IFS revised

Kenneth Leung

June 7, 2007

IFS

Introduction:

The fast food industry machine wheels are whining to a halt. With the widespread advocate of non-genetically altered foods people are quitting the fast food nation we are today, and instead bringing forth a fair food nation. During our special diet assignment most of us have argued for a diet that didn’t involve process food, and advocated lots of fruits and vegetables. Based on what Andy had said to us and taught us we have also argued for the treatments of over billions of cattle and steers. Cattle and steers raised in feedlots are treated to a poor life. The industrial food system is the system in which mass food production occurs. To understand it one must break it down; industrial (machines) and food system. What it means is a food system that is operated by machines. In many countries their food production is made easy with the use of machines. Although these machines cause a lot of problems, manure in meat, pesticides on vegetables, harm to workers and a lot more. The machines control the entire procedure. They are oppressors in society, because of all the problems that they cause and because they give people no alternative in food. Omnivore's Dilemma: It has significant insight into Industrial Agriculture supported by numerous facts. This book is good for finding quotes about this issue. Fast Food Nation: This is another book that talks allot about Industrial Agriculture. Written in a different way than Omnivore's Dilemma. "Daily Bread": Great footage depicting animals being raised and slaughtered. As well as, non-animal food products being grown; Shows patterns in the industry without using dialogue. Writing discussion preps: This allows us to further articulate our thoughts and observations pertaining to Industrial Agriculture. This was done with the books we read. The Meatrix: Sums up the essence of what we need to know in short clips. The animation can guide anyone along. Fast Food Experiences: This offers a first hand experience. We can see what happens after food is processed and at the end of the food industry chain.

Body 1:

Discussion preps activity is a way to hold students accountable for assigned readings from Omnivore’s Dilemma. Students are required to make a list of questions, comments, thoughts, and notable quotes. The second part of the assignment is to write two to three paragraphs about a particular point from the assigned reading. This activity is intended to prepare students to engage in an intelligent discussion about industrial agriculture. 

“How we should eat” paper assignment required students to formulate a position in the form of an essay on how people should eat. Students address the health, accessibility, and ethical arguments of a particular diet. Students must also state whether the diet is a good way for people to eat or the right way for people to eat. Many accessibility and ethical arguments relate to industrial agriculture. 

All foods are processed in different ways. Most foods however originate on a farm. Cows for example start out on a farm, where they are separated from their mothers at birth and their father is just a tube of seamen. Once they are old enough they are taken to a feedlot where they are fed 25 pounds of corn a day and a variety of antibiotics. Once they weigh about 1300 pounds and they are dying from all the acid eating away at their stomachs and livers… they are finally slaughtered. During their time at the feedlot they are living in their own shit and disease is ubiquitous. Of course machines are incorporated in this process. That is just a glimpse of the awful qualities possessed by the industrial food industry pattern of the industrial food system is disgusting. There is a way it all works, and it is all the same basic connection. When you go to a fast food restaurant (a giant benefited of the industrial food system) have you ever noticed them offer you something that you never asked for and throw in some sort of deal to get more money? This pattern exists all over corporations as well. I was at Barnes and Noble the other say and I went to buy a book. When I got to the cash register the woman asked me if I wanted to buy a membership and save 10 percent. I said no, but in my head I just wanted to be like “give me book and let me leave,” it’s all about money. That’s exactly what happened in that part in fast food nation the movie too, the desk clerk at the hotel was asking him what they could do so that he comes back and she was being all nice. Really though all she is doing is her job, she doesn’t actually give a shit if he comes back or how his stay was. She is a robot making him into another one.

Body 2:

The steers are fed up to 25 lbs of food per day and shit as much as 50 lbs of shit per day. In a feedlot with over thousands of cows the daily pile of shit is as high as Mount Kilimanjaro. Once killed the “products” blood and other wastes are than fed back to other steers. In hopes of saving money, however, this deed causes mad cow disease amongst humans and cows alike. The waste of the cows are also mixed into the product we eat from many companies such as McDonalds, Burger Kings, Subways and other fast food restaurants. We are eating shit People!!! Although it’s not that big of a change from what we usually eat. However, now we are finally getting sick from it, we are getting E. coli poisoning and are suffering heavily from it, all because the companies want to raise the productivity of their business. So the faster their illegal immigrants work the sicker we get.

Some companies however, are changing their ways. Take Burger Kings for example they now will only buy free ranged cattle to make their burgers. Yep, they are doing us a favor. However, it’s only 3% of their meat, yep, a whole huge chunk of the pies 3%. Wow that changes everything. But what about the torture the cattle are still going through. And this will definitely cause a huge dent in their financial portion of their company. That means either a higher cost burger or more worker related injuries. That means for every 3% of pure organic beef we could enjoy a little percentage of organic human meat. Mm…mmm…cannibalism.

There’s a story my master always tells us and warns us to never eat any fast food, based on this story. My grand master used to drive for Ryder’s trucks and delivered truck loads of McDonald’s products every week. One day he came back and in broken English he said.

“Kayo, Kayo don’t eat McDonald burger.” He said.

“Why?” my master asked.

He continues “McDonalds take whole cow…” gestures an entire cow. “Hair, shoe horn and bone…” imitates a grinder and meshes his hands together into a compressed form. “…McDonald burger!”

This story even though from the late 1960s tells us that even now the McDonalds Corporation still hasn’t changed their way of making their products. At least they didn’t lie to us; it is a “100% beef.”

My master also told us of an experiment using McDonald’s milkshakes. Regular milkshakes loses its thickness after 20 minutes. However, if you were to sit a Mickey D’s milkshake with a straw through it it’ll never lose its thickness it will sit there for hours after hours and after hours. This experiment proves that not only does McDonald’s milkshake not healthy but it also shows that McDonalds milkshakes ingredients are milk, sugar, ice-cream, and FAT. The fat gives it the thickness that it has and lets it stays in its form in any conditions for years depending on the business of the franchise.

Conclusion:

Not only is the industrial business in our world today uniformed, they are also cheap and lazy. They try their best to make money that they’ve forgotten why they started a business in the first place. In any small business the customer is always the number one priority however, in big corporations we, the customers are the last on their list. And we as people are as much to blame because we let them drag us in, we buy their products and eat their filth just because it’s faster, easier, and cheaper. We too are uniformed like the corporations, in order to stop the beast we have to stop feeding it.

Final 1 & 2

Kenneth Leung

June 7, 2007

Final Essay Question 1

Introduction:

Throughout this semester we looked at a human need for food. We looked at what we used to ship food from one farm to another and the methods we used to treat our animals such as pigs, cows and chickens. We went through the times where we saw food and animals as our help and as another being that lived alongside of us, to the today’s’ world where food is just a mean of fuel to keep us alive and fatten us. Based on our semester of work we can predict that in the near future food will continue to be more industrialized and we will rely more heavily on oil, until the peak oil theory puts this all to the end, where everything will crash and come to a halt.

Body Paragraph:

Before 1990, the Cuban oil crisis, Cuba like the United States economy flourished and relied heavily on oil fueled vehicles such as tractors, cars and trucks. The city infrastructure was similar to those of the United States, such as New York City. There were many vacant lots used to store cars, garbage and broken down appliances not wanted by anyone; most of the times these lots are infested with roaches, rats, and snakes. Similar to the United States, Cuba had thousands of pesticide factories and over 9,000 tractors that ran on oil. Other similarities were that the Cuban government did not foresee the shortage of oil that devastated their economy; in result they continued their lives as it was. Once they came to the realization that there was a shortage of oil it was already too late. In one year Cuban oil reservoirs stood at 14 - 13 million tons, in one year that number fell down to a mere 4 tons. Because of this the average Cuban citizen loss 20 lbs. by 1994, infancy mortality rate increased more than 10 percent, and the import and export of nova cane, tobacco, rice and citrus came to a stop. The Cuban lifestyle quickly changed and suffered for 4 years. Soon they turned to perma-culture, and gave food away in rations so everyone has food to eat. The empty lots were not used to gardens for fruits, and vegetables. In result the city of Havana had enough food to feed the population of Havana, which is 1million. In 6 long years the Cuban environment finally rebounded from their slump.

Conclusion:

Based on the parallels between the United States and the Cuban oil crisis, we can predict that Americans will go to a slump due to the shortage of oil. This will happen until we either stop or lessen our extravagant uses of oil, and develop perma – culture, and build gardens around our city vacant lots, and Detroit has a lot of vacant lots. By doing this we can localize food and shorten the oil used to transport food from point A to point B

Kenneth Leung

June 7, 2007

Final Essay Question 2

Introduction:

Food is only one aspect of a linear nightmare in our culture. To most people in the modern era where our work is our lives food is used as a need to fuel our bodies so we could continue our work and become successful. Therefore, the true linear nightmare that we live isn’t because of food but the busy lifestyles that we live. By comparing our present life to life before agriculture and pesticides we can better improve our lives if we were to revert to a slower life style we maybe able to escape this nightmare that we call life.

Body Paragraph:

Everyday we wake up and work so the people around us can benefit such as family, we do this religiously and soon become bored and annoyed. Once these people are annoyed they end up going into deep depression and soon commit suicide. All because they didn’t like the lives they lived in. Before agriculture we, humans, were hunter and gatherers, we fought for our food and worked hard from it directly. Sure our lives were primitive and much shorter, but a hunter and gatherer never woke up one day bored. Unlike today human population was not at a bloom but was consistent every single time, this was because it takes each baby 4 years before they could leave their mothers and follow the other males. And there was a large enough surplus of food for everyone in the village. Only when we began to plow land to cultivate food did kings become kings and ate more and peasants became peasants and starved. Today there are many foods that we could benefit from such as mushrooms and nuts that naturally grow alongside the wilderness and we are unaware of this. In many 3^rd world countries there are millions starving while we Americans have enough food to feed the majority of the worlds population.

Conclusion:

Because of the way we bring ourselves about is why there are millions suffering from this world. The industrial food system is what it is because we made it that way. We conquered the lands, mountains, the skies and even others. But in the end it is the world who will be the victor. In order to conquer the world we must live with the earth and the other species that inhabit it. Because it is already proven that the way we’re living will lead us to catastrophic consequences.