Building a $325,000 Burger

You might see cultured meat in the grocery stores as soon as the year 2020. Scientists have found a way to create meat without harming animals, and it's all done in a lab. As of right now, It's very expensive. They take a slice of a certain muscle tissue on the cow's neck and with a little help of nutrients, the cells in the tissue multiply rapidly and eventually create a hamburger patty, and apparently, it doesn't taste too bad either.

This has been, of course, a source of controversial conversations due to the fact that it's meat being produced in a lab. Is it real meat? Is it safe to eat? The answers are still quite clouded and it's up to the consumer to decide whether or not to buy this kind of thing in the future

This new finding, if perfected, can help the environment and prevent animals in the food industry from being abused like they do now. They won't have to raise an entire cow to get a hamburger. All it takes is a bit of cells. It would also help with the environment because it would greatly reduce water, land and energy use, and emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases. Unlike the present condition of the food industry, where raising livestock greatly depletes natural resources and produces a lot of methane. Also, once they efficiently produce meat this way, they can lower the cost of meat, and possibly decrease the amount of people starving in this world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/science/engineering-the-325000-in-vitro-burger.html

Why Factory Farming is a Broken System where Extreme Animal Cruelty and Abuse is the Norm

Why Factory Farming is a Broken System where Extreme Animal Cruelty and Abuse is the Norm

This article is about the harsh reality of life for factory farmed animals, how factory farms respond to poor conditions for animals,  and the hope for change. Most animals are packed on each farm with overcrowding conditions. This harms the animals because it causes stress which can affect their well being. Animals are subject to antibiotics through their feed and water daily. Sadly many animals spend their lives crammed inside barren, windowless sheds or cages so small where they can barely move.  Some examples include hens not having the ability to walk around freely and spread their wings, and pigs not having space to turn  around, lie down comfortably. However factory farms aren't doing anything about it.  Instead of providing animals with more room and enrichment, factory farmers mutilate the animals bodies to prevent them from attacking one another. Factory farms intensively confine, painfully mutilate, and injure animals  just for profit. According to the farms its “money before mercy,” and only a few businesses are doing anything about it. Some of the few companies doing something about it include Walmart who has a animal welfare policy that reduces the suffering of millions of birds, pigs, and cows every year and Nestlé, Starbucks, and Aramark adopted comprehensive animal welfare policies. There is hope, it's just a matter of fact of enforcing animal rights and taking action. Animals shouldn't be living like this, they should have the right to a better quality of life. These horrible conditions can affect the animals and even the food quality being produced from them. If you don't have healthy animals, you won't have good quality food that is safe. Animals do provide us food but are being separated from their own natural existence.

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/factory-farming-animal-cruelty/

Food Deserts blog1

More often than usual, we do not think of food as a social issue, especially when it comes to poverty and racism; however, these are factors that damage the marginalized in more ways than one. Food deserts affect many aspects of peoples lives, mainly people of color. The article, "What's a 'Food Desert'?" describes food deserts as a, "geographic areas where mainstream grocery stores are either totally absent or inaccessible to low-income shoppers" (Market Makeovers). The article states that food deserts mostly occur in rural areas, and how grocery stores can be more than a mile away. This creates many health issues for the residents living there, and for minorities to become the ones affected by it. Most of the time, the food that is available in places like convenience stores, or small stores have mostly only junk food. In food desert areas, it is shown that fast food restaurants are always present instead of actual grocery stores. Not only that but vegetables cost a lot more since it is hard to obtain them or sell them. This type of issues causes for obesity rates to go up, and it is shown to target poor resident areas. It is shown in the diagram below how food deserts play a big role in our health. The article, "Food Deserts" (second link) goes in more depth on what cities are mostly affected and how to recognize a food desert in the city. Generally, richer neighborhoods have more grocery stores present and less fast foods, while poorer neighborhoods suffer from almost none existent supermarkets. In 2008, South L.A demonstrated to have many food desert areas which affected an area of mostly Latino and Black residents. Food deserts are everywhere and can be as local as cities like Compton, Bell, and Norwalk. The article then ends with solutions and ways to fix food desert areas. 

http://www.marketmakeovers.org/why/food-desert

http://www.foodispower.org/food-deserts/

LOCAL FOOD SPOT~

     Hello everyone, I get pretty excited when it comes to food, this isn't a reputable source or anything related to our blogging task, I just love food.
     Anyway, if anyone happens to be researching GMO's or the meat industry in general you should try this restaurant out. It's a restaurant called LA Brisket, and their mission is to supply the public with meat that is free of hormones and antibiotics (the stuff that makes your chickens unnecessarily fat.) The restaurant is located in Artesia, California and is only about ten minutes or less from school. It is a new location and they serve sandwiches, rice, something similar to carne asada fries, all in all it is good stuff. Oh, and their sandwiches are all named after freeways in LA!
      I actually happened to speak to the head chef about how he researched their meat supplier and how their meats were being raised all the way up to how they ended up in their kitchen. This made me feel just a tad bit more secure with choosing this restaurant and a little more on edge about others. I stumbled across this place while arguing about where to eat next, and thought it would be sort of cool to explore this style of eating.
     This isn't the direction I am going with for my research topic, but just a fun way to spice up your interest in this unit. Last but not least, I encourage everyone to be picky about the nature of your food, you'll be surprised about how it came to be.

Here are some pictures to further entice you guys!~

[KC]: PoF BLOG - First Course

Due by Monday March 13th (6:00 pm)  

1 post, 1 comment

Complete at least one post where you introduce a reputable source to the class. Share the link and write a 250-300-word post explaining the idea behind the source and how it might be helpful. Also, complete at least one comment on someone else’s post.

[KC]: PoF Vocabulary

Here are the vocabulary words for this unit! 

[KC]: Your Food Story

What is your food story?  What are your earliest memories around food, cooking, and eating?  What is  your favorite food?  Favorite cuisine? Favorite restaurant? Your guilty pleasure?   Who is the cook in your family?   Do you cook?  Are you interested in learning to cook?  How will you learn? Who is your teacher?  These are prompts! You don’t have to answer all of these questions!  They’re just here to get you started.

Many of us -- especially  women, but not only women -- have painful and troubling issues around food (and body image).  Do you know anyone who is plagued by this?  Do you enjoy food, or is food a problem?

Use all of your skills as a writer to craft your food story:  good language, good organization, sensory details -- even dialogue! This is a narrative, so use of first person is fine!

• Between 450-650 words
• MLA format
• Turnitin.com
• Due March 7