Summary
Bread has become a staple food in the majority of Americans lives. Through Bobrow-Strain’s novel of White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf (2012) he examines what has changed the patterns and perceptions of white bread and the industrialization of white bread through-out American History. Bobrow-Strain discusses alarming thoughts about what is done to the bread through control, money, likes, dislikes and the economics of the industrialization of bread. One of the main aspects of why white bread is examined so intensively in his book is because of how people associate it with a certain race, class or even gender. Bobrow-Strain shows the reader how white bread says a lot about who we are and who we want to be as a society.
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It is told through the view of Americas love hate relationship with white bread and their understanding of “good food”. The book is written in an article form that is structed into chapters for people to provide a better understanding for the readers. Bobrow-Strain did not write the book in chronological order but written into sections and then written chronologically in that section. This helps the audience to better understand his main arguments of the book while moving through history. There are many examples through out the book which help to give a better mental picture to the reader to grasp the ups and downs of white bread. The author wrote White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf for food activists, foodies and other food academics who want to better understand food production and food studies. It helps to recognize alternative food production and to comprehend how food is such an important part in our lives. This book helps to give a better understanding for other aspects of our course because it connects the industrialization of food and the daily patterns we use to consume it with alternative food movements in North
The history of white bread is more important than we think. I will be reviewing the book White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf written by Aaron Bobrow-Strain. This book is about how white bread historical impacted the food production during the industrial revolution. Bobrow- Strain main argument is that the industrial revolution has changed the way food is produced and consumed. The main focus of the was on the production of white bread and how it has changed over time. Also, he look at the changes in the society and how that changed the production of white bread. He starts of being explaining bread was made in the homes, then bakeries, then
In her essay, “Food’s Class Warfare,” author Tracie McMillan promotes the inclusion of both “individual changes and structural ones” (217), particularly “class consciousness” (217), in the fight for quality diets in America. She reveals the most common sides of the healthy food debate as the inherent “just-buy-better stuff logic” (215) and the opposing “structural challenges of eating well” (215). The main strategies for defeating the American “obesity epidemic” (216) have been reaching out to the individual, as well as changing the structure of the American food system itself. The favorite concept for structuralists is “food deserts - neighborhoods with insufficient grocery stores and thus insufficient supplies of healthy food” (216). She deems the concept insufficient in practice, as it ignores smaller markets and equates large stores with a healthy food source. While the individual viewpoint and structuralists argue with each other, they share common ideals. According to
In the article by Wendell Berry titled “The Pleasures of Eating” he tries to persuade the readers of the necessity and importance of critical thinking and approach to choosing meals and owning responsibility for the quality of the food cooked. He states that people who are not conscious enough while consuming products, and those who do not connect the concept of food with agricultural products, as people whose denial or avoidance prevents them from eating healthy and natural food. Berry tries to make people think about what they eat, and how this food they eat is produced. He points to the aspects, some which may not be recognized by people, of ethical, financial and
“Out of every $1.50 spent on a large order of fries at fast food restaurant, perhaps 2 cents goes to the farmer that grew the potatoes,” (Schlosser 117). Investigative journalist Eric Schlosser brings to light these realities in his bestselling book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Schlosser, a Princeton and Oxford graduate, is known for his inspective pieces for Atlantic Monthly. While working on article, for Rolling Stone Magazine, about immigrant workers in a strawberry field he acquired his inspiration for the aforementioned book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, a work examining the country’s fast food industry (Gale).
In this second to last section, we learn that our decisions about how we want our food produced and delivered count towards social virtue. Emile Durkheim’s The Division of Labor in Society is one of the founding texts of modern social theory, and draws a distinction between what Durkheim called mechanical and organic solidarity. Mechanical solidarity is largely a premodern form while organic solidarity flows from the division of labor. In organic solidarity according to Durkheim, individuals depend on one another for various tasks. However, in mechanical solidarity, people are independent but they are also aware of what each person is doing. They all have a different task that they are completing in order to survive. In these, societies you did not need to know who grew the food that was on your plate or for that matter who made your plate (435). This is Shapin’s most convincing argument in the whole essay, the logos he uses is very well done. The evidence behind his argument is well defined and thought out. His use of Emile Durkheim’s text in his argument of the morals in food helps bring the argument together. This brings us to the final most convincing argument in the entire
The author is showing how the bakers dealt with this opposition. The reading showed the importance of bread in that area, as well; showing just how important it was. To show how high in demand bread was, the author writes, “The average Amsterdammer obtained an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 calories a day” (7). The author writes about how the bakers had a sense of unity when confronted by the burgomasters and were thus able to disagree with the policies in a civilized and cohesive way. Because they felt that their rights were being infringed, some of the bakers compared their plight to that of slavery. Although they were being controlled by other people, the bakers still had freedom and liberty (unlike slaves) as they were citizens of the country. There was a man named Peter Stuyvesant who was sent to New Amsterdam to help resolve these issues. While he set some rules and regulations for the bakers to follow, he was not viewed very favorably by them. He did not consider inflation a factor in his decision making, which was a big mistake. The bakers simply chose not to bake after learning about this, which led to bread shortages. Stuyvesant threatened the bakers that he would close
Throughout the essay, Berry logically progresses from stating the problem of the consumer’s ignorance and the manipulative food industry that plays into that ignorance, to stating his solution where consumers can take part in the agricultural process and alter how they think about eating in order to take pleasure in it. He effectively uses appeals to emotion and common values to convince the reader that this is an important issue and make her realize that she needs to wake up and change what she is doing. By using appeals to pathos, logos, and ethos, Berry creates a strong argument to make his point and get people to change how they attain and eat food.
Hunger was a recurring theme that was depicted in all of the readings and movies that were read and viewed throughout the course of American Multicultural Literature. The era of hunger ranged from the 1930s in Angela’s Ashes (McCourt, 1996) to 2003 In America (Sheridan, 2004) and from Afghanistan in The Kite Runner (Hosseini, 2003) and Osama (Barmak, 2003) to Ireland in Angela’s Ashes (McCourt, 1996) to the United States in the remaining text and videos. Hunger, or the modern term ‘food insecure,’ continues to affect millions of people worldwide and leads to education, socioeconomic and health issues.
The Daily Bread wanted more to impact the viewer visually instead of bringing expertise to talk about the topic. Although they did not invest that much money in the film and they just used a simple statement, they truly project a reality by using disturbing images, and make these images live in the viewer’s brain, so at the end maybe they could think before they eat. We didn’t have any kind of spoken information, we did not have any explanation, we did not need of any specialist to let us know how food industries work, and they basically just showed us what we don’t see. This film took us into the “Real World”, a world of terror. In my personal experience with both films I confessed that after watching Food Inc. I was feeling some guilt about eating meat; however, after watching the Daily Bread I just stopped eating pork and beef. That is how dramatic and shocking the Daily Bread was for
Synopsis: The viewpoints offered in “Food and Society: Principles and Paradoxes” and “Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water” provide a glimpse into the consumption and materialistic culture of society. Food is a universal constant in communities all over the globe; food is used as a means of communion amongst people, humans have designed institutions dedicated to the act of eating food, and food by definition allows humans to exist. In the beginning chapters of “Food and Society: Principles and Paradoxes” food is analyzed in three manners: the association between restaurant culture and food, food as a means of advertisement and marketing, and lastly, food’s role in the societal institutions. “Bottled and Sold:
Food is traditionally considered as a simple means of subsistence but has developed to become filled with cultural, psychological, religious, and emotional significance. Consequently, food is currently used as a means of defining shared identities and symbolizes religious and group customs. In the early 17th and 18th centuries, this mere means of subsistence was considered as a class maker but developed to become a symbol of national identity in the 19th centuries. In the United States, food has been influenced by various cultures such as Native American, Latin America, and Asian cultures. Consequently, Americans have constantly Americanized the foods of different cultures to become American foods. The process on how Americans have Americanized different cultures’ foods and reasons for the Americanization is an important topic of discussion.
Two different foods can be both healthy in two different ways. The two foods can also be healthy in the same way too. The foods can also be unhealthy as well. The only way to determine which is more healthy is by reading the food label. Then decide which food has more or less of a given component. White bread and Whole Wheat bread are excellent and at the same time, terrible for your nutrition in some aspects. Fish and chicken are also superb and unhealthy for you in different aspects. This essay will focus on comparing and contrasting the foods listed above.
Living in a modern society that has the necessity of maintaining the industrial food chain, it is inevitable to consume and purchase processed food. Beef is a common meat to eat, however, according to Pollan, there comes the realization that the beef is now fed by corns not grass, which allows them to grow faster, behaving against the nature and bringing the farmers higher profit. The products which are deceivingly cheap for the customers demonstrates the phenomenon of increasing unqualifiedly processed products that diminish the nature and society, bringing negative consequences and impact on the society.
The term “processed foods” is calculated to emote a learned response and bias against favor for these food products; and are sometimes considered comparable with the terms: artificial, preservative, additive, saturated and unsaturated fat(s), salt, alcohol, caffeine, gmo, and sugar. Interestingly, as the human population approaches 8 billion souls the effective processing and storage of healthful foods is critical to avoid widespread famine, related outbreaks of rampant nutrition based disease, and possible related degradation of civil society (1). We have to ask ourselves: (a) What are the facts about Fatima’s situation? And, (b) Does Fatima have basic coping skills and education to overcome her difficulties? Let’s look at the objective considerations of the assignment:
Not only is food indispensable for survival, it is also a subject that is important to the construction of cultures. Indeed, from the sociological perspective, there is a direct relationship between food and culture.