Story

If i were to try to tell you everything about my life, it would be next to impossible to cover it all, because frankly humans live a really LONG time, and i don't think i could condense my life into a short blog post. but if i had to pick one small part, one theme in my life, is that I've always wanted More. Gluttony is a sin they say, and well, i've eaten that hook line and sinker. i always want to eat more, more food, more tender meats with sauce, more delicate and fluffy pastry's, more rice cakes in the back on my parents late 80's car, with my young self being driven around at 2am because i could never sleep as a child. To me, there is always more food on the horizon, more things to be experienced, more stuff to explore, to eat. if you know nothing else about me know that i love to eat

versions

what kind of person do i present on LinkedIn? while not going so far as to say a better version of myself, it is a different version, one where all of the valleys of  my life have been edited out, showing only the peaks and accomplishments. there, i am a hardworking professional, one who's steadily increasing positions and achievements make me eligible to get a job, and receive money in our capitalistic society. my linked in page is essentially an ad for me, as it were. buy an Alex today, you wont regret it!

zero draft

factory farming is wrong, but it might be an evil that makes our lives more easy and convenient, so we embrace it. sure, they abuse animals and make their short existence hellish and cruel, but it is cheaper than raising meat ethically, so why not? sure, their are a lot of health concerns both to the animals and to the humans who will eventually consume the meat in the form of antibiotic resistance, infected and tainted meat, but it is cheaper than the alternative. sure, it contributes to climate change through the use of massive manure pools that decay and release methane, as well as the high ammounts of stresses it puns on animals who are confined such as veal, and to a lesser degree, cows and chickens. we cut off the beaks of chickens and the tails of cows because they are packed in so tightly of cource they would fight.  but hey, as long as it is cheaper than traditional souses of meat, such as hunting or non- factory farming. the reasons this system is in place is because it is cheep. economics over ethics, because our system encourages those who would just do the minimum, who care about profit first and everything else second. there are tons of other problems with factory farming as well, such as the runoff  from these sites which directly contaminates local groundwater tables, but hey, as long as it supply's us cheep meat.

Graphic ellement

my graphic element is a coggle about factory farming, where i organize the three main trees of information abut this issue, covering the health impacts, the environmental impacts, and the impacts to the animals that are stuck within this system.

sources for the paper

 http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/confinement_farm/

my first source is the humane society, which is an animal welfare organization and they have a negative view of factory farming, bringing up the confinement of farm animals, the heavy antibiotic use in farm animals to keep them healthy, and the environmental impacts of concentrated animal feeding operations

http://greengarageblog.org/list-of-top-19-factory-farming-pros-and-cons

my second source is more neutral, comprising of a pros and cons list of factory farming. it lists the lack of cost, both to consumers and to farmers per animal, and the efficiency that this food is produced is unparalleled in the inorganic world. however, it has plenty of cons, such as negative impacts on the environment, and leads to health concerns in the animals

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/25/industrial-farming-one-worst-crimes-history-ethical-question

this source is anti-factory farming, and mentions the practice of De-beaking chickens to either prevent them from fighting, among a number of other cruel practices in the production, and slaughter, of livestock.

Rant about a topic

This is about factory farms here in the united states. Specifically the practice of cramming animals into concentrated animal feeding operations, where animals must live, eat, and shit all in a tiny square. we know this is incredibly unsanitary, both for the cows and for the humans who eat the resulting meat, but do we seem to change our ways? No, instead we pump the cows full of antibiotics to keep them healthy, which increases antibiotic resistance and can lead to the rise of super bugs, which could cause a plague and kill millions of people. But we don't care. As long as we get cheap meat right? who cares about morals in the face of economics. i dont think we will ever change our ways as long as we have an incentive to be lazy and not care

The data sees all

i think the data from our survey reveals that we are all pretty much the same, with a few exceptions. most of the respondents preferred home cooked meal to one eaten out. most people are also the most exited about a southern favorite coming to town, chick fil-A!
these data points point towards most people having the same preferences as far as food, and i think i agree with that readin

A choice of reaserch

for our upcoming research project, i looked through my past blogs, food reader, and even my rhetorical analysis paper to find a topic to research, i came across the idea of food deserts. my film mentioned the problem in passing, but it never answered the questions of why those deserts continued to exist, as well as the things that could be done to stop them. i want t find out more about this issue, and i think it would be a good pick for my research paper. 

A fight over organic

While reading the articles for this post, i was struck by how different the attitudes about organic food were between two articles, "beyond organic" and " attention whole foods shoppers"
While the first article argues for a local, non fertilizer and pesticide use system where you know the farmer you are getting food from, and makes the argument that having everything be authentic would decrease transport costs, and increase nutrients and the health of the food.
whereas the second article attacks that very idea as being worse on the environment. it argues that while the current system is flawed, going back to the old way of not using any of our modern, science and capitalism heavy infrastructure would be disastrous to not only our food production, but our environment as well. it sites study's that show that conventionally grown food has no less nutritional value than organic food, and puts focus on the less developed worlds food system. in subsidence agriculture, there is very little use of genetically modified organisms, fertilizers, or pesticides. farms are local and do not add to a global marketplace, but also there is very little food to go around and there is no upward mobility for these farmers. the food is sold in an open market, un-inspected and free from modern agriculture, but the downside is that many more people get sick in this system compare to food safety in an industrialized nation, the united states.
the articles also differ in how they appeal to their audience. the first article uses more of an appeal to pathos, or an emotional argument conjuring up a romantic image of a different kind of food system, while the second article uses a much more logic based approach, saying that each system will always have downsides, and instead of trying to go completely organic, we should optimize the food production system we have and help other country's do the same.

A place at the table

my initial impressions of this movie are of how systemic a problem food security in the united states is. we have tons of food, up to a third of our food is thrown out before it reaches a market. we make the mot unhealthy foods the cheapest by direct subsidy's on corn and soy, and on top of all that, we cant even get the food to the people who face food insecurity because of how our distribution system works. i think the movie is timely because food is becoming more of a talked about issue in the united states, so its good that this is added to the discussion. the intended audience is people who would have no idea that these people, these family's even exist. the five out of six Americans who take the concept of always having food for granted. this is evidenced by the fact that the movie assumes the audience doesn't know much about food insecurity, as it explains the concept within the first 5 minutes. the type of audience also influences what kind of argument the movie presents, which is mainly pathos, or an appeal to emotion. it does this in several ways, from telling the stories of food insecure people, to showing the effects on individual children. it wants us to  bond with them, to feel a small bit of what they feel in their every day lives. i would say that the movie is relatively successful, in that attempt, as i felt a connection to the kids in that movie. i wanted them to be ok, to have the best food available instead of only heavily processed food. children's health and children's welfare are powerful motivators, and i feel like this movie has used that motivation well, and has made a convincing argument

A food mentor

i have found a mentor! someone who i want to look at their blog, and try all the food they have to offer. the blog i chose is called "i am a food blog". i know its a very simple name, but its a great blog  filled with wondrous food.  the bloggers writing style could best be described as direct, with one example being the blogger talking about their love of pizza, and how they never had it as a child, and even then, only one kind. the blogger tries throughout their posts to include you in their lives, as if drawing you in. this blog, and the response it wants from you, is essentially an invitation, to learn, and to eat with this person, and i wholeheartedly accept their invitation.

A change in eating

Ever since coming to Truman, i fear my relationship with food has changed from living to eat to eating to live. For some reason, whenever i eat sodexo food, i am never satisfied nor rarely happy with my experience. when i lived on my own, i used to take the most simple things and make them delicious. i used to make ramen with an egg or two cracked in at just the right moment so that the semi-cooked yellow yolk would coat the noodles, toss in spinach and sriracha, and it was some of the best noodles I've ever had. i could still make that here at Truman, but i don't have the time or money to do so on a regular basis anymore. i remember my meal tonight as emphasizing this change. without zeal, without enjoyment, i ate vegetable lo main without really tasting anything, and left the dining hall.  once they enjoyment of creation and eating of food are gone, you no longer live to eat, and you now like me, eat to live.

The love of food

As a child, i loved to eat, often so much that my sibling would get mad at me for eating all of "her" food. one of my first memories is my parents used to drive me around in their old black car, and feed me rice cakes ( caramel is the best) so i would fall asleep or so i would keep quiet on a long drive.
this love of food has been a recurring theme in my life, in fact it was part of the reason i almost went to culinary school after high school to become a chef, but alas, i did not. one of the reasons i love food is for its ability to connect us together. as a child, my mom would often force us to eat around the dinner table instead of eating alone throughout the house like we all wanted to, and it is because of that our family actually talked about our days and our lives, even if it was only small talk. i love that we had something to gather around, like the cavemen long before us, even only for a short while. food is a connection, it is the reason so many first dates are going out to dinner, or why people eat together when they want to be friends. In that way, food brings us all together