products to the consumers is either to put it in a place that is easily for people to see, or having a sign saying "on sale". For some food, like the vegetables and fruits, they will specially put them in a neat pile for people to choose. So the food will look nice and people will buy it. The labels on the products also matters, such as a picture of how it looks like in the box or the outcome of making the food, the ones that looks better compare to the other products will be the one that people will buy if they haven't try those food before. All these different kinds of methods that the grocery stores use often succeed in pushing the products to the customers.

May Day

I used to have a day off on May Day when I was in China, but after 7 years of living in the United States, I have got used to it and barely remember the importance of the day. I was surprised when I noticed the origins of May Day is actually happened in the United States and it has been forgotten. Although we have a day off on the first Thursday of September, the Labour Day, I think the meaning has already got twisted. May Day is an international holiday and most countries celebrate this holiday for the hard workers from Chicago, who has struggled for the 8 hour day, which caused us to have a better life now. The holiday supposed to celebrate the great changed that the hard workers has contribute to us socially and economically. Otherwise, a lot of the workers now might have to work long hours and get less income.

The past struggle that the workers had had definitely brought us a better life and a better civilized placed to live in. Even this historical event did not happen; perhaps somebody else might have done this contribution, too. However, the workers from Chicago did it, and therefore, we have a shorter working hours. Without the sense of history and past struggle, our life might still be harsh and difficult. In my own opinion, I think the strike is necessary to live a good and meaningful life, because things have to get better and needed to have a difference in order to improve our lives. But in order to revolt, lives of the others often have to be sacrifice. Some people believe that living a good and meaningful life, is to make things better, and improve the life situations for the next generation. So then, the next generations do not have to suffer as much as they do.

Because of the struggles for a better life, therefore, now we have way better life than our ancestor. But somehow, I feel that now a day, most people have a good life and we have stopped making progress. Or perhaps, we are making progress, but in a slow motion. A lot of us feel powerless to revolt over the rules that we dislikes and we spent our time on our own personal social life and other luxuries like famous brands, nice looking clothes, computers, internets, etc… We barely struggle such harsh life like the workers from back then and we do not suffer. Even we do suffer bad things, those are small things such as can’t get the new phone or new video games, or losing our other halves. A lot of our sadness or unsatisfied emotions are coming from our love, materials, and other things that are not really necessary for us. Since our lives are so better compare to back then, we no longer struggle or even fight for our own rights. Compare to the people from back then who have to struggle for food, human rights…etc. We are definitely way better and have too much happiness that we still complain about small things. We no longer cherish the things we have, like food, clothes…etc. Even a lot of the new inventions, it has made our life way easier.

Without the Wrights brother, we might not have airplanes, without Thomas Edison, we might not have lights. Same to the workers, without their struggles, we might not have shorter working hours. Perhaps, we are still improving our lives such as trying to recycle, avoid global warning…etc. But our lives are so much better; most of us no longer take their time and contribute to the next generations. We have learned how to take care of our own selves, and processing selfishness, and we no longer think sacrificing for the others is worth its values.

Food Journal

28 April, 2009

Around 8:00 P.M.

* Chicken with ginger & green onion sauce

* A bowl of white rice

* A cup of 2% Milk

* Some Veggies

* Apple & Orange

Before I eat, I not as hungry as I usually is. But my mom has a proper schedule of when we supposed to eat dinner (I guess she believes that eating at a certain time like following a schedule is healthier than you just eat whenever you wanted to), so I have to eat even I don't want to. We did talked about random stuffs and the topics were kept switching around, nothing much seems important. We eat with chopsticks and bowl, no difference. My mom is the one who cooked yesterday, but not always. Also, she is the one who buys the food from Chinatown everyday.The cooking part took about half an hour, and the dinner last around 45 min. During the middle of the dinner, we did watch some shows on the computer and we just talked random things about the show. Then we ate some fruits as usually, after the dinner, and that is pretty much it. Overall, the dinner is fine, and I am satisfy because I do not have to suffer hunger like other kids in the other part of world.

29 April, 2009

Around 8:00 A.M.

* Water

No Breakfast.

Around 12:30 P.M.

* Meatball

* Chocolate Milk

* Water

I do not feel like eating during lunch time, and I just ate 2 meatballs and drank the chocolate milk. I am not sure if I am not hungry or I just don't want to eat (I guess is both). I do not know where does those food came from, and how they cook them. It doesn't look bad, but I don't really feel like eating them. I used a fork to eat my lunch and while I am eating with my friends, we play cards and talked about random things (teachers, schools,swine flu, jokes...etc.) I do not have any feelings towards the food, but the lunch time went well, because I spend time with my friends and we talked.

Around 8:00 P.M.

* Noodles

* Korean Frozen Pre-fried Fish Cake (Tofu)

* Veggies

* Chicken Soup

* SPAM

* Water

* Apple

My sister cooked, and I ate with my brother and sister using chopsticks and bowls. Most of the food are from the supermarket and I can't decide whether is health or not. We were watching TV shows while we are eating and we just commenting the shows because we are kind of into it. It took around 20 min. to cook and the dinner last about 45 min. I am satisfy after I eat because the food is good and I am little hungry before the dinner. During the dinner, we also talked about what happens in school and our day. Overall, the dinner went well as usual, and I felt fine.

Food Cultures - Home & Corporate

In my Chinese culture family, usually is the women's duty to cook and to do the shopping. The overall process of cooking a dinner or lunch has nothing to do with men. It does not have to do with the gender, but usually the kitchen belongs to the females in the family. A regular family dinner often cooked by the housewives, and usually the other females would help in the kitchen, too. A dinner would take about an hour or two, depending on the numbers of family. When I was in China, if there are only me, my mom, brother and sister, sometimes my dad, the dinner would take about an hour for my mom to cook. Also we would have less food (around 3 dish, soup, white rice). But during the weekend or vacations, when we go to grandma’s house to eat, usually there would be 10 or more people in the family. So the dinner would take 2 hours to cook and everybody would sit around the table and eat. Usually only the adults or young adults are allow to sit on the table to eat. (The age matters in my family, the older ones get more respect and get to sit on the width of the table and the other adults sit on the length). The kids have to sit on a separate table to eat with smaller dishes of the same food. We do have the television on, but usually the adults are talking and the kids are watching TV or playing while eating. The manner is very important too, we have to wait for everybody to gather around the table, then we are allow to pick up our chopsticks.

The women are the ones who are responsible for everybody’s food. Especially for my grandfather, he never gets up and serves himself. My grandma is the one who usually serve him and help him to get rice or soup. Soup is one of the most important things that most Chinese family values. The soup is not from the cans, but from a lot of the ingredients. Usually there is one type of meat; it could be chicken, pork, and duck, (sometimes snakes and a type of turtle) with some other Chinese medicine herbs. The more expensive ones would be abalone and ginseng or shark fin. The other foods on the table would be usually 7 to 8 dishes within mostly pork, beef, fish, shrimp, goose, duck, chicken, (*frog*) and vegetables. Sometimes there would be steam egg, fried fish or steam fish. Chinese food do not values seasoning, but only oil, salt, soy sauce, sugar. The heavier ones would be spicy peppers, some type of liquor, or vinegar. In a very traditional family, sodas or juice are not allow in a family, and we are only allow to drink soup because it takes more than an hour to decoct. I think the Chinese culture believe that from drinking soups that decoct for a long time, with extracting the flavor from pork and other medicine herbs is healthy for our body. Also every night the proportion of eating vegetable is more than meat. Unless there is a holiday, we would make special foods with flours and other food. Or else, everyday the food is pretty much make with the similar ingredients.

When I came to the United States, my lunch is usually fast food for the purpose of convenient and speed (American way), and the dinner is similar as what I described above. But now I only eat with my sister and my brother, sometimes my mom. So we will have less food on the table and sometimes no soup. In the U.S., we do watch TV when we eat, and the dinner took around half an hour to make. Usually are still pork, beef, chicken, and some other vegetables like green pepper, cucumber, tomatoes, green shallot, celery, and egg plants. Everything is homemade, and we no longer have soup every night. We usually just drink milk or juice or soda to replace the drinks. Compared to the American way of making food, I think it is very different because we do not eat ham for dinner, turkey, corn, potatoes, cheese, burger buns…etc. for dinner. Also the Chinese food is all cooked, and the American way of making food is to put the vegetables together into a salad with some sauce. In addition to that, I think the people in the U.S mainstream make food or eat with a lot of sauce like ketchup, mustard, mayo…etc. What is very different was that the mainstream dinner for white Americans seems to be very independent and everybody is responsible for their own food (own dish). Also the process of cooking the dinner is fast and everybody just trying to get over with it. But there do have some similarities are that we do sit gather around the television, and we do eat together as a family. Also we eat white rice very often, too.

I think the Chinese culture of making food is very different from the American mainstream way of making food. Perhaps different cultures values different things while Americans concerns with the speed and convenient, and the Chinese concerns with more family interactions and manner. However, I think both culture do not really concern about is the food they are eating is really healthy or not although now a day everybody talk about organic food.