Free Write on Franken Food

Pop! Fizz! Ahh! The refreshingly light taste of Diet Coke in your mouth! Gee, why is my mouth burning, taste buds cracking and popping, seemingly as if to run and hide from this beverage bomb attack. Puckered and quenched my lips smack a bit in order to release the air to let the Coke skate down my throat. This glass was a little flat, personally if I'm ever hinkering for that effervescent taste sensation with the caffeine kick, i prefer it out of an ice-cold can so that it really burns my buds. This cup tastes less exciting, maybe a little less youthful than ones before, maybe neglected or not given the proper care and attention that it needs in order to maintain the desired flavor structure. In one sip i can visualize all the product testing and marketing kicks and satisfaction point scales that went in to crafting this desire: addictive and plentiful, empty and satisfying. They definitely knew what they were doing with this one, they of course being the molecular scientists who have created the compounds which birthed the diet drink revolution. NO CALORIES! NO FAT! NO SUGAR! WOW! Yes, this is all going through my mind with one sip.

Next, the instant ramen lunch. First of all, i protest my boyfriend from eating ramen. Second of all, "chicken" flavor has never been my jive. So, thank you Ann for forcing me to open up my mind. I let it cool a bit, but only a bit because i can still grab a forkful of noodles and blow on them. After all, i'm in a hurry, i have a doctors appointment. I actually felt like a college student on the go..broke, inbetween classes, and hungry. How convenient these are. I put the forkful in my mouth, still kind of crunchy but i like it like that. Afterall, i prefer to eat them plain out of the bag, like chips. Slimy, salty, spoonfuls. Each bite goes in and down with ease, even eating this fast snack is efficient. Salty salty salty. After not eating chicken for so long i don't even really remember what it tastes like...but i don't think that this is it. I maybe taste a hint of something fowl, but I'm so covered in salty that my taste buds are numb for almost 30 minutes. Abrasive, lip smacking, and thirsty, I will not be eating Ramen for a while.

It is very interesting to note that the lemon bars that Theresa made also had a very sensation-esque aspect to them. Of course being lemon they are tart, but also being covered in sweetness, gooey, and sharp they are a desert item that cannot be eaten with the ease that one would use on a cookie. Maybe as humans this provides a sort of thrill in our life like whoa we have these amazing things on our tongue that react to the things we put in our mouth! And then those responses are sent to the brain instantaneously attaching to feelings and memory. A complex system that we are experimenting with indeed.

meat

I have been contested about eating meat for quite some time now. My stance is that I don't approve of the act of killing another being to feed me some flesh. I think we can further evolve to not eat meat, and still be "healthy". However, I have lately been tempted by my boyfriend and circumstances to have a burger or two, eat some chicken, or grill up bratwurst's. I am glad that this class has addressed this issue. I am not advocating that everyone goes out and becomes vegan, although that'd be neat, but I am hoping for a realization of the lives and practices that go into making a Dollar Menu® burger.

One big issue that the short film, The Meatrix as well as Pollan's book highlights about factory farming is the extreme pollution that it causes. This is a major problem since it is preventable. That is what really gets my blood boiling the most, is that the small family farm was perfectly sustainable as long as it worked within the energy feedback loops that nature provides. However, factory farming has tainted those feedback loops and choked out any possibility of sustaining their madness. I say madness because they really must be insane.

Another reason I like The Meatrix is because it starts with the hog having to leave the "image" or "false reality" of the family farm myth. Since the majority of meat comes from factory farms, it is hard to see past the strong and persuasive marketing that goes into upholding that myth. I believe that this image is deeply embedded in the American psyche, which is why the corporations are getting away with it so easily. I am glad that people like Pollan and animal right's groups have ceased to show fear in the midst of this gastronomical genocide.

I hope that more people in the class walk away with a greater sense of responsibility and value for the meat and milk products that they consume and also begin to be aware of how saturated our society has become with industry and it's (by)products. If profit is what fuels the madness, it is reassuring to know that you CAN make a choice away from living in ignorance by educating yourself on the sources, cycles, and system that controls your food.

* photo source: http://www.plan59.com/images/JPGs/meat47hands01.jpg

Raj Patel reaction

Raj Patel is discussing the issues that I find fascinating. He is working in the upper levels and trying to make a difference. Stuffed and Starved is his new book, which I hope to someday find time to read.
The parts of his speech that I have been meditating on a bit are “Food as manipulative” and “Democracy as a choice between Coke or Pepsi”. I find these quotes to be stark gauges of reality. First, food as a manipulative medium I think has its roots in our own manipulation of food. And yet, there are much deeper roots in the control of masses. It is no doubt true that if you control the food supply of a nation, you control the nation. As American’s, I believe that as a nation we have been tricked into trusting the system that feeds us. Bundled in the conscious myth which is what it means to be an American is the image of the small family farm, the girl next door persona, that picturesque blond hair, blue eyes with a trusting smile, waking up at the rooster’s call to milk the cows. I am sure that this image still exists somewhere in America’s Heartland, however, the reality has been marketed to feed us this angle of what a farm is like, when in actuality America has been fed through industrial farming system for quite some time now. Only the strong and diversified small family farms are surviving, while the majority of our national and international food supply is controlled by large, industrial companies.

Raj Patel proposed that a democratic act today is choosing between Coke and Pepsi. The fiction that America has a perfect democracy turns to fable as we become more and more aware of our shortcomings. As proletariats and workers, we hardly ever have time to identify as democratic participant’s and activists. So, instead we use our purchasing power as if to show where our political/social loyalties lie. This is a complete sham! No matter which choice, it just feeds into the same system that encourages consumerism and complacency. And now with our American model of democracy spreading throughout the world, it is a necessary time to re-examine the consequences of our decisions. If it really is just a choice between Coke and Pepsi, where’s the can marked Independent? Has our American democrazy been so manipulated that there is no room for effective dissidence and discussion? Or to relate it back to class, has our limits in consumer choice been falsely created in order to narrow the competition, increase the power to one or two hands? I believe that Raj Patel is onto something, but as an outsider it is no doubt up to us as Americans to re-examine what our Democracy is worth, and how we may nourish its dignity. Through the promotion of diversity, transparency, authenticity, and history, we can use our consumer choice as a political act within the conversations of an open, free, legitimate, democracy.

Edibility

After reading the first chapter of Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I can’t help but look at everything as a by-product of corn. I remember when I was younger and found out that those little stickers on apples and mangoes were edible. “They have to be edible” said my stepbrother, “Because they are in relation to food”. I am not so sure of that certainty anymore. I mean, grass is edible, paper is edible. A Big Mac® is edible, but that doesn’t mean I want to eat it. This is the true root of our, the Omnivores, dilemma. We have the mental/evolutionary capability to decide what’s edible and not, what’s good or harmful, and why this is true. We don’t eat berries off of random trees because somewhere along our gene pool someone did that and died. We are hardwired to know better. And yet, this new evolution of food processing seems to be a new wave of biological Russian roulette. Scientists are risking the survival of our species by testing Franken-food with recent generation’s as lab rats. For example, heavily processed foods are being fed daily to children in the form of breakfast cereal’s and granola bars. Dinner may seems to be born out of the microwave, but what did it go through first to get there? And a burger is a burger, hard to see the smoke and mirror tricks there, but nonetheless what lies beneath the naked eye is genetic evidence of manipulative inputs, attempting to defy, beat, and train nature into obeying the consumer’s every demand.

While this is all daunting and frightening, a technique that I use is to try and not eat anything that I can’t pronounce and/or only things with ingredients that I recognize. Also, if there are more than 15 ingredients, chances are it’s a processed food.

It’s a test of will to forgoe what our taste buds find titillating, and yet, that act of taste has been so tested and manipulated that the people who crafted that flavor know our weaknesses and play off of that. My body is not a test tube.

mingling with the local

Cruising down the Ave, my sister and I are itchin, nay, dying to eat something delicious without having to do the dishes. It's Sunday, options are a little limited and it seems as if everyone is at either Thai Tom's or the new sushi restaurant with an outdoor porch. As I mentioned earlier, I had worked on the UW P-Patch this afternoon which gave me the appetite for something fresh and local. 

It is next to impossible to find something of this caliber between the Korean Teriyaki joints, the Burger Hut, and the Falafel Hot spots (Chaco Canyon was having a work party). This Anth of food class has forced me to take a more critical look at what I eat, where it's from, and how it got there.  All this critical thinking makes the stomach indecisive! Trapped between Jack 'n' the Box and yellow cheese soaked mexican food, I can't help but think that all the produce used was shipped here from who knows, and grown by who cares. I am ready for a local alternative, with a fast food form!

How revolutionary! Fast food that uses local ingredients and tastes healthy? Steal that idea if you like, but comp me a meal. If we want to bring the food back from the mist of obscurity, we need to start making it available in its natural form for people to choose, democratically and educated. 

After reading this article about China aquaculture imports, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2004391167_foodafety04.html,  I am now even more concerned than ever with the who, what, where, when and how of the life-cycle of my food. 

The next step is to help educate people on why local food is important and then use that momentum to open up a delicious specialty restaurant with affordable, local, eats!  Until then, I'll settle for the Mongolian Grill...

tough root system

I farmed today! I toiled with the soil! I got dirt under my nails! Sweat and blood! Wow. I spent two hours today working on the developing P-Patch behind Hall Health, and 20 minutes later my arms are still shaking. This farming stuff is hard work. All I could think about is "now, how could I convince city folk to do this?" Using the lessons from the Cuba Diet article, I have become a strong supporter of Urban agriculture. However, without the tangible crisis of peak oil and food scarcity hallowing out our kitchen cupboards, how are common city folk going to be inspired (forced) to pick up a hoe and give it a go! I mean seriously people, this was hard work, rewarding nonetheless, but I still had that voice in the back of my head saying "Ugh! I really gotta start writing that paper", or "I really need to get back to..." and of course, "I'm hungry."

We urbanites are not well equipped to fend for ourselves. Ariana, a S.E.E.D. member, told me that it took them almost 6 work parties of 6 people 6 weeks to get the land broken, composted, de-rocked, tilled and ready for planting. The time commitment, the sweat and blood and sun is really what resorting back to the land and it's natural resources is all about. No doubt, I feel great, but now I am plagued by that frightening feeling that I have no idea what real, subsistence agriculture is all about. I even wonder if half the people who work in the corporate offices of Monsanto have ever picked up a shovel. Doubt it.

Nonetheless, today was a good day: full of sunshine and hard labor. Now that that's taken care of I can shrink back into the comforting glow of my computer screen, and reflect on the smell of Earth that still surrounds me.

a seed

Clammy. I had clams, they look like little vulvas! Such feminine little shells. Like Leonardo's Venus. Hot and moist. Secret. Exposed. I couldn't help but stare. Ooozing in butter. Laced with garlic and dressed in Rosemary. Threatened, threatening. I don't know whether to investigate or eat. it's all so new and alive and yet dead and gone. Never again to do its purpose...of eating sand? So delicate, and yet not as delicate enough to be compared to the Vagina. Deliciously and repulsive as so; Thus consumption, gratitude, and remorse echoe.

To clam or not to clam, a dilemma of tensions. Too grabby leads to extinction, then what's its intention? Proliferation, to feed you and me. But being soo grabby has growth in a recession. Destabilizing a connection. GoodTide recedes.


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This was written as an activists' poem for the liberation of Living things from International trade markets. I wanted to express in a creative poetic way the tensions of conservation and exploitation. The availability of Mother Nature's gifts and the inevitable raping of those resources, I feel, is an important angle to encourage the re-feminization of nature against the male-dominated matriarchy ties of today.

-Seeds of Rebellion, since we all can plant the seeds.