Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan Socio-Economic Influences

Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan: Socio-Economic Influences of Vegetarian and Non-Vegetarian Diets

Michael Pollan, in his book The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, discussed the social, economic, and geographic/environmental factors that influenced humanity's diets, of which eating both plants and animals -- an omnivorous diet -- is the predominant diet in most of today's societies. However, in the midst of this omnivorous diet is an emerging group of vegetarian or only plant-eating humans, which creates a new dynamic, between omnivores and vegetarian eaters. The position paper that will be developed based on Pollan's book will provide an in-depth exploration of the socio-economic factors influencing vegetarian and non-vegetarian diets.

The in-depth exploration and analysis of socio-economic factors influencing vegetarian and non-vegetarian diets will be conducted through case study analysis. To emphasize on the economic aspect of the analysis, the case studies would look into vegetarianism and non-vegetarianism across…… [Read More]

Omnivores Dilemma

Omnivore's Dilemma

In recent years social historians have began to delve into more and more minute topics about the way humans interact within their social and natural world, and most especially how certain everyday objects and actions have had a grand affect upon the way society and culture changes. In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan uses the tools of both history and anthropology to uncover that it is that concerns humans on a daily basis -- eating -- and why that seemingly innocent choice has ramifications far beyond any single meal. What then, is the omnivore's dilemma? Briefly, humans, being omnivorous, can eat a number of things -- meat, grain, vegetables, many plants and animals, and numerous things nature has to offer. Deciding what to eat becomes a challenge in that cuisine is a part of physical culture, geographic area, societal pressures, and individual availability -- yet inevitably causes continual…… [Read More]

Omnivores Dilemma Part I Industrial Corn

Omnivore's Dilemma: Part I: Industrial/Corn

"the Omnivore's Dilemma" - review

Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" is not necessarily meant to put across breakthrough information or to trigger intense feelings in individuals reading it. Instead, it is actually intended to provide important information so as for readers to be able to gain a more complex understanding regarding what foods would be healthy for them to eat and how they can develop the ability to differentiate between a series of foods on their own in an attempt to find the best solutions possible. In addition to this, Pollan explains why particular institutions that are involved in food production take on certain attitudes with regard to their product and their customers. In Part I, of Chapters 1,2, and 3 of The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan shows how corn is made, and the sources behind its production, with monetary gains being the driving…… [Read More]

Omnivores Dilemma Profits Over People

Omnivore's Dilemma

In Michael Pollan's book he touches on many issues relative to what humans eat, and in the process he spends time covering the poor eating habits of Americans and the likely reasons for the obesity crisis in the United States (think carbohydrates). His narrative includes animal flesh that is produced on so-called "factory farms" -- including pig meat he proudly kills himself -- and in doing so he raises moral and psychological issues in a very well-presented book. His moral perspective comes through between the lines and between the issues, but his approach to the subject of vegetarianism comes with a sprinkle of cynicism and a splash of cryptic tokenism for good measure. Thesis: A broader view of vegetarianism -- and the reasons why millions of people (including 15-year-old Matthew) eschew animal flesh -- would have given Pollan's book more contemporary vitality and could have addressed the obesity…… [Read More]

Omnivore's Dilemma Being an Omnivore

Milk, cheese, yoghurt (cows eating corn), pig steak (pigs eating corn), fish (the catfish and even the salmon-which is known to be a carnivore have been taught to tolerate corn), and a large number of sweet beverages (numerous sweet drinks have high-fructose corn syrup in them) people consume exist because of corn. Foods are not the only ones which can contain corn, as magazine covers, diapers, batteries, trash bags, and matches can also be produced by exploiting the plant. This is the least surprising, as it is likely that little people are actually aware of the potential corn has.

Carbon is the most abundant element in the human body and because plants are the only ones capable of photosynthesis, people resort to consuming organic compounds in order to satisfy their need for carbon. Unlike other plants, which are able to produce compounds that only have three carbon atoms, corn is…… [Read More]

Omnivore's Dilemma Part III Part III of the

Omnivore's Dilemma/Part III

Part III of the Omnivore's Dilemma: Food Directly from the Source

The purpose of Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, is to show that the choices we make about the foods we eat are not always simple. The book is divided into three parts; in each part Pollan attempts to eat from a shorter food chain. Part III of the book, the subject of this review, is entitled "The Forager," and it is about Pollan's meal "at the end of the shortest food chain of all" (Pollan, 2006, p. 276). One will not necessarily change one's eating habits permanently as the result of reading the book. However, Pollan presents a tremendous amount of interesting and surprising information about the food we eat, and it is impossible to read the book and fail to be more reflective about food choices.

Pollan had never hunted before his experiment, or…… [Read More]

Omnivore's Dilemma What Should We

267).

During his stint at Polyface Farm, Pollan enjoyed a connection with the land and the food in a way that most people can barely imagine, let alone experience in their own lives. Preparing to write the third part of his book, Pollan wanted to get even closer to the food supply. He wanted to make a dinner prepared wholly from ingredients he personally hunted, gathered, and grew (Pollan, 2006, p. 278). Pollan confessed that, although he had a lifetime's experience raising vegetables and eating from his garden, he had never fired a gun and was equally ill prepared to forage for fungi. He set about learning to do both.

Pollan felt uneasy about hunting after his close proximity to live animals at Polyface Farm, so he was surprised at the initial exhilaration he felt after his first kill. Pollan was soon revolted by the sight of the dead wild…… [Read More]

Omnivore's Dilemma

Omnivore's Dilemma

The research question to be approached in this paper: Is there a link between morality and vegetarianism? The answer is: Yes there is a link between ethics and moral values when it comes to substituting healthy vegetables for meat raised in hideously unclean, unhealthy, inhumane conditions. Thesis: More Americans are turning away from red meat because of the appalling conditions under which cattle are raised and slaughtered on factory farms, and because killing animals represents an unethical, inhumane way to fill the nutritional needs of humans.

Meat, Morality, and Vegetarianism

Penn State Philosophy Professor Evelyn B. Pluhar makes a series of cogent points about the raising of meat on factory farms: a) science has demonstrated that factory farming is "an increasingly urgent danger to human health, the environment, and nonhuman animal welfare"; b) vegetarian food production is a viable alternative to factory farming; and c) everyone, "even vegetarians,…… [Read More]

Omnivore's Dilemma Pollan Michael The

But the larger-scale solution of Whole Foods is not much better than industrialization -- organic farming has become corporatized and industrialized, and many farmers' free-range chickens are not part of an ecosystem like Salatin, but merely meet federally regulated requirements to have a few more inches to move than their commercially farmed brethren. 'Big Organic' pioneers like the CEO of Cascadian Farms drive Lexuses with ORANIC as their vanity license plates, observes Pollan, and Whole Foods is nicknamed 'Whole Paycheck' because of its expense. How can something be organic or sustainable if it depends on FedEx-ing 'organic' meat all over the country?

Perhaps the most useful point of Pollan's book is that there is no singular solution at all to what Pollan calls our 'national eating disorder.' Americans have tended to demonize certain food groups, such as carbohydrates and fats, and view other foods, often heavily promoted by their respective…… [Read More]

Omnivore's Dilemma

Factory Farming, Morality, And Vegetarianism

Among the shocking facts linked to the issue of factory farming -- in addition to the appalling practice of cattle jammed into feed lots "…shoulder to shoulder knee deep in their own excrement" -- is that every second of every day an estimated 650 animals are slaughtered (Henning, 2011). Moreover, Henning reports that more than 56 billion animals are slaughtered annually and while this global blood-letting provides food for the meaty tastes of millions of people, in the process the "…overconsumption of animal meat" is the number one cause of "…both malnourishment and obesity… and the spread of infectious disease" (64). This paper delves into the moral morass of today's factory farming strategies and points to the many reasons why factory-produced meat is unhealthy, and why it is ethical and honorable to abstain from consuming animal meat and to eat nutritious vegetarian foods instead.

Thesis…… [Read More]

Omnivore Science Is a Neutral Human Pursuit

Omnivore

Science is a neutral human pursuit. It is only the application of science that raises potential ethical questions. Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle perfectly exposes the ways science can be manipulated by the hands of its sponsors. Money determines the nature of research, its methodologies, its findings, and its applications. Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma raises similar ethical questions and concerns, focused not on the military but on the food industry. Arguably, the food industry poses far more complicated ethical issues than the military-industrial complex. The military can be viewed as an ethically incorrect institution, as even when it presumably protects the lives of Americans it does so necessarily at the expense of the lives of others. National security is not built on a universal human rights vision, but on a xenophobic model that presumes national superiority and reinforces an "us vs. them" mentality that is at the root…… [Read More]

Omnivore's Dilemma Michael Pollan's Award-Winning

Moreover, vegetarianism is theoretically possible at McDonalds by eating the token salads on the menu. The token salads might still be in keeping with the tenets of agro-business but they do not contain meat products. Still, Pollan hints at how those salads support the same industries that sustain large-scale animal slaughtering.

In Chapter Seven, Pollan focuses on the ethics and the feasibility of the fast food business model as well as its effects on dietary health and well being. Without droning didactically, Pollan points out the problems with fast food: such as high levels of fat and sodium. The nutritional content of fast food is directly and causally related to heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. Pollan needs not delve into great detail about that which most Americans should already be aware. What Pollan does point out are the hidden ingredients in McDonald's menu items, especially in the chicken McNuggets. By…… [Read More]

Omnivore's Dilemma Michael Pollan Focuses

Corn as a sweetener -- yes indeed, ketchup and to cook French fries -- all without providing the basic nutritional needs and taking more from the environment that is given back (pp. 109-19).

Today, my epiphany began with a Sunday morning ritual -- a trip to Starbucks for a Caramel Breve and pastry, while working on the Sunday crossword puzzle. It occurred to me that this would be an interesting test of the Pollan theory; trace the ingredients for a simple breakfast. First, the coffee plant certainly benefits from human consumption because of the vast amounts now used for the megagiant roasters. Second, Starbucks is one of those companies that puts the richest countries in contract with the poorest countries to mass produce the goods and services necessary. This $3.00 drink probably produced less than a percentage of a penny to the local farmer; then even less to the roaster.…… [Read More]

Omnivore Chapter 15-16-17 it Is

305).

One of the greatest strengths in Pollan's writing is the way his passion comes through so clearly. He thought very carefully about his subject before he started his research and writing. He designed his experiences so he could gather as much information as possible and make informed decisions about his choices. Pollan's writing style is clear and easy to understand. He includes factual information as well as personal experience to help persuade the reader.

This writer did not feel they were any weaknesses with the book. One could argue that Pollan did not set out to prove anything other than what he already knew or believed. That would be a valid criticism if Pollan's work was meant to be true scientific research. It is clear that Pollan had his ideas and opinions when he set out to write the book. The experiences he had supported his views. As has…… [Read More]

Omnivore's Dilemma Popham on Level

Allowing the students to "choose" the lesson, both empowers them and allows them a more engaging learning experience.

Part 3 -- Questioning - Ineffective questioning typically asks for a rote memorization paradigm, as opposed to a more robust use of higher-level questions designed to go beyond the text and make the issue relevant, personal, and interesting. Instead, look at the learning target and formulate questions that will continually guide the students towards discovering answers -- not the answer. Use nonverbal clues such as nodding, eye contact, moving around the classroom. Continually ask students "why," or follow up on another student's answer with, "Mary thought this, in your situation, what would you say?" In effect, if the teacher can take Bloom's taxonomy of learning, and simply superimpose that on every lesson (certainly not using every issue every time), but more of a method of moving to evaluation, analysis, and synthesis; the…… [Read More]

Omnivore's Dilemma in 2006 Author and Activist

Omnivore's Dilemma

In 2006, author and activist Michael Pollan published his classic treatise on America's agricultural abandonment, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural history of Four Meals, which critiques the growing disconnect between the food we consume and the processes used to bring it to our plates in evocative and eloquent terms. By posing the seemingly simple question of what mankind should eat, Pollan disassembles the modern meal in methodical fashion, guiding the reader through the convoluted industry of industrialized agriculture, from the massive corn farming conglomerates that have largely replaced traditional family farms to the processing plants used to modify and preserve food products through artificial means. Much of Pollan's career has been dedicated to exposing what he has termed "the perverse economics of agriculture, which would seem to defy the classical laws of supply and demand" (2006), and throughout The Omnivore's Dilemma he returns to the idea that unrestrained…… [Read More]

Advance Composition

Omnivore Dilemma-Pastoralism

Put Your Title Here In All Caps

Pastorilism Outline

The research topic is pastorilism.

Is pastorilism a viable alternative to sustainable living?

Working thesis statement: This paper will suggest that although Pollan's ideas are sound in regards to the environment and health, activists who support his vision must address the 'elitism' that has tarred his vision of the future.

Research plan: I plan on conducting much of my research online due to the access of the academic journal databases available on that platform. Physical trips to a library will not be necessary. I plan on using Google Scholar and all of the journal databases provide by this institution's online platform.

Timetable for Research Project Assignments

Assignment related to the research paper

Description of and points for the assignment:

Due date as indicated in course syllabus:

Exact Date and time in MST:

Research Proposal and Outline

Four part proposal…… [Read More]

Pollan Michael The Omnivore's Dilemma

Although Pollan condemns conventional agriculture, he also notes that even organically-labeled food is often grown in a manner that is not much better for the environment in terms of its carbon footprint -- the regulations upon what constitutes organic food can be quite lax, and some foods that use some pesticides that are grown locally and sold in farmer's markets might not be technically organic, but leave less of a carbon footprint. As part of the research for his book, Pollan visits a commercial organic farm, which is just as mechanized as a standard commercial farm, and just as large and labor-intensive. Commercial agriculture, Pollan implies, grew to satisfy a marketing demand, not out of ideology. Consumers are gradually growing uncomfortable with the evident environmental implications of their choices and wish to 'do something,' even though they are unsure as to what that 'something' should be, and many buy commercial…… [Read More]

Consequences of Factory Farms Annotated Bibliography Armstrong

Consequences of Factory Farms

Annotated Bibliography

Armstrong, S.J. & Botzler, R. (Eds.). (2003). he Animal Ethics Reader. New York, NY: Routledge.

his anthology that has a comprehensive review of the factory farming debate. he book is also especially useful to me given its consideration of both sides of the debate. For instance, some contributors present and effectively counter some of the arguments that have been presented by those in support of factory farming. In this case, the contributors who include but are not limited to Mary Madgley and Peter Singer are leading luminaries in this particular field. I found the introduction offered by the editors before each chapter particularly useful in helping one digest the contents of the chapter.

DeGrazia, D. (2002). Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Like Armstrong, DeGrazia also examines one of the most consistent arguments that has been presented in support of…… [Read More]

Michael Pollan in 2006 Published

Pollan stresses the need to cook our own food and reassert the historical and cultural importance of food in our lives. Again this strengthens Pollan's rhetoric and continues the line of reasoning he began in Omnivore's Dilemma.

So it's good to be encouraged by Pollan, who eulogises the pleasures of cooking, and to be reminded of some basic truths."hen you cook at home, you seldom find yourself reaching for the ethoxylated dyglycerides or high-fructose corn syrup," he says. "The cook in the kitchen preparing a meal from plants and animals has a great many worries, but 'health' is simply not one of them because it is a given."The final advice given by Pollan encapsulates it all: "Don't eat anything your greatgrandmother wouldn't recognise as food." ("Food Really Does Grow" 12)

The rhetoric of his work is demonstratively evident as his lines of reasoning attempt to make consumers more responsible for…… [Read More]

Advance Composition

Pastorilism

The way humans eat affects the globe in many ways. The balanced ecosystem requires a homeostatic process that achieves cooperation and will allow the environment to thrive. It is possible that humanity may very well eat its way into extinction if certain practices are not curtailed. Smil (2013) wrote " this increased demand was met by a combination of expanded traditional meat production in mixed farming operations (above all in the EU and China), extensive conversion of tropical forests to new pastures (Brazil being the leader) and the rise of concentrated animal feeding facilities (for beef mostly in North America, for pork and chicken in all densely populated countries)."

The purpose of this essay is to address the finer aspects of pastorilism as a reasonable means to address the eating problems that appear dire. This paper will suggest that new approaches are necessary that address the elitist attitudes that…… [Read More]

Hindering Society Is Our Industrial

" In one supreme irony, as McDonald's makes Americans less healthy, McDonald's as a company is dependant on poorly-paid workers who receive few benefits, including healthcare. The workers are disposable as the food and the packaging they assemble for McDonald's patrons. It is in the company's interest not to keep them employed for long, so they remain part-time employees without real healthcare. They learn no skills and do not improve their promotional prospects. And often the only food they can afford, lacking adequate facilities or time to prepare a meal, is a McDonald's meal.

The slaughterhouses where the processed meats that go into McDonald's hamburgers are just as mechanized as McDonald's drive-through, only the cows that move through their doors do not exit intact. Yet the fate of the human executors of these cows is almost as terrible. Working conditions in slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants are dangerous. The workers are…… [Read More]

Technology Technological Advances Have Impacted Every Area

Technology

Technological advances have impacted every area of human existence on almost every area of the planet, with few exceptions. Nearly every aspect of daily mundane life is affected by technology, including communication and transportation. However, one area of daily life is even more impacted and transformed than others. That area is food and eating. Food production has changed dramatically since the Industrial Age. Indeed, since the invention of the cotton gin, all agricultural practices have depended on technologies that have gone far beyond ox carts and donkeys. Mechanical food production increased food outputs, and greater yields have subsequently improved health and livelihoods for large groups of people. However, the fusion of technology and food production has not been completely positive. There are many negative repercussions of using technology at every stage of food production, and the integration of technology and food proves political and highly controversial. Problems such as…… [Read More]

History of Smithfield Ham in

Smithfield boasts that "with the development of high-tech hog breeding techniques, there is now a new generation of pork that combines yesterday's goodness with today's leaner taste" and that its brining methods makes it easier to serve a prepared ham more quickly to a family on a busy weekday night as no cooking is required (About us, Smithfield Hams, 2010). However, heritage pork enthusiasts counter: "the only problem is that while being low fat, it [commercially raised pork] is also low in taste, just like that pasty white, mushy chicken breast. In many cases the pork has no taste at all. You try to fry up a chop and you end up having to add lots of fats or oils to brown it, and if you aren't careful you end up with a tough, dry, and flavorless hunk of inedible pseudo-pig on your plate" (Forester 2007). In contrast, heritage pork,…… [Read More]

Michael Pollan Is an American

The poor is stereotypically painted as haggard and lean and the wealthy CEO (and so forth) as fat and obese, for his very indolence and lack of sluggishness makes him so.

Personal counter argument

To arrive at conclusions on any major issue, credible research must be conducted based on scientific, authoritative, empirical evidence. Such, too, must be done in this case and so, inquiring into reasons for the dramatic increase in obesity in America over the last few decades, empirical studies point to factors that include the following: an over-abundance of food availability in America's supermarkets and restaurants, particularly fast-food restaurants (World Health Organization, 2000); the uncontrolled or unreasonable portion-sizes in America's restaurants (ibid); an increase in consumption of sugar-sweetened sodas and sweetend food (Bray, 2004); and an over-abundance of high-fat food choices paired with a lack of palpable low-fat choices all of which may be more accessible to the…… [Read More]

Advance Composition

Pastorilism

Pollan, M. (2006). The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Penguin Press,

New York, NY.2006.

This book is written by bestselling author on sustainability issues, Michael Pollan. This published work focuses on asking what is appropriate for eating dinner. Pollan gives a detailed history of the food we consume in Western society and focuses on the processing of meat and other products as a necessary component of this type of living.

This source is useful for my research paper because of an entire section of this work being dedicated to pastorilism and the benefits and problems associated with raising animals for food. Pollan makes a distinction between large scale organic production techniques and small organic techniques that demonstrate the unique subtleties of each method providing unique problems associated with the topic. This source can be used throughout the research paper, but it can be specifically used to…… [Read More]

Collapsing Certainties Theme of Collapsing Uncertainties the

Collapsing Certainties

Theme of Collapsing Uncertainties

The Collapsing Birth Rate in the Developed orld

Human beings perceive events, individuals, and objects in different manners in relation to the circumstances and understanding. This is vital towards the development of concept of reality with the aim of continuous leadership, caring, and forms of goodness. This is an indication that human beings believe in whatever they see and purport to be ideal thus generation of meaning and form of understanding or knowledge for the purposes of guidance and leadership. Various personalities have focused on the examination of the concept of collapsing uncertainties. Some of these personalities include Timothy Eves, Plato, and Sartre. Sartre focuses on the examination of the concept of hell or the world of darkness through integration of the No Exit play. This is ideal for effective understanding and development of the forms of goodness in relation to reality and knowledge.…… [Read More]

Improve My Writing Skills in

The anxiety is compounded based not only on choice, but also on taste and preference. Because of technology, we humans are capable of doing tremendous damage to the planet based on the decisions of what to eat. In fact, this is so serious, that Pollan notes that we now have the added dilemma of potentially devastating the ecology of some areas simply to provide a certain "taste" for x cuisine.

This is even more complex when we think about ethics and our treatment of animals. I had never realized just how unethical factory farming could be -- and how out of balance it is to raise thousands and thousands of chickens or turkeys in a hot barn that is so unhealthy for them that they have to be pumped full of antibiotics just to live; or the egg farms that pack chickens so tight their feet grow into the wires.…… [Read More]

Panel Discussion Global Warming Panel

As part of the 1977 National Academy of Sciences Energy and Climate Panel, he discovered "forty percent of the anthropogenic [human-generated] carbon dioxide has remained in the atmosphere, two-thirds of that from fossil fuel, and one-third from the clearing of forests." (oger evelle, 2010, p.2). evelle's presence on the panel would demonstrate the long-standing nature of global warming. evelle could also discuss why taking action on global warming has been so difficult politically, despite mounting scientific evidence that the phenomenon exists for so many years. evelle began his work in oceanography but gradually expanded his focus to population studies, enabling him to bring his expertise in both fields to the panel (oger evelle, 2010, p.3).

Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan, the author of the Omnivore's Dilemma and Food ules, has devoted his career to exposing the harms of commercial agriculture on the environment and upon human health. Pollan details simple ways…… [Read More]

Obesity in Children Has Become a Common

Obesity in children has become a common health problem. Obesity in children is a result of indulging in fast foods and spending time in front of the television or being stationary playing video

Supportive arguments

Food Factors

There is an over-abundance of food availability in America's supermarkets and restaurants, particularly fast-food restaurants (Hill and Peters, 1998). The portion-sizes of food in America's restaurants are unreasonable and uncontrolled (Hill and Peters, 1998). There is an increase in consumption of sugar-sweetened sodas and sweetend food (Bray, 2004). There is also an over-abundance of high-fat food choices paired with a lack of palpable low-fat choices. Most importantly, studies show that a diet of 35% fat or higher contributes to obesity in sedentary animals (Hill and Peters, 1998). It is no wonder that children having this unnutritious food become obese.

Sedentary Lifestyle

Another factor is the increasingly sedentary lifestyle that is due, in part,…… [Read More]

Landscape Ecology Introduction Ecology the Pressure for

Landscape Ecology

Introduction ecology

The pressure for increased meat to feed the world's hungry population vs. its strain on natural resources

The trendiness of vegetarianism and veganism aside, throughout history there has been a consistent trend regarding meat consumption. The more affluent the society, the more meat it tends to consume. This has been true of the rapidly-expanding population of the developing world. Given that the developed world continues to consume large amounts of meat, this has resulted in a proliferation of factory farming and a depletion of the earth's resources to feed growing demand: "These assembly-line meat factories consume enormous amounts of energy, pollute water supplies, generate significant greenhouse gases and require ever-increasing amounts of corn, soy and other grains, a dependency that has led to the destruction of vast swaths of the world's tropical rain forests" (Bittman 2008). Worldwide, per capita meat consumption has doubled since 1961 (Bittman…… [Read More]

Intervention the Notion of 'Intervention' Has the

Intervention

The notion of 'intervention' has the literal, Oxford English Dictionary meaning of "stepping in or interfering in any affair, so as to affect its course or issue." But its connotative meaning within contemporary culture is more resonant and multivalent in nature. The television show Intervention exemplifies the positive, pop psychology notion of an 'intervention,' in which an individual is saved from an addiction by group of outsiders (usually friends, family, and treatment staff). But many 'interventions' have a negative resonance: more traditional notions of intervention raise questions of sovereignty and legitimacy. At the heart of the conflict between 'good' and 'bad' notions of intervention is the question of autonomy. When is it acceptable and appropriate to impinge upon the autonomy of a human being or of the state? Is it ever moral to not intervene?

Awareness of injustice has increased in the era of Internet-based social networking and communication.…… [Read More]

Analysis of Supersize Me the Film

Supersize Me, Morgan Spurlock undergoes one of the most masochistic eating experiments imaginable, eating only McDonald's food for thirty days. He tracks his mental and physical health throughout the experiment to reveal the drastic ill effects of regular fast food consumption. Both his girlfriend and his doctors are appalled at the rapid changes taking place in Spurlock, not just to his body but to his emotional and sex life as well. The film is engaging, persuasive, and often intentionally nauseating. It critiques American culture while decrying the fast food industry's marketing tactics. The filmmaker wants viewers to feel disgust and revulsion at fast food in general.

Supersize Me reflects growing awareness among Americans about the harmful nature of a diet filled with processed foods and particularly fast foods like McDonalds. The film is one of many that illustrate the power of the media to promote positive change, counteracting and subverting…… [Read More]

team america'surveillance and espionage

.....motif of surveillance features prominently in Captain America: Civil War. More importantly, the film features the ability of a powerful state entity to control the behavior of its citizens. The types of surveillance and brainwashing depicted in Captain America: Civil War are completely different from those used by the American government. However, the methods of surveillance used by the American government to spy on its own people may be no less sinister. The methods of surveillance used by the government cannot directly control peoples' minds and behavior of individuals, but can control other dimensions of the daily lives of citizens. Captain America: Civil War can be viewed as a metaphor and warning to Americans about the extent, purpose, and meaning of government surveillance in daily life. The film can also be instructional, showing that Americans can empower themselves against encroaching infringements on their rights.

Because Captain America: Civil War is…… [Read More]

Killing Animals for Food Is Not Necessarily

Killing Animals for Food Is Not Necessarily Wrong

Over time, vegetarians have presented a wide range of reasons as to why eating meat and/or any other product derived from animals is wrong. In seeking to support their position, most vegetarians cite the need to uphold animal rights. In the recent past, the number of people turning to vegetarian diet has been increasing steadily. However, regardless of this, it is important to note that a careful review of literature clearly demonstrates that the consumption of meat and/or other products derived from animals is not necessarily a bad thing.

In Zacharia's (2012) opinion, "the market for vegan food is booming." This effectively means that the number of those joining the vegetarian bandwagon is steadily increasing. However, a vast majority of the population still believes that there is nothing wrong with eating meat or any animal produce. It could be right.

To begin…… [Read More]

Obesity's a Condition in Which People Have

Obesity's a condition in which people have too much fat in their body and as a result of this excess fat, they end up having health problems such as diabetes and heart-related problems including mobility issues and a decreased life expectancy. A person is considered to be obese when their Body Mass Index (BMI) exceeds 30 gm and the BMI is calculated by dividing a person's weight in grams by the square of a person's height in meters.

Today, obesity is a major problem facing our society and more than one-third (35.7%) of Americans are obese (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). There are many implications of obesity for the society and one such outcome is the higher medical costs for obese people. It is estimated that in 2008 alone, $147 billion was spent for treating diseases related to obesity. Some groups are more affected by obesity than others…… [Read More]