Portions Uncontrolled Growing up in the early 2000s, I was constantly told, “the more you eat, the bigger and stronger you will grow up to be”. This was before phrases like ‘portion control’ or ‘everything in moderation’ influenced societies eating habits so heavily. There was this universal belief that the high metabolism of a growing child meant that the consumption of fats, sugars, and salts would somehow even out. Maybe this false belief came from the major food corporations targeting children as a key proponent in advertising campaigns. Regardless of how this interpretation came about, my childhood eating habits were greatly influenced by over eating. My daily breakfast usually included an array of options ranging from Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops, Ego waffles, Pillsbury Toaster Strudels, and Quaker oatmeal. My mom was a big advocate of independence, so she let me choose what I had to eat. Looking back on it, her push for me to be self-reliant is what I accredit a lot of my successes to, but also put a lot of responsibility on my shoulders to make the right decisions. Prior to the push for healthier school lunches, we were offered the option to have double lunch; One would get two servings of lunch instead of one. Not only were the portions bigger, but the food itself lacked nutritional value. My lunches often consisted of two pieces of pizza, two cheese burgers, two chicken patties, accompanied by two servings of dessert. Double lunch wasn’t uncommon among my peers. It seemed as though most people that didn’t have a sack lunch would choose the larger portioned option. This very well could be due to the fact that the parents that didn’t take the time to prepare their child’s lunch also didn’t take the time to educate them on proper food habits; Or like in my case, maybe it was because parents wanted their children to have a say in what they got to eat. Dinners were typically made by my mom. Strongly influenced by the nationwide standard of My Plate, we would always have a meat, vegetable, fruit, grain, and dairy portion. Even though the food wasn’t entirely unhealthy, fitting in all of the components of My Plate filled our plates to the brim. I don’t think we were the only family letting My Plate set the standards for our eating habits. School were starting in incorporate the study of My Plate into school curriculum. The focus wasn’t on portioning these foods but on making sure to satisfying each and every category. Often times this meant over eating. I ate with this approach for the majority of my life until my senior year of high school. I was enrolled in a college level environmental science class, which focused a good bit on the food industry’s environmental footprint. In the class, we were required to watch Food Inc., which is the first time I started to question the impacts of my meat consumption: not only from an environmental standpoint, but a humane one as well. The documentary wasn’t persuading enough for me to stop eating meat entirely, but I started to lift the curtain the food industry had placed in front of consumers. That summer, my brother and I took a road trip to Colorado. Driving through Iowa and into Nebraska I saw first-hand the overcrowded conditions of the mass meat producing farms: cows packed so tight you couldn’t see the grass, windowless chicken coops that stretched for miles. I was being forced to look at a part of the meat industry that I was blissfully ignorant to before. After that trip, I stopped eating meat. This wasn’t something easy for me to do, but I didn’t want to brush what I had seen under the rug. I feel like this is a very common solution when it comes to consumer’s attitude towards the food industry. We know certain foods are unhealthy or unsustainable, but we can only see the delicious food in colorful packaging directly in front of us; We don’t see what’s on the other side of the curtain. I began to take up an interest in being as socially aware of the food industry as I could. I first looked into how certain foods are processed in the body, specifically gluten, I researched the fair-trade dilemma with palm oil in South America, I enlightened myself on the cruelty of the dairy industry, and I consciously made the decision to cut out all of it. Being meat, gluten, palm oil, and dairy free has definitely presented its challenges and I haven’t been perfect in the process either. I am still finding my balance of being a conscious consumer and my journey has only just begun.
Revised Food Autobiography
Dependently Independent My entire life I’ve prided myself on being independent. Before taking this class, I thought every decision I had made in my life was autonomous. I lived life oblivious to the numerous outside factors impacting every choice I made. This class has made me realize that being socially unaware allows a flawed food system to operate at the expense of consumers. I now have the realization that the various choices I’ve made have been influenced by larger systems I didn’t even know I was a part of. My parents both had fulltime jobs and a laissez-faire parenting style, which gave my brother and I a lot of choice. My friend’s parents weren’t always supportive of their ultramodern views that authoritarian parenting forces children into predetermined identities. I decided what I wore, what activities I was in, to dye my pair pink in 6thgrade, and, aside from family dinner, I decided what I got to eat. My mom took my brother and I grocery shopping every Sunday and we were allowed to pick whatever we wanted. Possibly influenced by food corporation’s hidden agenda, my parents believed a high metabolism and exercise meant that the consumption of fats, sugars, and salts would somehow even out. Come to find out, I wasn’t the one controlling my diet, but a deliberately calculated arithmetic created by food corporations did. Michael Moss in the New York Times article “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food” highlights years of research food scientists like Howard Moskowitz used to develop the flavor profile, texture, desirability, and advertising strategies of the foods I grew up eating: Spaghetti-O’s, Oreos, Kraft Mac and Cheese, Lays Chips, and Lunchables. I was eating calorie dense and nutritionally poor foods; Foods that had been consciously designed to be overeaten. I didn’t eat the food because it was good, I ate it because it was engineered to be likable. My family, like many other American families, heavily stressed the importance of eating dinner together. Our reasoning was it was a routine time in which we could all see each other. Much like Laura Shapiro mentions in “Something from the Oven”, many families had a false sense of unavailability when it came to spending time making dinner, but also spending time together as a family. Many nights my dad would pick up takeout on his way home from work, if not my mom would cook everyone a meal including a meat, starch, and vegetable accompanied by a large glass of milk. One by one we would go around the table and say the best and worst parts of our day. My favorite meal had always been dinner because I associated it with family. Jonathan Safran Foer writes in Eating Animalsabout his association with the meal he first ate after his son was released from the hospital, “I can’t remember if the food was any good. It was the best meal of my life”. I had never questioned the food my dad brought home or my mom cooked and I honestly don’t remember what we had most of the time. The good feeling comfort food creates is so powerful that it gives one the ability to eat things they normally wouldn’t for the sake of social bonding. Before taking this class, I made various decisions to ultimately give up or cut back on soda, meat, gluten, dairy, eggs, and fast food. If you would have asked me 3 months ago, I would have said I made the choices to do those things for my health. Reanalyzing the situation, there was a larger industry causing me to refrain from indulging. A few months after I turned 16, I signed to a professional modeling agency in Chicago. Photography and modeling are things I have always been extremely passionate about, but what I didn’t realize is that I had also introduced myself into a controversial culture that arguably sets the expectation for what beauty is. In doing this, I became contractually obligated to maintain my weight. It took me about a year to see first-hand that the smaller other models were getting, the more successful they became. I never wanted to put my career before my health like I had seen so many other models do. To challenge Jane Brody’s point in the article “More Fitness, Less Fatness”, I do not believe “fat acceptance” is a trend soon to catch on as long as the entertainment industry has anything say. Having a tape measure wrapped around my waist certainly inspired me to eat less fattening foods, but the reason I will continue my food habits is rooted in the things I’ve learned from this class. I have read about the highly technical manipulation food scientist use for the processed foods I grew up eating. I have learned about the economical and nutritional benefits to home cooked meals as a replacement to takeout dinners. I have seen the abuse suffered everyday by the factory farmed meat that reinforces my vegetarianism. No longer the choices I make reflect my independence, but instead reflect a food system that is dependent on consumer awareness.
Pandora's Lunchbox Email
Kelsey Heitzman Dear Mom, I recently was assigned to read the book Pandora’s Lunchboxby Melanie Warner. The book brings to light the good, the bad, and the ugly of processed foods, which Warner defines as anything “that could not be made, with the same ingredients, in a home kitchen” (Warner xviii). I’ve been assigned to write an email conveying the importance of what I’ve learned and, knowing your recent devotion to weight loss and clean eating, I immediately thought of you. I found that a predominant theme of the book is that our understanding of the food we eat is misguided: there are complex algorithms used to create concoctions of foods we consume every day. Companies have the ability to “design foods that fit the flavor profile of society,” at times disguising them so well that they are indistinguishable from the real thing (Petrick). Interestingly enough, many things we eat can be traced back to either corn or soy: cereal, yogurt, salad dressing, processed meats, sweeteners, the list goes on. The processes these two naturally found things have to go through in order to take on new forms is often detrimental to their nutritional value. This often prompts the addition of vitamins and minerals to increase a products nutritional value, or at least that’s what companies’ intentions are. Cereal box labels, for example, advertise their high nutritional value, but in the words of Robert Choate, “Nutrition doesn’t snap, crackle, or pop” (Warner 67). Not to say companies are lying to consumers about the contents of their products, but they aren’t required to disclose the source of the nutrients. Vitamins added in food or used as supplements come from places like the grease in sheep wool, coal tar, nylon, acetone, and, inevitably, corn. The factories that used to manufacture these vitamins emitted so many hazardous pollutants that every U.S. plant was shut down. The vitamin industry is now largely controlled by China, but Warner acknowledges that these factories are still places “you wouldn’t want to live anywhere near” (Warner 85). Vitamins that are consumed in their original state through foods like oranges, carrots, and egg yolks also work with other chemicals to maximize your vitamin intake. Vitamin supplements are necessary in the case of deficiencies, but, when choosing between the orange or the pill, you may want to consider the greasy sheep wool it originated from. In addition to vitamin and mineral additives, another industry dominated by highly processed products is the meat industry. Widely loved for being a convenience food, processed meat finds its way into the freezers of many. I know your favorites include Lean Cuisine TV dinners, El Monterey frozen taquitos, State Fair corndogs, and Tyson chicken nuggets. I think you’ll be surprised to find, “chicken, it turns out, is never just chicken” (163 Warner). This seems to be the case with other processed meats as well. The processed meat industry as a whole is a huge proponent of using soy as a filler to minimize costs. The soy can’t go directly from the bean to the burger; It goes through processes to remove fiber, get rid of carbohydrates, and balance pH. In doing so, companies use chemicals that are “highly corrosive and used to remove rust”, and others that have a “household use as the main active ingredient in Drano” (Warner153-154). Soy in its most processed form has an unpleasant, earthy taste, so more ‘natural flavors’ are used to mask the barnyard taste. Obviously, I have made my point that meat isn’t always just meat, but the most concerning part is that there are no regulations on the amount of soy that can go into these meat products. “A USDA rule used to limit ‘vegetable protein product’ in lunch meat to no more than 30 percent, but after lobbying by Solae, it was removed in 2000” (Warner 152). Flavor scientists also have the ability to make soy taste almost indistinguishable from meat, so there really is no way of knowing the meat-to-soy ratio in these products. I think Warner’s statement saying that “the problem with processed food is that it’s rarely clear what exactly it is we’re eating” says a lot about consumers’ trust in the food industry (Warner 166). Many people assume it is the food industry’s responsibility to be transparent with the public, and the government’s responsibility to regulate the food industry. Unfortunately for consumers, we don’t operate this way. But I hope that by reading this email, next time you’re at the grocery store you’ll be able to make conscious decisions about what you’re putting into your cart. Love Always, Kelsey
Topic Explorer Midterm
3 News Articles The urgency of urban farming is a byproduct of food deserts. Food deserts are defined by the USDA as areas with limited access to supermarkets, superstores, grocery stores, or other sources of cheap, healthy food. They are largely found in, but not limited to, low-income, urban areas. Currently 20 million people in the US are impacted by these deserts, but developers of agricultural technologies are forecasting showers of fruits and vegetables in cityscapes around the country. In the article “How Vertical Farming Aims to Eliminate Food Deserts from Urban Landscapes”,Adam Putz emphasizes that “global production will need to increase by 50% to feed another 2 billion people in 2050”. This is a problem Putz believes can be solved by vertical farming. Growing plants in soilless, recycled bottles stacked upwards in columns replaces up to 6 acers of farmland in 1 acer of indoor space. Vertical farming allows people to maximize the efficiency of all variables of growing food. Technology has allowed farmers to eliminate pesticides and optimize water and light levels. This way of farming is undeniably more sustainable than currently farming methods. Putz points out that vertical farms use “a measly 1% of the water deployed on conventional farms”. This article revealed the need for alternative methods of farming outside of our conventional practices. The lack of fresh food in urban areas paired with immense technological advancements has inspired people to outside of the box. One person in particular, Kimbal Musk, is in the early stages of launching an innovative urban farming method. Square Roots takes a spin on traditional vertical farming by incorporating a “hydroponic system inside repurposed shipping containers”(Trotter). Chicago Tribune reporter Greg Trotter writes about these high-tech containers that have advanced climate control settings to grow fresh greens year-round, even through harsh winters. These shipping crates are efficient and mobile. Each container is able to produce 50 pounds of greens per week. Square Roots is currently located in Chicago and New York and are looking to expand to vacant buildings across national cityscapes. Seeing as the project is in its early stages, Musk hasn’t disclosed any thorough plans for distributing his produce but has already generated buzz from all economic classes. Lower class families are looking forward to the fresh foods and jobs opportunities these unique urban farms would bring to local communities. Middle/upper class families view them as a tourist attraction and are excited about their ability to draw people in from surrounding cities. A business model exhibiting class inclusion would appeal to investors and has a promising outlook for success. Knowing how these farms impact different economic classes is an important factor when assessing their need. This article unveiled new ways of thinking to solve old problems. Urban farming isn’t a singular result of high-tech, expensive farm equipment. Volunteers, nonprofit organizations, and low-income communities are farming in Detroit to help increase food access throughout areas of Detroit. In the Article “The Urban Farmers Trying to Put Down Roots in Detroit”, Patti Waldmeir investigates how traditional urban farmers are able to do this at such an affordable rate. “Detroit lost nearly two-thirds of its population from the middle of last century…[t]hat left many gaps, not only in the economy and social fabric but also in the urban landscape.” With homeowners leaving Detroit, businesses and grocery stores went with them. Communities recognized the need for healthy local food to avoid an urban food desert. Some people simply squatted on vacant lots and others bought them for extremely cheap to develop their farms. Michigan’s largest urban farm gives away all of the food it grows to help support the rehabilitation of the city and its people. The vast number of vacancies in Detroit has created 20,000 farming jobs and occupied 5,000 acres, but the article questions whether farms will endure a potential economic rebound. The term ‘up and coming’ routinely coincides with the term ‘gentrification’, which could lead to less urban farms and more Whole Foods’. This article brought up a potential obstacle to the expansion of urban farms. It is important to not only think of the positive outcomes, but also negative ones. Documentary – Urban Farmers Urban Farmersdraws a great deal of attention to the academic disconnect between children raised in urban areas and the food industry as a whole. Throughout the documentary Rachel Caccese interviews urban farmers in New York about their efforts to increase food access and knowledge in the Five Burroughs. The opening scene is a sequence of New Yorkers answering the question, “Do you know if there’s any farms in New York?”. School children, Wall Street workers, parents, and store clerks all seemed humored by the question and confidently refuted the proposal that there were farms intertwined in the streets of New York. New York’s Five Burroughs has 1,000 acres of working farmland and close to 10,000 vacant acres able to be farmed. This disconnect of education makes it more likely that those vacant areas will go towards urban development rather than urban farming. New York state has tried to increase awareness and incentivize going to farmers markets by allowing the use of EBT cards to purchase locally grown food. Furthermore, food venders within these markets give out coupons and create award systems to encourage attendance as well. The farms behind the farmers markets are shown in the back alleys and side streets of low-income areas, providing jobs to local kids and adults that wouldn’t have work otherwise. 95% of these farms are small to medium size, meaning they don’t get government subsidies. This ensures farms are growing foods outside of cash crops. In the documentary it showed one acre of urban farm can produce 70 varieties of foods. Urban farms in low-income communities can make an impact if they have enough exposure as shown through the numerous personal testimonies inUrban Farmers. New York’s use of SNAP to increase farmers market attendance and promote urban farming should set an example for other states. This documentary provided critical insight to how the government can play a role in urban farming. Book – The Urban Farmer The Urban Farmerwritten by Curtis Stone, an urban farmer himself,touches on the economic benefits of urban farming. Most urban farmers live in the city they supply to. This saves time and money for transportation, but also gives the farmer the ability to go back to the farm if a particular crop sells out. Having essentially unlimited inventory maximizes what the farmer is able to sell. Being so close to the city also increase consumer awareness. Stone spoke from experience when saying, “I have met a large number of my customers, simply because they walked by my farm plots.” In essence, the produce sells itself. Also, unlike conventional farming, traditional urban farming doesn’t have many start-up costs. Small outer-city lots are fairly inexpensive and as Stone describes, “infrastructure is simple, small, and cheap”. Aside from a financial standpoint, the city climate is better suited for a longer growing season. The absorption of heat from the concrete buildings typically keeps the city a few degrees warmer. Stone calls this the “heat island effect”. Large buildings can also protect crops from the elements: excessive rain, sleet, or wind. Overall, Stone spoke from experience which can often times be more telling than what data shows. Seeing urban farming from the farmer’s perspective gave a full picture of the economics behind urban farming. Summary Urban farming has the potential to revolutionize the food industry. Across all my research, I found it evident that there is a need for fresh food in urban areas. Food deserts are a pressing issue that effect millions of people and can be reduced by urban farming. Urban farming is also more sustainable than conventional farming. Throughout my research, I discovered many ways urban farming uses less water, land, and pesticides. Urban farms can be set up using advanced technology or traditional methods. Traditional methods are similar to what you would see in a community garden. I am more curious about the various ways technology can play a role in urban farming. I had two articles touch on vertical farming and technological advancements by Kimbal Musk and I found them very interesting. I would love to look more into different inventions people have come up with to make farming for efficient. My group was very interested in urban farming as a whole and how it can play a role in schools and communities. I think my research will provide an overview of large umbrella topic of urban farming.
Works Cited Caccese, Rachel, director. Urban Farmers. IMDb, IMDb.com, 2017, www.imdb.com/title/tt3480172/. Putz, Adam. “How Vertical Farming Aims to Eliminate Food Deserts from Urban Landscapes.” PitchBook, 17 Sept. 2018, pitchbook.com/news/articles/cultivation-in-the-skies-how-vertical-farming-is-aiming-to-eliminate-food-deserts-from-the-urban-landscape. Stone, Curtis Allen. “Why Urban Farming?” The Urban Farmer: Growing Food for Profit on Leased and Borrowed Land, by Curtis Stone, New Society Publishers, 2016, pp. 25–48. Trotter, Greg. “Coming to Englewood: Kimbal Musk's Square Roots Urban Farm in Shipping Containers.” Chicagotribune.com, 12 July 2018, www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-square-roots-englewood-kimbal-musk-20180712-story.html. Waldmeir, Patti. “The Urban Farmers Trying to Put down Roots in Detroit.” Financial Times, Financial Times, 12 Sept. 2018, www.ft.com/content/0e6b8412-89e5-11e8-affd-da9960227309.
Grocery Ethnography
Entering through the automatic doors of Meijer, I was greeted by the wide smile of an older woman who handed me a basket. I instinctively smiled back, thanked her, and continued walking towards the isles. Throughout all of my observational notes, I noticed the word ‘automatic’ appeared many times. I had walked in the store, been handed a basket, and had a smile put on my face without even thinking twice about it. Customers also operated in a calculated manor. There was no small talk between one another or workers. Many people had their routine down so efficiently, they didn’t even check prices or nutrition labels; They found what they were looking for and quickly moved onto the next item on their list. Grocery shopping is seen as chore in American culture, which could explain why Americans only spend 9.6% of their income on food. Similarly to Laura Shapiro’s observation that women used to rank cooking higher than another chore, this culture has since changed. Many people at Meijer were still dressed in their work clothes, meaning this was most likely their last stop on the way home from a long day at work. I observed a lot of people with headphones in, only unplugging to ask a worker where to find an item they were looking for. The entire process was automated even down to checkout. The self-checkout line was sufficiently longer than the regular lines. With self-checkout, there is no need for anyone to put down their phones or turn their music off for needless small talk and the lines overall move at a faster pace. Once again, people chose automatized efficiency over submerging in the experience. Without even stepping out of my car I could hear the live music filling the air and the soft murmurs of chatter underneath it. Lansing Farmer’s Market is located outside of a small church behind a residential neighborhood. Multiple stands were set up around the parameter of the parking lot, each represented a different food vender. The family friendly atmosphere was warm and inviting. Families talked to venders about their food from last week and even swapped recipes. The seemingly regular crowd was mingling with one another. Since the farmers market is located in a neighborhood, this seemed to be a place that brought the community together. A large sign read, “kids get a free pumpkin”. Between the bubble machine, live music, and free pumpkin, a large group of ecstatic children quickly formed. This welcoming atmosphere not only creates a community bond, but also lessens the intimidation for those who have never been to a farmer’s market. Aside from the seasonal produce, venders had honey, baked goods, and handmade items for sale. This makes the farmers market a plausible replacement for a grocery store. Other than meat and toiletries, families could potentially substitute farmers market goods for all of their groceries. Due to the generally lower prices, this is a suitable alternative for low-income families. Each vender had a sign outside of their tent stating whether or not they accepted SNAP and WICC benefits. Based on this and the fact the farmers market was located outside of a church, tells me that their target market is low-income families. Churches typically offer many programs for community development and assistance in poverty-stricken areas. Overall, this farmers market’s low prices and inviting atmosphere creates a collaborative environment to strengthen the community. The natural, wood aesthetic that finds its way into every corner of Fresh Thyme instantly brings words like “organic” and “natural” to mind. Looking a bit closer at the foods sold, these terms ring true. Not only were organic foods well represented, but diet trends were as well. An entire refrigerator was designated for the colorful bottles of Kombucha tea. You could virtually find anything gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, vegan, non-GMO. The dairy section consisted of more coconut and almond milk than actual dairy. Although a lot of the seasonal produced was inexpensive or on sale, these fad foods came at a price. I think Fresh Thyme markets to multiple socioeconomic classes, which is unique from what I’ve seen from the other stores. They provide a store brand version of nearly every food, which offers a lower price than the name brand. On the contrary the fruits ranged from apples and pears to coconuts, mango, pomegranate, and pineapple which can get expensive. Fresh Thyme markets to everyone from trendy middle-class dieters to low-income families in search of healthy, affordable food. The interactions within this store was similar to that of Meijer. Customers weren’t taking the time to talk to each other or employees. Although, I think this is due to a different reason. Psychology research tells us that people tend to be more comfortable around people of their own economic status. When you take a grocery store, like Fresh Thyme, that markets to different classes, people are less likely to converse within its isles.