Friday, September 19, 2008

What do you think of "Frankenstein" plants?




Personally, I do not like the idea of genetically modified foods. However, that is me looking at it from an environmental perspective, not an economic one. However, I think that sustainable development in different countries should remain just that- sustainable. I think that GM plant production could have long-term costs though it may look good to some now, economically speaking. However, if you are vegetarian I would suggest you be very cautious to avoid GM foods, as they often put genes of different in animals in DNA of plants to help them grow more efficiently. I'm not vegetarian anymore, but that's kinda weird.

Prince Charles is acutally vehemently against GM food

There is a very two-sided debate at hand here

BBC Quick Guide to GM Food

Read up on it and make up your own mind. What do you think of it? Do you think it will really help feed the hungry or mess up the environment?

On a very related note, there has been a recent television campaign to bring modified food back into peoples' good graces. With the marketing of the organic food movement, I guess those big companies invested in GM are losing a lot of dough.

There is this pro-high fructose corn syrup commercial, where this guy picnicing with his girlfriend refuses to eat a popsicle because of its high fructose corn syrup and the girl asks him what wrong it could do to him, and he can't answer. She then continues to say that its "just corn" and good for you in moderation and then this website comes up:

www.sweetsurprise.com

The website states that high fructose is the equal of every other sweetener, affirms its safety and talks of its "numerous benefits" which is mainly food preservation.

Anyways, I got a kick that they did not blatantly lie and say that it is healthy for you, but just that its as good as every other sweetener, and oh yeah, it won't kill you.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

food in the news: 10 points for Starbucks

Much to my own surprise, I am currently a Starbucks employee.A year or two ago, you would hardly even see me set my feet inside the store, unless I was meeting with friends who liked to hang out there. This was because I was fervently against big corporate giants. However, I am not against Starbucks anymore (I wouldn't be working there if I was, because I'm admittedly pretty prideful). I learned that they have a commitment to corporate social responsibility and the environment and even community involvement. And I dig that.

Check out this morning's story.

Ike-battered Texans find comfort, help over coffee.

A couple things that popped out to me when reading this-

It's true that communities and people grow closer together out of disaster. Strangers talking to each other? Who'd of thunk it.

Speaking of community, I saw a good example of it even at a Starbucks Drive-Thru! I was training in Ashburn the other day, treating a laboriously long line of customers at the drive-thru window, when this one lady in a minivan with children said she was paying also for the car behind her. I was under the assumption that she knew this person and they were just driving in separate vehicles. But when the next woman pulled up, she was reaching for her wallet. I told her the woman in front of her already paid for her, and a look of delicious shock swept her face. "You didn't know her?" I gasped. The woman had no clue who the other woman was, and she offered to pay for the car behind her. Then the man in the car behind her paid for the car behind him. Finally, my manager told me I had to cut this off, that we didn't want to screw with the system too much. I had to spend a moment convincing the lady in the last car of the "pay it forward" spree to do a random kind act later on that day, instead of paying for the car behind her. Who knows how long this would have gone on if I didn't have to cut it off?! People really surprise me sometimes, even in Northern Virginia.

Back to Houston, there is something about food, about coffee or tea that brings people together. It's a common bond. There's something soothing and comforting, and even healing. What is it? Thoughts?

About "The Hunger Years"

"The Hunger Years" is a food-related blog aimed to

1) educate and learn importance of eating nutritious, ethically-produced food

about gardening, sustainable agriculture, hunting and gathering

connections between food and faith

2) engage our resources to provide healthy food to hungry people all over the world


3) explore the realm of food culture studies

book reviews and article critiques on well, what else but food?

unique and diverse recipes and food traditions

4) entertain the "masses" with silly food anecdotes and poems

This blog was created by Janelle Esposito but is a vehicle for various contributors to sound off on food, as we explore this crucial field of study.

The key contributors are Beth Beck and Lindsey Seipp, with brain storming by Justin Esposito.

Janelle's Food Autobiography Part 1: Food Talks to Me

Before we delve into my food autobiography, which will be given in segments, just wanted to mention that I am shamelessly using material I had already written in my Food and Literature senior seminar last semester. Nothing wrong with recycled materials.:)


Food was always a big deal to me. As young as three years old, I would hoist myself up on top of the dinner table, with tomato sauce smeared all over my face, and eat the scraps left over on other family members’ dinner plates, because I was not fed to my satisfaction. To this day my brothers still tease me about my food quirks as a child.

I was never a skinny child. From the moment I moved up from baby food, I delighted in the riches the kitchen brought. My dad would frequently bring home fresh loaves of Italian bread from a bakery. The sweet, buttery bread would immediately fall prey into my little hands before dinner was served. I ate lots of bread, lots of pasta, lots of salad and drank Pepsi religiously. That was my normal diet- and it filled me to my hearts content.

Whenever I was denied what I wanted to eat, there was havoc. This most frequently happened when my family would go out to eat or dine at someone else’s house. I quickly outgrew the kids’ menu, scrunching my nose at chicken fingers and grilled cheese sandwiches. I wanted shrimp scampi or linguine Alfredo. When I was made to order off the kids’ menu I would ask if I could order two meals. When my tastes were appeased, a giant crying monster would be released. My brothers would try to subdue my embarrassing behavior with the ‘mute button,’ but this would make these situations all the worse.

I am still frightfully embarrassed when I think about those times I ate at my friends' houses. Poor Mrs.Sturm. Little did she know that the eight year old girl she was serving was a gourmet. One time I was over, she served a very lovely, but different meal complete with angel hair spaghetti. I was quite accustomed to eating normal spaghetti at least three times a week. The angel hair offended me and I did hold back my preference for normal spaghetti. For dessert, she offered apple pie. I never liked apple pie, but took some because I thought I was supposed to, and I felt bad about my angel hair comments. I did not eat much of it. Mrs. Sturm leaned down and asked me “How come you’re not eating your apple pie?” I took a moment to think about what I’d say, and it did not sound as bad in my head- “I’m sorry Mrs. Sturm. I thought your apple pie would be better than the other apple pies I’ve had before.” It took my friend Samantha years to let me live that night down. It wasn’t until I was 12 that I was invited back over for dinner (and I only lived a few houses down). Things were going well, until I choked on a piece of chicken.

Ask my family and they would tell you that I talk to my food. This is not so, but being an expressively metaphorical girl in a very a literal family, they would not have known either way. The infamous event occurred in 1994 on the 4th of July. We were gathered around the typical all-American BBQ feast, all seven people in my family, seated at their usual spots around the table. We always caught Justin checking out his reflection in the sliding glass door he faced. Always needing someone in the family to make fun of at the table, we picked on the vanity of the oldest of my three brothers. We had just about finished the meal, and I was full. Whenever my dad makes corn on the cob, he forgets about it until the end of the meal. He brought it out, and offered some to me, and I declined. Everyone looked at me in surprise. Janelle never declines food she likes. I left the table and everyone continued eating. Part of my fixation of eating as a kid, was not on the food itself, but that it gave me something to do, and it brought my family together despite our disorderliness. So, as soon as I left the table, I found rather bored. I walked around the house in circles, before I finally came back and asked for some corn. When asked why I came back, I replied in my lisp: “The Food! It swas sayin’ ‘Eat me! Eat me!’"

food in the news: crisis in haiti

As you might notice, I have a "food in the news" listing on the sidebar. And I will also feature some stories here.

This video from 9/12 covering the food shortage in Haiti was, of course, very disarming and heartbreaking to watch. All those women fighting for food for their families (note that only men on the scene were mainly either guards or distributors).

Watch the Video Here

How and Why

This is the part where I am supposed to give you facts and figures of why you should consume ethical foods. Well, I'm not gonna do that just yet. My aim is not to propagandize you with figures taken completely out of context. As I see different well-researched articles, I may post them up for you to look at. Sound fair?

And I'll provide you with a little bit of background on how and why I actually came to care about food and the source of it...my food autobiography! Of sorts.