ComAlt, Sarah Williams.
Seminar Response paper, Wk 6.
Zoe Wright.
2/14/17
LaDuke Selections; Newman Chapters 6, 7, and 8.
“Dubbed ‘Konvict Kush’, all the marijuana is grown on prison grounds. ‘The inmates enjoy the agricultural part of growing the cannabis plants,’ Norton said. ‘We have a waiting list of prisoners wanting to trim the buds.’ With rising prison costs, the economics of marijuana production makes good math. ‘We keep half of the crop and the rest goes to local Colorado pot dispensaries. Our current projection indicates prison weed sales will cover thirty percent of the incarceration cost by 2020.’” (LaDuke, 219.)
“England’s role in the development of America’s beef trade is considerable. As ‘the great beef-eaters of Europe,’ the English (at least the middle and upper classes) consumed far more beef than their continental neighbors. Meat, and particularly beef, was believed to ensure greater strength and vitality. It wasn’t just part of the meal, beef was part of the lifestyle, conveying affluence and contentment.” (Newman, 93)
“As the number of affected people, especially children, increases, one could say the food industry has entered an age of allergens. More people are avoiding certain food items because of medical conditions. The trend has researchers seeking solutions, or ways to make such foods safer for those with allergies.” (Gelski, 2016)
I chose the lines from LaDuke because of the connections this lines makes to so many complex systems in the country; the prison system, prison labor, and for-profit prisons, the economic implications of marijuana, the medical implications of marijuana, and all of the less direct connections these systems make to other systems. To study the words in these sentences and the meanings and connections they take will lead you to these larger scale connections I drew as I read the lines.
I chose these lines from Newman because I find the different dynamics between the way different cultures consider meat interesting, especially in the social and political forces that have changed the way people think of and eat various kinds of meat.
I chose this article “Special Report: Changing Food To Fit An Allergen Age” and this quote from it because it frustrates me. Because the conversations around allergies, food sensitivities, and pharmaceutical sensitivities frustrates me. These chosen lines illustrate why. The industry is focused on changing food itself, modifying it in various ways to make it safe. But there is no research going into why this change has happened. Why are more people allergic to food? Why are the types of allergies changing and broadening? Is it something we have done? A change in our evolution? The way we make our food? The way we store it, prepare it? What created this change? There is no research being done into that, and that makes me incredibly frustrated. Because until you understand the problem and its origin there can be no long term, well understood solution.
My first chosen lines mark connections to large systems that a simple program has. My second chosen lines look at a dynamic and a change in attitudes that the rest of the chapter in part tackles. My third selection is chosen out of frustration that those larger scale dynamics, systemic connections, and affects are not being studied whatsoever.
Referenced Article.
Gelski, J. (2016, February 6). Special report: Changing food to fit an allergen age. Retrieved February 11, 2017, from http://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/news_home/Research/2017/02/Special_report_Changing_food_t.aspx?ID={1D4DFC61-E553-4D31-B53A-A13C39894493}