Looking Back

My identity at the Oxfam hunger banquet.

When reflecting on this assignment I noticed a few trends in the meals I ate, things I noticed mostly from the pictures I took. But I also realized a lot about my eating habits from attending an Oxfam hunger banquet. At the banquet, we each were randomly assigned to either the lower, upper, or middle class. I was randomly assigned as one of the 6 members of the upper class. During this exercise, I ate at a fully set table and was waited on and served a three course meal(which was similar to the foods I would eat at home) while the majority of people there sat on the floor eating rice out of bowls with no silverware and drinking 'dirty' water. The upper class was defined as people making more than $12,000 USD/year! I can't believe that is the world's standard for the upper class. As cheesy as it sounds, this experience was really moving for me, especially after documenting what I had been eating for a week. I realized how fortunate I am to have food everyday, without working for it really, and also how fortunate I am to have choice. To chose what I want to eat, to be vegetarian or not, to chose healthy(and expensive) options, and to be able to eat until I am full. In real life, I am also in the upper class. As I mentioned in my blog entries, many of of my meals were eaten around a table complete with table cloth, candles, and multiple options and enough food for everybody. I am very fortunate in many aspect of my life, and my diet is no exception.

I noticed some other things about the meals I eat. I noticed that I am healthier than I give credit for. Only one of my meals contained meat, and it wasn't the biggest portion on my plate. Also my meals contained an average of 2.57 different vegetables and five of my seven meals had a salad as the main course or a side dish. I also noticed that I did not cook a single meal of the seven I documented. I think this can partially be attributed to my traveling for the first half of break, and also to the fact that I am not home very often and my parents like to cook my favorite meals for me when I am home.
I found this experience to be more personal than I anticipated and I am glad I chose this as an option for my creative activity project. I also learned how to make a blog, this is my first, and I think it is really fun. If I won the lottery(big time though), I think blogging would become a new hobby of mine. When thinking about this project in relation to Earlham College and my Environment and Society class, I feel like we should have more assignments like this that put us into the context of what we are learning. I think a really interesting project option would be for students to document every single action they take in one day (i.e. turning on lights, checking the weather online before class, using the sink to brush teeth, attending class, eating in saga, working out in the wellness center, using the Internet to do work) and record how many of those actions are only possible with a technology or source not seen to the student. I think it would be fairly impossible to track back this sort of think, but I believe a serious reflection on the disconnectedness of our actions would be really interesting and eye opening.

The Quest for Giorgio Mushrooms

One part of this food blog assignment is to follow a product back to its original source. I decided to trace back some fresh mushrooms that my mother purchased at our regular grocery store. I have never traced a food product back before so I thought I better start with the label. I googled Giorgio mushrooms and was surprised to discover that they have their own website. Giorgio claims to be America's favorite mushroom(I thought they were pretty good!) and their company began in 1928 in Temple, PA. From their website I discovered that all of their mushrooms(millions of pounds a year) are grown in one of their three farms and picked by hand. I also learned that Giorgio seems to have very high standards for their company,their motto refers to continuous improvement and the are a Integrated Pest Management company. IPM is a system of pest management which has three stages prevention, observation, and intervention. This system of pest management stresses pest management, not pest eradication, and prevention. Giorgio's website claims, " Giorgio, we use pesticides only when absolutely necessary. We limit the amount of chemicals applied by using other, non-chemical and natural pest control techniques to reduce pest damage. These steps include shortening crop cycles, pest exclusion, sound growing practices that produce healthy, disease-resistant crops, and strict farm sanitation. Furthermore, we implement the latest research to win the battle against pests." The cans used for Giorgio's canned products are made in a factory right next to their farm and an another factory nearby in Pennsylvania. Giorgio Foods has a slide show of the growing process from start to finish on their website and encouraged people to visit the farms and take a tour!The slide show can be viewed here http://www.giorgiofoods.com/index.php?p=25.Overall, I didn't find out exactly where the mushrooms came from but the transparency of this company is really comforting and impressive!

These are the mushrooms from Giorgio Foods.

Monday December 6th-Oh the Wonders of Saga

It's crunch time-the week before finals! So much studying, and so little free time, especially time to eat. I think this concept is very indicative of college life- your priorities rearrange from their biological need for survival to the social need for survival. Is sleep really necessary? How much? Is six hours good enough? Probably. But, is eating really necessary? In my experience, I have discovered that eating is necessary, but in the essence of time, healthy eating may not be the best option, or a option, if you're eating at Saga.Today was no exception. With class till noon, and tours to lead at 1:00 and 2:00, Saga was really my only option for lunch. My typical meal in Saga is: spinach with mushrooms, chickpeas, green peppers, olive oil and vinegar, a bowl of cereal with soy milk, snow peas, water, and a lot of complaining about the lack of good food. All I want is some good fresh vegetables! Something that looks more like the meals I chose to eat at home. A little asparagus, some kiwis, grapes, Portobello mushrooms, avocados MMMMMMM. But alas, none of those things find there way into Saga. If you are curious as to what will be served in Saga, you can view the menu for the week here:http://www.earlham.edu/~sas/reslife/documents/menu.pdf . Today was a day a little out of the ordinary for me, I had spaghetti and sauce, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and snap peas. I don't really enjoy the food offered in Saga, but I do enjoy the environment and company(except during the lunch rush). Visiting another college's dining hall and having several meals there over a few days made me pretty jealous, but I also noticed that their "better tasting, more environmental friendly, healthier, and over-all more desirable" dining hall was missing one crucial element-camaraderie. Each meal we ate, it was just the two of us, or friends we walked to the dining hall with. My friend told me that he eats every meal alone because the chances of him seeing someone he knows are pretty slim. I was shocked to hear that. Eating alone? Thats crazy, I know every person in saga, and a lot of the people who work there too! I guess we can't have everything, but I think I like it better this way.