The Ethics and Chemistry of Food and Cooking
This project was designed to revolve around our food ethic, mine being full organic. A food ethic is our own analysis of the ethics within the way our food is produced and how we will buy those products. We first started this project by watching a few documentaries on the process of growing food within the U.S, and how it has been abused to 'the max'. On the humanities side we created a meal based off each of our food ethics, in a group of 4 we would create an appetizer, a beverage, salad, the main course, and desert. For chemistry, we changed variables within our meals to determine the best method of making the meal and explaining scientifically why the results were what they were.
We decided to have an Italian night having brushetta as an appetizer, a ceaser salad, I made sweet potato gnocchi with sous vide chicken, and almond bisicotti with vegetarian gelato. I think the meal went spectaculare, but what I would change about it is the way we interacted with our guests. The setup most of the groups had made it hard for the group members to have conversations with the guests.
I think the interdisciplinary portion of this project was very necessary in creating a complete project that looked and felt refined. I think that there would be no way of making the recipe cards like we did without the help of the chemistry portion of this project. If I were to change one thing about it is to make the chemistry portion of this project more incorporated some way to our food ethic essay.
I think that learning about food academically was really interesting and informative, but I feel we could have used this time to learn about history, which is something I feel that Animas lacks overall. The faults of our past civilizations are re-emerging and very few know that is the case. Anyways, I do see a significant difference in the way I think about food now and how it has a significant impact on everything I do. Changing the way we buy food and spending the few extra cents to promote more sustainable and ethical modes of growing and handling food.
We decided to have an Italian night having brushetta as an appetizer, a ceaser salad, I made sweet potato gnocchi with sous vide chicken, and almond bisicotti with vegetarian gelato. I think the meal went spectaculare, but what I would change about it is the way we interacted with our guests. The setup most of the groups had made it hard for the group members to have conversations with the guests.
I think the interdisciplinary portion of this project was very necessary in creating a complete project that looked and felt refined. I think that there would be no way of making the recipe cards like we did without the help of the chemistry portion of this project. If I were to change one thing about it is to make the chemistry portion of this project more incorporated some way to our food ethic essay.
I think that learning about food academically was really interesting and informative, but I feel we could have used this time to learn about history, which is something I feel that Animas lacks overall. The faults of our past civilizations are re-emerging and very few know that is the case. Anyways, I do see a significant difference in the way I think about food now and how it has a significant impact on everything I do. Changing the way we buy food and spending the few extra cents to promote more sustainable and ethical modes of growing and handling food.
The Organic Change
Lance Aguilar
We can almost all agree a majority of food that is eaten nowadays has absolutely no connection to the consumer. What I mean by this is that the beef jerky you had last week has had absolutely no connection to you. You had never met that cow, you didnt know its name (if it even had one). You never saw how it was made. Now what does this do to food? What I believe is that a severes a deep connection people used to have with their food and how it now has become something people don't have time to enjoy. In a sense it has become a chore, we would rather get Chinese takeout and indulge ourselves with all that sodium and MSG rather than making our own meals and creating connections with our families most of us seem to have lost.
We can especially see this within American families where these problems are highly magnified because of our busy lives and lack of a food culture. Take for example the French, their whole population revolves and worship their food culture and the things they create, they use food as a way to connect with their families and use such a significant amount of butter you think that they would die at a younger age yet have a life expectancy 5 years higher than the US (strange, huh?).
I think the big question for this essay is ‘are we able to reverse our way of eating now to be more of a way of connection rather than of indulging?’. In my own opinion, we are far too into our way of food production that changing our way of life would take decades for the food companies to have enough supply for the demand required for more whole foods and fresher ingredients. In many senses, I recognise the miracle that is our food system. The ability for us to get a cheap hamburger that would have seemed impossibly cheap only 70 years ago is a complete miracle of our modern system.
Being guilty of criticizing the morals of big food companies and how they for the most part disrespect the nature of how food and animals grow and continuing to use their products, I have decided that I will now chose food that although more expensive is of the betterment of society and nature. I want to promote the uses of more sustainable agriculture and cattle lots that don't feed animals what is clearly not good for them or ourselves. I am personally affected by the quality of food I buy as; it determines the chemistry and biological health of my own body, and also changes the quality of the final outcome of my food in the end.
However, my father has a different approach. When going to the supermarket he buys the cheapest meats he can along with the cheapest forms of boxed cereals, cheeses, vegetables and any other types of food he can get at discounted prices. I personally believe that it isn't necessary to buy the cheapest products, because that is the goal of the companies making food cheaper by unethical forms of raising foods. I understand my dads concerns of wanting cheaper products but I don't believe that supporting such companies who push out these products is a very good thing let alone sustainable.
To me eating is a form of connecting to family, friends, and the food you are using to maintain your body's health. I think that connecting with your food is a vital connection that shouldn't be taken for granted and I think that the Europeans have mastered this. As examples, the French, Italians, and Spanish all have used these connections to further their relations with each other and the world. I appreciate the way they make these connections through food and using the time to cook those foods to talk about life and how their careers and relations are going. This is something that I think North America has taken for granted, but it wasn't really our choice. While their history of food goes back over a century or two (when people were wealthy enough to start to prepare and buy products), our history goes back 500 years, when we decided that we would use more efficient methods of growing food, which required less people to farm.
Once we had less farmers, our advances in technology skyrocketed, and we saw no reason to go back to the old ways of growing some of our own food, when we could buy food with our new wealth from working rather than working more to grow our own products. We all can take our part in growing our own food as it has multiple benefits. For one you create a true connection with your food, cultivating it from the start and truly appreciating what you did for maintaining that food. You also get to create your very own garden which can change your ugly backyard or hillside into a beautiful place to grow your own fruits and vegetables that growing, is a priceless technique that we have lost through the last few generations that used to be a significant portion of our lives in the past.
The best thing we can all do right now is support more sustainable methods of food growth by spending the few extra cents on the product that has taken less pesticides and has had overall been taken better care of. Over time, the demand for the products will increase which will create more incentive to come into the business of organics and sustainable methods ultimately lowering the overall price of these products. I think overall, that once we do the little changes in ourselves the effect will ripple into the rest of the world. Rather than screaming and whining about the failures of the systems we are part of, we should make dramatic revisions within ourselves before we try to change everything around us.
Lance Aguilar
We can almost all agree a majority of food that is eaten nowadays has absolutely no connection to the consumer. What I mean by this is that the beef jerky you had last week has had absolutely no connection to you. You had never met that cow, you didnt know its name (if it even had one). You never saw how it was made. Now what does this do to food? What I believe is that a severes a deep connection people used to have with their food and how it now has become something people don't have time to enjoy. In a sense it has become a chore, we would rather get Chinese takeout and indulge ourselves with all that sodium and MSG rather than making our own meals and creating connections with our families most of us seem to have lost.
We can especially see this within American families where these problems are highly magnified because of our busy lives and lack of a food culture. Take for example the French, their whole population revolves and worship their food culture and the things they create, they use food as a way to connect with their families and use such a significant amount of butter you think that they would die at a younger age yet have a life expectancy 5 years higher than the US (strange, huh?).
I think the big question for this essay is ‘are we able to reverse our way of eating now to be more of a way of connection rather than of indulging?’. In my own opinion, we are far too into our way of food production that changing our way of life would take decades for the food companies to have enough supply for the demand required for more whole foods and fresher ingredients. In many senses, I recognise the miracle that is our food system. The ability for us to get a cheap hamburger that would have seemed impossibly cheap only 70 years ago is a complete miracle of our modern system.
Being guilty of criticizing the morals of big food companies and how they for the most part disrespect the nature of how food and animals grow and continuing to use their products, I have decided that I will now chose food that although more expensive is of the betterment of society and nature. I want to promote the uses of more sustainable agriculture and cattle lots that don't feed animals what is clearly not good for them or ourselves. I am personally affected by the quality of food I buy as; it determines the chemistry and biological health of my own body, and also changes the quality of the final outcome of my food in the end.
However, my father has a different approach. When going to the supermarket he buys the cheapest meats he can along with the cheapest forms of boxed cereals, cheeses, vegetables and any other types of food he can get at discounted prices. I personally believe that it isn't necessary to buy the cheapest products, because that is the goal of the companies making food cheaper by unethical forms of raising foods. I understand my dads concerns of wanting cheaper products but I don't believe that supporting such companies who push out these products is a very good thing let alone sustainable.
To me eating is a form of connecting to family, friends, and the food you are using to maintain your body's health. I think that connecting with your food is a vital connection that shouldn't be taken for granted and I think that the Europeans have mastered this. As examples, the French, Italians, and Spanish all have used these connections to further their relations with each other and the world. I appreciate the way they make these connections through food and using the time to cook those foods to talk about life and how their careers and relations are going. This is something that I think North America has taken for granted, but it wasn't really our choice. While their history of food goes back over a century or two (when people were wealthy enough to start to prepare and buy products), our history goes back 500 years, when we decided that we would use more efficient methods of growing food, which required less people to farm.
Once we had less farmers, our advances in technology skyrocketed, and we saw no reason to go back to the old ways of growing some of our own food, when we could buy food with our new wealth from working rather than working more to grow our own products. We all can take our part in growing our own food as it has multiple benefits. For one you create a true connection with your food, cultivating it from the start and truly appreciating what you did for maintaining that food. You also get to create your very own garden which can change your ugly backyard or hillside into a beautiful place to grow your own fruits and vegetables that growing, is a priceless technique that we have lost through the last few generations that used to be a significant portion of our lives in the past.
The best thing we can all do right now is support more sustainable methods of food growth by spending the few extra cents on the product that has taken less pesticides and has had overall been taken better care of. Over time, the demand for the products will increase which will create more incentive to come into the business of organics and sustainable methods ultimately lowering the overall price of these products. I think overall, that once we do the little changes in ourselves the effect will ripple into the rest of the world. Rather than screaming and whining about the failures of the systems we are part of, we should make dramatic revisions within ourselves before we try to change everything around us.