Grocery Ethnography
From what one consumes we can tell their habits and health awareness, and form where one purchase food we can tell the culture and values one submerges him or her -self in. I observed and analyzed three grocery stores to explore what these stores expect out of their customers and what their customers expect of them , in the meantime forming each other’s values.
The grocery store Meijer seemed to be a place of assembly for middle-class families or economically well established individuals. However, different areas tend to attract different customers. Meijer carried produce, meat, dairy products, baked goods, processed foods (ranging from cereal to frozen dinner entree), and beverages. In the sections of fresh produce and healthful food, more individuals in costly clothing could be found; while in the sections of highly processed food such as microwavable food, the majority of customers were not as well-dressed. Based on surface-level observation, the fresh produce section attracts more economically established customers in comparison to processed food. Produce was more costly than meat in bulk, indicating the produce sale’s exclusion of lower socioeconomic customers. Many dairy products were not costly at Meijer, like other processed food and beverages. Customers roaming the different food sections were not limited by a dress code while the employees were dressed in uniforms. The use of uniforms would allow customers to immediately spot an employee if they need assistance; furthermore, uniforms would make it easy for an employee to observe unusual activity of an non-employee even if s/he doesn’t know everyone working at that time in that specific store. Uniforms also made it possible to observe an absence of interactions among customers and between customers and Meijer employees aside from conversations essential for the shopping to continue; this in turn indicated the impersonal nature of big chain supermarkets. In Meijer existed a concept revolving around individuals. People were there for tasks, not disturbing each others by leaving ample personal space for everyone, minimizing the sounds one would make, and considering goods placed in a cart or basket as goods owned by the holder. Processed food aisles are saturated with people of different socioeconomic backgrounds, observations made based on clothing and electronic devices they possessed. It implied the appealing nature of foods high in sodium or sugar Meijer carried, regardless of social background. There were an abundance of food that were ready to be consumed as well as food marketed as cooked quickly and without efforts, packaged in the easily disposable plastic wrappings or containers. The availability of a wide variety of ready-to-eat food revealed the importance of convenience to Meijer’s customers. For example. healthful food were not independent of the impact of convenience, showing that minimal efforts and time required would be desirable even among health conscious individuals. Aside from the theme of convenience, Meijer also used other techniques to encourage purchase. Meijer printed photographs of visually pleasing food items on the corresponding individual produce price tags and food section signs; and it employed colors for different sections of the store such as light brown for its bakery, creating a warm and “homey” feeling resembling that of a family that bake homemade bread. Based on the observations of the store’s design, we could see Meijer used psychological tactics common to almost all humans to guide its customers instead of using the charm of its goods.
Carrying mainly Asian food, Oriental Mart (OM) contained many foods consumed by numerous cultures—Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, even African (such as shredded cassava and cooking hen that’s commonly used in African food) culture. Due to the diversity of goods, cultural wares like long robes and headdresses were no rare scenery, as well as different styles of clothing popular amongst international students. Since OM is one of the few Asian markets in East Lansing, people of all backgrounds who consume Asian food would visit, luxurious brands of clothing and accessories could be seen frequently as well as ordinary clothing of common people. Aside from raw ingredients (including produces, meat, fish, shellfish), many processed food (such as canned food, seasoning, and snacks) were for sale in OM. The majority of the food in OM was more expensive comparing to other stores, perhaps because they were not commonly seen in other stores. The prices reflected OM’s target customers, and they were not of lower socioeconomic class. However, the higher prices could be interpreted as the emphasis of quality over quantity. Interestingly, snacks were more costly than many produce items, which suggested customers’ value of flavor and processing over healthful eating. The OM employees had more interactions with customers than big chain supermarket employees would, since many customers were regulars at the OM and there was not much fluidity in human resources. Some conversations were made between customers as curious ones would ask others for recommendation or about recipes of a novel produce. Like many big chain supermarkets, OM accepted food stamps. It provided food embraced by EBT receivers from a non-western culture, which could add to satisfactions and quality of life of lower socioeconomic class like noted in Maria Goody’s article about Food Box Plan. There was not much design in OM except for the seafood section, with a large mural painted above it high on the wall, making its location visible from afar.
South Lansing Farmer’s Market was filled with families, and people of almost all ages were present, as well as infants and pets. Children who were painting pumpkins and wielding bubble-creating hoops were wearing ordinary winter clothing like their parents. It was a community-centered marketplace. Food for sale included vegetables, homemade food like jerky and baked goods, and honey. The selection of food indicated the customers’ value of food made from scratch and with minimal use of chemicals like preservatives. The vendors and visitors at the farmer’s market would likely find Melanie Warner’s Pandora’s Lunchbox a great example of why people should opt for fresh produce一since processed food like industrial bread contained chemicals that caused evacuation of residents downwind of its spill on the highway in Chicago. The prices of food at the market reflected the emphasis on values of health, farmers’ work, and the seasonality of produce; these values emphasized inevitably made some of these goods inaccessible to people in lower socioeconomic class due to higher monetary cost. Despite the slightly high prices, the vendors were welcoming and several who sold non-produce goods provided samples; some vendors were more talkative and initiated many conversation in comparison to workers in big chain supermarkets and OM, there were not much restrictions for the vendors’ behaviors unlike the professionalism required for workers at Meijer and OM. It seemed to be normal for the vendors to distribute attention to and make friendly eye contact with any individuals approaching their stands, as it was more common for them to receive cash. However, a credit card to token system was in place for convenience sake, though customers were limited to purchase tokens by increments of five dollars. In addition, the market was equipped with food stamp processing mechanism, proving Wei-ting Chen’s point of people of all different classes know what’s a healthy diet. Besides the trade of money and food, there wasn’t much time invested to the outer appearance of the stands and vendors. Many produce stands were established next to the vendors’ vehicles, which were full of their foods for sale; there were not any aesthetically appealing design but rather functionally essential price tags, sometimes with photos of the products on it.
All these stores analyzed served as a mirror reflecting people’s demand for food in certain class or culture and what they value--in Meijer customers (all different classes) valued salty and sugary taste and convenience; in OM flavor and familiarity in food was more valued by customers of non-western cultures, but at the same time quality ranked above quantity; mostly well-established customers of South Lansing Farmer’s Market really focused on healthful and natural diet. There was varying amount of social interactions between customers and customers or employees of the grocery stores; the larger the market, the less a social process food shopping became. All the stores shared a general set of norms, such as personal space and goods claimed, however there were less restrictions and limitations for etiquette in smaller markets. Another trend observed was that larger markets tended to resort to strategies to visually attract customers. These were all effects of mutually shaping between customers and markets derived from demand and supply, mixing with factors of cultural preferences and class differences.
The grocery store Meijer seemed to be a place of assembly for middle-class families or economically well established individuals. However, different areas tend to attract different customers. Meijer carried produce, meat, dairy products, baked goods, processed foods (ranging from cereal to frozen dinner entree), and beverages. In the sections of fresh produce and healthful food, more individuals in costly clothing could be found; while in the sections of highly processed food such as microwavable food, the majority of customers were not as well-dressed. Based on surface-level observation, the fresh produce section attracts more economically established customers in comparison to processed food. Produce was more costly than meat in bulk, indicating the produce sale’s exclusion of lower socioeconomic customers. Many dairy products were not costly at Meijer, like other processed food and beverages. Customers roaming the different food sections were not limited by a dress code while the employees were dressed in uniforms. The use of uniforms would allow customers to immediately spot an employee if they need assistance; furthermore, uniforms would make it easy for an employee to observe unusual activity of an non-employee even if s/he doesn’t know everyone working at that time in that specific store. Uniforms also made it possible to observe an absence of interactions among customers and between customers and Meijer employees aside from conversations essential for the shopping to continue; this in turn indicated the impersonal nature of big chain supermarkets. In Meijer existed a concept revolving around individuals. People were there for tasks, not disturbing each others by leaving ample personal space for everyone, minimizing the sounds one would make, and considering goods placed in a cart or basket as goods owned by the holder. Processed food aisles are saturated with people of different socioeconomic backgrounds, observations made based on clothing and electronic devices they possessed. It implied the appealing nature of foods high in sodium or sugar Meijer carried, regardless of social background. There were an abundance of food that were ready to be consumed as well as food marketed as cooked quickly and without efforts, packaged in the easily disposable plastic wrappings or containers. The availability of a wide variety of ready-to-eat food revealed the importance of convenience to Meijer’s customers. For example. healthful food were not independent of the impact of convenience, showing that minimal efforts and time required would be desirable even among health conscious individuals. Aside from the theme of convenience, Meijer also used other techniques to encourage purchase. Meijer printed photographs of visually pleasing food items on the corresponding individual produce price tags and food section signs; and it employed colors for different sections of the store such as light brown for its bakery, creating a warm and “homey” feeling resembling that of a family that bake homemade bread. Based on the observations of the store’s design, we could see Meijer used psychological tactics common to almost all humans to guide its customers instead of using the charm of its goods.
Carrying mainly Asian food, Oriental Mart (OM) contained many foods consumed by numerous cultures—Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, even African (such as shredded cassava and cooking hen that’s commonly used in African food) culture. Due to the diversity of goods, cultural wares like long robes and headdresses were no rare scenery, as well as different styles of clothing popular amongst international students. Since OM is one of the few Asian markets in East Lansing, people of all backgrounds who consume Asian food would visit, luxurious brands of clothing and accessories could be seen frequently as well as ordinary clothing of common people. Aside from raw ingredients (including produces, meat, fish, shellfish), many processed food (such as canned food, seasoning, and snacks) were for sale in OM. The majority of the food in OM was more expensive comparing to other stores, perhaps because they were not commonly seen in other stores. The prices reflected OM’s target customers, and they were not of lower socioeconomic class. However, the higher prices could be interpreted as the emphasis of quality over quantity. Interestingly, snacks were more costly than many produce items, which suggested customers’ value of flavor and processing over healthful eating. The OM employees had more interactions with customers than big chain supermarket employees would, since many customers were regulars at the OM and there was not much fluidity in human resources. Some conversations were made between customers as curious ones would ask others for recommendation or about recipes of a novel produce. Like many big chain supermarkets, OM accepted food stamps. It provided food embraced by EBT receivers from a non-western culture, which could add to satisfactions and quality of life of lower socioeconomic class like noted in Maria Goody’s article about Food Box Plan. There was not much design in OM except for the seafood section, with a large mural painted above it high on the wall, making its location visible from afar.
South Lansing Farmer’s Market was filled with families, and people of almost all ages were present, as well as infants and pets. Children who were painting pumpkins and wielding bubble-creating hoops were wearing ordinary winter clothing like their parents. It was a community-centered marketplace. Food for sale included vegetables, homemade food like jerky and baked goods, and honey. The selection of food indicated the customers’ value of food made from scratch and with minimal use of chemicals like preservatives. The vendors and visitors at the farmer’s market would likely find Melanie Warner’s Pandora’s Lunchbox a great example of why people should opt for fresh produce一since processed food like industrial bread contained chemicals that caused evacuation of residents downwind of its spill on the highway in Chicago. The prices of food at the market reflected the emphasis on values of health, farmers’ work, and the seasonality of produce; these values emphasized inevitably made some of these goods inaccessible to people in lower socioeconomic class due to higher monetary cost. Despite the slightly high prices, the vendors were welcoming and several who sold non-produce goods provided samples; some vendors were more talkative and initiated many conversation in comparison to workers in big chain supermarkets and OM, there were not much restrictions for the vendors’ behaviors unlike the professionalism required for workers at Meijer and OM. It seemed to be normal for the vendors to distribute attention to and make friendly eye contact with any individuals approaching their stands, as it was more common for them to receive cash. However, a credit card to token system was in place for convenience sake, though customers were limited to purchase tokens by increments of five dollars. In addition, the market was equipped with food stamp processing mechanism, proving Wei-ting Chen’s point of people of all different classes know what’s a healthy diet. Besides the trade of money and food, there wasn’t much time invested to the outer appearance of the stands and vendors. Many produce stands were established next to the vendors’ vehicles, which were full of their foods for sale; there were not any aesthetically appealing design but rather functionally essential price tags, sometimes with photos of the products on it.
All these stores analyzed served as a mirror reflecting people’s demand for food in certain class or culture and what they value--in Meijer customers (all different classes) valued salty and sugary taste and convenience; in OM flavor and familiarity in food was more valued by customers of non-western cultures, but at the same time quality ranked above quantity; mostly well-established customers of South Lansing Farmer’s Market really focused on healthful and natural diet. There was varying amount of social interactions between customers and customers or employees of the grocery stores; the larger the market, the less a social process food shopping became. All the stores shared a general set of norms, such as personal space and goods claimed, however there were less restrictions and limitations for etiquette in smaller markets. Another trend observed was that larger markets tended to resort to strategies to visually attract customers. These were all effects of mutually shaping between customers and markets derived from demand and supply, mixing with factors of cultural preferences and class differences.
Project Explorer
Articles:
These articles put into scale the influence of bees in our agriculture and economy, it helped me to understand the catastrophic result of bee shortage. They also explored the many causes of decreasing bee population; some of the causes could be eliminated or reduced through governmental policies and individual efforts, some might require time and scientific breakthroughs to resolve.
Podcast/documentary:
On the other hand, Karen Rennich pointed out how bees and migratory beekeepers were crucial in modern agriculture. Some crops like almond required pollinators like bees to carry their pollens, but bee colonies had been on decline starting in 1945. Bees are migrated by semi-trucks to different parts of the US to pollinate different crops, and migration exposed bees to many causes of death like heat, automobile accidents, and health conditions derived from fungicides used in agriculture. Beekeepers took measures to care for the bees and ensure bees’ safety in all conditions, safeguarding the produce supply in US.
The Ted Talks helped me understand the systemic issue contributing to bee decline as well as several different issues that directly causes death of bees. These videos also helped me understand our food system could collapse without bees being our pollinators.
Book:
The Chapter 3 of this book provided scientific explanation in why humans should care about bees and what should humans do to improve the trend of decline in bees (amount and diversity), noted specific benefits humans enjoyed or would enjoy with the presence of diverse bee population, and challenged existing ideology such as human consumption should be prioritized. The author stressed the underlying issue of wrongful prioritization by repeatedly visiting the idea of improving bee biodiversity through restorations.
Summary of the Topic’s Potential:
This topic of declining bee population is undoubtedly important and the issues related to it can be reduced or resolved by potential policies. Pollination, which bees mediate, is an extremely crucial step in maintaining food supply; without bees to carry out pollination there will not be sufficient and affordable food for the U.S. population, which can result in loss of potential in our society. Two underlying causes for decline in bees are elevated emphasis in goods’ productions over the natural world and the flawed U.S. food system. Humans care more about the production of goods to be consumed and neglect the wellbeing of the environment, which connect with the flawed food system of U.S.. The establishment of monoculture crops owing to demand and the subsidies of government resulted in elimination of bees’ food sources and habitat and use of toxic chemicals as pesticides. In addition, there’s intense demands for bees to provide the regulating services to maintain the food supply. In the U.S. food system, naturally occurring and functional system is replaced by profit-oriented but dysfunctional ones, minimizing chances for bee survival while requiring bees’ ecosystem services at certain occasions. The systemic issues that drive the decline in bees could be resolved through policy revolving sustainability and nature. There are more information to be learned for better preparation in presenting this issue, I would like to learn about the potential connection between declining bee population and human health and the impacts of extinction of bees in nature (other than simply the impact in human supermarkets). It is an interesting topic that might not be widely known by many but deserves to be.
Some conditions that contribute to bees’ death include the parasite verroa destructor (transmit viruses among bees and consume blood of bees), gut parasite aided by fungicide found in almond blossom. To improve the bee population decline, all member of our society must align our incentives, to require payment for exploiting the environment and be mindless of the potential consequences in nature.
- Bees are dying at an alarming rate, Amsterdam might have the answer. By Linda Givetash, NBC News, published Sep 7, 2018. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/bees-are-dying-alarming-rate-amsterdam-may-have-answer-n897856
- New clues to decline of bees and other pollinators. By Helen Briggs, BBC, published Feb 28, 2018. https://www.google.com.hk/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/science-environment-43200277
- Bees are dying, what can we do about it? By Nabila Khouri, CNN, published Mar 20, 2017. https://www.google.com.hk/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/03/20/world/bees-eco-solutions/index.html
These articles put into scale the influence of bees in our agriculture and economy, it helped me to understand the catastrophic result of bee shortage. They also explored the many causes of decreasing bee population; some of the causes could be eliminated or reduced through governmental policies and individual efforts, some might require time and scientific breakthroughs to resolve.
Podcast/documentary:
- Marla Spivak: Why bees are disappearing. 2013. https://youtu.be/dY7iATJVCso
- Our bee populations are dying out, and here’s why we should care. TedxMidAtlantic Karen Rennich. 2015. https://youtu.be/M0io0FLoXHo
- Both Ted Talks mentioned that bees are essential pollinators in agriculture in the US because of the inefficient nature of US agriculture; one focused on what caused bee population decline, while the other highlighted the importance of bees in US agriculture.
On the other hand, Karen Rennich pointed out how bees and migratory beekeepers were crucial in modern agriculture. Some crops like almond required pollinators like bees to carry their pollens, but bee colonies had been on decline starting in 1945. Bees are migrated by semi-trucks to different parts of the US to pollinate different crops, and migration exposed bees to many causes of death like heat, automobile accidents, and health conditions derived from fungicides used in agriculture. Beekeepers took measures to care for the bees and ensure bees’ safety in all conditions, safeguarding the produce supply in US.
The Ted Talks helped me understand the systemic issue contributing to bee decline as well as several different issues that directly causes death of bees. These videos also helped me understand our food system could collapse without bees being our pollinators.
Book:
- Business of Bees: An Integrated Approach to Bee Decline and Corporate Responsibility by Jill Atkins and Barry Atkins (editors), published in 2016. Chapter 3.
- Longing, S., Discua, S. (2016). Bee bio-basics and conservation benefits: Essential pieces in the pollinator puzzle. In J. Atkins & B. Atkins (Eds.), Business of bees: An integrated approach to bee decline and corporate responsibility (pp.43-68). New York, NY: Taylor and Francis.
The Chapter 3 of this book provided scientific explanation in why humans should care about bees and what should humans do to improve the trend of decline in bees (amount and diversity), noted specific benefits humans enjoyed or would enjoy with the presence of diverse bee population, and challenged existing ideology such as human consumption should be prioritized. The author stressed the underlying issue of wrongful prioritization by repeatedly visiting the idea of improving bee biodiversity through restorations.
Summary of the Topic’s Potential:
This topic of declining bee population is undoubtedly important and the issues related to it can be reduced or resolved by potential policies. Pollination, which bees mediate, is an extremely crucial step in maintaining food supply; without bees to carry out pollination there will not be sufficient and affordable food for the U.S. population, which can result in loss of potential in our society. Two underlying causes for decline in bees are elevated emphasis in goods’ productions over the natural world and the flawed U.S. food system. Humans care more about the production of goods to be consumed and neglect the wellbeing of the environment, which connect with the flawed food system of U.S.. The establishment of monoculture crops owing to demand and the subsidies of government resulted in elimination of bees’ food sources and habitat and use of toxic chemicals as pesticides. In addition, there’s intense demands for bees to provide the regulating services to maintain the food supply. In the U.S. food system, naturally occurring and functional system is replaced by profit-oriented but dysfunctional ones, minimizing chances for bee survival while requiring bees’ ecosystem services at certain occasions. The systemic issues that drive the decline in bees could be resolved through policy revolving sustainability and nature. There are more information to be learned for better preparation in presenting this issue, I would like to learn about the potential connection between declining bee population and human health and the impacts of extinction of bees in nature (other than simply the impact in human supermarkets). It is an interesting topic that might not be widely known by many but deserves to be.
Some conditions that contribute to bees’ death include the parasite verroa destructor (transmit viruses among bees and consume blood of bees), gut parasite aided by fungicide found in almond blossom. To improve the bee population decline, all member of our society must align our incentives, to require payment for exploiting the environment and be mindless of the potential consequences in nature.
Pandora's Lunchbox Email
Dear Dad,
This semester I read a book called Pandora’s Lunchbox for my Eating Industrial course, which turned out to be an extraordinarily interactive and thought-stimulating course, and the many shocking revelations about the food industry I read in the book reminded me of your motto--“processed food have no difference from garbage”; therefore I want to share a few things I learned from the book with you through this email project for my ISS 310 class.
Pandora’s Lunchbox is a book that dug deep enough to find the nitty gritty details about food that we don’t usually think about, like the “bowl life” of cereals--how long can cereals last without becoming soggy (page 65)--and the seemingly unnecessary food coloring in cereals (page 64), and provide us some “food for thought” (pun intended) when it comes to choosing what to eat.
Warner revealed the mcdonaldized production of cereals in her book. Cereals were made in a condition of extremely high heat and pressure (page 62). It allows every part of the ingredients to be homogenized and therefore allow uniformity in taste, texture, and shape of every piece of cereal even in big batches. Predictability and efficiency are achieved, though not without setbacks. All the nutrients contained within the raw ingredients would be completely broken down and therefore cereals have no nutritional value without fortification. Along with nutrients, the color and texture of the raw ingredients are also subjects to disappearance. That explained the use of yellow food coloring even when the ingredients’ color is yellow (page 64). In addition, there are details that reveal more than the loss of physical characteristics and nutrients of industrial food in the book.
The book mentioned baked goods in the Chapter titled “Better Living Through Chemistry” (perhaps it is an irony intended by the author), which reminded me of my favorite Hawaiian sweet rolls that can be purchased from literally any big grocery store nearby. The rolls are always fluffy with hints of sweetness, the sugar glazed brown top of the rolls never fail to seize my attention from the other items in its vicinity. How can a bread so close to perfect exist? The author of Pandora’s Lunchbox--Melanie Warner--explains that the industry can achieve the extremely puffy texture of their products through the use of azodicarbonamide. This is a chemical that can help form air bubbles evenly throughout the dough, though itself can be harmful to humans--causing irritation of the eye and skin (page 103). However, the author didn’t state how azodicarbonamide added in the production of bread can influence human body. Everything we can touch right now are made of chemicals, and the determinant of anything’s properties is the arrangement of atoms. That being said, a chemical can be harmful when it is by itself but after it reacts with something else, its properties can change completely and the product of the reaction can become benign. However, Warner might have suffered from the lack of resources herself when writing this book, since the U.S. government’s Food Additive Status List does not provide the public with the information regarding food additives’ safety according to her (page 106). Nonetheless, humans were able to make bread a long long time ago without the assistance of concentrated chemicals, and in recent times cooking is not a chore that stay at home moms hate according to Laura Shapiro in her book. This makes me question how much do we need food produced with chemicals like this in our diet? I think I might want to cut down my industrial bread consumption, that is if I can resist its cloud-like fluffiness.
Recently I have been trying to eat more healthy for the sake of my own well-being, and the x-percent-of-daily-value-of-vitamin-so-and-so labels on shelves don’t act like repellents to healthy-eater-wannabes like me. That is probably because I am too trusting of a person to think about whether the vitamins are inherent to the food ingredients or where do the vitamins actually come from. Well, to my surprise and not to my surprise at the same time, China is where the mama vitamin (I meant the plants of vitamin production) is, producing about half of the total amount of vitamin the world consumes (page 81). It is to my surprise because I didn’t realize that vitamins added to food are industrially produced. It is not to my surprise because China has been providing companies overseas with cheaper production of many things due to lax environmental regulations. This is especially saddening to me because companies externalize the cost to other countries’ environment, and these other countries probably choose to overlook the long term consequences due to economic needs, eventually making these alternative providers uninhabitable countries. According to Warner, vitamin plants could cause air pollution and therefore many were shut down in the United States; and there’s only one vitamin plant left in the U.S. as of 2013, when the book was published (page 82). I am not certain about the fate of that plant now in 2018, but it was not closed down because the same area was full of other plants and was already polluted severely (page 82). I personally hope China will think about the long term impacts of these plants. After all I care deeply for all our friends and family in China and I wouldn’t want their children to live in a toxic environment. Aside from the environmental harm, the author included many ingredients used in vitamin synthesis--sorbitol (a product of “cleaving apart and rearranging corn molecules”), sheep grease, chemicals derived from coal tar, acetone, genetically modified bacteria, and etc. (page 84-85). Again, even though they appear to be horrifying ingredients to include in what we consume, we can not be sure about what are their actual effects on our bodies after the synthesis process. Now it kind of seems like the author is trying to scare us the consumers a bit, but it is worth considering whether we should be eating vitamin fortified food or just eat the good old plants like fruit, vegetables, and grains.
After reading all the shocking details listed, I would like to point out that the chemicals mentioned by the author might not retain their harmful nature after processing. It could be a technique the author used to warn the general public to be very careful with over-consumption of processed food, especially with the food industry trying to engineer the perfect-tasting addictive food like how Michael Moss explained in one of his article. Nonetheless, the author is successful in exposing the corporate greed and the sacrifices the food industry is willing to make in order to make profit--nutrition, public health, and well-being of the environment. The cereals without color, texture, and nutrients, the un-investigated effects of chemicals found in industrial bread production, and the environmental pollution as a result of making vitamins. In addition, the vitamin production served as an example of externalized cost and the harmful, self-supporting nature of processed food. China and other countries bore health-impactful pollution so food industries in other countries could purchase vitamin in a low price to fortify industrially produced foodstuff. Now I can see why you are against buying snacks or pre-made food from supermarkets--when there’s less consumers choosing certain products, the less supply there will be, therefore slowly eliminating these products from the market. I hope you find this email and the book interesting, feel free to read the book and discuss with me :)
Best,
Your daughter Rong
This semester I read a book called Pandora’s Lunchbox for my Eating Industrial course, which turned out to be an extraordinarily interactive and thought-stimulating course, and the many shocking revelations about the food industry I read in the book reminded me of your motto--“processed food have no difference from garbage”; therefore I want to share a few things I learned from the book with you through this email project for my ISS 310 class.
Pandora’s Lunchbox is a book that dug deep enough to find the nitty gritty details about food that we don’t usually think about, like the “bowl life” of cereals--how long can cereals last without becoming soggy (page 65)--and the seemingly unnecessary food coloring in cereals (page 64), and provide us some “food for thought” (pun intended) when it comes to choosing what to eat.
Warner revealed the mcdonaldized production of cereals in her book. Cereals were made in a condition of extremely high heat and pressure (page 62). It allows every part of the ingredients to be homogenized and therefore allow uniformity in taste, texture, and shape of every piece of cereal even in big batches. Predictability and efficiency are achieved, though not without setbacks. All the nutrients contained within the raw ingredients would be completely broken down and therefore cereals have no nutritional value without fortification. Along with nutrients, the color and texture of the raw ingredients are also subjects to disappearance. That explained the use of yellow food coloring even when the ingredients’ color is yellow (page 64). In addition, there are details that reveal more than the loss of physical characteristics and nutrients of industrial food in the book.
The book mentioned baked goods in the Chapter titled “Better Living Through Chemistry” (perhaps it is an irony intended by the author), which reminded me of my favorite Hawaiian sweet rolls that can be purchased from literally any big grocery store nearby. The rolls are always fluffy with hints of sweetness, the sugar glazed brown top of the rolls never fail to seize my attention from the other items in its vicinity. How can a bread so close to perfect exist? The author of Pandora’s Lunchbox--Melanie Warner--explains that the industry can achieve the extremely puffy texture of their products through the use of azodicarbonamide. This is a chemical that can help form air bubbles evenly throughout the dough, though itself can be harmful to humans--causing irritation of the eye and skin (page 103). However, the author didn’t state how azodicarbonamide added in the production of bread can influence human body. Everything we can touch right now are made of chemicals, and the determinant of anything’s properties is the arrangement of atoms. That being said, a chemical can be harmful when it is by itself but after it reacts with something else, its properties can change completely and the product of the reaction can become benign. However, Warner might have suffered from the lack of resources herself when writing this book, since the U.S. government’s Food Additive Status List does not provide the public with the information regarding food additives’ safety according to her (page 106). Nonetheless, humans were able to make bread a long long time ago without the assistance of concentrated chemicals, and in recent times cooking is not a chore that stay at home moms hate according to Laura Shapiro in her book. This makes me question how much do we need food produced with chemicals like this in our diet? I think I might want to cut down my industrial bread consumption, that is if I can resist its cloud-like fluffiness.
Recently I have been trying to eat more healthy for the sake of my own well-being, and the x-percent-of-daily-value-of-vitamin-so-and-so labels on shelves don’t act like repellents to healthy-eater-wannabes like me. That is probably because I am too trusting of a person to think about whether the vitamins are inherent to the food ingredients or where do the vitamins actually come from. Well, to my surprise and not to my surprise at the same time, China is where the mama vitamin (I meant the plants of vitamin production) is, producing about half of the total amount of vitamin the world consumes (page 81). It is to my surprise because I didn’t realize that vitamins added to food are industrially produced. It is not to my surprise because China has been providing companies overseas with cheaper production of many things due to lax environmental regulations. This is especially saddening to me because companies externalize the cost to other countries’ environment, and these other countries probably choose to overlook the long term consequences due to economic needs, eventually making these alternative providers uninhabitable countries. According to Warner, vitamin plants could cause air pollution and therefore many were shut down in the United States; and there’s only one vitamin plant left in the U.S. as of 2013, when the book was published (page 82). I am not certain about the fate of that plant now in 2018, but it was not closed down because the same area was full of other plants and was already polluted severely (page 82). I personally hope China will think about the long term impacts of these plants. After all I care deeply for all our friends and family in China and I wouldn’t want their children to live in a toxic environment. Aside from the environmental harm, the author included many ingredients used in vitamin synthesis--sorbitol (a product of “cleaving apart and rearranging corn molecules”), sheep grease, chemicals derived from coal tar, acetone, genetically modified bacteria, and etc. (page 84-85). Again, even though they appear to be horrifying ingredients to include in what we consume, we can not be sure about what are their actual effects on our bodies after the synthesis process. Now it kind of seems like the author is trying to scare us the consumers a bit, but it is worth considering whether we should be eating vitamin fortified food or just eat the good old plants like fruit, vegetables, and grains.
After reading all the shocking details listed, I would like to point out that the chemicals mentioned by the author might not retain their harmful nature after processing. It could be a technique the author used to warn the general public to be very careful with over-consumption of processed food, especially with the food industry trying to engineer the perfect-tasting addictive food like how Michael Moss explained in one of his article. Nonetheless, the author is successful in exposing the corporate greed and the sacrifices the food industry is willing to make in order to make profit--nutrition, public health, and well-being of the environment. The cereals without color, texture, and nutrients, the un-investigated effects of chemicals found in industrial bread production, and the environmental pollution as a result of making vitamins. In addition, the vitamin production served as an example of externalized cost and the harmful, self-supporting nature of processed food. China and other countries bore health-impactful pollution so food industries in other countries could purchase vitamin in a low price to fortify industrially produced foodstuff. Now I can see why you are against buying snacks or pre-made food from supermarkets--when there’s less consumers choosing certain products, the less supply there will be, therefore slowly eliminating these products from the market. I hope you find this email and the book interesting, feel free to read the book and discuss with me :)
Best,
Your daughter Rong
Food Autobiography
“Were you born in America?” people often ask when they first meet me. Then I would answer with joy, “Nope! I was born in China”. Moving to the United States at the age of 13, I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by sadness and bitterness when almost all food, like the soup made from pork bones, didn’t taste like it would be in China. I thought America was full of everything great. As a child, I had the privilege of enjoying a wide range of foodstuffs thanks to my mother’s dedicated home food preparation and my parents’ adventurous nature in eating--with such items as chicken, pigeons, ducks, geese, rabbits, snakes, lizards, toads, field mice, cats, dogs, bee pupa, silkworm pupa, numerous sea creatures, many exotic sounding fruit like avocado, and many vegetables that might have an English name that I have yet to learn. Essentially, aside from the universal taboo of cannibalism, food potentially hazardous to our health, and food that might have a negative property as defined by Chinese Medicine (such as deep fried food), my family happily embraced a huge range of food and attempted to develop our own recipes for them that maximize the food’s natural flavors and aromas.
One of the main reasons for our open attitude toward food was that my parents’ families lived through a difficult time in China where meat was always in shortage. My grandparents never complained about having food that was too exotic to eat during warfare and famine. In contrast, the umami flavor inherent to various fresh meats, seafoods, and certain plants would be highly praised in China. These food adventures were made physically possible because there were supplies of exotic meat through farming or excessive hunting in China, perhaps due to the particularly picky taste buds of Chinese foodies that constantly seek the umami and fragrance that resembles one in their childhood memories. In the U.S., three main food animals claimed domination in conventional markets. Chickens, pigs, and cows turned into enormous amount of pork chops and steaks protected in Styrofoam trays ensured the availability and affordability of meats, but not the amazing umami naturally occurring in meats. Eating Animals described how the meat industry in the U.S., where countless animals are raised and killed, was highly McDonaldized. Essentially, efficiency and replicability are the top priorities in order to contribute to profitability. The existing model of meat industry inevitably sacrificed safety and taste by crowding many living organisms in a small space and feeding them antibiotics to promote growth and prevent disease. My memory of meats in China was drastically different from the U.S.. Poultry we purchased in China were always slaughtered right after we pick them out at the marketplace early in the morning. Larger animals like cows and pigs were purchased by the butchers from slaughter houses and brought to the market (I remembered seeing at least a quarter of a pig hanging from a metal hook on a metal shelf), and you get to decide which part of the animal you would like for the butcher to cut to your satisfaction. The meats we brought home from the marketplace were guaranteed to generate a magical taste, a slight sweetness cooperating seamlessly with savoriness. A very satisfying meal for my family would be born, one that’s umami- and aroma- saturated.
Despite the existence of innumerable recipes that could make different kinds of fresh meat extremely palatable, my maternal grandmother decided not to consume meat based on her Buddhist beliefs. Buddhism states that to consume animals and therefore result in the slaughter of animals is sinful, since all living beings in this world deserve a chance at living. Her decision, in part made to avoid the punishments that will be imposed on her in the afterlife or her next life, was greeted with discouragements from my parents and my mother’s siblings, who were concerned about the insufficient nutrient intake based on a vegetarian diet. And perhaps due to the unsupportive environment surrounding her, there weren’t much opportunities for her to experiment with various types of plants in one meal, eventually she fell to nutrient deficiency like everyone in the family expected. That was one of the main contributor to the worsening of my parents’ attitude toward vegetarianism. However, living the vegetarian lifestyle would be deemed as respectable in China because it’s mostly the action of a religious individual; it was considered selfless for one to sacrifice secular desire of oneself to allow other lives to live. I gained the chance of studying nutrition in higher education and the myth of vegetarian and vegan diet is not nutritionally sufficient for humans was debunked, and many benefits of veganism such as reduced environmental pollution and lessened inhumane treatment of animals were made clear to me. With this knowledge I can choose what to or what not to eat consciously with consequences in mind, but I still have a mission of convincing my parents of the sufficiency and efficiency of vegetarianism or veganism.
Being a Chinese Medicine doctor, my mom has always focused heavily on the relationship between food and health. Therefore my family--which lived in the hot and humid Southern area of China--had a huge taboo of raw food (in the fear of consuming pathogens or lava of parasites) and deep fried foods (to avoid its hot property). In Chinese Medicine, there’s a balance of different elements within our body, and ailments are born when that balance is disturbed by elements in the environment. Some pairs of properties countering each other included hotness and coolness, coldness and warmth, dryness and moisture, humidness and de-humidness. Since the geographical climate in Southern China was hot and humid, we always favored food that carries cooling or drying properties like certain leafy greens and seeds. Along with vegetables, fruit was an inseparable part of my family’s diet to achieve healthful eating. Although sometimes fruit had to come in from outside of China, going through special areas like Macau or Hong Kong, resulting in the sky-high prices of the more exotic fruits such as cherries, my mother was willing to pay the price not only due to her adventurous attitude toward food but also her belief in having a balanced and diverse diet that contribute to health. And when I underwent a severe sinus infection, my mom set up a strict guideline of what not to eat in order for me to have a speedy recovery. Her guideline was based on her education in a Chinese Medicine college and her personal experience: food that has the hot and dry property like beef and lamb and food with property of inducing sickness like peanuts and Chinese black mushrooms. And of course, the delicious snacks engineered to be addictive, according to Michael Moss, like chips were not on my menu. That is because chips have hot and dry property inherent to them as they are fried. My mother’s disciplined execution of the guideline and my eating habit as a result of it could explain my scarce experiences with chips in my life.
However, the shortage of tasty junk food in my childhood didn’t mean there was no deliciousness at all. One of my favorite food until today remains the soup my mom spends up to four hours to cook. When I was about five years old, mom prepared one of her greatest soups featuring fresh pork shoulder bones, rice beans, and china root. She gave me a bowl of the soup and went to shower after the sweat-inducing cooking process in Southern China’s summer. The soup was magical, I am still convinced, as I couldn’t stop myself from sneaking into the kitchen and extending the ladle into the clay pot without a mouse noticing, and treating myself to half of the ladle’s content. After numerous trips of my secret ordeal, my mom emerged from the bathroom and went to get herself some soup, just to find out--to my own surprise as well--almost half of the whole pot has gone into my stomach. This was a memorable experience and important lesson to me. The moral is that homemade foods with seemingly simple combination of ingredients are not any bit inferior to the tastebud-pleasing processed food. Some of the plants my mom would make soup with are nowhere to be found in my eight long years in the United States, but were accessible in China due to the demand and therefore supply of them, sometimes by small family farmers. Nonetheless, we adopted to the available ingredients here and were still able to make soups, just with a limited amount of variety.
Throughout this semester, I have learned a lot about how whole food and plant-based diet constitutes healthy eating. In the movie Forks Over Knives, physicians and researchers stated that eating healthily can potentially reverse fatal diseases like cardiovascular diseases. It is reasonable considering the excessive amount of proteins that an average American is consuming. Aside from eating healthily, I was made aware of my impact on the environment based on my choice of food. When we arrived in the US, our diet became more meat-based due to cheap, industrially produced meat, recipes revolving around meat, and rejection of raw vegetables. My family was inexperienced with plants found in the U.S. markets. We also compared humans eating salad to cattles grazing, adding a hint of dehumanization to eating salads or “raw grass”. That was because vegetables in salad are served uncooked majority of the time. My family always cooked vegetables to avoid our taboo of eating raw foodstuffs, degrading the act of eating salad was a way for us to protect our existing beliefs in eating. As mentioned by Annick de Witt, the amount of greenhouse gas emission could be reduced (more than 25%) as a result of low-meat diet is stunning. It made me questioned the amount of meat my family consumed since arriving in the U.S. I also realized I have been wasting food all my life, both in the form of over-consumption and simply throwing away leftover food. All food productions would contribute to greenhouse gas emission, and use of artificial chemicals like antibiotics in animal productions and pesticides in plant productions would pollute the environment and lead to serious public health problems.
My principle of eating was to taste for good flavors in food. Therefore when food was delicious like the soup my mom made, continuing to consume them regardless of type of food involved and my satiation level was easy, until I could not sense any empty space in my stomach. Knowing the environmental harm and negative health effects for my body derived from overconsumption, I would choose to eat for satiation and health to fulfill my basic physical needs. I choose to eat responsibly for the sake of the environment and myself. It seems like salads are back on the menu in my home after some yearns for healthy food, and plant-based diet could be an option for my family thanks to my parents’ open mindedness.
One of the main reasons for our open attitude toward food was that my parents’ families lived through a difficult time in China where meat was always in shortage. My grandparents never complained about having food that was too exotic to eat during warfare and famine. In contrast, the umami flavor inherent to various fresh meats, seafoods, and certain plants would be highly praised in China. These food adventures were made physically possible because there were supplies of exotic meat through farming or excessive hunting in China, perhaps due to the particularly picky taste buds of Chinese foodies that constantly seek the umami and fragrance that resembles one in their childhood memories. In the U.S., three main food animals claimed domination in conventional markets. Chickens, pigs, and cows turned into enormous amount of pork chops and steaks protected in Styrofoam trays ensured the availability and affordability of meats, but not the amazing umami naturally occurring in meats. Eating Animals described how the meat industry in the U.S., where countless animals are raised and killed, was highly McDonaldized. Essentially, efficiency and replicability are the top priorities in order to contribute to profitability. The existing model of meat industry inevitably sacrificed safety and taste by crowding many living organisms in a small space and feeding them antibiotics to promote growth and prevent disease. My memory of meats in China was drastically different from the U.S.. Poultry we purchased in China were always slaughtered right after we pick them out at the marketplace early in the morning. Larger animals like cows and pigs were purchased by the butchers from slaughter houses and brought to the market (I remembered seeing at least a quarter of a pig hanging from a metal hook on a metal shelf), and you get to decide which part of the animal you would like for the butcher to cut to your satisfaction. The meats we brought home from the marketplace were guaranteed to generate a magical taste, a slight sweetness cooperating seamlessly with savoriness. A very satisfying meal for my family would be born, one that’s umami- and aroma- saturated.
Despite the existence of innumerable recipes that could make different kinds of fresh meat extremely palatable, my maternal grandmother decided not to consume meat based on her Buddhist beliefs. Buddhism states that to consume animals and therefore result in the slaughter of animals is sinful, since all living beings in this world deserve a chance at living. Her decision, in part made to avoid the punishments that will be imposed on her in the afterlife or her next life, was greeted with discouragements from my parents and my mother’s siblings, who were concerned about the insufficient nutrient intake based on a vegetarian diet. And perhaps due to the unsupportive environment surrounding her, there weren’t much opportunities for her to experiment with various types of plants in one meal, eventually she fell to nutrient deficiency like everyone in the family expected. That was one of the main contributor to the worsening of my parents’ attitude toward vegetarianism. However, living the vegetarian lifestyle would be deemed as respectable in China because it’s mostly the action of a religious individual; it was considered selfless for one to sacrifice secular desire of oneself to allow other lives to live. I gained the chance of studying nutrition in higher education and the myth of vegetarian and vegan diet is not nutritionally sufficient for humans was debunked, and many benefits of veganism such as reduced environmental pollution and lessened inhumane treatment of animals were made clear to me. With this knowledge I can choose what to or what not to eat consciously with consequences in mind, but I still have a mission of convincing my parents of the sufficiency and efficiency of vegetarianism or veganism.
Being a Chinese Medicine doctor, my mom has always focused heavily on the relationship between food and health. Therefore my family--which lived in the hot and humid Southern area of China--had a huge taboo of raw food (in the fear of consuming pathogens or lava of parasites) and deep fried foods (to avoid its hot property). In Chinese Medicine, there’s a balance of different elements within our body, and ailments are born when that balance is disturbed by elements in the environment. Some pairs of properties countering each other included hotness and coolness, coldness and warmth, dryness and moisture, humidness and de-humidness. Since the geographical climate in Southern China was hot and humid, we always favored food that carries cooling or drying properties like certain leafy greens and seeds. Along with vegetables, fruit was an inseparable part of my family’s diet to achieve healthful eating. Although sometimes fruit had to come in from outside of China, going through special areas like Macau or Hong Kong, resulting in the sky-high prices of the more exotic fruits such as cherries, my mother was willing to pay the price not only due to her adventurous attitude toward food but also her belief in having a balanced and diverse diet that contribute to health. And when I underwent a severe sinus infection, my mom set up a strict guideline of what not to eat in order for me to have a speedy recovery. Her guideline was based on her education in a Chinese Medicine college and her personal experience: food that has the hot and dry property like beef and lamb and food with property of inducing sickness like peanuts and Chinese black mushrooms. And of course, the delicious snacks engineered to be addictive, according to Michael Moss, like chips were not on my menu. That is because chips have hot and dry property inherent to them as they are fried. My mother’s disciplined execution of the guideline and my eating habit as a result of it could explain my scarce experiences with chips in my life.
However, the shortage of tasty junk food in my childhood didn’t mean there was no deliciousness at all. One of my favorite food until today remains the soup my mom spends up to four hours to cook. When I was about five years old, mom prepared one of her greatest soups featuring fresh pork shoulder bones, rice beans, and china root. She gave me a bowl of the soup and went to shower after the sweat-inducing cooking process in Southern China’s summer. The soup was magical, I am still convinced, as I couldn’t stop myself from sneaking into the kitchen and extending the ladle into the clay pot without a mouse noticing, and treating myself to half of the ladle’s content. After numerous trips of my secret ordeal, my mom emerged from the bathroom and went to get herself some soup, just to find out--to my own surprise as well--almost half of the whole pot has gone into my stomach. This was a memorable experience and important lesson to me. The moral is that homemade foods with seemingly simple combination of ingredients are not any bit inferior to the tastebud-pleasing processed food. Some of the plants my mom would make soup with are nowhere to be found in my eight long years in the United States, but were accessible in China due to the demand and therefore supply of them, sometimes by small family farmers. Nonetheless, we adopted to the available ingredients here and were still able to make soups, just with a limited amount of variety.
Throughout this semester, I have learned a lot about how whole food and plant-based diet constitutes healthy eating. In the movie Forks Over Knives, physicians and researchers stated that eating healthily can potentially reverse fatal diseases like cardiovascular diseases. It is reasonable considering the excessive amount of proteins that an average American is consuming. Aside from eating healthily, I was made aware of my impact on the environment based on my choice of food. When we arrived in the US, our diet became more meat-based due to cheap, industrially produced meat, recipes revolving around meat, and rejection of raw vegetables. My family was inexperienced with plants found in the U.S. markets. We also compared humans eating salad to cattles grazing, adding a hint of dehumanization to eating salads or “raw grass”. That was because vegetables in salad are served uncooked majority of the time. My family always cooked vegetables to avoid our taboo of eating raw foodstuffs, degrading the act of eating salad was a way for us to protect our existing beliefs in eating. As mentioned by Annick de Witt, the amount of greenhouse gas emission could be reduced (more than 25%) as a result of low-meat diet is stunning. It made me questioned the amount of meat my family consumed since arriving in the U.S. I also realized I have been wasting food all my life, both in the form of over-consumption and simply throwing away leftover food. All food productions would contribute to greenhouse gas emission, and use of artificial chemicals like antibiotics in animal productions and pesticides in plant productions would pollute the environment and lead to serious public health problems.
My principle of eating was to taste for good flavors in food. Therefore when food was delicious like the soup my mom made, continuing to consume them regardless of type of food involved and my satiation level was easy, until I could not sense any empty space in my stomach. Knowing the environmental harm and negative health effects for my body derived from overconsumption, I would choose to eat for satiation and health to fulfill my basic physical needs. I choose to eat responsibly for the sake of the environment and myself. It seems like salads are back on the menu in my home after some yearns for healthy food, and plant-based diet could be an option for my family thanks to my parents’ open mindedness.