Monday, March 31, 2014
Blog Post 15: Reading Summary
"Where Did Our Clothes Come From?" by Emily Fontaine is a blog post from Emily's fashion blog called Le Quaintrelle which is on BlogSpot.com. Emily talks about how as consumers we need to know where our clothes are coming from and who is making it. She pulled out all of her clothes from her closet and made a pile of clothes that were made in the USA which was only 1/4th of her closest. She then divided that into multiple piles based on being designer clothes, "retail" clothes, "thrifted" clothes, and things bought off Ebay. Doing this really showed Emily that she doesn't always know where your money is going and who it is supporting. A lot of clothes we buy are actually from developing countries who don't have laws against child labor or fair wages. If we continue to buy clothes from them then we're only going to keep supporting how they out-source their jobs for a cheaper price. But if we buy domestically, then we'll support our own country and our own economy.
Friday, March 28, 2014
Reading Response
The reading called “The Story of Stuff: Electronics” really made me think about where my old electronics go. A lot of people think that you can't recycle electronics but in reality you can because you can just use old parts to make new parts. Instead of just throwing away old products, companies should just have people recycle parts that break and put them back together to make new products instead of wasting them. All the chemicals that are put into electronics really worries me about the future for developing countries because that's where a lot of the waste goes and if we don't stop it then those countries will never get better.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Brainstroming for Paper 3
I think I'm going to focus this paper on what resources are renewable/nonrenewable and/or how we treat our land by growing certain products. So many different things are wasted when it comes to farming, especially water and energy. What really comes to mind is something Wendell Berry says, "The way Americans proclaim and pride ourselves on about how much we love our land does not match with the way we actually use our land and our farming resources". This quote is so unbelievably true. Americans as a whole pride ourselves on our love for our land yet we treat it like it means nothing. We throw away resources like there's no tomorrow when in reality there could someday be a "no tomorrow" with the way we're going about farming now. Another thing that is ruining our land from farming is the run-off of fertilizers and is destroying water and creating "dead-zones". In general, the way we are farming is not very sustainable and is destroying the world faster and faster each day. But is there really any way we can go back to the source and start all over? How would we be able to provide for everyone if we tried to do this? How can we get our land to actually be something we are proud of?
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Reading Response
The Pleasures of Eating by Wendell Berry was a very well written article in my opinion. Berry clearly states what the problem is and describes his argument by using examples and very good reasoning. For example Berry states, "One will find this obliviousness represented in virgin purity in the advertisements of the food industry, in which food wears as much makeup as the actors" (2). Using examples like that really opens up the mind of the audience and helps his argument tremendously because it shows how little the reader knows where their food is coming from. Another reason I really like this article is because he doesn't just say what the problem is but he gives you ways to fix it. Most authors just state their argument and say we need to fix the situation but don't actually give any ideas on how to fix it. This boosts Berry's ethos as an author in my opinion because is shows that he really does care about the situation and wants it to be fixed.
Monday, March 3, 2014
The Pleasures of Eating Summary
The Pleasures of Eating by Wendell Berry is an article that describes how we have degraded our standards of what we eat and also describes what we can do to change this problem. Berry states,
"Most urban shoppers would tell you that food is produced on farms. But most of them do not know what farms, or what kinds of farms, or where the farms are, or what knowledge of skills are involved in farming. They apparently have little doubt that farms will continue to produce, but they do not know how or over what obstacles. For them, then, food is pretty much an abstract idea — something they do not know or imagine — until it appears on the grocery shelf or on the table" (1). This quote really made me realize how little I pay attention to what I buy. I rarely ever think about wear the products in grocery stores come from. I just look at the price and go about my way, it's a rather scary thought as to what could be in the foods we purchase without realizing it. Another quote that Berry says is
"One will find this obliviousness represented in virgin purity in the advertisements of the food industry, in which food wears as much makeup as the actors" (2). Which is also a very good point as well. Of course everyone buys food that looks good but in reality it isn't what is on the outside but what's on the inside. We need to know where it came from, if any chemicals or fertilizer was put on it, how it was produced, etc. and not just pick up whatever is easiest on the shelf and Berry does a great job of explaining this. He then gives seven tips on how to fix this problem: 1) Participate in food production. 2) Prepare your own food. 3) Learn the origins of the food you buy and buy the food that is produced closest to your home. 4) Deal directly with a local farmer. 5) Learn as much as you can about the economy and technology of industrial food production. 6) Learn what is involved in the best farming and gardening. 7) Learn as much as you can of the histories of the food species. Berry describes through out his article the politics. ethics, and esthetics of food and ends with "The pleasure of eating should be an extensive pleasure, not that of the mere gourmet" (3).
"Most urban shoppers would tell you that food is produced on farms. But most of them do not know what farms, or what kinds of farms, or where the farms are, or what knowledge of skills are involved in farming. They apparently have little doubt that farms will continue to produce, but they do not know how or over what obstacles. For them, then, food is pretty much an abstract idea — something they do not know or imagine — until it appears on the grocery shelf or on the table" (1). This quote really made me realize how little I pay attention to what I buy. I rarely ever think about wear the products in grocery stores come from. I just look at the price and go about my way, it's a rather scary thought as to what could be in the foods we purchase without realizing it. Another quote that Berry says is
"One will find this obliviousness represented in virgin purity in the advertisements of the food industry, in which food wears as much makeup as the actors" (2). Which is also a very good point as well. Of course everyone buys food that looks good but in reality it isn't what is on the outside but what's on the inside. We need to know where it came from, if any chemicals or fertilizer was put on it, how it was produced, etc. and not just pick up whatever is easiest on the shelf and Berry does a great job of explaining this. He then gives seven tips on how to fix this problem: 1) Participate in food production. 2) Prepare your own food. 3) Learn the origins of the food you buy and buy the food that is produced closest to your home. 4) Deal directly with a local farmer. 5) Learn as much as you can about the economy and technology of industrial food production. 6) Learn what is involved in the best farming and gardening. 7) Learn as much as you can of the histories of the food species. Berry describes through out his article the politics. ethics, and esthetics of food and ends with "The pleasure of eating should be an extensive pleasure, not that of the mere gourmet" (3).
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