"Service Learning Reflection 3"

For this service learning experience I helped with the UNC Asheville cook-a-thon on campus. So basically I washed dirty pots and pans from the food that was being prepared. After the pots, pans, and bowls were dry I put them back in their cupboards and racks. So cornbread, chili, and apple crisp were some of the things that were prepared for the cook-a-thon that Friday evening. I think this service learning opportunity enhanced my academic growth. I felt like I was helping in the process of providing food for those who are in need and disadvantaged. I think these service learning opportunities give me a chance to learn more about how many people are negatively affected by a lack of fresh food options. I have learned that the community of Asheville is doing quite a lot for people who live in areas where fresh, healthy food is hard to come by. I haven't been this openly exposed to the different things there are to do to become involved in the fight against hunger in the community. My goals are to stay as active as I can in whatever activities are around the UNC Asheville community and the surrounding area, whether it be helping in gardens or going to soup kitchens and the like.

Blogging Reflection

I decided to leave my blog public this semester because I wanted to see who would read my posts and if my writing actually affected the people who interacted with it. My parents actually read some of my posts even though I didn't tell them about it. Since we're connected on google+ they basically stumbled upon my blog which was comical. To be honest I'm going to leave my blog up just because I don't really know what else to do with it but I'll only send it to community partners if its for something relevant that I'm doing in the future. I kind of wanted to start debates and conversations so my sense of awareness for my audience didn't affect what I was writing about. I decided to post this onto my blog because its a good conclusion to everything that I talked about this semester. Overall I had a good experience since this was my first serious blog and topics that matter.

Feeding the World

I really enjoyed Ryan Finley’s TED talk about the food deserts that exist in South Los Angeles. He said that “food is the problem and the solution” and that’s important because people need to understand what food does for the mind and body (Finley). It’s crazy to think that Beverly Hills, California is 8 miles away from South Central and has an abundance of fresh food options. Finley’s solution to these food deserts in South Central is for people to take control of their situations and plant fresh food options for themselves. Not only plant for themselves but take advantage of the 20 other gardens that Finley established in South Los Angeles so families have more nutritious food options. The rhetoric that Finley uses is Pathos driven because he wants to bring out positive emotion towards gardening and the benefits it has for communities. Ryan Finley is a leader in the South Los Angeles community and he’s doing important work to make more families have fresh food options. The more knowledge people gain from working in these gardens the healthier their lives will be. As I mentioned before there isn't an excuse for communities to be in food deserts when “the world already produces 22 trillion calories annually via agriculture, enough to provide more than 3,000 calories to every person on the planet.” Unfortunately “the food problem is one of distribution and waste” which is what journalist David Biello thinks (Biello 234). I agree with Biello because industrialized farming creates enough grain to sustain people across the planet, but poor families don’t provide the necessary market for this. That’s why the excess grain goes to the livestock because a profit will be made since higher-income people will pay for the meat. Frances Lappe, an environmental activist and author makes the same argument that it’s not that the world needs more food, it’s the distribution of food that makes it seem like it’s a scarcity. I like a quote from her essay “Biotechnology isn’t the Key to Feeding the World” where she says “hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but a scarcity of democracy” (Lappe 250). The concern should be about how the excess food that goes to waste or ends up as feed to livestock can be distributed to those in need.

Debate about "The Omnivore's Dilemma" between Hurst & Pollan

I think this agricultural debate about farming techniques is interesting. Michael Pollan makes some good points in his essay titled “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” about how GMO’s and pesticides should be eliminated from farming practices. He also goes on to talk about how animal agriculture should be humane and free range. This sounds positive and progressive for farmers to be have more organic practices but Pollan fails to discuss how expensive such practices are. Blake Hurst, President of the Missouri Farm Bureau defended industrial farming techniques with his essay titled “The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals”. Organic farming techniques are more expensive which would raise the price of food altogether and make it difficult for lower-income families to purchase groceries. Also the crop yield would be less if organic practices would be used because crops would be more susceptible to weeds and insects. Also for animal agriculture the yield would be less. For example Mother Pigs eat their young sometimes and by accident roll over and crush their piglets if they’re not put into pens separating them. But Pollan is calling for free range animals and in this situation that would be a negative outcome as the pork yield would drop and thus raising the price of pork if free range pork became the norm. Another example that Hurst provided was how a neighbor of his lost 4,000 turkeys during a thunderstorm. They were free range turkeys but they are smart enough to know to find shelter during a storm and stayed out in the open, unprotected. Their beaks would be open and they would drown because of it. Overall, Hurst and Pollan have good arguments but I think that organic methods is an expensive alternative and not everyone has the monetary means to pay for the higher priced organic foods. Blake Hurst does well to defend industrial farming and I appreciate his perspective towards understanding real-world issues with agriculture. 

What Does it Mean to Eat Ethically?

I’m a pretty flexible person who’s open to trying new things. I eat meat but I consider my diet to be balanced because I also eat fish, rice, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and other starches. After reading an excerpt from an essay by Gary Steiner titled “Animal, Vegetable, Miserable”, I’m quite offended by his writing in this piece. I respect vegetarians and vegans lifestyles because I’m a very welcoming person and believe people should have the power to make their own choices about what they put in their bodies without judgement. I’m annoyed with the perspective of Mr. Steiner and any other strict vegans who think they are morally superior to people who eat meat or use animal products. This is the world we live in, to be quite honest we would have to regress as a society to prevent the use of animals in any of commercialized products. Animals can be credited with having specific qualities that are only found in nature that cure diseases and further medicine. There are awful things that humans do to animals and I understand that and I agree with Steiner in this regard as far as pertaining to collecting and processing animals into food for human consumption. Yes, I think is horrendous what domesticated animals have to endure before they become food for human consumption, and there should be policies put in place to ameliorate such terrible conditions. But I disagree with Steiner’s perspective on boycotting any materials using animal products. Animals have been used for clothing, medicine, food, and companionship for as long as humankind has inhabited this planet and shouldn’t be stopped solely because of ethics or morality. I believe that animals are being harmed during animal testing for these products and for food consumption. I think for the balance of this world we live in; humans, animals and the environment should coexist at a sustainable level. What I mean by that is animals and humans live off the land, humans also live off the animals and then once we die we become part of the earth again in a symbiotic relationship. So all three aspects of the relationship are interchangeable because humans would hinder our potential by only utilizing one food source but in reality there should be a blend of different things as we treat animals, and our environment properly so the earth is sustainable which at the moment isn’t happening. Gary Steiner’s perspective is an extreme one and I personally think his opinion is in the minority for a reason but he did discuss ideas that I could also agree with to an extent. 

"Service Learning Reflection 2"

I was able to go to the Lord’s Acre farm on Wednesday and volunteer with fellow classmates. The first thing we did was break apart whole garlic bulbs and put the cloves into buckets so they could be used to help with farming techniques. After that we went into the gardens and pulled out weeds, so they wouldn’t interfere with the growth of the plants. Once that was done we picked sweet potatoes from out of the ground. It was really fun to get into the red clay dirt and pull out these massive sweet potatoes. It’s amazing the yield of the crops that come out of the ground. It gave me a perspective of how valuable every morsel of food can be for healthy sustenance. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Lord’s Acre because it was a different experience from what I’m used to. I have very little experience with planting, gardening, or farming so this experience was pretty cool to get dirty and feel the earth between my fingers. I definitely appreciate good farming techniques to yield the freshest and most natural vegetables which support a healthy lifestyle as well. This trip gave me the idea of doing a little gardening myself and learning as best I can about ways to raise vegetables that I like to eat. I also watched as my other classmates picked Okra and then cut down the stalk after there was none left. I really love fried Okra and to see how it’s cultivated was cool to me. I have a newfound respect for the long hard hours that farmers and gardeners put into planting and harvesting food. I think this service trip helped me learn skills that can broaden my awareness of how food is collected before I see it in a store or market. Overall, engaging with other people and volunteering at the Lord’s Acre was a positive experience for me and I enjoyed doing it. 

Methods to Fighting Obesity

Obesity is an epidemic in the United States and is causing lots of money to be used for medical purposes to ameliorate diseases caused by it. After reading the article “Downsizing Supersize” by James Surowiecki, his display of an alternative outlook on how human choice is influenced by perceived options. The 2012 New York City bill to ban the selling of 32oz soft drinks is an example of  former Mayor Bloomberg trying to influence New Yorkers by “[offering] a choice in which one option is seen as default, [and] most people go for that default option” (123). This is a subtle way of battling obesity by influencing people’s thought process when they’re buying soft drinks. It would be more expensive to buy two 16oz drinks if the 32oz option was taken away and people would be indirectly conditioned to not want to drink as much soda. The rhetoric used by Surowiecki to emphasize his point is logos driven because his argument makes sense and he has reasoning behind the idea of this ban on soft drinks could be a step in the right direction towards combating obesity in New York City. The other text that I read was a piece by Dhruv Khullar titled “Why Shame Won’t Stop Obesity” and how the contemporary thought process to fight obesity is by shaming people into losing weight. In this piece he discusses how this mindset is ineffective due to the fact that “Americans today are exposed to an unprecedented amount of readily available high-fat, high-calorie, and low-nutrient foods” (127). I liked an idea that Khullar had about reversing this current trend by “[providing] monetary incentives to promote the production of and access to fresh, healthy food”, it would allow citizens to make healthier choices and be a real solution to the problem. Khullar’s argument was Pathos driven because he strategically addressed emotional aspects of obesity and shame in his piece. But he also used it in a positive way to inspire the millennial generation to want to make changes to status quo society.

Food Justice

After reading “The Pleasures of Eating” by Wendell Berry, I agree with some of the points that he made in order for people to eat more responsibly. I do believe our generation has become less aware of where our food comes from and how it’s being processed. Unfortunately for me personally I haven’t been able to do all the things that Berry suggests to help with eating responsibly. I’ve definitely prepared my own food before and I enjoy cooking for myself because it makes me feel self-sufficient. I shop at Trader Joe’s and Harris Teeter so I know a lot of the fresh produce and eggs is locally grown and harvested. Whenever I go to a farmer’s market I like to discuss the different things that the farmers have to sell and I like to hear that these people enjoy what they’re doing and that their work is important. But some of the other points that Berry makes about knowing the economy of food production and learning the best farming and gardening techniques is difficult to do with my busy life. I can attest to the fact that after reading an excerpt from Food Justice, titled “Accessing Food” Berry takes for granted the fact that it’s a privilege to have the time to analyze the origins of our food and prepare our own meals on a regular basis. In “Accessing Food” there are grocery gaps that exist in low income, densely populated areas that have fast food restaurants and liquor stores as the main source of food. This combats the idea that people should eat more responsibly when they don’t have the food options to do so. Both pieces of writing discuss that people deserve to have sources of fresh produce and free-grazing animals to ensure the best quality of food available. I agree with the idea in “Accessing Food” that small fresh markets be implanted in low-income neighborhoods so that there is at least fresh options for these communities instead of fast food restaurants or food marts that sell unhealthy options. 

Image that Represents food in Asheville

This image is taken from the HomeGrown restaurant on Merrimon Avenue in Asheville. I picked this photo because I think it encompasses the variety of different things blending together to make a complete meal. This photo represents the innovative and diverse persona that defines the town of Asheville. There's an assortment of broccoli, kale, okra, and a unique cole slaw that all comes from a local farm. The pulled pork is the meat portion of the dish and its garnished with a delicious looking sauce. Personally, Asheville gives me a fresh vibe due to the eccentric and vibrant people that live in this area. And I think the food embodies this bright and refreshing new atmosphere. This meal is nutritional because the person who enjoyed this dish got three different types of vegetables and also protein from the pork. I've been to HomeGrown before so I will say that its a great place to go for a nice, comfortable dining experience. I enjoyed my meal when I went there so maybe my personal opinion is biased but its a delicious place to eat.

Service Learning Journal

So far my experience with this service learning course I've been able to attend an orientation that defined what this type of class was all about. This course is unique in the sense that the approach to teaching and learning is from applying hands on experience. Personally without this course I don’t think I would have become aware of the stereotype that young adults doing service could lead to negative racial outcomes. Now I’m more open-minded to think of service as a necessary good for others but at the same time regarding those you’re helping as equals also. I plan on attending my first garden session this upcoming Tuesday. I have yet to acquire any new skill-sets but I believe after Tuesday’s garden session I will know a few more applicable skills for planting and harvesting crops. It has been difficult to plan accordingly for service opportunities with practices, and my game schedule but I really am looking forward to my garden session in the next couple of days. I've definitely picked up some facts about the agricultural background that Asheville has and the locality of where most of the food comes from in our dining halls, but I would like to know more about the demographics of farmers in this town because that can always be a surprising statistic. I hope to help the garden organization that I plan on being involved with on Tuesday with whatever they need looked after, and to also make resources more readily available to people that may not have the means or time to do so. 

This picture was taken at the Arthur R. Edington Education and Career Center here in Asheville, where we enjoyed a wonderful 3 course meal from aspiring chefs. Green Opportunities is doing a great job for giving people work experience and also providing nutritional meals for people in the surrounding neighborhood. 

Food Advertising

After reading “The Joy of Cooking Too Much: 70 Years of Calorie Increases in Classic Recipes” and watching the food advertising video I was able to understand how marketing plays a vital role in what people consume and how much of it. The rhetoric used in the food advertising video was ethos driven because the speaker was a food marketer. Her argument relies on her character and the fact that her occupation is being a food marketer. The things she talked about in the video were convincing and held meaning in my opinion. A few statements the speaker made were important, when she talked about how consumers believe the labels and have willful ignorance when making purchases. Systematic cruelty occurs in the business of food processing but the fact that a few vague labels will make a consumer feel better about themselves makes me wonder how much consumers really care about the situation. I heard the speaker mention that 50% of antibiotics used worldwide are used on animals. That was unsettling for me and it definitely made me think about the personal choices I make when consuming food. Also the rhetoric used in the excerpt by Brian Wansink, and Collin R. Payne was logos driven because they used experimental data and factual evidence to conclude their opinion. After compiling data from various editions of the cookbook The Joy of Cooking it was determined that serving sizes had increased in every edition since 1936. So essentially food marketers are determining how much food families should consume. With that being said, I think food marketers do have a large influence over consumers. Consumers should educate themselves about the food products they’re purchasing so that they can make better choices. The more consumers know, the less control these food marketers will have over important food choices.  

Authentic Cuisine

I really enjoyed reading both pieces of writing. I can relate to both pieces of writing since I have a Nigerian father and African-American mother. So I’m literally “African-American”. Personally I don’t like the term because for us we are just American; if we were natural born citizens we should be classified as just American or preferably black. Nevertheless, in Lily Wong’s essay “Eating the Hyphen” the persuasive language that she uses is ethos driven because she is describing her Chinese-American heritage in real authentic Chinese cuisine. Wong talks about how she eats her Chinese dumplings differently than how they are supposed to be eaten traditionally for example in the text she says “so whether or not it perverts some thousand-year-old tradition of the proper way to eat dumplings, this is what makes [her] happy” (Wong 43). Eating Chinese dumplings with a fork, a knife, and chopsticks with ketchup is unique in comparison to the way authentic Chinese eat their dumplings but that’s what makes her “Chinese-American”, Wong is literally a hybrid of cultures. I can relate to that completely in the sense that in Nigeria when you eat Egusi or Okra soup you’re supposed to eat it with FuFu, which is boiled yams or cassava plants pounded into a doughy paste to dip into the soup. For me personally I don’t like to eat the FuFu that often because of the texture so I usually eat the soup by itself. But when I went to Nigeria my aunts, uncles, and cousins thought I was weird because I didn’t appreciate the FuFu. So I can understand the feeling of not being an authentic Nigerian because I’m not, but I’m still proud of my heritage. In response to Bryant Terry’s short piece “Reclaiming True Grits” I agree with his criticism of how African-American cuisine is being falsely advertised as harmful and a major reason why African-Americans have the health issues with diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. The health problems in the black community definitely can be attributed to poor food choices but soul food is not solely to blame. Terry goes into detail about the diversity of African-American cuisine and uses persuasive language to dispel these stereotypes. I think Terry uses Pathos and Logos to convey his point to his audience with facts but also personal experience to invoke emotion. When he talks about the misrepresentation of African-American eating habits “romanticizing comfort foods that should be eaten occasionally and presenting these foods as standard fare not only rewrites history, but also normalizes unhealthy eating habits for African-Americans who are unaware of their historical cuisine” (Terry 83). Terry does a great job of showing how marketing and the media can alter opinions about how much of these foods were being consumed that much of a daily basis. 

College Food

As a college student I can relate to Camille Kingsolver's understanding of there being limited dining options on a college campus. I also agree with the notion that our generation knows less and less about food production domestically or internationally. Not many people can have the exposure to farm life and producing their own food quite like the Kingsolver family. That awareness is important when making conscious decisions about what type of food to consume and whether it can sustain our environment. Too many food options are detrimental to our environment because of how they are mass produced, affecting the health of the animals or produce, and the cleanliness.

Body Image Problems

After reading Susan Bordo's piece called "Not just "a white girl's thing": The Changing face of food and body image problems" I started to realize how diverse the population of people who are affected by these ailments. I agree with this piece that the media plays a significant role of what images are projected of the perfect body for men or women. Also the cultural aspect of what we expect our bodies to look like puts added pressure on ourselves to set unrealistic goals for our bodies. From Bordo's piece there is now evidence that males are having body image problems due to media projections from Men's Health Magazine and superstar pro-athletes. Young men are unhappy with their natural physiques because of what our media and culture portray as beautiful bodies. Body image insecurities can affect any race and has become more prevalent in recent years. Susan Bordo's piece highlights how societal constraints are causing people to become dissatisfied with their bodies due to the pressure to try and become what is culturally acceptable. These issues are no longer just an upper class, white girl's disillusionment with her figure but a category about the lack of a diet or the over-consumption in someone's diet that could affect anyone.    

Understanding a "junk food junkie"

After reading Jill McCorkle's short story "Her Chee-to Heart" it made me think of food in a negative way. Food can become addictive if you're putting the wrong things in your body. In this present day and age there are so many preservatives added to food that it becomes less of its natural state. The artificial additives make people crave the bad things for our bodies. Obesity is an issue in the United States because there's such an easy access to fast food and processed food. Fried foods and junk food are in such an abundance in the United States that citizens are having to battle with weight gain. Maybe its a cultural thing because our country is so fast paced and results oriented that people don't take the time to enjoy their food. A light breakfast with snacking in between lunch and then having dinner before 8 pm will make sure that there's no excess weight gain. Also Americans consume an absurd amount of protein which leads to higher cancer rates among our citizens and heart disease. More rice and vegetables should be introduced into our meals instead of just meat and starches.

"What the World Eats"

I'm back again with another post about "What the World Eats" as I just observed pictures of different families all over the world and what they like to consume in a given week. So my first observation that I noticed was that traditionally westernized families consist of just the parents and the children, while other families have extended family members in the household. I also noticed that the westernized families in the United States, Europe, and Australia were buying more groceries per week than their African, Asian, or Middle Eastern counterparts that had more members in their families.

Why does food matter?

My name is Chuka Anyafo and I'm a student-athlete at UNC-Asheville. I want to discuss why food matters and how it enhances our human experience. I think food is important for a number of reasons. It's necessary for sustaining life and fueling our bodies.  It can also be viewed as an extension of a particular group's ethnicity or culture. Depending on where in the world a person lives, certain resources will be available for people while they could be inaccessible for others. So with that in mind, people's diets across the world can differ significantly if they live in a city or a rural area. A person's diet will also differ greatly depending on the socioeconomic status of the person. I want to elaborate more on the cultural aspect of food. The way a meal is prepared and consumed is important to a particular group's cultural identity and what makes us different. The preparing of a meal involves skill, precision, and flair. As a group of people come together to enjoy the meal, memories can be made and the aura of nostalgia will make the event more meaningful. Food is important to bring families closer together and also to encourage strangers to engage one another over a meal.