some ideas from the eating animal book

1-Animals rights
2- Animals + human beings
3- Role of factory farms.

Based on these three ideas, I believe that animals have rights to their own life. It’s not only because they are animals that they have to be treated as properties, but they have to be considered as animals because they are capable of experiencing physical, emotional pain. Animals share almost the same emotions as humans do .As a result, they deserve the rights to be safe, protected, and not to be used as objects. Raising animals for food in order to maximize profits is the main purpose of factory farming. Factory farms play a huge role in the abominable treatment of those animals. Chickens, cows, and pigs are clearly deprived from the freedom that Mother Nature has given them.  They are pile up in cages where they can’t even move around, and stand up on their feet. Technological power has totally revolutionized the size of animals, which bring them to more suffering.


Animal’s feelings can not be ignored so lightly. Many scientists proved that animals fears pain, and show unhappiness when one of their kind pass away. As Foer acknowledges, “George fears pain, seek pleasure, and craves not just food and play, but companionship” (Foer, 24). T his passage precisely refers to what animals feel. It doesn’t only shows that animals are literally animals, then again also as humans. I’m not saying that there are quite human, however, they have great similarities such as the need to interact, seek pleasure, need companionship. These animals spend their life time in horrible conditions until they are killed. They are fed antibiotics, most of them can't reproduce, and they are totally deprived from they live they suppose to have. Animals might not be having the same rights as human do; however, they can't be people or companies’ property. If animals should be slaughtered, I suggest that they are killed humanely, quickly, and without pain.

Misconception of animals

                                                    Misconception of animals.

Jonathan Safran Foer, the author of eating animals claims that “animals seem to have thoughts and emotions”. And, as he shows it with his companion, George doesn’t like to be frightened, he loves playing. In a way George is an animal, in the other, he’s more than that. According to the etymology, the word animal means “having breath”. It also refers to non-human animals.

People tend to believe that animals are just animals; however, it’s totally the contrary. Human beings are considered as animals, the only difference is the instinct. Animals share the same world of emotions that humans do. They feel melancholy, they fear of being taking away from who they love.

It would be senseless and contradictory at what scientists have proven to acknowledge that animals don’t project any feelings. Animals do have feelings and they also have emotions. By observing the way animals react, do different things reveal that they do have emotions? They cry, they can frighten. Animals experience pain and loss in a similar way to humans. Tom and Minou were in fact parts of my family. They always wanted to be next to me, and we used to share the same bed. They both knew the exact time I would get back home from school, so they would stay in front of the door to say hi. The sounds that they made usually meant how my day was, and if I brought them any gifts.

My personal reaction.

                                         My personal reaction

                                         

 The material that I’ve studied during these two months, which is the fast food nation has left a great impact on me. Eric Schlosser who is the author of this book helped me to discover the dark side of the American food. What is in the food that I consume? How the food is produced? Why the food is designed this way? Who’s the industry of fast food is mainly targeting?  Even though I read the book, I never understood why fast food consumers are so ignorant when they are aware of the risk involving in eating it. So I called a friend of mine who used to work at Burger King, and I explained what I couldn’t figure out. He told me that after one’s consume this type of food, it’s hard to go back on it. I asked him why? He told me that “it’s simple, it’s the taste “. I was so asphyxiated when he informed that. As a result, I made a choice that I hope that I would be able to keep. I quit eating fast food and consume less meat. I urged my family to buy organic food because if we stop consuming fast food, it’s a step forward helping ourselves to be healthy and helping meatpackers, ranchers, kitchen growers, farmers to have a better living. After I read the last four chapters, I told myself that something should be done to stop this issue, which is say no completely to fast food. This book is huge in knowledge, well-written. I want to thank the school and professor Justin for choosing this book. It’s an extremely useful material if someone wants to know what they consume and where they food come from.

What makes American appetite unquenchable?

                           
        It is quite clear that people nowadays consume more food than they used to in previous years. Dr. David Kessler, the author of the book called “The End of Overeating” started researching why we as humans are so powerless when it comes to certain foods. What makes people succumb with food temptation and the real cause of the ever growing appetite of Americans are what the next paragraphs are going to be based on.

The desire to want more food has nothing to do with personal choice because there’s a gap between one’s brain and oneself. What Dr.Kessler discovered was that while individual ingredients in food don’t have power on us, it was a combination of sugar, salt, fat in various ways that basically tapped into our brains reward system and created a loop which forces us to consume more foods.    
The reasons why some people overeat is because their emotions are connected to food. So, generally, we can’t only blame the fast food industry. fast food industry have an addictive force, which was design to be hot stimuli , however, people deal with emotional dependency on food as well. We have to understand how highly palatable foods are jeopardize our brain because this is what make consumers come back for more.
The rewards circuits of the brain are what make us overeat according to Dr. Kessler. Homeostasis affects our behavior and who we are .Taste is hardwired to brain cells that respond to please and the neurons in the brain activate themselves by sending signals. Severe injury can occur when endorphins are released such as cancer.


The combination of sugar, fat, salt is what creating an addictive desire for more food. Opioids release chemical in our body to make us feel good, so at this moment, we loose control of ourselves. Just seeing a piece of cake can create huge battle in our mind because our brain is already electrified. We need to be in control of what we eating ,and always think before we eat .                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Income level

                                       

                    Income level

                                      

        In today’s society, especially in the United States, only one income can’t really respond to the needs of a family. Income level basically determines the body size of a person. According to the Food Inc. movie, Eric Schlosser acknowledges that the size of a person depends on his/her income level. I will be talking about why most people in America are diabetic.

When I looked at the relationship between health and economic status among American birth cohorts, I noticed that the idea of being healthy resides at one’s income level. People with smaller incomes  usually don't have time to be concerned about their body weight.The possibility to spend money on gym membership seems little for them. Fresh fruits and vegetables are more expensive than cheaper to feed, you have to do the most you can with your grocery budget. Maria Andrea Gonzales’s husband in the Food inc. movie can’t even afford to buy health food for his family. For him to save money, he has to buy foods with too much calories with salt, fat and sugar. Frederic is a driver and his diabetic. Things are though for  her husband  because Frederic has two alternatives,either buying healthy food for his family or paying for his medicine, which is expensive. His income is the one that responds to the family needs, so he has to buy the medicine; otherwise, he won’t be able to feed is family.

Obesity in low-income households is higher than high-income households. Low-income households by more higher-calorie foods than high-income households. Sodium is needed by our bodies to keep us healthy, however, too much of it can be hazardous. Those in greatest need, furthermore, tend to be both instance, that the lower your income, the more likely you are to inhabit an “obesogenic” environment. High income workers may have more time to cook their own meal or buy organic food, and may have more money to join sports clubs, and more opportunities to exercise outdoors. According to Paul Ernsberger, a professor of nutrition at Case Western Reserve University, women who are two standard deviations overweight make 9 percent less money than those who have three fewer years of work experience.

Erich Schlosser found it difficult that junky foods tend to be cheaper than healthy food. He poses an important question that absolutely blew my mind “why can you buy a double cheese burger for 99 cents, but you can get a head of broccoli for the same price?’’  Those calories are so cheap because those are the ones we heavily subsidized.  Because of low income level, people can’t organic foods. They eat whatever they can, and their mind is set on eating. As the author of the fast food nation book mentions believes, the problem of obesity is too many calories, and people are consume so much of it because the money that they are making is so low ,that they can  only consume unhealthy food.

                     

Free Market and obedience

Free Market and obedience

            

          Free market is one of the most important concepts that Erich Schlosser who’s the author of the Fast food nation has introduced and developed through the whole book, however, it would be meaningless to talk about it without the concept “obedience.” I think that these two ideas are linked together. A free market is an idealized market where the government has no say, no power. The market is free to set up its own price, its own regulation, it’s a laissez-faire market. Obedience is the alacrity to follow the will of others. The significance of these two crucial concepts will be developed in the following sentences.

The IBP revolution began in Denison, Iowa when J. Holman and Anderson began Iowa Beef Packers, applying similar labor rules to meat packing that the McDonald brothers applied to making hamburgers. This system required very little skill from its human operators. The meat packing industry now employs some of the poorest, most vulnerable workers in the United States because all it wants is to take advantage on those frail people by imposing on them its power. The industry is basically looking for people who have no hope, people who can be easily under control. The industry hires those are illiterate and those who don’t speak English. The fast food industry employs this tactic in order that the workers follow the exact rules. Schlosser, Eric Fast Food Nation New York, Harper, 2002, considers how teenagers have been, for some time, the bulk of the fast –food workforce. This is because the fast food industry seeks employees who are willing to work part-time for low wages .Moreover. In page 75, the author points out Esther Reiter, a former worker at Burger King shows how obedient fast food workers are. Workers at the fast food industry are working as robot which means they do as their employers told them to do, they can’t propose anything. The chains have worked seriously hard to de-skill the jobs in the kitchens by imposing strict rules on how everything should be done , selling food that already been prepared so  when the workers should have been prepare the food , the food is already prepared so that employees wouldn’t need trainings that would cost the chains.

The fast food industry is one of the most vicious industries I’ve ever seen. The chains such as ConAgra, IBP, and other large meatpacking firm are too powerful, they are under no pressure, they set up their own prices, the government doesn’t have any regulation in their business, and they have their own rules. The chains are willing to put up with turnover rates of 300 to 400 percent in order to keep their labor cost low. It doesn’t really matter to them who comes or goes, since this system treats all workers as thought they are interchangeable. Meatpacking workers belonged to strong unions that could fight for better pay and working conditions. "No other American industry is robbed so frequently by its own employees." Joseph A. Kinney, the president of the National Safe Workplace Institute says this is about the fast-food industry when he urges restaurants to pay their employees higher wages to addition to updating security measures. OSHA regulations designed to protect employees who work at restaurants late at night. All of these things will help improve the lives of fast food workers—the biggest groups of minimum wage earners in the United States .These regulations don’t do much to protect those people, more need to be done. Today’s workers often fell that they can’t speak out because many of them are immigrants and illegal. They are scared to be deported or fired. Congressman Tom Lantos, whose subcommittee conducted the meatpacking injury, called IBP” one of the most irresponsible and reckless corporations in America.” Murphy lied to the Congress, shredded documents requested by OSHA. He told the Congress that workers supposed to follow rules and do what as they told even its unlawful. Many people are suffering because of these rules that the chains or the fast food industry have. In a article, “The Human Behavior Experiment,” written by Alessandra Stanley, published in June 1, 2006 in the Nytimes paper, a prankster posing as a police officer –over the telephone-instructed an assistant manager, Donna Jean Summers to strip-search a teenage employee the imposter said was a thief; by the end of the evening the caller had also persuaded Ms. Summer’s fiancé to abuse the employee and force her to perform oral sex. Most of the workers who work in the meatpacking industry are Spanish women, supervisors regularly forced those female workers to have sex with them and I’m so choked that nothing has been done to put a halt in this inhumane act. Those are severely injured at work can’t get basic care; most of them can’t have any medical attention which is absolutely unacceptable.

In chapter 9, Schlosser opens the door of truth which how companies agreed to feed customers what they want. Animals are feeding by other animals; beef meat is mixing with human being body. The government knows exactly how the meat industry processes and no laws have passed. This means that everything is controlled by the chains, so that everyone is suffering. People are getting sick just by eating these meat ,  and people died .The food is poisonous and Erich Schlosser argues that “everyday in the United States, 200,00 people are sickened by a food borne disease. The government doesn’t impose any fines on companies that are selling bad meat because millions Americans are needlessly being sickened just by eating those meat.

This plant totally violated the law which is all men are equal, no matter what color you are, no matter where you from, no matter the level your education is. It's amazing to me how well hidden these abuses remain. I think everyone has something to say about this, the media, the government because we can’t keep proclaiming this is a democratic country if workers can’t be part in a union, if workers can’t oppose what their employers are asking N them to do, if workers can’t receive medical attention the same as blond-haired people. Recent immigrants, elderly people, undocumented alien, teenagers are the ones who makes the kitchens fire up, the ones who make the industry so strong but they are constantly threatened. I hope that one day someone would bring justice to these people because everyone should be treated as human.

Uniformity

                                                            

                                                               

                                                      UNIFORMITY

           Uniformity is the similitude between the parts of a whole, consistency; sameness. It’s a condition in which everything is regular and unvarying. Schlosser, Eric Fast Food Nation New York Times best seller, Harper, 2002, mentions at page 5 that similitude is the most important aspect of success. Development for a franchise company is based on to both its dimension for showing the elements of its system that prove it unique among its competition.

This idea is important because it is the crucial part that has helped not only McDonald’s but the whole fast food industry to achieve success. Starting from the first chapter trough chapter seven, everything is designed the same. All the franchise supposed to follow the same orders, there can be no variations. If in case in a franchisee would change something on the menu, he/she could be sued for his/her action. No franchisee has any rights to bring up an idea. The kitchens in all McDonald’s restaurant are the same, no matter where it is, they have the same label on the machine and they functions the same way. The company made it this way to create uniformity, so that workers don’t have to get used to other McDonald’s restaurant if in case they move out to another state or got transferred.

The foods are prepared the same way for all the stores. Some of the food is pre-packaged and frozen, like fries, has browns, hamburgers, chicken, fish. McDonald’s created a similarity in order for the food to taste the same .The company has a winning taste formula, it also has consistency so that no matter which store you go it will taste the same  

In some countries, no McDonald’s has ever closed down; the uniformity that it created made it successful. At the same time, it keeps attracting customers to spend their money. The Chapter 6 clearly reveals the process that the meat industry has taken to make chicken breast larger. The system of uniformity has changed everything in the industry how chicken are raised and slaughtered. According to Schlosser on the food Inc. movie, bird is raised differently as they were half century ago. They are twice big now. Same thing happened to pork and cattle.

The technology that processes the food is created to make the food smell and taste similarly. McDonald’s kept switching its preparation to make the food taste like beef without cooking in tallow and etc…The flavor engineering had expended the variation of ways to make potatoes taste like beef. McDonald’s want hamburgers to taste the same, everywhere exactly the same. The whole fast food industry has changed how ground beef is produced. The industry basically controls the whole system. Eric Schlossberg points out “the fast food chains demonstrated that you could create identical retail environments and sell the same products at thousands of different locations.”

Uniformity is an important factor for any industry. The importance of it is to make everyone (workers) to do what they are told. When all workers are uniformed, it shows discipline. So without uniformity there cannot be discipline, and it will destroy the chains. Everything needs to have rules, without it, it is not possible on every occasion to carry out success. McDonald’s like any other corporation reach success because of it .It is important to have equalization of work, supplies in a company. Everything has to be founded similarly, and never underestimate the importance of the uniformity.