Thinking about my childhood growing up and through present day I realized my family doesn't really have many traditions with food. There are not any religious (or non-religious) holidays that we celebrate in any particular way, except Thanksgiving. Even with Thanksgiving though, we do the typical feast that most people do like with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, graving, the works... But aside from that we do not have any specific foods for any other holidays. The only thing that I could really say is a tradition is just who we spend our holidays with, for example every Christmas Eve we go out to dinner with my aunt and uncle, we either meet somewhere near West Bloomfield, where they live, or we meet near my hometown. I have always really enjoyed going out on Christmas Eve because we always get really dressed up and have a grand time with the family. Christmas day is usually spent with a close family either at our house or theirs. I think I enjoy this time the most because this is my best friends family and her parents are my parents best friends so we always have a lot of fun! But regardless, no matter where we spend our holiday time, the food is always different. I do not mind this though, I actually enjoy not knowing what is going to be for dinner every holiday, it is nice to be able to decide with my parents what we would like to make each year or order at the different restaurant. Having Thanksgiving the only meal set in stone is enough for me because that one is definitely my favorite, I mean I'm already looking forward to this years feast!
One thing that is kind of a tradition, I suppose, is that my mom likes to always make corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day and we usually dye all of our drinks for the day green for fun! I love doing this because I enjoy my Irish heritage and like to celebrate it while I can on St. Patrick's Day!
Throughout my time here at Western Michigan University I have learned a lot about global climate change. My freshman year I took, what I thought was the generic version everyone took, a first year experience (FYE) course and its main objective was about climate change. At first I was slightly bummed to find out I enrolled for this course and not the typical one that everyone takes, however I ended up gaining a lot of knowledge from the semester. Our class split up into groups to work on separate semester long projects, mine was based on the wind turbine located at the engineering campus. I learned a lot through this course about global climate change and the effects it has on our planet. The biggest thing I took from this class was how important it is to be energy efficient, the actions of just one person can make a huge impact in the long run!
Currently, in my microbiology course, we have been learning about how the change in our climate can impact many microorganisms. For example, an increase in CO2 emissions causes the acidity of our oceans to increase, therefore causing shellfish to become more susceptible to attack by many microorganisms. The impact on shellfish can lead to many gastrointestinal infections when the shellfish is consumed, this will only get worse as CO2 emissions increase. Also, a 2ºC increase in global temperature will lead to a 20% increase in Malaria cases in certain regions of the world. These are just two of the many disturbances that can occur from an increase in global temperature.
The main thing about global climate change is that the future of it is in OUR hands, this sounds intimidating, however the truth is we can make change happen. Little things like being more efficient with heating our homes will help decrease CO2 emissions as well as other things like limiting unnecessary driving and recycling more often. Everyone can take part in the small aspects that will help as well as getting involved in researching ways to find more renewable resources!
On Friday 4/4/14, I visited El Inka for lunch, I went with a couple of my friends. A few days ago I was telling them about the assignment to go to a restaurant of another culture and one of my friends, Lucia, immediately recommended El Inka. El Inka is a Peruvian restaurant, the only one in Michigan actually. Lucia is from Peru and told me all about the cuisine before we went, it sounded really good so I was pretty excited! The restaurant was small inside and the atmosphere was cool, it definitely spoke Peru! I was slightly taken aback by the menu because all of the headings were in Spanish so I was confused but Lucia and the waitress were helpful. Unfortunately, with it being Lent and I went on a Friday, I could not eat anything that had meat in it, so this limited my choices even more... I ended up deciding to order the papa a la huancaina, which was sliced steamed potatoes topped with huancaina cream, egg and an olive. I love trying new foods and drinks, however I don't always enjoy what I try, that was the case at El Inka. The food was prepared great and the prices were reasonable, but I do not think Peruvian food is for me. I enjoy spice and the dish I ordered definitely had a kick which was nice, but it was also very salty which I didn't care for.
Overall, I did really enjoy my experience at El Inka, the owners have done a nice job with this restaurant. The owners ordered a rotisserie oven from Peru to specially cook their chicken, this ended up costing the family $18,000 because of shipping and delays!! Also, they offer Inka Kola, which is a banana cream soda, and I was excited to try this drink but they did not have any when I went... :( I might have to go back just to check that out!
We have learned a lot about the food industry in ENGL 1100 and how it influences our society in so many different ways. We have read about and discussed the meat packing industry, the fast food industry, the life of farmers and consumers, the cultural impact food can have, and the influence of food on our economy. The Kalamazoo Public Library event that I attended was about organic farmers and one of the main points to that event was about buying local produce and getting out to the farmers market. After this event I really felt the urge to go out to the first farmers market that opens this season and I cannot wait to do so. With this in mind while searching for satires about food I stumbled upon a great article called 27 Reasons to Avoid Farmers Markets by Valerie Comer. In this article she gives twenty-seven statements about food that, if agreed with, will make you never want to venture out to a farmers market. Thankfully, I do NOT agree with any of the statements she provides however I do find them to be quite entertaining!
Here is a couple of my favorite statements:
#3. I love factory-farmed meat, dairy, and eggs. All animals belong in little boxes.
#4. I love eating chemicals and pesticides. After all, if this stuff preserves food, it will preserve me, too. Won't it?
#8. I like being ignored by my growers. Why would I want better service and people paying attention to my needs? Someone trying to understand makes me uncomfortable.
#10. I love paying the middleman. Why should farmers get actual wages when we could support commodity traders instead?
#13. I adore excessive packaging. If I didn't have so much plastic to get rid of, how would I ever fill my garbage bins?
#18. I love being at the mercy of chain supermarkets, because I know they have my best interests at heart.
#25. I want to suffer from fun things like cancer, heart disease or diabetes. Maybe I'll get to die young.
and finally,
#27. I don't approve of seasons. Food is dumb if it can't figure out how to be grown 12 months of the year on all 6 continents. And in Antarctica, come to think of it.
HA! Well as you can see I found quite a few of the statements quite enjoyable....! Honestly, I really hope no one would agree with anything in this article, it would be seriously ignorant, but I would not be surprised if some people do. I mean, in reality, even though the way these statements are written in a way to make them sound ridiculous they make a great point, by choosing processed and factory produced food over organic and locally grown food we are kind of agreeing with the absurdity of these statements, right?
The overall ethical standpoint on how large companies produce food is never positive, it is horrible to think of innocent animals being locked up in cages just to get fat and then butchered so we can eat them, #3 in the article makes that point clearly.
#4 and #25 go hand in hand, of course food with preservatives will not preserve us, in fact they do the opposite. Always eating preservatives in food is terrible for our bodies.
The best part about having local farmers and an interactive community is that everyones interests are taken into account. Just like the farmers need our support, they are here to support us! I mean why would someone put all of their time and money into producing delicious and healthy food for their community if they did not care about the people buying their products, it just doesn't make sense. On the other hand, these large, food producing companies do not have the consumer in mind, it is all about money. #8 and #18 make this point pretty clear.
The final statement, #27, is just hilarious to me! The world is not meant to work perfectly, nothing is, but some people really do believe that they should be able to have whatever they want whenever they want it and this is just simple ignorance.
I believe, the whole point of this article is to snap people back into reality. So many people are so consumed by their daily lives and lifestyles that it doesn't occur to them that little things, like frequenting Walmart, can impact our world in such a drastic way. It is easy to do things the quick and simple way, save money, and make a quick meal, when in the long run it can severely damage our environment, economy, and overall societal values.
