Projects
Exploration of food related topics that drive analytical thinking
Exploration of food related topics that drive analytical thinking
While I now consider myself a foodie, looking back at my food habits as a child I can’t help but imagine a black and white picture. Growing up my brother, sister, and I ate standard home-cooked meals when time allowed. What are standard meals? The meals I consider standard American staples are ones that can be found in the most basic cookbooks; the type of meals that are portrayed on most sitcoms or featured at Midwestern restaurants as home-cooked varieties. There is no universal definition of standard meal but I imagine if I ran out of spices and any variety in food items I would revert to the standard meals of my childhood. These meals typically involve a simply meat and some sort of non-threatening vegetable like canned corn or potatoes. Peas and other exotics were basically banned in my house. I remember my dad telling a story about being forced to eat peas despite his pleas that he would vomit, and after he finally ate the peas he did. My dad had a very limited food list that probably led to my mom’s narrow meal rotation including and limited to basic chicken casseroles, steak and potatoes, beef tacos with crunchy shells, chicken noodle soup, and spaghetti. As a child I also inherited my father’s pickiness. How do children pick up their parent’s eating habits and taboos? This was not a genetic disability but an attempt by a young boy to emulate his father. My dad liked his steak overcooked and despised most vegetables and I must have thought that was the way to be a man. I would only eat salads with nothing but lettuce and ranch, tacos without any lettuce or tomatoes, sandwiches and burgers with just meat and cheese, and only white bread. Most the rest of our meals resulted from constantly being in a rush and short on time. All three kids in my family played competitive hockey throughout the state and required us to get off the school bus and climb straight into the car five to seven days a week. We ate pop tarts for breakfast, Lunchables for lunch, and some form of fast food for dinner. My young diet mostly consisted of what Michael Moss in Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food called vanishing caloric density – foods that digest rapidly and trick the brain into thinking they were calorie free. If it wasn’t for the daily outdoor play and competitive sports throughout my childhood I may have had serious health issues related to obesity much like many children today.
Eating with my family as a child felt more like a chore than a community experience, and I think that is the shared food experience for most Americans growing up in the 90s. The taboos we had in our home were created from a family of picky eaters that were accustom to bland and easy to make foods. Prior to my generation I think the food experience was more intimate, but the food was just as bland. My dad is a second-generation Romanian-American and a lot of the pickiness that he developed was a result. Romania was a poor eastern European country that had battled food shortages. When they moved to America they adopted the general diet and food taboos of the rest of the Midwestern culture, I think to both fit in and have a sense of luxury that they never experienced before. They narrowed their diets to match the type of recipes you could find in a Betty Crocker cookbook that included products you could purchase at the big local grocery store. My dad was faced with the option of new world simple recipes or old world necessities that the rest of his classmates found disgusting. Why was my dad and his family so quick to abandon their cultural foods? I imagine that due to the peer pressure, relentless advertisements from the processed food industry, and cheap cost of super market foods he grew accustom to the new world food. This new culture they found was also a product of the industrialized food systems in the United States. Mass production and packaged goods eliminated the need for them to eat whatever they could grow or get their hands on and allowed them to consistently purchase more nutritious products, even though the diversity of their diet was slaughtered.
The first steps I took to break away from my young childhood food habits happened at a Romanian Orthodox summer camp when I was a young teenager. While the various fasting principles like refraining from eating meat during certain weeks, never had an impact on me the introduction to Romanian food definitely did. For the first time in my life I was eating something other than my childhood staples - and I absolutely loved it. The first dish I remember trying was called mamaliga, which is sort of like a cheesy polenta. Just as my dad was peer pressured out of many foods by new world friends, I was peer pressured back into them by old world friends. Why was this cultural pride in foods so different than previous generations? When my dad’s family first came to the US they wanted to distance themselves from a horrible government. Many of the children I went to camp with were recent immigrants under much better circumstances. They left a country that may not have had great opportunities, but they were not fleeing in fear or necessity. I noticed that they held on to their cultural heritage and identity more than previous generations of Romanian immigrants. Seeing a lot of the excitement to share some of these dishes that were tied closely with who they were got me excited as well. Also, spending a few weeks with a large group of people just beginning teenage exploration also helped push me to try foods that I would have avoided in other situations. It may have not looked like Dorothy stepping out into bright and colorful Oz filled with a new world of food, but that’s how I remember it.
After that summer the food I ate began to expand exponentially, but healthy wasn’t an immediate concern. Nutrition was always a topic while I was playing hockey through my first time in college, but it was never something I identified as a need and never paid much attention to it. The only important aspect of eating that was communicated to me by our team’s dietician was that I needed to gain 15 pounds. So my meal plan consisted of high protein and even higher carbohydrates. I finally started focusing on actual nutritional balance with a leaner diet after I joined the military. I was in a special operations unit that required me to have a high level of physical competence. This was driven from both competitiveness from within the special operations teams and military mandatory testing minimums. The workout culture on the teams demanded a goal-oriented diet that typically consisted of chicken, broccoli, brown rice, vitamin supplements, and protein powder. While I still made sure to continue my food exploration while traveling the world, for the first time in my life I started to focus on the nutritional quality of food I was ingesting.
My current food tastes are considerably more diverse than I would have ever imagined growing up. I regularly eat and enjoy most foods that come from many different cultures. Central Michigan has a fairly wide selection to choose from and I am lucky to have a few close foodie friends to explore with. My father-in-law, and one of my best friends, worked for Sysco foods for 25 years helping chefs develop menus and utilize new products. Every time we travel together I get to experience the best chefs and new restaurants we can find. Another friend owns a catering company in Lansing and is more a food artist than a chef. Checking out a new restaurant with him is a true feasting experience as we usually order one of everything on the menu and eat family style. One thing that I noticed is that even though they both deal with production food in restaurants, they always cook at home with very few processed ingredients. They also search out restaurants that either have locally sourced foods or use the higher end products, like free range chickens and grass-fed beef.
While I still struggle finding good sources of non-industrialized food, my modern-day shopping trips continue to evolve. I definitely understand some of that urgency and time crunch that drove much of my childhood diet. I work as well as attend school full-time and try to play as much hockey as possible, my wife works full-time and tries to make yoga and her book club, my two-year-old goes to daycare and gymnastics, and my six-year-old is in kindergarten as well as participating in gymnastics and soccer. I’m exhausted just writing that out, and I must be honest we have the occasional happy meal or Lunchable. For the most part though we try to follow the saying that it is best to stay on the outside of the isles at the grocery store and do quite a bit of food prep for the week. We try to get vegetables, fruits, grains, meats, milk, cheese, and butter and create most of our meals from those ingredients along with spices. I thought we were doing very well with our grocery list until watching the beginning of Food Inc. Even “fresh” produce and meats I buy are still coming from massive factory operations and are highly processed. We get most of our red meat from Merindorf Meats, which is a reputable meat market, and when I inquired into their beef source a few days ago I found out it comes from large factory farms out west. I wanted to take this class because food is very important to me and my family and we actively try to eat better and healthier. My goal up to this point had been to satiate my own self-centered needs. I wanted my food to taste as good as it could, make me feel energetic and strong, and have no negative effects on my family. I completely ignored the environmental cost, health and welfare of animals, health and welfare of migrant workers, and the long term sustainability
The most impactful aspects of this class for me was identifying the negative effect meat has on the environment and learning how unsustainable our current food systems are. In People Still Don’t Get the Link Between Meat Consumption and Climate Change, Annick De Witt discusses how eating less meat, eating local, and eating seasonal has just as big of a positive impact on climate change as driving less, saving energy at home, and installing solar panels. As a civil engineer with an environmental focus that hit me hard. All my lights at home are LEDs, I drive a fuel efficient car, I recycle, I bring my own bags to the grocery store, and I eat meat with every meal to completely counteract all of it. I really enjoyed Graham Hill’s weekday vegetarian concept and it is something I am starting to incorporate into my life. I considered meatless Monday’s, but I decided to go a little bit bigger by eating one vegetarian meal a day. My impact may be small but I feel better about my food habits not completely contradicting the rest of my life. As an engineer my biggest concern with the future is sustainability. We don’t feed the world today, even with massive factory farming, and our population is continuing to grow. The only sustainable option, after our food industry becomes more sustainable, is to make a hard evaluation of the growing human population and then align with what earth can truly support.
Eating with my family as a child felt more like a chore than a community experience, and I think that is the shared food experience for most Americans growing up in the 90s. The taboos we had in our home were created from a family of picky eaters that were accustom to bland and easy to make foods. Prior to my generation I think the food experience was more intimate, but the food was just as bland. My dad is a second-generation Romanian-American and a lot of the pickiness that he developed was a result. Romania was a poor eastern European country that had battled food shortages. When they moved to America they adopted the general diet and food taboos of the rest of the Midwestern culture, I think to both fit in and have a sense of luxury that they never experienced before. They narrowed their diets to match the type of recipes you could find in a Betty Crocker cookbook that included products you could purchase at the big local grocery store. My dad was faced with the option of new world simple recipes or old world necessities that the rest of his classmates found disgusting. Why was my dad and his family so quick to abandon their cultural foods? I imagine that due to the peer pressure, relentless advertisements from the processed food industry, and cheap cost of super market foods he grew accustom to the new world food. This new culture they found was also a product of the industrialized food systems in the United States. Mass production and packaged goods eliminated the need for them to eat whatever they could grow or get their hands on and allowed them to consistently purchase more nutritious products, even though the diversity of their diet was slaughtered.
The first steps I took to break away from my young childhood food habits happened at a Romanian Orthodox summer camp when I was a young teenager. While the various fasting principles like refraining from eating meat during certain weeks, never had an impact on me the introduction to Romanian food definitely did. For the first time in my life I was eating something other than my childhood staples - and I absolutely loved it. The first dish I remember trying was called mamaliga, which is sort of like a cheesy polenta. Just as my dad was peer pressured out of many foods by new world friends, I was peer pressured back into them by old world friends. Why was this cultural pride in foods so different than previous generations? When my dad’s family first came to the US they wanted to distance themselves from a horrible government. Many of the children I went to camp with were recent immigrants under much better circumstances. They left a country that may not have had great opportunities, but they were not fleeing in fear or necessity. I noticed that they held on to their cultural heritage and identity more than previous generations of Romanian immigrants. Seeing a lot of the excitement to share some of these dishes that were tied closely with who they were got me excited as well. Also, spending a few weeks with a large group of people just beginning teenage exploration also helped push me to try foods that I would have avoided in other situations. It may have not looked like Dorothy stepping out into bright and colorful Oz filled with a new world of food, but that’s how I remember it.
After that summer the food I ate began to expand exponentially, but healthy wasn’t an immediate concern. Nutrition was always a topic while I was playing hockey through my first time in college, but it was never something I identified as a need and never paid much attention to it. The only important aspect of eating that was communicated to me by our team’s dietician was that I needed to gain 15 pounds. So my meal plan consisted of high protein and even higher carbohydrates. I finally started focusing on actual nutritional balance with a leaner diet after I joined the military. I was in a special operations unit that required me to have a high level of physical competence. This was driven from both competitiveness from within the special operations teams and military mandatory testing minimums. The workout culture on the teams demanded a goal-oriented diet that typically consisted of chicken, broccoli, brown rice, vitamin supplements, and protein powder. While I still made sure to continue my food exploration while traveling the world, for the first time in my life I started to focus on the nutritional quality of food I was ingesting.
My current food tastes are considerably more diverse than I would have ever imagined growing up. I regularly eat and enjoy most foods that come from many different cultures. Central Michigan has a fairly wide selection to choose from and I am lucky to have a few close foodie friends to explore with. My father-in-law, and one of my best friends, worked for Sysco foods for 25 years helping chefs develop menus and utilize new products. Every time we travel together I get to experience the best chefs and new restaurants we can find. Another friend owns a catering company in Lansing and is more a food artist than a chef. Checking out a new restaurant with him is a true feasting experience as we usually order one of everything on the menu and eat family style. One thing that I noticed is that even though they both deal with production food in restaurants, they always cook at home with very few processed ingredients. They also search out restaurants that either have locally sourced foods or use the higher end products, like free range chickens and grass-fed beef.
While I still struggle finding good sources of non-industrialized food, my modern-day shopping trips continue to evolve. I definitely understand some of that urgency and time crunch that drove much of my childhood diet. I work as well as attend school full-time and try to play as much hockey as possible, my wife works full-time and tries to make yoga and her book club, my two-year-old goes to daycare and gymnastics, and my six-year-old is in kindergarten as well as participating in gymnastics and soccer. I’m exhausted just writing that out, and I must be honest we have the occasional happy meal or Lunchable. For the most part though we try to follow the saying that it is best to stay on the outside of the isles at the grocery store and do quite a bit of food prep for the week. We try to get vegetables, fruits, grains, meats, milk, cheese, and butter and create most of our meals from those ingredients along with spices. I thought we were doing very well with our grocery list until watching the beginning of Food Inc. Even “fresh” produce and meats I buy are still coming from massive factory operations and are highly processed. We get most of our red meat from Merindorf Meats, which is a reputable meat market, and when I inquired into their beef source a few days ago I found out it comes from large factory farms out west. I wanted to take this class because food is very important to me and my family and we actively try to eat better and healthier. My goal up to this point had been to satiate my own self-centered needs. I wanted my food to taste as good as it could, make me feel energetic and strong, and have no negative effects on my family. I completely ignored the environmental cost, health and welfare of animals, health and welfare of migrant workers, and the long term sustainability
The most impactful aspects of this class for me was identifying the negative effect meat has on the environment and learning how unsustainable our current food systems are. In People Still Don’t Get the Link Between Meat Consumption and Climate Change, Annick De Witt discusses how eating less meat, eating local, and eating seasonal has just as big of a positive impact on climate change as driving less, saving energy at home, and installing solar panels. As a civil engineer with an environmental focus that hit me hard. All my lights at home are LEDs, I drive a fuel efficient car, I recycle, I bring my own bags to the grocery store, and I eat meat with every meal to completely counteract all of it. I really enjoyed Graham Hill’s weekday vegetarian concept and it is something I am starting to incorporate into my life. I considered meatless Monday’s, but I decided to go a little bit bigger by eating one vegetarian meal a day. My impact may be small but I feel better about my food habits not completely contradicting the rest of my life. As an engineer my biggest concern with the future is sustainability. We don’t feed the world today, even with massive factory farming, and our population is continuing to grow. The only sustainable option, after our food industry becomes more sustainable, is to make a hard evaluation of the growing human population and then align with what earth can truly support.
For this project we were tasked with exploring three different stores or markets, a big supermarket, a farmer’s market, and a boutique grocers. I chose Meijer in Mason, the Okemos farm’s market, and Fresh Thyme in East Lansing. I have shopped at both Meijer and Fresh Thyme but had never been to the farmer’s market before. Throughout my life, and especially during this class, I have developed biases towards each one of these types of stores. For this project I did my best to ignore them and to take an honest objective assessment.
My grocery exploration started at the Meijer in Mason, MI. I have been at this Meijer at least once a week in the three years that we have lived a mile down the road. On my short drive I realized that even though I’m there regularly I never stopped and looked. From being a zombie shopper for many years, ignoring my surroundings and typically in a rush with a few kids running around, I could not objectively describe the store and my experiences. Behind the greeter area is a bright white clinical setting. The floors are white, the lighting is that cold and blue daylight, all the shelving is white, tall white ceilings, and simple signs with only one or two colors. This is what I had in my mind of what Meijer was like but couldn’t confirm without a purposeful visit. As I walked through the rest of the store with this realization it felt like this design was to facilitate that mindless shopping experience that leads to people filling their cart with products they don’t fully understand. Most of the products in the store were those that mostly met the lower income demographics we have spoken about in many of our readings. Everything from multiple aisles of sugary beverages to isles and aisles of combinations of processed corn and sugar. They did have a few areas where you can buy organic fruits or non-processed versions of popular items, but they are more expensive that even specialty stores like Whole Foods. Just like the lighting, the entire shopping experience was cold. I don’t think I had any interaction with any of the other customers or workers the entire time besides checking out. The closest to anything meaningful was trying to dodge carts in the aisles. Workers were non-existent unless I wanted to get deli meat or meat that wasn’t pre-packaged. The layout focused on placing discount items in the middle of the main aisle to the back and on the isle endcaps. Even in the produce section there was all kinds of processed junk with large sale signs tucked in everywhere possible. The shopping experience at Meijer is definitely about getting as much stuff in your cart as possible and tricking the shopper into spending as much money as possible by thinking they are saving money on sales.
My second adventure was at the farmer’s market in Okemos. It was a cold and drizzly day in mid-October so there wasn’t a large crowd that I would expect in the middle of the summer. There were half a dozen stands setup under a pavilion area selling mostly apples or canned goods. A few of the stands had small amounts of various vegetables and fruits, but it showed that it was apple season. One of the first things that really stood out to me was that there seemed to be a reasonable amount of fruits and vegetables out. At Meijer I got the overwhelming feeling that the clear majority of what I saw walking through was destined for the garbage. The farmer’s market, on the other hand, seemed like a reasonable amount that would greatly reduce waste. I also noticed that for all the fruits and vegetables that I saw the prices were really great, usually meeting or beating the prices at Meijer. Every booth I walked up to I was warming greeted by the farmer and given details on their farming practices, where they were located, what I should be looking for in what they had this time of season, and even in one case I learned about their kids. This all felt very genuine and by no means did I feel like they were just selling me products. They seemed to be truly passionate about everything from their apples to the elderberry jam. Being one of two customers at the time I didn’t get to see how customer interactions usually go, but I couldn’t help but imagine an old-time street market filled with happy people during warmer weather. There was definitely a naturally warm atmosphere that the 40-degree rainy day could not touch.
The last spot on my walkabout was Fresh Thyme in East Lansing. I have been to Fresh Thyme occasionally to get a sandwich and soup or a few small items like toothpaste. Like my visits to Meijer I never really considered the atmosphere, so it was fun getting to take a step back and take it in. When walking in the door the first thing I noticed was the warm coloring and design. The concrete was painted to look like clean but old rust and dirt stained barn floor, the lighting was on the yellow spectrum and much warmer than Meijer, and the ceilings were lower. Another big difference from Meijer I noticed was the proportion of the produce and fresh food area to the packaged area. At Meijer I would guess less than 10% of the store was dedicated to fresh food, while Fresh Thyme was close to half. Fresh Thyme’s produce section was also overstocked and waste prone, with generally higher prices than both Meijer and the farmer’s market. I was able to get honey crisp apples for $0.99 a pound though! My interaction with customers was by far the best at Fresh Thyme, though I imagine the farmer’s market would beat it during fairer weather. I had a lady recommend that I try the potato soup, chatted with another guy while waiting for a sandwich, and joked with a lady in the checkout line. I can usually induce this in any situation, but I also noticed that it seemed the common theme throughout the store. Everyone was a lot friendlier than Meijer. The customers also, with only one exception I saw, seemed to be from higher income. In the checkout line people had a lot less packaged goods and mostly fresh produce and meats.
My grocery exploration started at the Meijer in Mason, MI. I have been at this Meijer at least once a week in the three years that we have lived a mile down the road. On my short drive I realized that even though I’m there regularly I never stopped and looked. From being a zombie shopper for many years, ignoring my surroundings and typically in a rush with a few kids running around, I could not objectively describe the store and my experiences. Behind the greeter area is a bright white clinical setting. The floors are white, the lighting is that cold and blue daylight, all the shelving is white, tall white ceilings, and simple signs with only one or two colors. This is what I had in my mind of what Meijer was like but couldn’t confirm without a purposeful visit. As I walked through the rest of the store with this realization it felt like this design was to facilitate that mindless shopping experience that leads to people filling their cart with products they don’t fully understand. Most of the products in the store were those that mostly met the lower income demographics we have spoken about in many of our readings. Everything from multiple aisles of sugary beverages to isles and aisles of combinations of processed corn and sugar. They did have a few areas where you can buy organic fruits or non-processed versions of popular items, but they are more expensive that even specialty stores like Whole Foods. Just like the lighting, the entire shopping experience was cold. I don’t think I had any interaction with any of the other customers or workers the entire time besides checking out. The closest to anything meaningful was trying to dodge carts in the aisles. Workers were non-existent unless I wanted to get deli meat or meat that wasn’t pre-packaged. The layout focused on placing discount items in the middle of the main aisle to the back and on the isle endcaps. Even in the produce section there was all kinds of processed junk with large sale signs tucked in everywhere possible. The shopping experience at Meijer is definitely about getting as much stuff in your cart as possible and tricking the shopper into spending as much money as possible by thinking they are saving money on sales.
My second adventure was at the farmer’s market in Okemos. It was a cold and drizzly day in mid-October so there wasn’t a large crowd that I would expect in the middle of the summer. There were half a dozen stands setup under a pavilion area selling mostly apples or canned goods. A few of the stands had small amounts of various vegetables and fruits, but it showed that it was apple season. One of the first things that really stood out to me was that there seemed to be a reasonable amount of fruits and vegetables out. At Meijer I got the overwhelming feeling that the clear majority of what I saw walking through was destined for the garbage. The farmer’s market, on the other hand, seemed like a reasonable amount that would greatly reduce waste. I also noticed that for all the fruits and vegetables that I saw the prices were really great, usually meeting or beating the prices at Meijer. Every booth I walked up to I was warming greeted by the farmer and given details on their farming practices, where they were located, what I should be looking for in what they had this time of season, and even in one case I learned about their kids. This all felt very genuine and by no means did I feel like they were just selling me products. They seemed to be truly passionate about everything from their apples to the elderberry jam. Being one of two customers at the time I didn’t get to see how customer interactions usually go, but I couldn’t help but imagine an old-time street market filled with happy people during warmer weather. There was definitely a naturally warm atmosphere that the 40-degree rainy day could not touch.
The last spot on my walkabout was Fresh Thyme in East Lansing. I have been to Fresh Thyme occasionally to get a sandwich and soup or a few small items like toothpaste. Like my visits to Meijer I never really considered the atmosphere, so it was fun getting to take a step back and take it in. When walking in the door the first thing I noticed was the warm coloring and design. The concrete was painted to look like clean but old rust and dirt stained barn floor, the lighting was on the yellow spectrum and much warmer than Meijer, and the ceilings were lower. Another big difference from Meijer I noticed was the proportion of the produce and fresh food area to the packaged area. At Meijer I would guess less than 10% of the store was dedicated to fresh food, while Fresh Thyme was close to half. Fresh Thyme’s produce section was also overstocked and waste prone, with generally higher prices than both Meijer and the farmer’s market. I was able to get honey crisp apples for $0.99 a pound though! My interaction with customers was by far the best at Fresh Thyme, though I imagine the farmer’s market would beat it during fairer weather. I had a lady recommend that I try the potato soup, chatted with another guy while waiting for a sandwich, and joked with a lady in the checkout line. I can usually induce this in any situation, but I also noticed that it seemed the common theme throughout the store. Everyone was a lot friendlier than Meijer. The customers also, with only one exception I saw, seemed to be from higher income. In the checkout line people had a lot less packaged goods and mostly fresh produce and meats.
PODCAST
Podcast: Ag Talk with the Ag Doc: Honeybees
The podcast I listened to was about the potential benefits of using honeybees as pollinators for commercial agriculture. The podcaster, Dr. Curtis Livesay, is a Ph.D in Research Methods and Interpersonal Communications from the University of Iowa and is a Certified Crop Adviser. Dr. Livesay owns a company that provides consultation to large scale agricultural operations with a focus on increasing corn and soy beans yield. The podcast was very technically focused, analyzing various studies and their research methods throughout the world with regards to how honeybees could contribute to soy yield.
Soy beans are auto pollinators, which means the flowers of a single plant can transfer pollen from within without any external pollination method. Dr. Livesay discusses how every study performed showed an increase in soybean yield when bees are brought in. Most of the soybean flowers typically fall off, and only a few flowers turn into bean clusters. When the bees are brought in more flowers on every plant turn into soy clusters, which resulted in up to 20% of an increase in production. I found this discussion very interesting because you typically hear about losing plants that require external pollinators when discussing honeybees. Instead, Dr. Livesay discusses how one bee hive for up to 20 acres of corn or soybeans could reduce the need for additional fertilizers and insecticides while still maintaining high crop yield. Using honeybees to help pollinate large agricultural crops could reduce the use of insecticides that are killing the honeybees and fertilizers that are causing environmental disasters. Dr. Livesay also discusses the cost and concerns farmers should have with bringing honeybees onto their farms. The cost for a hive is only a few hundred dollars and could result in thousands of dollars of profit each year. They are low maintenance and only need additional boxes added if the hive is growing too large. One warning he had for farmers that wanted to try honeybees is that many of the traditional insecticides used during flowering could kill the entire hive.
BOOK
A Spring Without Bees – Michael Schacker
Michael Schacker is the cofounder of the Global Regeneration Network, which is a group dedicated to change the word through information and connecting the right people. Schacker also works with investigative science and is a political writer. He starts the book by addressing the fact that bees are disappearing. Beekeepers are coming back to find their hives completely empty or with a queen bee abandoned. This strange phenomenon is called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). He transitions into discussing the origin of plants and how pollinators evolved in parallel with them over the past 400 million years. He even attributes the bee to be the prime insect responsible for the world as it is today, and stresses the importance of the delicate balance of the circle of life on earth. The book is very well researched on the history of bees, their evolution, and known behaviors. Like the Ag Doc he also talks about how even autopollinators benefit greatly from the additional pollination that honey bees provide. He also points out that nearly a third of all US crops are reliant on honey bees. Reliant crops include almonds, blueberries, apples, tomatoes, pumpkins, and many more. Mites and the civilian causalities caused by insecticides are playing a huge role in destroying bee populations, creating a threat to an entire ecosystem that depends on the bees pollination. Schacker discusses how important honey bees are to alfalfa which the dairy and beef industry relies on heavily. It’s scary to think a few less bees could have an impact on beef prices. After reading the first few chapters I think Schacker is very well researched and scientifically competent to provide some very good data and new perspectives for our project.
NEWS ARTICLES
The first two articles I read, What’s Happening to Honey Bees? and Honey bees are dying, were about various ways honey bee populations were in decline. The first article was from an agricultural news source. Christina Herrick is a senior editor for the American Fruit Grower magazine. Potential causes of bee decline she discusses are hive health, varroa mites, climate change, changing landscape, and fungicide and insecticide timing. Climate change is affecting seasonal temperatures, with high fall temperatures causing bee hives to be active further into the fall and causing them to run out of food storage prior to the winter months. Changing landscape is another huge factor that I never considered. More and more biodiverse land is being turned into row crops like corn and soybeans. Biodiversity is very important to bees because they need to feed more than during the blooming time of one crop. With proper biodiversity you can have different crops bloom throughout the spring, summer, and fall. With only one bloom the bees are lacking enough pollen. Herrick talks about how many conservation reserve program areas in the Northern Great Plains have been turned into to row crops, about a 53% loss in biodiverse grasslands. Herrick also discusses how proper timing for insecticides and fungicides is important to make sure that the chemicals aren’t on the plants when pollination is needed. I found it very interesting how soft the insecticides and fungicides were tackled until I considered that she was in the agricultural industry and that may be frowned upon.
In Honey bees are dying, a study on weed killers hurting hunter populations was explored. Weed killers like glyphosate, used in Roundup, do not immediately kill honey bees like insecticides can. However, they greatly damage the digestive abilities of the bees. The study showed that bees with exposure to weed killers are 40% more likely to die from pathogens than normal healthy bees.
The last article, Festival calls attention to pollinators, discusses an event that is held to promote knowledge about the pollinator industry and their loss of habitat. The most interesting part of the article for me was finding out that honey bees are not native to North America, and that other pollinators include butterflies, beetles, bee flies, moths, and other species of bees. An interviewee even says that native bees are better pollinators for North America because they are used to the cold temperatures and can work further into the season.
TOPIC POTENTIAL
Declining bee populations' effect on agriculture is an even more important topic that I initially thought. My articles, podcast, and book make me realize that bees are more important than just a few varieties of fruits. Bees greatly increase the yield of alfalfa, which is fed to dairy and beef cows. They also can help increase the yield of major crops like soy and corn. When using bees for these purposes less chemicals are needed to achieve high yields. The effect of fertilizers, insecticides, and fungicides in protecting plants from competition or losing some yield to foragers may be overtaken by the increased pollination and yield bees can contribute. My biggest concern beyond the bees is these chemicals that are being used are getting into our bodies. These potentially dangerous and mostly under regulated chemicals that are causing bees to die can also causing human deaths, as well as many other species of plants, animals, and insects. For example, Monsanto states glyphosate is safe to use, while the independent and well researched organization WHO states that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic. Outside of the regulatory environment Monsanto has been ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits due to Roundup causing cancer. There seems to be this massive disconnect between the products that the agricultural industry are using to bolster profits and the actual environmental catastrophe that we are experiencing due to these products. While it is exciting to see all this research going into how bees are being affected and how the industry around them will suffer, it’s scary to think that big agriculture is completing ignoring all these warning signs to achieve short term profits.
When I first starting looking into the decline of honey bees it was very overwhelming due to the incredible amount of information and studies available. There is so much more to learn, and during my research I often found myself traveling down rabbit holes that initially seemed to not have any connection to bees. I would really like to learn more about the interdependencies of bees, potential artificial pollinator technologies, and other potential bee related agricultural solutions that could benefit both farmers and consumers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bahr, Jeff. “Festival Calls Attention to Pollinators.” The Grand Island Independent, 14 Oct. 2018,
www.theindependent.com/agriculture/festival-calls-attention-to-pollinators/article_f35bf8aa-cf4e-11e8-86e1-bb6211335afd.html.
Herrick, Christina. “What's Happening to Honey Bees?” Growing Produce, 1 Oct. 2018,
www.growingproduce.com/fruits/whats-happening-honey-bees/.
Livesay, Curtis. “Honeybees.” Ag Talk with the Ag Doc, Dynamite Ag, 1 Oct. 2016,
www.blogtalkradio.com/agtalkwiththeagdoc/2015/10/28/honeybees.
May, Ashley. “Honey Bees Are Dying. A Popular Weed Killer Might Be to Blame, Study Says.” USA Today,
Gannett Satellite Information Network, 25 Sept. 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/09/25/weed-killer-ingredient-linked- honey-bee-deaths-glyphosate-study/1419248002/.
Schacker, Michael. A Spring without Bees: How Colony Collapse Disorder Has Endangered Our Food
Supply. Lyons, 2009.
Podcast: Ag Talk with the Ag Doc: Honeybees
The podcast I listened to was about the potential benefits of using honeybees as pollinators for commercial agriculture. The podcaster, Dr. Curtis Livesay, is a Ph.D in Research Methods and Interpersonal Communications from the University of Iowa and is a Certified Crop Adviser. Dr. Livesay owns a company that provides consultation to large scale agricultural operations with a focus on increasing corn and soy beans yield. The podcast was very technically focused, analyzing various studies and their research methods throughout the world with regards to how honeybees could contribute to soy yield.
Soy beans are auto pollinators, which means the flowers of a single plant can transfer pollen from within without any external pollination method. Dr. Livesay discusses how every study performed showed an increase in soybean yield when bees are brought in. Most of the soybean flowers typically fall off, and only a few flowers turn into bean clusters. When the bees are brought in more flowers on every plant turn into soy clusters, which resulted in up to 20% of an increase in production. I found this discussion very interesting because you typically hear about losing plants that require external pollinators when discussing honeybees. Instead, Dr. Livesay discusses how one bee hive for up to 20 acres of corn or soybeans could reduce the need for additional fertilizers and insecticides while still maintaining high crop yield. Using honeybees to help pollinate large agricultural crops could reduce the use of insecticides that are killing the honeybees and fertilizers that are causing environmental disasters. Dr. Livesay also discusses the cost and concerns farmers should have with bringing honeybees onto their farms. The cost for a hive is only a few hundred dollars and could result in thousands of dollars of profit each year. They are low maintenance and only need additional boxes added if the hive is growing too large. One warning he had for farmers that wanted to try honeybees is that many of the traditional insecticides used during flowering could kill the entire hive.
BOOK
A Spring Without Bees – Michael Schacker
Michael Schacker is the cofounder of the Global Regeneration Network, which is a group dedicated to change the word through information and connecting the right people. Schacker also works with investigative science and is a political writer. He starts the book by addressing the fact that bees are disappearing. Beekeepers are coming back to find their hives completely empty or with a queen bee abandoned. This strange phenomenon is called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). He transitions into discussing the origin of plants and how pollinators evolved in parallel with them over the past 400 million years. He even attributes the bee to be the prime insect responsible for the world as it is today, and stresses the importance of the delicate balance of the circle of life on earth. The book is very well researched on the history of bees, their evolution, and known behaviors. Like the Ag Doc he also talks about how even autopollinators benefit greatly from the additional pollination that honey bees provide. He also points out that nearly a third of all US crops are reliant on honey bees. Reliant crops include almonds, blueberries, apples, tomatoes, pumpkins, and many more. Mites and the civilian causalities caused by insecticides are playing a huge role in destroying bee populations, creating a threat to an entire ecosystem that depends on the bees pollination. Schacker discusses how important honey bees are to alfalfa which the dairy and beef industry relies on heavily. It’s scary to think a few less bees could have an impact on beef prices. After reading the first few chapters I think Schacker is very well researched and scientifically competent to provide some very good data and new perspectives for our project.
NEWS ARTICLES
- What’s Happening to Honey Bees? – Christina Herrick, September 28th, 2018, Growing Produce https://www.growingproduce.com/fruits/whats-happening-honey-bees/
- Honey bees are dying, a popular weed killer might be to blame, study says – Ashley May, September 25th, 2018, USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/09/25/weed-killer-ingredient-linked-honey-bee-deaths-glyphosate-study/1419248002/
- Festival calls attention to pollinators – Jeff Bahr, October 13th, 2018, The Independent https://www.theindependent.com/agriculture/festival-calls-attention-to-pollinators/article_f35bf8aa-cf4e-11e8-86e1-bb6211335afd.html
The first two articles I read, What’s Happening to Honey Bees? and Honey bees are dying, were about various ways honey bee populations were in decline. The first article was from an agricultural news source. Christina Herrick is a senior editor for the American Fruit Grower magazine. Potential causes of bee decline she discusses are hive health, varroa mites, climate change, changing landscape, and fungicide and insecticide timing. Climate change is affecting seasonal temperatures, with high fall temperatures causing bee hives to be active further into the fall and causing them to run out of food storage prior to the winter months. Changing landscape is another huge factor that I never considered. More and more biodiverse land is being turned into row crops like corn and soybeans. Biodiversity is very important to bees because they need to feed more than during the blooming time of one crop. With proper biodiversity you can have different crops bloom throughout the spring, summer, and fall. With only one bloom the bees are lacking enough pollen. Herrick talks about how many conservation reserve program areas in the Northern Great Plains have been turned into to row crops, about a 53% loss in biodiverse grasslands. Herrick also discusses how proper timing for insecticides and fungicides is important to make sure that the chemicals aren’t on the plants when pollination is needed. I found it very interesting how soft the insecticides and fungicides were tackled until I considered that she was in the agricultural industry and that may be frowned upon.
In Honey bees are dying, a study on weed killers hurting hunter populations was explored. Weed killers like glyphosate, used in Roundup, do not immediately kill honey bees like insecticides can. However, they greatly damage the digestive abilities of the bees. The study showed that bees with exposure to weed killers are 40% more likely to die from pathogens than normal healthy bees.
The last article, Festival calls attention to pollinators, discusses an event that is held to promote knowledge about the pollinator industry and their loss of habitat. The most interesting part of the article for me was finding out that honey bees are not native to North America, and that other pollinators include butterflies, beetles, bee flies, moths, and other species of bees. An interviewee even says that native bees are better pollinators for North America because they are used to the cold temperatures and can work further into the season.
TOPIC POTENTIAL
Declining bee populations' effect on agriculture is an even more important topic that I initially thought. My articles, podcast, and book make me realize that bees are more important than just a few varieties of fruits. Bees greatly increase the yield of alfalfa, which is fed to dairy and beef cows. They also can help increase the yield of major crops like soy and corn. When using bees for these purposes less chemicals are needed to achieve high yields. The effect of fertilizers, insecticides, and fungicides in protecting plants from competition or losing some yield to foragers may be overtaken by the increased pollination and yield bees can contribute. My biggest concern beyond the bees is these chemicals that are being used are getting into our bodies. These potentially dangerous and mostly under regulated chemicals that are causing bees to die can also causing human deaths, as well as many other species of plants, animals, and insects. For example, Monsanto states glyphosate is safe to use, while the independent and well researched organization WHO states that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic. Outside of the regulatory environment Monsanto has been ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits due to Roundup causing cancer. There seems to be this massive disconnect between the products that the agricultural industry are using to bolster profits and the actual environmental catastrophe that we are experiencing due to these products. While it is exciting to see all this research going into how bees are being affected and how the industry around them will suffer, it’s scary to think that big agriculture is completing ignoring all these warning signs to achieve short term profits.
When I first starting looking into the decline of honey bees it was very overwhelming due to the incredible amount of information and studies available. There is so much more to learn, and during my research I often found myself traveling down rabbit holes that initially seemed to not have any connection to bees. I would really like to learn more about the interdependencies of bees, potential artificial pollinator technologies, and other potential bee related agricultural solutions that could benefit both farmers and consumers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bahr, Jeff. “Festival Calls Attention to Pollinators.” The Grand Island Independent, 14 Oct. 2018,
www.theindependent.com/agriculture/festival-calls-attention-to-pollinators/article_f35bf8aa-cf4e-11e8-86e1-bb6211335afd.html.
Herrick, Christina. “What's Happening to Honey Bees?” Growing Produce, 1 Oct. 2018,
www.growingproduce.com/fruits/whats-happening-honey-bees/.
Livesay, Curtis. “Honeybees.” Ag Talk with the Ag Doc, Dynamite Ag, 1 Oct. 2016,
www.blogtalkradio.com/agtalkwiththeagdoc/2015/10/28/honeybees.
May, Ashley. “Honey Bees Are Dying. A Popular Weed Killer Might Be to Blame, Study Says.” USA Today,
Gannett Satellite Information Network, 25 Sept. 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/09/25/weed-killer-ingredient-linked- honey-bee-deaths-glyphosate-study/1419248002/.
Schacker, Michael. A Spring without Bees: How Colony Collapse Disorder Has Endangered Our Food
Supply. Lyons, 2009.
Katherine,
Hope you’re having a great day at work! I have to write an email to you as an assignment for my industrial food class discussing a book we read as a class. We recently finished Pandora’s Lunchbox by Melanie Warner and there is a lot of information regarding processed foods that I want to share with you, and would have regardless of the email assignment. I know we already eat fairly healthy overall, but I think there are a few things that Warner identifies that we can easily incorporate into our life to improve what our family eats. A lot of her arguments are not substantiated to the level that my evening research tangents on the couch achieve, but I think it’s a very good place to start analyzing the food we currently eat.
Warner caught my attention in the books introduction talking about how a tub a guacamole she bought from the stole didn’t rot after months of sitting in the fridge. It turns out that a lot of the “healthy” products in the produce section we buy have similar preservatives and additives that her guacamole has, including accidentally labeled amigum which might be in one of your face masks (Pg. xiv, 98). The first thing I think of is all the hummus we buy that has the same preservatives and artificial additives that caused the guacamole to not decompose, and in my mind not digest properly in our stomachs. We have a food processor and we should use it more!
Another thing Warner discusses is the cheese industry. We need to cut out American cheese slices and start buying cheese from the MSU dairy or somewhere similar. Kraft Singles are considered Cheese Product and not actual cheese (Pg. 45). Not only does this mean they have enough additives to not be considered real cheese but they do not contain the potentially beneficial bacteria that are in naturally processed cheeses (Pg. 47). Kraft Singles, just like the processed guacamole, doesn’t rot or develop mold either!
Pandora’s Lunchbox also tackles synthetic vitamins instead natural vitamins from whole foods. Food studies have shown that while synthetic vitamins are good we still miss out on other nutritional aspects than enchance those vitamins in natural supplements called phytochemicals (Pg 89). In Warner’s chapter called Putting Humpty Dumpty Back Together Again she talks about how a lot of foods are so processed and broken apart that when they are formed back into their final product they don’t retain any of their original nutritional value. So they add vitamins and minerals back, but are just now studying phytochemicals that are believed to actually help activate vitamins and the benefits we associate with them.
One of the scariest things I discovered is how little our food is regulated, and how the agencies responsible for regulating it serve the companies more than they do the consumers. There are over five thousand food additives currently in our foods (Pg. 105). Even something we think of as healthier than McDonalds, like Subway, bread has between 20 and 50 additives to replace flavors destroyed during the production process, improve color, make the bread more fluffy, and make them last longer. (Pg. 101) The part that scares me is that most of these additives are not well researched and even sometimes harmful research is brushed under the rug in favor of the food industry. Potassium bromate, used in industrial produced bread, was shown to cause tumors in lab rats. Instead of banning it the FDA asked companies to stop using it, completely lacking any backbone behind the statement. Thankfully, nearly 30 years after being identified as dangerous it is finally off most shelves. However, it has been replaced with something that may be just as dangerous called azodicarbonamid, which breaks down into a carcinogen when heated. The FDA’s official response is to make sure to just use small amounts (Pg. 111-112).
The biggest item that I would like to replace in our daughters' diets is any chicken nuggets or frozen foods that we currently eat from Meijer or McDonalds. Most of the meat in those nuggets come from highly processed soy protein instead of actual chicken. The USDA used to have a rule that limited the amount of soy protein that could be in meats served at school but the food industry lobbied against it and the limit was removed (Pg. 152). Warner buys Bell & Evans frozen chicken tenders from Whole Foods that I would like to try for the girls. Something easy to throw in the oven and cook for soccer and gymnastic days. She talks about another brand that even though they say they are organic they are still highly processed. Warner put them in a bag and let them age and doesn’t talk about how they developed mold and decomposed, but the fact that they turned into liquid and completely disassembled after a few days (Pg. 165). I can’t image that anything that would break down like that could be part of a healthy diet and stable digestion. She also compares cheap chicken, probably like what we buy at Meijer, to what she calls happy chicken. Cheap chicken is grown so fast and processed so much that it actually needs flavors added back to it. Happy chicken, basically free range and natural growing, retains “roast nots and fatty notes” that aren’t found in cheap chicken (Pg. 173).
I think that identifying the remaining items in our diets that are still heavily processed and replacing them with simple and natural products would be pretty easy. I fully understand that with our ridiculously busy schedules that we may not be able to cut out 100% of processed foods, but I think we make every attempt to.
I’m at my word limit! I love you and am excited about our night staying home with the girls!
Hope you’re having a great day at work! I have to write an email to you as an assignment for my industrial food class discussing a book we read as a class. We recently finished Pandora’s Lunchbox by Melanie Warner and there is a lot of information regarding processed foods that I want to share with you, and would have regardless of the email assignment. I know we already eat fairly healthy overall, but I think there are a few things that Warner identifies that we can easily incorporate into our life to improve what our family eats. A lot of her arguments are not substantiated to the level that my evening research tangents on the couch achieve, but I think it’s a very good place to start analyzing the food we currently eat.
Warner caught my attention in the books introduction talking about how a tub a guacamole she bought from the stole didn’t rot after months of sitting in the fridge. It turns out that a lot of the “healthy” products in the produce section we buy have similar preservatives and additives that her guacamole has, including accidentally labeled amigum which might be in one of your face masks (Pg. xiv, 98). The first thing I think of is all the hummus we buy that has the same preservatives and artificial additives that caused the guacamole to not decompose, and in my mind not digest properly in our stomachs. We have a food processor and we should use it more!
Another thing Warner discusses is the cheese industry. We need to cut out American cheese slices and start buying cheese from the MSU dairy or somewhere similar. Kraft Singles are considered Cheese Product and not actual cheese (Pg. 45). Not only does this mean they have enough additives to not be considered real cheese but they do not contain the potentially beneficial bacteria that are in naturally processed cheeses (Pg. 47). Kraft Singles, just like the processed guacamole, doesn’t rot or develop mold either!
Pandora’s Lunchbox also tackles synthetic vitamins instead natural vitamins from whole foods. Food studies have shown that while synthetic vitamins are good we still miss out on other nutritional aspects than enchance those vitamins in natural supplements called phytochemicals (Pg 89). In Warner’s chapter called Putting Humpty Dumpty Back Together Again she talks about how a lot of foods are so processed and broken apart that when they are formed back into their final product they don’t retain any of their original nutritional value. So they add vitamins and minerals back, but are just now studying phytochemicals that are believed to actually help activate vitamins and the benefits we associate with them.
One of the scariest things I discovered is how little our food is regulated, and how the agencies responsible for regulating it serve the companies more than they do the consumers. There are over five thousand food additives currently in our foods (Pg. 105). Even something we think of as healthier than McDonalds, like Subway, bread has between 20 and 50 additives to replace flavors destroyed during the production process, improve color, make the bread more fluffy, and make them last longer. (Pg. 101) The part that scares me is that most of these additives are not well researched and even sometimes harmful research is brushed under the rug in favor of the food industry. Potassium bromate, used in industrial produced bread, was shown to cause tumors in lab rats. Instead of banning it the FDA asked companies to stop using it, completely lacking any backbone behind the statement. Thankfully, nearly 30 years after being identified as dangerous it is finally off most shelves. However, it has been replaced with something that may be just as dangerous called azodicarbonamid, which breaks down into a carcinogen when heated. The FDA’s official response is to make sure to just use small amounts (Pg. 111-112).
The biggest item that I would like to replace in our daughters' diets is any chicken nuggets or frozen foods that we currently eat from Meijer or McDonalds. Most of the meat in those nuggets come from highly processed soy protein instead of actual chicken. The USDA used to have a rule that limited the amount of soy protein that could be in meats served at school but the food industry lobbied against it and the limit was removed (Pg. 152). Warner buys Bell & Evans frozen chicken tenders from Whole Foods that I would like to try for the girls. Something easy to throw in the oven and cook for soccer and gymnastic days. She talks about another brand that even though they say they are organic they are still highly processed. Warner put them in a bag and let them age and doesn’t talk about how they developed mold and decomposed, but the fact that they turned into liquid and completely disassembled after a few days (Pg. 165). I can’t image that anything that would break down like that could be part of a healthy diet and stable digestion. She also compares cheap chicken, probably like what we buy at Meijer, to what she calls happy chicken. Cheap chicken is grown so fast and processed so much that it actually needs flavors added back to it. Happy chicken, basically free range and natural growing, retains “roast nots and fatty notes” that aren’t found in cheap chicken (Pg. 173).
I think that identifying the remaining items in our diets that are still heavily processed and replacing them with simple and natural products would be pretty easy. I fully understand that with our ridiculously busy schedules that we may not be able to cut out 100% of processed foods, but I think we make every attempt to.
I’m at my word limit! I love you and am excited about our night staying home with the girls!
While I now consider myself somewhat of a foodie, looking back at my food habits as a child I can’t help but imagine a black and white picture. Growing up my brother, sister, and I ate very standard home-cooked meals when time allowed. These meals typically involve a simply meat and some sort of non-threatening vegetable like corn or potatoes. Peas and other exotics were basically banned in my house. I remember my dad telling a story about being forced to eat peas despite his pleas that he would vomit, and after he finally ate the peas he did. My dad had a very limited food list that probably led to my mom’s narrow meal rotation including and limited to basic chicken casseroles, steak and potatoes, beef tacos with crunchy shells, chicken noodle soup, and spaghetti. As a child I also inherited my father’s pickiness. I would only eat salads with nothing but lettuce and dressing, tacos without any lettuce or tomatoes, sandwiches and burgers with just meat and cheese, and only white bread. Most the rest of our meals resulted from constantly being in a rush and short on time. All three kids in my family played competitive hockey throughout the state and required us to get off the bus and climb straight into the car five to seven days a week. We ate pop tarts for breakfast, Lunchables for lunch, and some form of fast food for dinner.
Eating with my family as a child felt more like a chore than a community experience, and I think that is the shared food experience for most Americans growing up in the 90s. The taboos we had in our home were created from a family of picky eaters that were accustom to bland and easy to make foods. Prior to my generation I think the food experience was more intimate, but the food was just as bland. My dad is a second-generation Romanian-American and a lot of the pickiness that he developed was a result. Romania was a poor eastern European country that had battled food shortages. When they moved to America they adopted the general diet and food taboos of the rest of the culture, I think to both fit in and have a sense of luxury that they never experienced before. They narrowed their diets to match the type of recipes you could find in a Betty Crocker cookbook that included products you could purchase at every local store. This new culture they found was also a product of the industrialized food systems in the United States. Mass production and packaged goods eliminated the need for them to eat whatever they could grow or get their hands on and allowed them to consistently purchase more nutritious products, even though the diversity of their diet was shot.
The first steps I took to break away from my young childhood food habits happened at a Romanian Orthodox summer camp when I was a young teenager. While the various fasting principles like refraining from eating meat during certain weeks, never had an impact on me the introduction to Romanian food definitely did. For the first time in my life I was eating something other than standard American food and I absolutely loved it. The first dish I remember trying was called mamaliga, which is sort of like a cheesy polenta. It may have not looked like Dorothy stepping out into bright and colorful Oz filled with a new world of food, but that’s how I remember it.
After that summer the food I ate began to expand exponentially, but healthy wasn’t an immediate concern. Nutrition was always a topic while I was playing hockey all the way through my first time in college, but it was never something I identified as a need and never paid much attention to it. I finally started focusing on the nutritional aspect of food after I joined the military. I was in a special operation unit that required me to have a very high level of physical competence, both competitiveness from within the culture and military mandatory testing minimums. The workout culture on the teams demanded a goal-oriented diet that typically consisted of chicken, broccoli, brown rice, vitamin supplements, and protein powder. While I still made sure to continue my food exploration while traveling the world, for the first time in my life I started to focus on the quality and source of food I was ingesting.
My current food tastes are considerably more diverse than I would have ever imagined growing up. I regularly eat and enjoy most foods that come from many different cultures. This part of Michigan has a fairly wide selection to choose from and I am lucky to have a few close foodie friends to explore with. My father-in-law, and one of my best friends, worked for Sysco foods for 25 years helping chefs develop menus and utilize new products. Every time we travel together I get to experience the best chefs and new restaurants we can find. Another friend owns a catering company in Lansing and is more a food artist than a chef. Checking out a new restaurant with him is a true feasting experience as we usually order one of everything on the menu and eat family style. One thing that I noticed is that even though they both deal with production food in restaurants, they always cook at home with very few processed ingredients. They also search out restaurants that either have locally sourced foods or use the higher end products, like free range chickens and grass-fed beef.
While I struggle finding good sources of non-industrialized food, my modern-day shopping trips continue to evolve. I definitely understand some of that urgency and time crunch that drove much of my childhood diet. I work as well as attend school full-time and try to play as much hockey as possible, my wife works full-time and tries to make yoga and her book club, my two-year-old goes to daycare and gymnastics, and my six-year-old is in kindergarten as well as participating in gymnastics and soccer. I’m exhausted just writing that out, and I must be honest we have the occasional happy meal or Lunchable. For the most part though we try to follow the saying that it is best to stay on the outside of the isles at the grocery store and do quite a bit of food prep for the week. We try to get vegetables, fruits, grains, meats, milk, cheese, and butter and create most of our meals from those ingredients along with spices. I thought we were doing very well with our grocery list until watching the beginning of Food Inc. Even “fresh” produce and meats I buy are still coming from massive factory operations and are highly processed. We get most of our red meat from Merindorf Meats, which is a reputable meat market, and when I inquired into their beef source a few days ago I found out it comes from large factory farms out west. I wanted to take this class because food is very important to me and my family and we actively try to eat better and healthier. I hope to learn how to navigate the modern industrial food systems that control most of the food we eat.
Eating with my family as a child felt more like a chore than a community experience, and I think that is the shared food experience for most Americans growing up in the 90s. The taboos we had in our home were created from a family of picky eaters that were accustom to bland and easy to make foods. Prior to my generation I think the food experience was more intimate, but the food was just as bland. My dad is a second-generation Romanian-American and a lot of the pickiness that he developed was a result. Romania was a poor eastern European country that had battled food shortages. When they moved to America they adopted the general diet and food taboos of the rest of the culture, I think to both fit in and have a sense of luxury that they never experienced before. They narrowed their diets to match the type of recipes you could find in a Betty Crocker cookbook that included products you could purchase at every local store. This new culture they found was also a product of the industrialized food systems in the United States. Mass production and packaged goods eliminated the need for them to eat whatever they could grow or get their hands on and allowed them to consistently purchase more nutritious products, even though the diversity of their diet was shot.
The first steps I took to break away from my young childhood food habits happened at a Romanian Orthodox summer camp when I was a young teenager. While the various fasting principles like refraining from eating meat during certain weeks, never had an impact on me the introduction to Romanian food definitely did. For the first time in my life I was eating something other than standard American food and I absolutely loved it. The first dish I remember trying was called mamaliga, which is sort of like a cheesy polenta. It may have not looked like Dorothy stepping out into bright and colorful Oz filled with a new world of food, but that’s how I remember it.
After that summer the food I ate began to expand exponentially, but healthy wasn’t an immediate concern. Nutrition was always a topic while I was playing hockey all the way through my first time in college, but it was never something I identified as a need and never paid much attention to it. I finally started focusing on the nutritional aspect of food after I joined the military. I was in a special operation unit that required me to have a very high level of physical competence, both competitiveness from within the culture and military mandatory testing minimums. The workout culture on the teams demanded a goal-oriented diet that typically consisted of chicken, broccoli, brown rice, vitamin supplements, and protein powder. While I still made sure to continue my food exploration while traveling the world, for the first time in my life I started to focus on the quality and source of food I was ingesting.
My current food tastes are considerably more diverse than I would have ever imagined growing up. I regularly eat and enjoy most foods that come from many different cultures. This part of Michigan has a fairly wide selection to choose from and I am lucky to have a few close foodie friends to explore with. My father-in-law, and one of my best friends, worked for Sysco foods for 25 years helping chefs develop menus and utilize new products. Every time we travel together I get to experience the best chefs and new restaurants we can find. Another friend owns a catering company in Lansing and is more a food artist than a chef. Checking out a new restaurant with him is a true feasting experience as we usually order one of everything on the menu and eat family style. One thing that I noticed is that even though they both deal with production food in restaurants, they always cook at home with very few processed ingredients. They also search out restaurants that either have locally sourced foods or use the higher end products, like free range chickens and grass-fed beef.
While I struggle finding good sources of non-industrialized food, my modern-day shopping trips continue to evolve. I definitely understand some of that urgency and time crunch that drove much of my childhood diet. I work as well as attend school full-time and try to play as much hockey as possible, my wife works full-time and tries to make yoga and her book club, my two-year-old goes to daycare and gymnastics, and my six-year-old is in kindergarten as well as participating in gymnastics and soccer. I’m exhausted just writing that out, and I must be honest we have the occasional happy meal or Lunchable. For the most part though we try to follow the saying that it is best to stay on the outside of the isles at the grocery store and do quite a bit of food prep for the week. We try to get vegetables, fruits, grains, meats, milk, cheese, and butter and create most of our meals from those ingredients along with spices. I thought we were doing very well with our grocery list until watching the beginning of Food Inc. Even “fresh” produce and meats I buy are still coming from massive factory operations and are highly processed. We get most of our red meat from Merindorf Meats, which is a reputable meat market, and when I inquired into their beef source a few days ago I found out it comes from large factory farms out west. I wanted to take this class because food is very important to me and my family and we actively try to eat better and healthier. I hope to learn how to navigate the modern industrial food systems that control most of the food we eat.