Prospectus!

For my research paper I will discuss the different ways in which animals are treated before they become food. I will explore the different areas of the world (through research not like Indiana Jones) and attempt to find differences and similarities that we share as a global community of meat eaters, but more importantly meat treaters. I feel it is important to know how animals are being treated before we eat them because they in a sense are one of the main reasons the human race continues to exist.
I will look into each of the different areas and try to see if the way they treat their animals has any negative or positive impacts on their communities. I would also like to compare the ways in which other cultures treat their animals with the way we treat ours and note if we could make any changes to our current system which has extremely questionable ethical and moral issues. I would also like to look into the health of the people in each location and see if any correlation can be made with how they treat their meat. I feel that communities that treat their animals better will be more likely to lead more comfortable lives and also have fewer problems among their society.
For my research I plan on using many world publications including newspapers that address global issues, mainly about food. I will then use the subscription databases offered on the library website to conduct further research on the places that I choose to do research on. I will also look into the major food producers and try and find out more about their companies through newsletters, guidelines, and investigative reports that have been done in their name. This will all help me put together a uniform paper that will interest and inform my readers.

Blog Project

I always figured that college would be much more useful than high school as far as real life application goes but I never thought a class could impact my daily life and daily habits so strongly! You could pretty much say I used to eat some form of fast food every day. When I’m not eating fast food I’m stuffing my face with whatever is being cooked in my house. Stuffing my face aimlessly just trying to fill my stomach without ever thinking about how my food came to be. How were my chicken breasts treated before I devoured them, how was my spinach grown before I made it vanish into the black hole that is my stomach? It may sound ignorant, but I had never even questioned if a certain type of food could make me feel better, always searching for great taste and the best bang for my buck I can honestly say I was oblivious to how big of an impact food has on me.

            So for my project I plan to explore the city to try and find new healthy and ethically good places to eat. When I say healthy I mean healthy for the environment, healthy for the eater, and even economically healthy places. To find these places I will go online and generate a list of restaurants and food place and attempt to visit them all. After visiting the restaurant I will take a couple photos and write a brief review of my experience. During the course of my project I plan to interview restaurant owners, try new foods, and gain a better understanding of how important food is and how big of a role it plays in everything we do.

            Through this project I plan to provide myself and my readers with healthy alternatives to the places where we constantly eat. I will share my first hand experiences in an attempt to get my readers to try new things. Every week I will try to visit at least two places on the list, possibly three or four depending on how hungry I am! Eating is one of my top five favorite things to do so I am really looking forward to this project and I expect that my closeness with the subject will surely show in each post. 

Response #2 Problem-Posing Assignment

In chapter three the issue of how dangerous working at a fast food restaurant actually is was brought to light. This troubles me deeply because most of the people that work at fast food restaurants are starting out their working careers in these restaurants. The dangers come in the forms of slips, falls, burns, strains, and in the worst case murders. In an industry that is filled with teenage workers and bright young minds this is clearly a problem. "In 1998, more restaurant workers were murdered on the job in the United States than police officers." A statistic like this doesn't make sense to me, how can people who work to flip burgers be more at risk than the people who put themselves directly in the line of fire? I can relate to this because I have worked in a fast food restaurant but I had never considered how many hidden dangerous were within the industry. Though most of the safety issues can be avoided by paying more attention the issues like having a gun put to your head and your life one in someone else's trigger finger have no easy solution. I can't imagine having to worry about my life everyday while going to work, as young adults we have enough problems as far as school and bills! Some places have tried to keep the amount of money in the cash register as low as possible but its clearly impossible for most places. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has attempted to set guidelines in the workplace but haven't made too much progress. Other measures taken to to reduce violent crime include spending millions on new security measures like video cameras, panic buttons, drop-safes, burglar alarms, and additional lighting. The reason this is such a big problem to me is because there are not many easy solutions. I feel that if a effective safety course was introduced to each worker could tackle the issue of injuries at the workplace. But as far as murders go I feel that greater security systems should be developed. I had in mind a type of floor system that is run by electricity, every restaurant should have a security room where someone controls this floor and can watch the cameras. When a robbery is occurring they should be able to divert many volts of electricity to the place in which the robber is standing in order to subdue them. This seems a little bit far fetched but if we have the technology to blow up our own planet numerous times I feel that its possible.

Crunchy Wings (descriptive writing revised)

As I dashed out of my apartment without any sort of subtlety and complete disregard for my neighbors who were probably counting sheep. I decided I should relax, slow my role, and take a deep breath for I needed it because of the extreme amount of anticipation for what I was about to devour. I headed down the street full of gum chewed up and spit out forever becoming part of the cement, a smile on my face and my head held high. I was a block away from the restaurant I couldn’t even how to pronounce but I could already recognize the scent of my chicken wings being dipped in scolding dark yellow oil that’s probably been boiling for days. I wasn’t in the mood for general tso’s this afternoon because every time it comes with a couple pieces of chicken that are as hot as an iceberg. By the time my wings were ready to be inhaled, I still had to wait for my rice to finish being fried, as I watched the small Asian lady toss and turn my rice and vegetables with such precision and ferocity I began to salivate and get startled at the same time. I had never seen someone make my food with so much emotion. A tear dropped from my eye but before it hit the floor, I heard a high pitched DING! My order is ready and now I must mutilate these wings with my bear hands for I am a savage hear me roar!

Descriptive Writing

As I dashed out of my apartment without any sort of subtlety and complete disregard for my neighbors whom were probably counting sheep. I decided I should relax, slow my role, and take a deep breath for I needed it because of the extreme amount of anticipation for what I was about to devour. I headed down the street full of gum chewed up and spit out forever becoming part of the cement, a smile on my face and my head held sky high. I was a block away from the restaurant I didn’t even know how to pronounce but I could already recognize the scent of my chicken wings being dipped in scolding dark yellow oil that’s probably been boiling for hours. I wasn’t in the mood for general tso’s this afternoon because every time it comes with a couple pieces of chicken that are as hot as an iceberg. By the time my wings were ready to be inhaled, I still had to wait for my fried rice to finish being fried, as I watched the small Asian lady toss and turn my rice and vegetables with such precision and ferocity I beg to salivate and get startled at the same time. I had never seen someone make my food with so much emotion. A tear dropped from my eye but before it hit the floor, I heard a high pitched DING! My order is ready and now I must mutilate these wings with my bear hands for I am a savage hear me roar!

Annotation

Grady, Denise. "In Feast of Data on BPA Plastic, No Final Answer." New York Times. New York Times, 6 Sept. 2010. Web. 20 Sept. 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/science/07bpa.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&ref=science>.

In this article Grady is discussing whether or not BPA is safe according to the latest research and experiments conducted. She also discusses the various amounts of groups and bills that feel that BPA is unsafe and should not be used. (not finished)

Como Estas

Hey all you blog reading peoples! You can't say that you're not a blog reader if you're reading this because it's a blog! This blog is dedicated to my Food Ethics class. My name is Hassan Malik and I am a freshman at LaGuardia Community College. I've just recently moved into the city from North Carolina where I've lived for most of my life. Now I reside in Spanish Harlem with my father and his family, where there's always something good cooking.

I'm Pakistani and Puerto Rican but I live in a Pakistani household so most if not all of the food we cook is Pakistani, luckily I'm surrounded by my fellow Puerto Ricans as soon as I step outside if I ever need my fix (spanish food). Most of our meals consist of rice, lentils, chicken, lamb, goat, and lots of vegetables. For the most part it is always spicy. My favorite dish to eat at home is chicken briyani, it consist of rice with chicken but has a distinct taste that I haven't been able to find anywhere else.

As far as food shopping stands my father goes to Jackson Heights once or twice a week to get our groceries, he's been buying it there ever since I can remember. Not only is most of the food cheaper over there but in order to follow his religion (Islam) he and the rest of the household must eat halal meats. I however was raised by my Puerto Rican mother so pretty much everything is fair game for me, but I do respect the household by not bringing outside meats home. But when im not in the house you can usually find me eating pizza, I personally think pizza is the greatest thing ever created by people, sometimes I think that aliens might have come down and taught humans how to make something so great! 

Since this is a blog I think I'm supposed to say whatever I'm feeling, and since the blog is about food and ethics and I feel that I must bring up something that came to my mind during environmental ethics this morning. Why have those little brats in the Trix cereal commercial never shared their cereal with the rabbit. They are selfish and it makes no sense...

end.