Potatoes

I thought the Botany of Desire by Michael Pollen was very interesting. Pollen talked about how the garden is a place for experiment and how everything affects everything else. He said, “It is only by trial and error that my garden ever improves, so I continue to experiment.” This interested me because I recently took Biology 101 where we did a debate on Genetically Modified Crops in our lab. I was for genetically modified crops and when reading this article I was further convinced of the reasons why. I can also see the other point of view of why we shouldn’t alter with nature. However, through experimenting and altering nature people have been able to discover things like cures for diseases and medicines. There are always risks when working on discoveries but sometimes it is a risk worth taking. For example, genetically modified crops have the potential to help prevent diseases and perhaps make the environment better by using less pesticides, fertilizers and water. They can also be grown in areas suffering from drought. Genetically modified crops is one of the best solutions to the problem of world hunger by increasing production and lowering the cost of food. They can also be more nutritious, taste better and last longer.

Check out this Journal Article for more info:

"Environmental Nutrition." Environmental Aspects 13 (1986): 20-26.

Call #: TX341E52

A Modest Proposal

The article "A Modest Proposal" was very interesting to me since I have been learning a lot about culture lately. We view and judge others according to our own culture instead of looking at the culture that they come from. Due to this, it is sometimes hard to establish what is right and what is wrong. Many things that I believe as wrong are viewed as perfectly normal in other cultures and vice versa. Like many others I feel cannibalism is wrong and it seems like a very extreme way of life. I think cannibalism is wrong because of the views of my culture. Eating another human is murder and is disgusting. However, someone who views animals as a very sacred form of life feel that eating animals is disgusting and wrong. People of this culture would think of me the same way that I think of people who eat other humans. When Swift refers to eating babies, many people have a horrible reaction and think that it is immoral. There are not many people who feel cannibalism is moral. However, when asking people about their views on abortion there is a large diversity of opinion. There are many more people who feel that abortion is moral. To me, cannibalism and abortion and somewhat the same. They are both killing human life, so it is surprising to me how different the views are among these subjects.

A book that I would like to recommend:

Rollyson, Carl E. " A Higher Form of Cannibalism?: Adventurues in the Art and Politics of Biography." Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005.
call #: not given (In WWU Library)

Harvesting Food

As long as people are hunting for the purpose of eating the animals they kill, then I don't consider it immoral. People who are not vegetarians can't argue that hunting for your own food is moral because it isn't any different than buying meat from the grocery store. Someone else just killed it for you.

In Steve Rinella's book, The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine, Steve shows a clear example of consumption in America. Killing unique animals for forty five different courses to be completed in three nights seems somewhat impossible and unnecessary. It didn't seem like Steve and his friends needed this much food. So, in his case killing his own food didn't necessarily keep him from wasting. However, I think that we might have a greater appreciation for our food if we hunted and prepared it ourselves and therefore would not waste food as much. Often, meat is packaged in large portions at the grocery store. This either leads to too much consumption, leading to our obesity problem in America or too much waste. If we all hunted for ourselves we could learn to appreciate what we are eating more and to not be so wasteful.

I think that it is hard to draw the line of whether hunting is moral or not. I feel that it is not moral as a sport but that it is moral if you are hunting for the purpose of food. However, what about killing animals for clothing or other accessories such as fur? This still serves a purpose. Although I think it is wrong for people to hunt as a sport and not for eating, I don't think that there should be a law against it. Personally, I would not feel comfortable hunting my own food. I think that I would have a much harder time eating meat if I was the one who killed it. When I was a kid I used to go fishing with my dad. If I caught a fish I would immediately put it right back in the water because I felt too guilty killing it. My dad would catch a fish and then gut it apart. I think the reason I felt so guilty is because we would fish just for fun when we went on vacation. We never actually ate the fish. Thinking back on it now, I think that it was wrong to kill a living thing for enjoyment.

For information on harvesting foods in Papua New Guinea check this book out:

Benediktsson, Karl. Harvesting Development: the Construction of Fresh Food Markets in Papua New Guinea. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan P, 2002.

HD9018.P363 B46 2002

Paul- for some reason when I pushed Ctrl U it didn't underline, so the title of the book is not underlined in my paper or my bibliography. Sorry!

test 2

I am testing again

I love food!

Food has always been an important part of my life and of my culture. To me, food is what brings people together whether it is during the holidays or on an everyday basis. The main culture that I grew up in is American pop culture. However, my Italian background has also been incorporated into my culture and my eating habits.
Food was always a great reason for my family to get together. Growing up, my family would sit around the table each night and eat dinner together. During this time we would talk about everything that went on in our day and catch up on eachother's lives. Gathering together around meal time is something that we have adapted from our Italian culture along with being very involved in family life. My family is fairly large. There are four children in my immediate family which makes a total of six members including my parents. We are all very involved in storytelling and sharing our daily routines with one another. Dinner time gave us the opportunity to stop what we were doing and spend time with one another. My mother and father would prepare meals for us each night so that we always made sure we hadtime to enjoy eachother's company.
Growing up, we ate a lot of Italian food which mainly consisted of a lot of pasta and salads. We also enjoyed meals consisting of chicken, fish and beef. My mother had a number of different meals that we would rotate through throughout the weeks. My mother had a variety of meals that consisted chicken. When we ate fish it was mainly just salmon or halibut. When we ate beef it was either ground beef for tacos, meat sauce or hamburgers. Occasionally, on special occasions we had steak.
Today my eating habits are very similar to when I was growing up. However, I do not eat as many animal products as I did growing up simply because I do not have the time or energy to prepare such meals. In college, I make chicken our a regular basis. I also use ground beef once in a while. I rarely ever have steak or fish. I definitley still enjoy eating meat and eat it whenever I have the opportunity to. Besides humans, there isn't any animals that I think are wrong to eat although there are many that I would never eat. For example, I would never eat a cat or a dog because these animals are pets to me. I also think that it would taste gross. However, I do not think eating a cat or dog is worse than eating a cow. I think that all animals are equal. I support others beliefs on what they eat as long as it is not humans.
Overall, I enjoy eating food and find it very satisfying. I also love getting together with friends and family to eat whether it is at home or at a restaurant. It is a great form of entertainment for me.

If you want to learn more about food habits in the United States I recommend this book:

Cummings, Richard O. The American and His Food; a History of Food Habits in the United States. III. ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago P,1940.
Wilson 4 W-Books
TX360.U6 C8