Creating Relationships With Food

I recently read an article in the New York Times about a farmer from Main who has carried on his family tradition of farming. Unlike his great - great grand parents Jason has dedicated his life to growing organic fruits and vegetables. Jason much like the slow food movement is supporting an organic way of life that promotes Slow Food as one would call it. Slow food is defined as “Slow Food is an idea, a way of living and a way of eating. It is a global, grassroots movement with thousands of members around the world that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment” (Slow).  

Slow foods movement is a movement that has arisen over the last 30 years in efforts to combat corporate farming and genetically modified foods. Genetically modified food has exploded into American food markets in efforts to monopolize on profits and decrease waste. In the midst of this transition we have essentially lost the value of food and its benefits as well as the impacts that our food system can have on the environment. Hence this answers the question on what social problem evoked this movement that attempts to fight corporate farming and genetically modified food.   

Slow foods main goal is to protect the heritage of our food, as well as to protect the tradition and culture. Culture and tradition are interconnected with food threw cooking. Seeing cooking food is something that is passed down generation to generation.  Culture is tied into this because it is something that varies from country to country and even family to family.  Slow foods fundamental beliefs are biased upon good, clean, fair food. When they talk about good food they are talking directly about food that is full of nutrients that are good for you. Clean obviously means food that has not been produced with chemicals that may harm you. Finally when they talk about fairness they are talking about food that is good for you and the environment as well as at a cheap fair price. People who promote slow food are your everyday people; they are farmers who care about you and your well being. They have a love for what they do and they care about the quality of goods they produce. Farms aren't like your average supermarket. There people, care it means something to them. It’s not just producing foods it’s a way of life. Now these are the people I would want to invest my money in and trust.

Slow food supports regional biodiversity meaning the diversity of food based on regions. Super markets now don’t have seasons they don’t have regional differences in food. They are superficially uniform. Thusly providing convince to consumers that hides the importance of having a relationship with food. This basic attribute that super markets provide is essentially what Slow Food attempts to combat.  Negative result of having no seasonality in our super markets results in having no relationship with food. Slow food focuses on creating relationships between consumers and their food. Also it is essential in the slow food movement to establish a relationship with the farmer and the consumer. In doing so it helps to show people how important the land and soil is in producing their food.

Slow food helps to promote tradition and culture by promoting regional difference in food. It also promotes the tradition and culture of cooking. By creating relationships with the food we eat we begin to understand not only more about our food by understand ways to cook it and prepare it. When you by a cheese burger form McDonalds you are not only losing the relationship between the consumer you are not acknowledging the tradition and culture of the food you are eating, mainly because a cheese burger form McDonald lacks all of this traits. If we look at the preparation of food and traditionally how it was done we can see major differences in what is eaten here in Massachusetts and what is eaten in Mexico or Canada because the food that is available is different during different times of year. Eighty years ago you could not find apple pie in New Mexico because apples did not grow there. You could not find organs in Main or pumpkins in Florida.

 It is because of our industrialization of food we see the migration of food over far distances and with the migration of food we see the dissipation of tradition, culture, and relationships in concerns to food. Hence slow food to promote the tradition, culture and value we need in food.     

Here are two videos related to slow food

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECzTRG7tjV0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-ljW5YEdao&feature=related

Here is the News article on the farmer form Main.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/from-a-farm-stand-new-and-old-insights/?ref=organicfood

Work Cited

Slow Food International - Good, Clean and Fair Food. Web. 01 Nov. 2011. <http://slowfood.com/>.

The Cost of Sexuality

Sexual preference towards the same sex, or in other word homosexual, has become quite the controversial subject over the last decade or so. As more and more people are becoming open about their sexuality it is thus contributing to the massive up rise against the gay community.  Ones sexuality has become as controversial as abortion. While we may ponder how this has become such a hot topic we need not look too far to find pure evidence of this unsettling truth, as we can see the pure hatred that is put forth onto the gay community. As I pursued threw massive amounts of articles written about sexuality I came across one that was quite upsetting. The story was about a 15 year old boy who killed himself due to the immense bulling he suffered at school, due to his sexual preference. It was startling to me that a boy of only 15 would be tormented to the point of death just because he was a little different than everyone else.  Which thus evokes the question why our society has an immense hatred towards the gay community? We also may question to what degree is this social problem amongst our community and to what extend is it negatively affecting our society?

As we begin to explore how sexual preference has become such a vast social problem we must understand fully what being gay really means to be homosexual. Homosexuality is defined as “of, relating to, or characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another of the same sex” (Homosexual). We can see a large movement against gay rights much like the movement against black rights as well as women’s rights. Hence we can understand how homosexuality and the acceptance of gays in our society is a social problem. We can see to a vast degree that the masses of our society are disillusioned by the gay movement.

While the internet is filled with loads of information on why it is not right to be gay or why gay people should not be allowed to get married we can understand how an issue such as gay rights would be a social problem. I came across one sight that was quite alarming it was a Christian site and the article was titled “10 reason Why Being Gay is Wrong” (Sarah).  The article stated “allowing gay marriage would cause more people to want to be gay…. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior…People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract” (Sarah). What we can establish here is that the counter argument against gay marriage is quite harsh and unrealistic. The claim that is we allow gay couples to become legally married will thusly cause a rise in human in pet marriages is not only not likely but also foolish.

Social implications of such rhetoric portrayed above cause countless problems. One primary social problem is the hatred of gays which consequently causes them to act on their emotions, actions such as seen in the news article about the young boy who took his life due to bulling. There is a common understanding that being gay is a controversial issue seeing we see it in the news all the time while the question of what causes this hatred towards the gay community remains. It may be due to a lack of knowledge, of understanding, or the fear of the unknown. While some may support feelings due to religious beliefs or political views the question still remains to why one would presume these hatful views are just. As it is clear that the hatred towards gays causes many problems in society the general understanding of where all this hatred comes from and why is still up for debate.

Works Cited

"Homosexual - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homosexual>.

"Jamie Hubley, 15, Commits Suicide After Bullying." Advocate News. 17 Oct. 2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://news.advocate.com/post/11580677515/jamie-hubley-15-commits-suicide-after-bullying>.

Sarah. "10 Reasons Why Being Gay Is WRONG!!! - Debating Mums! - Circle of Moms." Circle of Moms - Online Mom Groups, Mom Blogs, and Parenting Resources around Motherhood, New Moms, Pregnancy, Babies, Toddlers, Parenthood, and More - Circle of Moms. 02 Mar. 2010. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.circleofmoms.com/debating-mums/10-reasons-why-being-gay-is-wrong-495045>.

Behind the Mythological Veil of Economic Structures

While many feel that racism is a thing of the past this is far from the truth. Racism not only is just as present in our society as it was 60 to 70 years ago, but even worse it is masked by our economic structure. A current article I found was based out of Acton Ma where a mother was suing the Raymond school district for negating to protect her son again racial harassment. What struck me about the article that I found online was the outlandishly nature of this case merely based on the fact that a 16 year old would have so much hatred towards a black fellow student to lash out on him in school. Now it must be the case that the parents have plaid some role as well as the community around this young child as he/she has not experienced much of life to develop these hatreds of his own.  Therefore we come to question why a community or society as a whole has racism to the extent that it is effecting its youth population to act out on this hatred, and how is this racism a social problem.

 First off we must establish in essence what racism really it. Racism is known as the “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” (Racism).  What is apparent here is that racism is as we understand it involves the belief that our ethnicity determines whether we will be a millionaire or living in the slums. What is quite strange about this definition is the popular belief that whether someone is a black or white it will thus effect what they do in their lives. While we live in a nation that claims all men are free and equal. Equal to achieve and become whatever we want this racist belief contradicts everything we portray our society to be. One might question how this is and why it is.

We can see racism as it is something that dominates our society but what we need to understand how it has become a social problem. A social problem is defined as “is a condition that at least some people in a community view as being undesirable” (What Is). Undesirable is an interesting aspect of what we claim a social problem to be. Herbert J. Gans a sociologist well rounded in racism. He claims that racism is a “Judgments of the poor as undeserving are not based on evidence, but derive from a stereotype, even if, like most others, it is a stereotype with a ‘kernel of truth’” (Gans, 217).  What we can see here is that the understanding of racism as a social problem is that it is a stereotype, created by the majority, that deems the poor (black, immigrants, and so on) as undeserving. The nature of racism as a social problem is the idea of racism being a stereotype for the unworthy or undeserving. Therefore we can see that the understanding of racism is the idea of worthiness, worthiness in a since of wealth.

We can recognize how racism cost or in some cases a benefit to the society. For those who are not amongst the poor Gans states that racism is beneficial, “Poor is good for you” (217). In a since having racism that promotes the idea of the poor being undeserving is not necessarily a cost to those who are not amongst the poor it is a benefit in which allows the wealthy to blame the poor for any short comings of the society.  Thus we are creating a situation in which those who are not amongst the poor benefit from their short comings as they become the scapegoats of society. On the other hand as we look at this cost from the undeserving we unveil a very different truth. A truth that depicts a very upsetting reality reality worthlessness, struggle and exploitation set upon the poor. It is a strange truth for those amongst the undeserving class as they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. As they seek to move out of the ghetto to become a part of the worthy class they meet yet another problem. A problem such as the boy in the Acton school meet and this is the problem of overcoming the ideology of their stereotype of undeserving. At this point we can begin to understand the causes of this problem.

             Racism is cause due to the understanding of this stereotype that we established earlier, a stereotype that creates a since of fear and aggravation for both the worthy and unworthy. Racism in itself creates a self promoting feature. Where it allows the poor to be put into a situation in which they must beak the norm to survive thus the worthy then become fearful and angered by their behavior due to their shortcomings. It is an unruly truth in which persists in our society Gans also states that “The undeservingness of the poor is an ancient stereotype and like all stereotypes, it vastly exaggerated the actual dangers that stem from the poor….” (230). Gans here establishes the idea the racism evolves from the creation of the poor. As the poor persists in our society so will the racism. Whether or not people generally agree with this assumption is yet to be distinguished seeing that for much of the society racism does not exist. This is due to the facade of our economic structures.

            We can thusly conclude that as long as we have wealth and an upper class we can count on racism to persist whether it is acknowledged or not. For with wealth comes the ideology of the undeserving class (poor). So we can comprehend that if a society is to eradicate its poverty it consequently will eliminate its racism. Thusly it would create a classless system with no class conflict or racism.

Works Cited

Gans, Herbert J. "Uses of the Under Class Pages 217-230." Scribd. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. <http://www.scribd.com/doc/21224236/Uses-of-the-Under-Class-Pages-217-230>.

"Lawsuit Filed Over Racial Harassment At Massachusetts High School | Racism Daily." Racism Daily | News On Racism | Racism News | Race News | News On Race. 12 Oct. 2011. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. <http://racismdaily.com/2011/10/12/lawsuit-filed-over-racial-harassment-at-massachusetts-high-school/#more-7545>.

"Racism - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism>.

"What Is a Social Problem." Project LEGAL. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. <http://www2.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/sp.html>.

The Haves and Have Not’s

Economic inequality is something that has loomed over our country for centuries. What was interesting about the article that I found on “The Street.” What caught my attention was that it was titled “Income Inequality? Americans Don’t see it”. Basically what the article begins to unfold that 52% disagreed that American has a problem with economic inequality. I was shocked by this statistic. To me it seems clear that there is an economic divide between that haves and have not’s. Especially because this divide has become larger and larger over the last 20 to 30 years.  

            What we might ask is how Economic inequality is a social problem when 52% of the society feels that it is not an issue. First we must establish what economic inequality is, it is defined as “comprising all disparities in the distribution of economic assets and income. The term typically refers to inequality among individuals and groups within a society” (Social problems).  Hence economic inequality is a social problem mainly because it affects a large majority of the population. Seeing that the “richest 20% of Americans earn 10 times the amount of the poorest 30%. Now one might see that the richest 20% would probably disagree with the fact that economic inequality is a social issue seeing they are not negatively affected by these inequalities, which is true in one aspect but if we begin to look at the social cost we can see it affects all citizens including the rich. 

            As we begin to evaluate the cost of this social problem it becomes a little frightening that 52% of America do not recognize these costs. Steve Pressman a professor of economics states that “inequalities hurt the economy but decreasing productivity as well as reducing efficiency” (Bernasek). Thus we see with the decline of productivity we see a drop economic growth consequently producing recession. Recession then promotes more inequality seeing that we see an increase in unemployment and an increase in governmental assistance. We also see as a result of economic inequality an increase in crime. Crime increases due to the fact that people are frustrated with the inequality amount the society and it is an attempt to fight the inequality.

            While we understand the wide ray of cost of economic inequalities the causes of this social problem are a little more complex. Common dreams establishes three fundamental reasons for the economic inequality spur from “capitalism, government, and pay” (Gutman). This becomes more clear if evaluate the fact that in order to have capitalism you must have capital thus capitalism has a built in tendency to reward those who work hard for what they have. The government plays a large role in economic inequality seeing that they tax (take money away from one group) and redistribute that money (to other groups). Pay also becomes an underlying cause of economic inequality due to the earnings of workers. Business Week sates “the CEOs of large corporations earn, in salary and other compensation, five hundred times what their average workers make” (Gutman). While we can probably assume that the worker is working much harder and longer hours than the CEO.

            What may be confusing is if the American people generally agree with the causes of Economic Inequality. As we have seen in the news clip about Americans not seeing economic inequality we may assume that if 52% of Americans don’t think there is an economic gap, but for those that do know about the economic inequality the causes seem clear, seeing that our economic system is based on capitalism. We can also see that society understands that governments are partly to blame due to the reaction to fair taxation of the upper class. Pay on the other hand may not hold as much precedence in the cause of economic inequality seeing that most people do not know how muck the wealthy make and this is for a reason. Although what is understood is the economic inequality is a social problem that become worse and worse over the years.

Works Cited

Bernasek, Anna. "Income Inequality, and Its Cost - New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 25 June 2006. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/business/yourmoney/25view.html>.

Brownell, Matt. "Income Inequality? Americans Don't See It - TheStreet." Stock Market Today - Financial News, Quotes and Analysis - TheStreet. The Street, 04 Oct. 2011. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. <http://www.thestreet.com/story/11266530/1/income-inequality-americans-dont-see-it.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN>.

Gutman, Huck. "Economic Inequality in US." Home | Common Dreams. 1 July 2002. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. <http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0701-05.htm>.

"Social Problem." Google. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. <http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab>.

Pointing the Finger

Corporate Responsibility is a topic that is covered in chapter 14 is at large a huge controversial issue in today’s business world. Corporate responsibility is refers to “consideration of, and response to, issues beyond the narrow economic, technical and legal requirements of the firm to accomplish social benefits along with the traditional economic gains which the firm seeks”.  Seeing that BP’s disaster with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico incorporated so much of corporate responsibility I figured it would be the perfect example of the lack of corporate responsibility. While the oil began to spill into the Gulf of Mexico BP stated that only 1000 barrels of oil where spilling into the ocean, where individual scientist where stating that number was merely not accurate and stated that it must be at least 70,000 barrels. BP refused to allow scientist to test the spill to establish an accurate number of what was actually spilling into the gulf. While Tony Hayward stated that “I think BP’s response to this tragedy has been a model of good social corporate responsibility. It has mounted an unprecedented response”.  All the while they refused to release video of the spill to the news. Not to mention BP continued to blame others for the spill where they stated that they well, equipment, and employees where all Transocean’s. They refused to take responsibility for not being responsible for the mishap. Not to mention Tony Hayworth gain 18million dollars after leaving BP and BP refused to put money toward the people who where effected form the spill until everything was said and done. BP claimed that they where a perfect model of corporate responsibility. If BP is the model for corporate responsibility then we are all in a bit of trouble because there lack of care and willingness to cooperate with common laws is unacceptable.  

Corporate Control, What Happens to those Who have nothing?

“The purist of profits is an old story” Although there was at one point a time when things that were seen as to secrete and to indispensable to human life and the public good to be seen as privatized by any given person or business. We really begin to see where this privatization has begun in the modern age if look at the 1400^th and 1600^th century. During that time period people and communities worked with a collective responsibility where people belonged to the land the land did not belong to the people. Stating then in Europe we began to see the enclosure of commons. Commons such as the grand land masses of the worlds which were reduced to private property. Thus we began to see the privatization of our oceans of the world where we created laws and regulations that allow counties and even corporations to claim a certain amount of water out of their country. After these we see air being privatized were it is divided and could be bought and solid buy airplane companies. With deregulations privatization is an enclosure of the commons as privatization takes hold. We begin to question what creates wealth. Is wealth is only created when it is owned by someone? In essence privatization causes a usurpation of wealth. What we now see is that we do not give so publicly owned property it to some nice person, we see it being sold to the high-test bidder and the highest bidder is in most cases an unaccountable tyranny. It sounds out idiotic to think that the world’s most powerful companies would like everything to be owned by someone but this is essential what is happening and what they want. Now I understand the reasoning for this is that if everything is owned there would be someone that was help to preserve if for their own wealth. But that leaves the question of what do those that do not own anything.

Now with this said many of you may be thinking what any of that has to do with corporate control. So what we know can speak on the idea that 2/3 of the world will not have access to fresh drinking water in 2025. An a idea such as this which has provoked a the preliminary confrontations of control over the world’s most basic resources. When Bolivia sought to refinance the public water service the World Bank required it be privatized. Thus we have the Bechtel corporations which gained control of all Copacabana’s water even the water that falls from the sky.  

Now the problem with this is that citizens of Copacabana are not allowed to collect rain water or even use any type of water without paying a fee for it. Seeing most Copacabana citizens live on one dollar a day it is easy to see how this privatization of an essential human need is disastrous to the Bolivian people.  Bechtel even takes it to the extreme of confiscating Copacabana’s citizen’s homes for payment of water use. When citizens decided to fight for their right to use water without being charged the government enforced Bechtel’s regulations on the city and a war brook out where citizens where being shot and killed.

This leaves on to question how far Corporate Control will go and who really wins, not the citizens of Copacabana that is for sure. “Water has been characterized as the oil of the 21st century. Blue gold. It is essential to life, and yet humanity faces a growing water crisis as a result of severe mismanagement in water and sanitation, which will be exponentially exacerbated in the coming decades by population growth combined with declining resources”  (Coha). Seeing the breakdown of privatization and neoliberal policies in Latin America have taken place it should not come as a surprise that the people are objecting to the privatization of this basic human need, because what happens to those who don’t own anything at all?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLhvhW55c_s

http://www.coha.org/water-for-sale/

Exporting Intermediaries

I decided to write my blog on export intermediaries which are somewhat like a middleman of international trade. They are known as a “firm that acts as a middle man by linking domestic sellers and foreign buyers that otherwise would not have been connected” (Peng 138). I found a website of a more in depth look at exporting intermediaries which are known as indirectly exporting.  Essential this site is instilling the idea that exporting intermediaries are used in efforts to decrease the risk of entering into foreign markets. Vices such commission agents, exporting management, exporting trading companies, exporting agents, and piggyback marketing.

Commotion agents are used to find firms that want to purchase domestic products. Exporting management projects act as an exporting departure for several products. Exporting trading company are used as facilities to exports of domestic goods and services. Export agents, merchants, or remarketers maintain the job of packaging and marketing products to the manufacturer’s specifications. Piggybacking marketing is an arrangement where one of the manufacturers or firm distributes the other firms services and even products to another country where they know and understand the culture and the markets demands.

http://www.bizmove.com/export/m7e.htm