Annotated Bibliography
These annotated bibliographies will be used as sources for the Collaborative Research Project.
They were written collectively by the following people:
Breanne Canetti, Brittany Longo, Casey Otto, Lauren Ward
Berry, Wendell. "The Pleasures of Eating." Center for Ecoliteracy 1990: Web. Mar 2011.
<http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/pleasures-eating>.
Many people don't ask questions about their food. They find what they want and buy it. Simple as that. They don't care where it came from, how fresh it is, or even what's in it. These people are known as industrial eaters. Many companies like it this way. They don't want their consumers knowing how healthy their food is because then people won't buy it as much, therefore decreasing sales and ultimately money. Berry proposes several steps consumers could take to eat healthier and make wiser choices, such as growing your own vegetables and finding out where the food you buy comes from. He also brings up the topic of plants at the very end. A lot people don't think about how well the vegetables they are eating were treated. They go through a process similar to what animals go through. Plenty of chemicals are sprayed onto the vegetables. Berry ends the article saying that eating should be pleasurable, but there is no need to be ignorant about where your food comes from.
Fontaine, Sheryl and Susan M. Hunter. Collaborative Writing in Composition Studies. Thompson Wadsworth, 2006. 1-36.
Collaborative writing is about observation, collecting data, and conversation. “Collaborative participation in the conversation is marked by routine cognitive activities: listening and responding, collecting and recollecting information, and experiencing inunediate adjustments in thinking and, consequently, in comments.” One can’t properly engage in conversation unless he first determines what the conversation is about. Conversation is also about making choices—picking the appropriate response to a verbal stimulus. Conversation can be extended by thinking about the subject at hand and making connections to similar topics or branching in different directions. Our knowledge of a topic directly corresponds to what we will say or how we will act when talking. Language, by nature, engages an individual in dialogue. Fontaine and Hunter argue that “not all writing is collaborative, but all collaboration is at the heart of writing.” Explained, this means that everything we say, think, and write are partly our own and partly the idea of someone else. We are influenced in deep ways by the stream of conversation we hear (and participate in) every day.
Gregory, Sean. "Fast Food: Would You Like 1,000 Calories With That?." Time. Time, Inc., 29 JUN 2009. Web. 7 Apr 2011.
<http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1905509,00.html>.
As part of a health care reform, the Senate came to an agreement that nutrition facts need to be listed on all menus. The government has not passed this bill yet, but it is pending. The restaurant industry itself has been promoting the idea of putting nutrition facts somewhere near the place of purchase, so they are readily available to anyone who wishes to see them. Soon after, the industry changed its mind, claiming it would cause a lot of clutter. Most likely, they do not wish to post this information because of the high calorie counts in mostly all of their meals. It would probably turn off the customers. A study was done in a number of fast food restaurants, including McDonalds and Burger King, in which the nutrition facts were printed in a pamphlet or on a poster located on the wall. Of the 4,311 people who came into the fast food chains, only six people even glanced at the readily available information. This proves that the nutritional facts need to be posted on the menu in order for customers to see them. So far, the law requiring nutrition facts to be posted on menus has only be implemented in New York City, King County in Washington and Westchester County in New York. KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut have all promised to have their nutrition facts posted on their menus by January 2011.
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Darkside of the American Meal. Houghton Mifflin, 2001. 1-8. Print.
Fast Food Nation opens with an interesting anecdote—a testament to the infiltration of fast food. Air tight mountain base sealed by 25 ton steel doors and surrounded by enough men with ammunition to send an entire army packing? No problem, just call Domino’s. They always deliver. Americans spend more money on fast food than they do on computers, cars, movies, books, music, and education—and that’s combined. Schlosser argues that most Americans are seduced by the convenience and good taste of fast food. It’s affordable, it tastes good, and it provides jobs. What’s not to like? But there’s a dark side to fast food—nearly all Americans have at one point been employed by a restaurant (whether fast food or sit down) and yet it remains one of the lowest paying jobs in the United States. Teenagers are hired and fired without ever blinking an eye and farming, once a career of considerable skill, is now run by machines. Family owned farms and businesses are dying because consumers are led to believe that the unknown is bad: if it’s not from a chain franchise, it’s no good. Schlosser seeks to turn a few heads (and stomachs) by revealing what really lurks between the buns of your burger.
Schneider, Stephen. Good, Clean, Fair: The Rhetoric of the Slow Food Movement. College English, 2008. 384-400.
The Slow Food movement first emerged from Italy in the 1970s. Founded by Carlo Petrini, the goal of the Slow Food movement was to preserve the roles of pleasure and taste as a means of distinguishing culture. Slow Food caught on, and went international in 1989 after a McDonald’s opened up in Rome and caused a stir. Between 2000 and 2003, Slow Food chapters opened in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. “New Gastronomy” sought to revise the omnivore’s dilemma—that is, what to eat and more importantly what is good to eat. The purpose? “To watch over his conservation by suggesting the best possible sustenance for him.” Petrini argues that food is not just something to consume, but an identity of our culture, our happiness, and ourselves. Slow Food works with small producer communities to sustain, preserve, and promote regional foods. Petrini also introduced the “Noah Principal,” which is defined as a movement not intending to change the world, but instead to save it. Slow Food seeks to instill a set of principals in consumers. “Good, clean, fair.” Good food is tasty and diverse; clean food is preserved and does not destroy the environment; fair food is produced by socially acceptable means, and those producing it should be paid fair wages.
Swiecinski, Brett. In person interview. 6 April 2011.
Brett Swiecinski has worked at several different restaurants as a line cook, most notably at Hooter's and Friendly's. His jobs included both prepping food and cooking food at the restaurants. He said that the food being delivered to these corporate restaurants came from distribution centers that existed specifically to serve these particular restaurants. He explained that most food was delivered about twice a week, dated with "good by" stickers and then stored in freezers or refrigerators. For Hooter's, where he worked the longest, he said that the produce would come in fresh, as would the meat. Most of the foods that would be fried (wings, french fries, etc) would come in frozen. Although Hooter's had an open grill designed specifically so that the customers could see their food being cooked if they so pleased, Brett said that he always takes pride in his work, even if it is a corporate job. He has occasionally seen less than satisfactory work being done in the kitchen, but he himself would always strive to handle and the cook the food as if it were a meal he was making for himself. Although Brett did not go to school for cooking, he enjoys it and said he might like to open his own privately-run (non-corporate) restaurant one day. If he does, he will continue with the same quality of work he does now with all aspects in the restaurant. He also believes that working for a smaller, locally owned restaurant means an allowance for more creativity in the kitchen.
"About Us." Slow Food International. Slow Food, n.d. Web. 26 Apr 2011.
<http://www.slowfood.com/international/1/about-us?-session=query_session:96FA75AB0a6d70634AoYu3688244>.
Slow Food is a worldwide organization with supporters in about 150 countries. There are about 100,000 members, with about 1,300 local chapters, which they call "convivia". It's a non-profit organization that was founded in 1989 to try and counter the rising "fast food" trend.
"Good, Clean, Fair." Slow Food USA. Slow Food USA, 2010. Web. 26 Apr 2011.
<http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/slow_food/good_clean_fair/>.
This page discusses Slow Food's motto "Good, Clean, Fair". "Good" food means it comes from healthy plants and animals, while "Clean" food means it's healthy for us as well as good for the earth, and "Fair" food means that food should be available to everyone, no matter their economic status.
"Our Philosophy." Slow Food International. Slow Food, n.d. Web. 26 Apr 2011. <http://www.slowfood.com/international/2/our-philosophy>.
"Slow Food stands at the crossroads of ecology and gastronomy, ethics and pleasure. It opposes the standardization of taste and culture, and the unrestrained power of the food industry multinationals and industrial agriculture. We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to the pleasure of good food and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Our association believes in the concept of neo-gastronomy - recognition of the strong connections between plate, planet, people and culture."
"Slow Food." theecologist.com. The Ecologist, 1 Apr 2003. Web. 26 Apr 2011.
<http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/food_and_drink/268599/slow_food.html>.
"The Ecologist" is a magazine based in the UK that covers a range of topics relating to environmental issues on a global scale. This article provides a summary of the philosophy that inspired the slow food movement. It lists some figures about fast food for the United States and for the UK. There is also a brief discussion of raw-milk related to cheese production.