“The Pleasures of Eating” and Food Justice Reading Response:

In Wendell Berry's piece on "The Pleasures of Eating", he lists 7 ways to eat more responsibly. For this blog post, I am going to go through all 7 of them individually and express my opinion, because I want to and no one can stop me. 1. In Wendell's first point, he suggests that the reader plant their own food (regardless of the amount of room one has land-wise). I agree that the average consumer needs to be more aware and just in general think more about what the food they are eating has gone through to get to them. For some people, this never crosses their mind. I personally am guilty of not thinking as well, and I even worked on a farm for a long time. I rarely think about where the bananas in my lunch came from as I was sitting in the middle of a giant garden full of produce. I want to be more aware and I really want to grow my own food, but as a college student, I don't have the space AT ALL for even the smallest of gardens. 2. Berry's second point simply says "Prepare your own food". A home cooked meal is so necessary for some to be able to unwind after a long day, and it brings a greater respect to the ingredients used. Home cooked meals are one of my favorite things on planet earth, but again, as a college student (who is also on a meal plan), I haven't had access to a lot of food that was cooked with love in a while. The last home cooked meal I had was from my friend Max, who made me a lasagna for my birthday and I cried. The problem with time and access are also limiting factors for other people, so ideally everyone would be able to prepare their own food, but it just isn't plausible. 3. The third point is about finding the origins of one's foods and buying as local as possible. This is again ideal in a perfect world, but the lack of access to this information and resources to obtain "local" food is putting this idea on the back burner for a lot of people. I personally agree that if it were possible, people should buy from their local farmers. Supporting the local economy is vital to the growth of a community. While not all of my food (when I live at home) is produced local, because I worked on a farm, quite a bit more than what I imagine the average person has is local for me. 4. The fourth point says to deal with a local farmer, gardener, or orchadist whenever possible. This is directly related with the above point in the way that it supports the local economy and the overall community. I think it is so important for people to get to know their local farmers. It not only will benefit a lot of people, it also cuts out the several middle men involved with getting food to your plate. As for me personally doing this, of course I do! Local farmers are great people with a lot of knowledge and usually are more than willing to talk to people about fresh produce. 5. Berry's fifth point is a little different than the previous four, stating "Learn, in self defense, as much as you can of the economy and technology of industrial food production" (Bauer, 69). I agree with Berry that people need to know what is being done to modify their food before they blindly eat it. I say this knowing I am being hypocritical though, because I have never ever educated myself on the food I eat. If someone puts it in front of me and tells me what it is, I'm not going to doubt them. Saying this out loud (or rather seeing it typed), I know I really need to start paying more attention. At the same time, I've been eating blind for this long and I'm overall alright, so it must not be that bad, right? 6. Berry's sixth point is arguably his most important. In short, he says that people need to be involved and learn the best gardening and farming. This is so important to me, because I'm thinking about it through a livestock view. There is a famous saying that says "If slaughterhouses has glass walls, everybody would be a vegetarian". There are so many people who have genuinely no idea how their meat got in front of them. Or maybe they can separate the living breathing FEELING animals from the slab of meat in front of them. Either way, the public should be more willing to learn about the origins of ALL their food, not just the food that's the easiest to swallow (pun intended). While I don't know the specific slaughterhouses my meat comes from. I know the techniques and practices used to turn in from a cow to a prime rib. 7. The seventh and last point in Berry's piece says people should learn of the "life histories" of the food species. I don't agree that this a very important part of eating responsibly. It just doesn't seem like a very crucial part, especially after the one above. I don't think I'll adopt this, though it is interesting every once and a while. It seems VERY tedious for every single thing you eat. Now consider the excerpt from Food Justice. Do Gottlieb and Joshi illuminate anything that Berry takes for granted? In what ways are their arguments similar? In what ways are they different? In contrast to Berry’s piece is Food Justice (Gottlieb and Joshi). Their argument is that the supermarket is still a very necessary and vital part of food relationships. The two articles are arguing the two sides of an argument that has been going on for years. On one hand, the movement to eat local and grow your own food is on the rise and the benefits are obvious. On the other hand, the convenience and ease of a supermarket cannot be compared. Berry seems to not care or completely ignore the people who are unable to grow their own food, or may be hungry NOW, not in the time it takes for a potato to grow. However, eating only from a supermarket supports the disrespect of food and can hurt the economy and the environment with all the shipping involved. Either way, someone is unhappy.

Food In Asheville

I chose this image to represent food in Asheville because the food in this picture was all grown and prepared in Asheville. The image is a bowl of creamy vegetable medley with butter lettuce and a fresh baked roll. The soup had potato, carrot, okra, and several other freshly picked vegetables. I felt it embodied what I feel the people of Asheville try to show: it was all local, it was delicious, and it was prepared by people trying to better themselves and find better opportunities. It was also the first course in a meal provided (for free) by Green Opportunities. Green Opportunities is a non-profit organization that helps people living in poverty obtain and maintain jobs that not only help the community, but also the environment. I perceive Asheville as a very open and environmental place, and this picture just screamed local and fresh to me. Food in Asheville is healthy and fresh and wonderful, and this picture literally depicts that. The people who prepared it were very knowledgeable and nice people who really truly cared about the quality of the ingredients they were using. I am from Chapel Hill, and while the neighboring town of Carrboro is very similar in it's ideas of food, Chapel Hill is not so much. It's very refreshing to have a place actually care about where their food comes from and how it got there. The picture I chose embodies how food in Asheville (and really everywhere) should be, in that it means so much more than just a first course of some dinner. It means a positive future for the people who made it, it means a local movement to get more green, and it means that there will always a place for hungry people to not only survive, but thrive in this community.

Service Learning Reflection

Due to the amount of work and lack of ability to contact the site contact, I have not been able to help out in the ROOTS garden at all these past few weeks. I hope to be able to help with the actual direct work with the plants (like weeding and watering and such) but I do not know what is needed until I am able to get there and talk to the people who run the garden. Through I haven't worked in the garden yet, I know that through service learning, it will provide a greater appreciation to the production of food, since we are working with it from the start. I also know it will make the problem of food waste more apparent by showing the work involved with harvesting the fruits and vegetables. Academically speaking, the service being done will be helping me to learn more about how GMO's affect the Earth, as well as the repercussions of using harsh chemicals. While these concepts may be learned in a traditional classroom setting, it is worth noting that learning through hands-on work help to foster the relationship between what is being done and what is being learned. I imagine that through working in the ROOTS garden, one would be able to see the community in a different light. The food grown there and the people who work there are great advocates to the way that the community is run, and it makes the volunteers feel more a part of that. When joining a new community, it may be nerve-wracking, but through working, it is easier to see the connections the community has and where you personally may fit in. It also just feels good to help the community, regardless if you're a "true"part of it or not. In the future, I hope to actually work in the garden (obviously), but I also hope to learn better gardening practices and be able to improve the community as best as I can. The picture seen is the front of a different garden, because after 3 different attempts, I cannot find the ROOTS garden at all. I have emailed the supervisor, but the garden is very hard to find. I used this garden instead of a different one because this garden is the one I keep finding directions to get to and have ended up being here for the last 2 times I have searched for the real garden.