Videos of Our Food

Here are some video clips I have pulled from a documentary I like. They give pretty good visual explanations to accompany some things we have read about new industrialized farming and food.
 
Beef
Veggies
Fish

This is Unacceptable

I think that most of us, at least in this class setting, would agree that most of what we've read about in these chapters constitutes a set of exceptionally unacceptable practices.

I can't imagine that any of my contemporaries would argue that this way of being (particularly here, with relevance to food, but also just in general) is good or ideal or healthy. In fact, most of what comes up in the peoples' defense for the manifestation of the corporate model of profit-driven food distribution is that we have wandered way to far down this path to reconsider now. It's like we're stuck.

But for me, this case study of the food industry is an embodiment of the ugly capitalism we've cultivate that strikes some primal resonance in our hearts. Housing markets, global commodity trade, and industry based on weapons and war are somehow new creations of ours, but food has always been there. We have always had to eat, and the intimacy we feel with it is as basic as our inclination to breathe.

And that is likely why this strikes us as so disturbing.

Yet so few would outwardly declare that this is completely unacceptable. We have actually come to believe in the delusional system that prompts this industry dynamic.

Our 'institutions of higher education' train bright minds to analyze and write a manual for the techniques for making a profit off of children. The universities push rigorous curriculum in sciences to make brilliantly capable chemists to synthesize fake food flavors because the real things won't wake the suits enough money.

Really smart people once sat down for months of collaboration and came up with the chicken McNugget in the end. Smart kids graduate high school and, with heavy fanfare from their communities and rampant praise of their success, go to study business to become the MBAs who've so successfully make food processors into the lavishly wealthy industry that it is today.

These are the things that we are trained to do. One would assume that graduates of one of the supposedly best educational cultures in the world would leave its institutions with wisdom, inclinations towards peace and humility, a passionate desire to improve the quality of their community and an idolatrous reverence for money and the manufactured crap that it can buy at WalMart and the Apple Store.

But, as we see by the nauseating calamity that we've induced with regard to our own nutrition, this has not been what we've trained people for. Our institutions teach us that capitalism is the only way. The best motivation for people to improve is cut-throat competition. Profit has replaced virtue and business has replaced community.

The rich are rich because the deserve to be. They worked harder than anyone else to get that way, and there's no point in going back to question all the throats the slit to do it.

So for the advertiser who wrote this creed on how to convince people that McDonalds was just a loyal friend in the interest of taking as much of their money as possible, our reaction should not be one of "it's unfortunate that this is how things have to be, to bad nature couldn't be ideal." In stead, we should treat him more like we treat drug addicts and homeless people, saying, "your behavior is unacceptable and ugly, blatantly unhealthy for the community, and destructive to our collective and communal well-being." Then, we should lock him in a 100 square foot concrete cell with steel bars on one side and forget about him for a decade or so.

Food: Love/Hate Relationship

We live in the fast food nation that Eric Schlosser writes about so it is interesting to read about the very things we have deemed as "life" since we were conscious. Most of Schlosser's points I find to be true and find myself to be the victim of.

Intro

"Americans spend more money on fast food then on higher education, presonal computers, computer software, or new cars...movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music - combined."

If this statement is true, it alone explains (maybe subconciously) the way of life for most Americans. Like I always say, I believe the downfalls of this nation cannot be pinned to one failure but are all of the failing and temporarily fit systems working together, everyday, in each of our lives. Although fast food is not singularly to blame for the poor education most Americans receive today, I think it indeed plays a part. More money is spent on fast food than on college, computers, books, newspapers...and all of these things are pertinent for a student to have the sufficient foundation and resources and successfully learn to apply their knowledge to the world around them.

The American Way: McTeachers and Coke Dudes

Initally, I was reading about the school/education advertisments thinking, "Wow, that's horrible. That's crazy.....". Then I realized, I was a victim of these advertisements! I have always felt that the intended effect of ads didn't work on me; I could watch a commercial or see a banner and see right through whatever it was trying to sell me.

The Pizza Hut Book It! Program was active in my elementary and middle school. I even remember going to get a few free personal pan pizzas, actually. I didn't realize it was advertising then (and it didn't necessarily work because I have never bought a pizza from Pizza Hut) and I don't think it made me read more/more efficiently than I already was, but I definitely didn't turn down a free pizza!

Also, the "special lunch days" the readings referred to were active at my middle school. I believe it was on Tuesdays and Thursdays; the cafeteria would serve Pizza Hut and Subway and they would often run out of pizza before some even got the chance to get a slice because who wouldn't want pizza instead of (who knows what's in) school lunch?

Meat and Potatoes: Food Product Design

"You'll find "natural flavor" and "artificial flavor" in just about every list of ingredients. The similarities between these two broad categories of flavor are far more significant than their differences.

I found the facts of food additives, both scent and taste, to be extremely disturbing. This is not even something that I haven't heard before, but the disconnect between the food and the consumer is so huge that hearing it had no lasting effect on me.

Today, all-natural and organic mean little to nothing. Products with both of these labels have been watered down by the almost always unheard of change of USDA regulations and most of these products still contain the food additives that are in all other products.

Afterword: The Meaning of Mad Cow

What I already knew and confirmed while reading Fast Food Nation was reconfirmed by this foreword: The FDA's regulations simply do not look out for our best interest and care little about true nutrition and health. Their "approval" basically means nothing and the fact that "what the FDA had failed to achieve -- after nearly five years of industry consultation and halfhearted regulation -- the McDonald's Corporation accomplished in a matter of weeks" says a lot about who and what leads our world.

-------------------------------------

In high school, I was a vegetarian for about two years after a bad Chili's boneless buffalo wing experience (that topped off crazy-woman research and realizations about our nation's food). This was until I tried to give blood and my iron level was less than half of what was required. Mind you, this was AFTER I spent a couple months eating "leafy greens", beans, and other foods that were said to surely boost my iron levels. Today, I still don't eat much meat, I still get my favorite vegetarian dishes if I eat at a restaurant, and I absolutely do not eat "fast-food." I use that term very loosely because some of the same companies and same methods that distribute potatoes, chicken and beef to McDonalds also supply America's favorite chain restaurants. All this to say that reading Fast Food Nation has not only made me not want to eat meat but eat very little to nothing....

I have a love/hate relationship with food. I love it so much, but I probably hate it even more. I have always been really interested and aware of the food I eat, but reading about it again always reignites my hate and disgust for a lot of today's food.

Soul vs. Fast Food Nation

Soul Food: What he seemed to be saying was that the roots of soul food come in the togetherness of family and a symbol of freedom and success even through the harsh times of slavery. They may not have been able to control much, but they did control the cooking. And that cooking was what all their "masters" grew up on. It was a huge role that is numerously undermined.

Fast Food Nation: To me, fast food has roots more in individualism and skin deep satisfaction, rather than a sense of family and togetherness. Fast food is something you swing through and normally get by yourself, then go eat in front of the TV or at school/work. I can't think of a time when I thought of having a fast food meal as a time with family or something I'd like to think I grew up on. I was very happy with the Fast Food Nation excerpts because the author didn't only bash the industry for all its wrong doing, he revealed just how much it is the consumers fault as well and explained why and how exactly we became like this.

Soul food was the heart and sole of a suppressed people, whereas fast food is, and always has been, a cheap and chemically induced alternative to a real meal. At the same time they both reflect a type of American freedom. With fast food, you don't have to cook for yourself; you don't even have to grocery shop; and it's so cheap, it's practically free. Even poor people in America could survive on fast food financially. With soul food, it was a liberating source of power for black people that they raised this nation on.

On the flip side, one way in which they are extremely similar is that the actual ingredients or each diet are not healthy for anyone...

Disgusting Things Found in Food

This is the list I was talking about:

http://www.unbelievable-facts.com/2012/09/most-disgusting-things-ever-found-in.html

You Are What You Eat

But do you know what you're eating?

Survey Finds That Fish Are Often Not What Label Says

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/us/survey-finds-that-fish-are-often-not-what-label-says.html 

Thoughts about Fish
http://beccco.blogspot.com/2013/03/blog-post_28.html

Food and health

U.S. Health in International Perspective

Shorter Lives, Poorer Health

The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest.

http://www.iom.edu/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/2013/US-Health-International-Perspective/USHealth_Intl_PerspectiveRB.pdf

http://sites.nationalacademies.org/DBASSE/CPOP/DBASSE_080393#deaths-from-all-causes

What's wrong with what we eat? (5 TED talks) 

http://www.ted.com/playlists/75/what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html

McDonalds: The WalMart of Food

First disturbing fact: McDonalds is the nation's #1 purchaser of pork.

Who can name a McDonalds menu item which is advertised as being pork based? Is it in the hamburgers? The McNuggets? The milk shakes?

I read once an interesting article in some magazine, maybe National Geographic, which explained that our modern style of processed, preserved, and packaged food in the United States are based on innovations prompted by wartime innovation. In the 1940's, great minds were set to develop some form of nutrition that tens of thousands of American soldiers could carry for weeks or months across the battlefields of Europe.

The result is everything from fried potatoes that can sit on gas station shelves for months to little McNuggets of chicken that were coalesced weeks before you eat them.

An impression I get from this presentation of the matter is that the fast food restaurants we eat in aren't actually the real business. The business is the great industrial plans where patties, buns, nuggets, fries, tots, cheesy-balls, and McMuffins, are pumped from their mechanized producers, packaged, labeled, tagged, dated, sorted, and loaded onto trucks and trains to their dispensaries: the restaurants.

Fast food is kind of like IKEA, the factory produces all the parts and packages them with some fantastic logistical control, then all you (well, some worker) have to do is assemble them. Thus, a value meal in 30 seconds.

And in fact, it reminds me even of our discussions of WalMart. The real magic at work is not in the uniformity of the franchise or the unrealistic prices, but rather in the regimentation of a supply line that can turn cows, potatoes, wheat, lettuce, tomato, chickens, pigs, and a well stocked laboratory of petrochemicals and the sort into food for 46 million people daily dispensed at almost 13,000 national locations.

That is a lot of food on the move. Imagine the trucks and trains and factories and machines and poor foreign labor at work non-stope to produce 46 million meals every single days.

It's like we're some kind of termite colony.

Fast Soul Food Junkie Nation

Soul Food Junkies

•  I really enjoyed this documentary. It's very interesting and has a good flow to it. I did find fault, though, with one thing. While I do agree that slaves were given the the food that wasn't good enough for their "owners" to eat, I don't believe that that's the reason that we have soul food nowadays. The United States wasn't the only country to have African slaves - all of the Americas and even parts of Europe participated in the slave trade. I know most about the slave conditions in Brazil, the country with the highest slave population in the world. Brazil's national dish, feijoada, a plate full of rice and black beans stewed with meats, has a history that dates back to the slave days of Brazil. Brazilian slaves were given the parts of the pig that the "owners" didn't want - the ears, the tongue, the intestines, the snout, etc. - and mixed it into a pot of black beans to be served with rice. Nowadays, feijoada is still served (albeit with better meat ingredients), complete with rice, of course, as well as diced oranges and cooked collard greens. My point is that Brazilian slaves had to deal with similar conditions that American slaves had to, and they didn't end up with this problem of obesity and/or weight-related health conditions. The soul food revolution is very Americanized and can't be blamed solely on the American institution of slavery.

Fast Food Nation Introduction

• "Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars. They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos and recorded music - combined."
• That's crazy... If only it could be the reverse, we'd be citizens of such a great country.
• "The entry of so many women into the workforce (2/3 of mothers) has greatly increased demand for the types of services that housewives traditionally perform: cooking, cleaning, and child care."
• So it's all our fault, is it? Just because some of us aspire to be more than incubators and/or domestic slaves, we are to blame for the nation's growing waistline? There may be some truth to it, but it just perpetuates sexism, and I don't buy it. Men must shoulder some of the blame, too.
• "The company annually hires about one million people, more than any other American organization, public or private."
• There's always a tradeoff. McDonald's gives such fuel to our economy, but the food is slowing us down.
• "A survey of American schoolchildren found that 96 percent could identify Ronald McDonald. The only fictional character with a higher degree of recognition was Santa Claus."
• Whoa. The main fictional figures of American children's childhood are Santa Claus, a fat man that gives out toys, and Ronald McDonald, a clown who represents obesity and also gives out toys. Sad, isn't it?
• "The Golden Arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross."
• I think that's stretching it a little...
• "In many respects, the fast food industry embodies the best and the worst of American capitalism at the start of the twenty-first century - its constant stream of new products and innovations, its widening gulf between rich and poor."
• This, and the fact that it's created a nation full of overweight and obese people, are reasons why those golden arches are a symbol of the country as a whole.
• "The current methods for preparing fast food are less likely to be found in cookbooks than in trade journals such as Food Technologist and Food Engineering."
• I've read/seen pictures of/watched videos of various studies and/or personal experiences with years-old McDonald's food. Here's a website with such a study. It's very revealing on how the "food" isn't really food at all, but more like a science experiment.
• "Subdivisions, shopping malls, and chain restaurants..."
• Even more symbols of the American lifestyle.
• "The United States now has more prison inmates than full-time farmers."
• This isn't only because the amount of farmers has decreased, though. Prisons are multiplying and getting fuller.
• "These changes have made meatpacking - once a highly skilled, highly paid occupation - into the most dangerous job in the United States, performed by armies of poor, transient immigrants whose injuries often go unrecorded and uncompnesated."
• So they're America's version of sweatshops.
• "That is one of the main reasons people buy fast food; it has been carefully designed to taste good. It's also inexpensive and convenient."
• Have I mentioned that at this very moment, I am eating some cold, leftover Little Caesar's $5 Hot-and-Ready pizza? Oops.

Fast Food Nation Ch. 2

•   "Hoping that nostalgic childhood memories of a brand will lead to a lifetime of purchases, companies now plan "cradle-to-grave" advertising strategies."
• Advertising is just evil. It represents all that is wrong with the world. (Might be a hyperbolic statement, but it is truly evil.
• "Market research has found that children often recognize a brand logo before they can recognize their own name."
• Not a comforting find.
• "Children as 'surrogate salesmen...'"
• The industry is sick, I tell you!
• "The chains often distribute numerous versions of a toy, encouraging repeat visits by small children and adult collectors who hope to obtain complete sets."
• And, as even more of an incentive, consumers can make money off of those collections like this kid did. He got over $11,000 for his collection of about 7,000 Happy Meal toys!
• "Now you can buy a Happy Meal at the Happiest Place on Earth."
• All this talk of the "kid kustomer" almost makes me not want to have children. I don't to bring a child into the world, only for it to be part of the "Man's" ploy for more money.
• "'The challenge of the campaign,' wrote Ray Bergold, the Chain's top marketing executive, 'is to make customers believe that McDonald's is their 'Trusted Friend.''"
• But it's not!! Advertisers are so frustrating! Stop trying to make us "want" what we shouldn't have!
• McDonald's as the "official restaurant" of the Olympics DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE.
• "In 1993 District 11 in Colorado Spring started a nationwide trend, becoming the first public school district in the United States to place ads for Burger King in its hallways and on the sides of its school buses."
• That will never be seen again. Especially with Michelle Obama leading the way to healthy living.
• "Children spend about seven hours a day... in school. Those hours have in the past been largely free of advertising, promotion, and market research - a source of frustration to many companies."
• Let the children learn, gosh darn it!
• "He [DeRose] doesn't think that advertising in the schools will corrupt the nation's children."
• Are you kidding me?? Ugh, I just can't handle this.
• "The nation's three major beverage manufacturers are now spending large sums to increase the amount of soda that American children consume."
• Just stop! Do they not have a conscience? How on Earth could they think this is okay?
• My roommate and I were just talking about what people drink the other day. We were talking about how we need to drink so much water just to not feel dehydrated, yet some people are constantly dehydrating themselves by drinking less than a bottle of water per day, and replacing the rest with sodas. My little brother, for instance, hardly drinks water, and instead prefers to drink milk and/or Sprite. It's not as bad as drinking Mountain Dew all day, every day, but it's still not great.
• "Celebration [Florida], a planned community run by The Celebration Company, a subsidiary of Disney."
• This exists?! What is happening...

The differences between Soul Food and fast food

Food is often much more than what we fill our stomachs with to keep away hunger, but rather a key link to our culture and something that brings us together.

Because of this, it is difficult for the Deep South to part ways with Soul Food, which is unhealthy.

As we saw in the documentary, so many African-Americans identify with Soul Food — mostly because it connects them to their ancestors — that they'll gladly deal with the negative effects of loading up on the fattening foods.

This problem is different than what we're facing with fast food. For those who frequent McDonald's and Burger King and the others, it's a matter of convenience and cost. Five minutes, and less dollar, for a full, filling meal. Soul food, on the other hand, isn't convenient — these big meals include many dishes that take a while to make — and isn't especially affordable. 

As we tackle the problem of obesity, it's important to recognize there are different reasons why people binge eat. 

Food!

Soul Food

This documentary was well put together with a mix of humor, seriousness, culture and history. The film definitely captures the central role food plays in our lives. Food is necessary, fun, delightful, cultural, historical and biologically intriguing. For these reasons, food holds a lot of power directly and indirectly. Since I lived in the Bible Belt for the majority of my life, I can vouch that there is a KFC on just about every block. Soul food is huge in Memphis especially fried chicken and BBQ. Every May there is a HUGE festival dedicated to southern food. It’s literally rows upon rows or soul food. However, I don’t think soul food is that bad. I think it’s more of the transition that soul food has gone through like the adding of more more salt, grease, chemicals, preservatives and fast food style that has brought on obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease. I do commend the schools though that preach fresh foods and gardens.  

Fast Food Nation

Fast food is one of the first things that comes to mind when one says America. It’s too convenient because they’re everywhere. They’re fast and cheap. People have to work more so there really isn’t time to spend cooking and shopping for food. There’s also this mentality to eat on the go when we’re not sitting watching TV. Overall, the industry has certainly shaped popular culture and agriculture as well as the health of Americans. I like Schlosser’s point in that he says, “Unlike other commodities, however, fast food isn’t viewed, read, played, or worn. It enters the body and becomes part of the consumer.” I always knew that advertisements were being directed more at kids, and I knew that textbooks had secret marketing strategies. But, I didn’t know that it was that extensive. I should have known that it would be tax deductable for these companies as well.

I remember my school would put on a magazine drive to help raise money for the school. The goal was to raise the most you could so you could prizes and participate in the festival – which meant skipping class. My mom hated because she said that it makes the parents feel so guilty if they don’t want to contribute. Plus, the kids are selling magazines which are just harbors of more advertisements. 

Soul Food Nation or Just Plain Food Nation?

Soul Food Nation questioned and explored many of the food, nutrition and health issues African Americans continue to face today. The accounts telling the historical births to these issues were pertinent because I believe many people make negative judgments and assumptions on “soul food” and the way it is prepared but don’t fully understand the roots of these food items. Knowing how these foods were introduced to this group of people and how they were grown and made in the past gives us an entirely new perspective.

A girl in the documentary made a very valid point: her people are not concerned with the problems of the future but focused on the meal that is present. This is the mindset that most Americans have today; we find ourselves giving into restaurants and innutritious foods everyday with intentions of eating better in the future. Although many people may see the problems with our food, they find it very difficult to give things up or very expensive to buy better options. In a way, I think we are all addicted to some of the empty meals and sweets we grew up on, but the price burden some people carry is an entirely different issue.

Many would agree that the mass production of food is needed in order to feed all of our citizens, but I strongly believe that if this production was rethought and refocused we could have a much healthier and more nutritious America. Every level involved in this production, from the farmers and buyers to cooks and consumers, would have to work together, but first, the problem must be addressed. With a nation consumed and busied by the systems of education, work etc, will we ever stop and think long enough about the foods we use to “fuel” us day to day to fully address and change the issue? We are filling our bodies with low-grade gas and already seeing the negative effects of it killing our family members, neighbors and friends.

One point that especially resonated with me was the mention of food deserts all over the nation. Although the documentary focused on the devastation that black communities face in these places, these food deserts affect a much wider range of people. This could be said about the entire documentary; although soul food might be having a negative effect on African Americans, unhealthy food overall is having a negative effect on every American, whether these effects are visibly seen or not.

Capitalism is Survival of the Fittest

I can see the many good points that Mackey makes. But what every business man fails to mention is that capitalism, in its purest form, is impossible. Capitalism is a complex ideology that, like everything, is not perfect, and has both good and bad sides. The root of the problem with capitalism, Mackey states in one of the first paragraphs of his introduction, “the consumers think the prices are too high, the workers think their pay is too low.”  But the prices need to be high to ensure the workers are being paid, and the their pay can't be too high, or the business will have no money to run itself. It seems to me, that for us to live in a perfectly capital world, everyone would need to own his or her own business.

The problem with this perfect capitalist world is that for a business to succeed, it needs workers. One individual cannot hope to run a successful company on his or her own. During the discussion of China Blue, a few of us had stated that when we think of our clothes, and most other goods, being manufactured, the first thought that comes to mind is a machine.

Combining these two ideas, it occurred to me how much potential technology serves to capitalism in general. The more advanced the machines, the less hands a business requires to hire. Years and years from now, maybe a close-to-perfect capitalist world isn’t as far fetched as it sounded. The fewer jobs available to people, the more they would have to create work for themselves, which would force everyone to be innovative and competitive. Everyone would have to have a service to offer, and only the best ones would operate on a large scale. It would be survival of the fittest intellectually, instead of physically like in our caveman time.

At the same time, we would be a stronger knit community because no one could meet their need for every service. For an individual to abandon one’s own practice in attempt to fulfill all their other needs would be the demise of their practice. Mackey says we aren’t forced to be consumers, but I disagree. What else are we going to do? We don’t live in an indigenous world anymore, money is our ticket for the needs we previously scowered the earth for.

In contrast, businesses would go under and get weeded out for their insufficiency compared to those who provide service with the largest demand, and the cycle would begin again. Capitalism is like life in general in the survival of the fittest sense, which is why is appeals to the world we live in today. A world run by money. Although the technology scenario is a dreamer thought, one can see how capitalism serves both good and bad, like human nature itself. At the same time, we can also see there will never be a time that we live in a perfectly capitalist world, which Mackey fails to mention. He believes too much in the good of humanity, when in reality, we all are here for our own self-interest, and when survival is at stake is when you see us in our most primal state. Although, I do agree with him, that it really is our best option. 

Conscious Capitalism

• "I never took a single business class. I actually think that has worked to my advantage in business over the years. As an entrepreneur, I had nothing to unlearn and new possibilities for innovation."
• It obviously worked very well for him. As consumers, we are constantly looking for something new and intuitive, something that they can't just teach you in school. Whole Foods is now considered the hip place to shop for groceries.
• "I had become a businessperson and a capitalist, and I had discovered that business and capitalism, while not perfect, were both fundamentally good and ethical."
• My dad, the uber-conservative, needs to see this. He'd never believe "one of them Austin hippies" would appreciate the capitalistic lifestyle. And frankly, as a by-product of my dad's ideology, I think it's rather surprising as well, considering his background.
• I really appreciated the story of Whole Foods' youth. Very neat.
• "Businesses galvanized by higher purposes that serve and align the interests of all their major stakeholders; businesses with conscious leaders who exist in service to the company's purpose, the people it touches, and the planet; and businesses with resilient, caring cultures that make working there a source of great joy and fulfillment" = Conscious Capitalism
• I can't wrap my head around this. Not necessarily the ideals, which are exactly that - ideals. Just that a majority of companies would adopt them.
• "In the long arc of history, no human creation has had a greater positive impact on more people more rapidly than free-enterprise capitalism. It is unquestionably the greatest system for innovation and social cooperation that has ever existed. This system has afforded billions of us the opportunity to join in the great enterprise of earning our sustenance and finding meaning by creating value for each other." BUT "Too much of the world still has not embraced the core principles of free-enterprise capitalism, and as a result, we are collectively far less prosperous and less fulfilled than we could be."
• I have never heard this theory before. That capitalism is the solution to poverty?
• Capitalism vs. socialism: capitalism always wins! Hooray!
• The facts that the authors display are very interesting and put the information into an interesting perspective.
• "Rather than being seen for what they really are - the heroes of the story - capitalism and business are all too frequently vilified as the bad guys and blamed for virtually everything our postmodern critics dislike about the world."
• This is typically the hippies' argument. Capitalism is always the cause of all the problems.
• The authors say that capitalism has brought us out of "extreme poverty," they didn't say that it made us all billionaires. People are just angry/jealous that they aren't one of the few that came out on top and need to find something to blame.
• "Capitalism is portrayed as exploiting workers, cheating consumers, causing inequality by benefiting the rich but not the poor, homogenizing society, fragmenting communities, and destroying the environment. Entrepreneurs and other businesspeople are accused of being motivated primarily by selfishness and greed." 
• Well, yeah. Not a whole bunch of companies are doing it because of a "desire and need to care for others and for ideals and causes that transcend one's self interest." Money lies at the core of absolutely everything.
• People create businesses to make money. People create good businesses by basing "on [their] ability to empathize with others and to care about their opinions," thus making a lot more money. Wal-Mart, for example, realized that consumers wanted cheaper items, so they provided a service for that. But their ultimate goal wasn't just so that we could all buy a $5 pair of pants - it was to rake in the dough.
• "Much of today's animosity toward capitalism stems from a misconception that we need to share all resources fairly and equitably. But the reality is that by artfully combining resources, labor, and innovation, wealth can be greatly expanded... The pie grows, and there is more for everyone."
• I like this.
• The ratio between CEO pay and average pay = Wow... I didn't realize the gap was so large.
• I guess my skepticism isn't unwarranted, considering most of the country feels similarly (according to stats presented).
• They have too much faith in humanity to think that we humans aren't "maximizers of economic self-interest to the exclusion of all else." Get real, guys. We've been raised to live by "survival of the fittest," and these days, fittest = richest.
• "But the true narrative is that by participating in business, they are creating prosperity and lifting people out of poverty."
• I was pro-capitalism before, and I'm even more so now!

Capitalism, Coffee

I enjoyed watching Living with Coffee. It was very interesting to put a face to the coffee I pick up on the way to class (almost) every day. And while I think it was good to really understand what goes into making this product, it more importantly pointed out that Free Trade only accounts for a small percentage of the coffee produced worldwide. I think that educating more coffee producers will help them understand not only that they deserve to be paid more, but how to make that happen.

I also enjoyed reading Conscious Capitalism. I completely agree that capitalism has been the greatest man-made invention in history in that free-enterprise capitalism is completely voluntary and creates prosperity, which does in effect make the world a better place. There is less world hunger, there are more girls getting an education, and building stable communities. However, I feel that Whole Foods is an exception to this rule. The truth is, more often than not businesses are only in it for self-serving, rather than community-serving, purposes. And while actions have been taking to adjust this behavior, both capitalists and governments have chosen to lay their loyalty with the self-serving few over the well-being of the many. I hope that other businesses can look to Whole Foods as a representative ambassador to free-enterprise capitalism.

Conscious Capitalism

Coffee

Living with Coffee was a good documentary in that it made the connection between buyer, seller and producer. Like China Blue, it put faces to those who produce our commodities. Even though I see their faces and see their labor, it is still hard for me to grasp that kind of lifestyle. It’s almost unimaginable. It’s important for people to care where their products come from. People should buy with a conscience as in buying fair trade coffee. Yet, it’s sad when the full truth about these programs and ideas are not revealed or are scams. It’s not that we should stop buying our products because that would be detrimental to individual producers, but we should vote with our money and buy from companies that actually practice fair trade and fair labor. This change would lessen the profits of those social unfriendly companies and hopefully change the way they do business.

Capitalism is good

I don’t completely agree with Mackney and Sisodia. Their point of view is very different from Robert Reich’s who has written many books on capitalism. Reich calls our modern day capitalism, supercapitalism. Yes, businesses are good and they have provided many opportunities and social advances for people. The authors mention how businesses need to be more moral and do business ethically and how there are many who do have act consciously. Yet, I don’t think the authors hold businesses accountable enough. They do not mention how businesses have contributed to the inequality in the US and other countries. They also do not mention the role of the stock markets and how many businesses are more concerned about returns rather than the social good. 

Chinese Soft Power

This clip I found relevant to some of our China discussions.

China opens cultural centers and promotes language in Sudan

Got coffee?

Living with Coffee
http://youtu.be/BwYl69VstPw

Side notes: Coca eradication in Colombia by the U.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca_eradication

After the Harvest (6 min version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRodCpXdvYU

Fair trade coffee and its controversies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade_coffee
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/business/media/green-mountain-coffee-begins-fair-trade-campaign-advertising.html?_r=0

How about Starbucks? 
http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/sourcing/coffee

Hong Kong college students protested against having Starbucks on campus

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/business/as-fair-trade-movement-grows-a-dispute-over-its-direction.html?pagewanted=all

Consumerism and "Made in China"

How do American consumers view modern slavery?
http://d3mj66ag90b5fy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Consumer-Poll-USA.pdf


The case of Foxconn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn

Who's to blame -- Foxconn or Apple?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk-xqPKOxl4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3YFGixp9Jw

http://youtu.be/lhf0tgtXd8c

China Wage increase in recent years
http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21646180-rising-chinese-wages-will-only-strengthen-asias-hold-manufacturing-tightening-grip

Apple Inc Sacks Chinese Supplier For Abusing Underage Labor (news clip)
http://youtu.be/dy-xz0WQWB0

Activists push Apple over work conditions
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1159296/activists-push-apple-over-work-conditions

China

Made in China:

After watching the movies, I thought, wow, I am so fortunate. I could not imagine living that life style. How can they enjoy life when they do the same task over and over without even being able to talk? I also never realized that the workers live at the factories. It’s sad to think that people’s lives are dictated by the supply and demand chain of business. I loved how the documentarians showed how neither side knows where their products go or where they come from. It’s like they are just there, there to be sold and to be bought without any conscious of why.

Supply Chaining:

As a business model, Wal-Mart is quite impressive. I never knew how they actually operated and worked, nor did I consider that technology was their strong niche. It is amazing how they are able to have so many suppliers and so many stores around the world. To think that if it were its own economy, that it would be China eighth largest trading power is ridiculous. This only demonstrates their success, but also their tremendous power. The problem with Wal-Mart is that its cheap prices do not match their social irresponsibility. They do not treat their employees well and their suppliers are at their mercy. The problem with Wal-Mart is that it is too convenient just like the rest of the big box stores that no one is willing to change the current status quo. We want the cheap prices, but we also want employees around the world to be treated right. Is there a point where you can’t cut costs anymore or weaken employer’s rights? It’s hard to believe that Wal-Mart doesn’t have an effect on off shoring of merchandise. I understand that it’s the suppliers’ decision to go to other countries, but they must feel the pressure (from Wal-Mart mostly) to reduce costs and pay employees less so that they can be competitive.

The Price of Bargaining:

Clearly, any changes China makes to its labor laws and factories will have repercussions everywhere. It’s almost like the US and China has relied on each other too much. China has grown economically and our debt has increased.  As a side not, this article does bring up how all the U.S. does is consume. I think over the next decades, people will have to learn to buy and less and be satisfied with less. It’s not okay for a large population to be living in factories with those conditions and another country to be reaping the benefits at a low cost. But, if China decides to enforce stricter labor laws, then those kinds of jobs will just go to another third world country unless consumers decide they don’t want a bargain. The author is right in that the world especially the U.S. has been enjoying a “free ride on pollution, social strife, violence and poverty.”

What's that up ahead?

All of this literature hints at a disturbing future, doesn't it?

All of the systems that serve us make our reality almost incredible; unreal. Just pick up some garbage at  Wal Mart and imagine the supply chain that created it. Look at a chair.

For the plastic, petroleum was drilled with some massive contraption and huge workforce somewhere in the world, then it was loaded onto a tanker, managed by another workforce, and taken to a refinery, managed by another company and workforce, where it was injected through some unimaginably complicated chemical and physical process to turn crude oil into crude plastic.

All of the metals were mined in some other far away place by workers of an undisclosed nationality working on huge machines (also the product of an elaborate production process) powered by petroleum. Metals were refined in all the extent of that process, then eventually loaded onto a tanker bound for somewhere.

And the wood and the hardware followed a similar process.

Then, of course, they all arrive to some factory in China (powered by petroleum) where thousands of pairs of hands cooperate to assemble this global conglomeration of material into something worth an American's money.

Then, again, its loaded amidst a million other consumer goods onto a great tanker ship, powered across the ocean (by petroleum) to the United States, where a huge hoard of big rig trucks (powered on petroleum) take it off to Wal Marts (powered on petroleum) at small intervals of distance across our country.

Now, actually, I have become curious. How close is the average American to a Wal Mart? How easy has our addiction become to satisfy? I will try to do the math, at which I am very un-practiced, to determine the average distance to Wal Mart:

The area of the 48 states is 2,959,064 square miles. There are about 8,000 Wal Mart stores here.

8,000 Wal Marts / 2,959,064 sq miles = ~1 Wal Mart / ~ 400 sq Miles

√400 sq miles = 20 miles 

20mi^2 + 20mi^2 = 800 sq mi

√800 sq mi = ~ 28 mi

28 mi/2 = 14 mi

A rough average linear distance to the nearest Wal Mart store. 

Wal Mart is kind of like crack for Americans. We really need a lot of it, it seems. But, the more we grow our dependence on both the fantastical supply chain and the tens of millions of impoverished laborers in far and distant lands, the graver our symptoms of with drawl will someday be.This cannot last forever.

In a day where petrofuels become scarce, our economic alliance with the Chinese becomes compromised, or the financial system that lubricates this great consumer machine falters and dies (a future that nearly manifested itself in 2000 and even more in 2008), the outcome will be unimaginably catastrophic for American people. We won't only miss televisions and toasters, but food and clothes, Probably, many, many people would die in conditions a thousand times worse than our last Great Depression. 

There will be no trucks bringing all the stuff around you into our supermarkets. We wont have nails to build our houses, nor shoes or socks to cover our feet. For all the uncountable years past, humans took care of themselves, handcrafting all the things they needed to live on Earth. They actually took care of themselves. Until extremely recently, it was quite normal for any person to consume about as much as they produced, and to understand the direct coorelation between work and production. 

Now, two hours of work making sandwiches at minimum wage apparently pays the costs of a slice of a supply chain that spans all the continents, tens of thousands of workers, thousands of great machines, and thousands of miles traveled to bring me this $10 chair.

But this isn't reality, is it?

Wal-Mart

• "Wal-Mart today is the biggest retail company in the world, and it does not make a single thing. All it makes is a hyperefficient supply chain." Whoa.
• The author makes the analogy of a cheap AND reliable trucking company - cheap and reliable?
• "It is more profitable to incure shortages than overstock." - That's how I would run a business. I don't want to waste money!
• "Products are turned from innovations into commodities faster than ever, competition is coming from all over the globe and is more intense than ever, and consumer demand is more volatile and informed than ever, with fads moving in and out around the globe like lightning bolts." Amazingly true.
• When the author talks about how Wal-Mart tracks everything we buy and knows exactly how to respond to our wants and needs, I'm reminded of "Big Brother" from 1984. Nowhere is safe.
• "I wish that I could say we were brilliant and visionary, [but] it was all born out of necessity." I'm glad he said something, because when I discovered that Wal-Mart was founded in Arkansas, I was like, "Really?" I'm only joking (on some level), but they truly were/are innovators.
• I wish I could have been an investor in Wal-Mart... They're rich now, right?
• Headphones for pallet drivers that play music and give them instructions in whatever voice they so please? So high tech! But these pallet drivers are likely the first versions of cyborgs/subjects of robot overlords.
• I believe that efficient business always sacrifices something else, and since Wal-Mart maximizes its efficiency, what does that mean? Lawsuits.
• Wal-Mart alone is China's 8th biggest trading partner, ahead of other big countries? Mind-boggling.
• To me, offshoring doesn't make sense. Doesn't it cost more money to ship the products from so far away? (I modify this in a later comment.)
• It's weird to think Japan used to be so far behind us technologically. Now when I think of a tech hub, Japan is the only country that comes to mind.
• "quality products at low prices" vs "cheap products at cheap prices" - I can understand how tech products are surprisingly good quality for the money, but they're actually tech products - they involve more work than a couple hours on a sewing machine and can do more neat things than clothe your body. Wal-Mart clothes are definitely cheap products at cheap prices.
  
  
• After having just watched The Walking Dead, the beginning paragraph sounds like a scene from a scary movie.
• Wal-Mart fight scene = The Hunger Games cornucopia scene (in my head)
• Frankly, Black Friday doesn't make sense to me. Why on Earth would someone willingly sacrifice hours of sleep to sit outside a store in the cold, dark hours of the night, only to fight someone tooth and nail to buy yet another gift to throw onto the pile under the tree? Sorry, future child(ren), you are getting one, full-priced item for Christmas.
• I feel so sorry for poor Damour... He was recruited in the very same fashion that Michael Moore pointed out that soldiers are, just to do the job that nobody else wants.
• "For better and for worse, ours is the age of the bargaineer." - EXTREME COUPONING, ANYONE?? - I've heard of several women (mostly from Extreme Couponing) that either quit their jobs or don't pursue a job, simply to cut out coupons and make their shopping cart(s) = $0. They say that couponing itself is a full-time job, and it's their way of helping the family.
• "The glorious thing about the 1990s was that we rarely had to think too hard about where our stuff came from. It just seemed to be there." - I wasn't even old enough to make money in the 90s, but I can still see the difference! Life is different now with money not being so easy, but we don't want to get rid of that precious lifestyle, which then equals debt. I'm close with a family that is practically going bankrupt, but doesn't seem to change any habits in lifestyle, so it's a steady decline to the seemingly-inevitable living-in-a-cardboard-box.
• "That we will experience complete economic recovery and a return to growth in the wake of this latest world recession may be wishful thinking since the decades of easy growth are well behind us." Darn...
  
  
• Chinese people working in factories and sending money to distant homes - I see it in documentaries and read it in books, but it still seems fictional. My mind just can't grasp that so many people in one country can live so meagerly.
• "There is a thin margin of error: too little development, and poverty and hunger dangerously afflict 300 million of china's poorest." - It makes me feel like I need to go and shop at Wal-Mart RIGHT NOW so that these people don't starve, like I am personally responsible for their survival. But then I'm just feeding the cycle...
• THEN I'm just putting more money into China as a country, and they will get closer to being the world's superpower! They wouldn't need our business anymore, and our way of living is compromised.
• Pollution in China - I just read something about a large number of Chinese people dying from cancer, likely caused by all of the pollution.
• After so much protesting about the environment (and so many health issues), shouldn't the authorities wise up and cap emissions?
• "In Hunan's most famous village, authorities did what many other governments have done in a crisis - they built a theme park." LOL
• Domestic production (not offshoring) = higher wages, greenhouse gas credits, and worker safety (Then I guess it sort of makes sense to offshore.)

China - Response

Through watching "Mardi Gras Made in China" and "China Blue", I realized how words and stories can sometimes have no impact on an individual, even if they are go against our standards of how we define life. Majority of people have most likely heard about the negative side of Wal-Mart's convenient and low-prices business, but those spoken words and stories don't hold much value in our hearts after the conversations are over. At least they didn't for me. I was always aware of it, another not-so-good thing that America is partaking in, enjoying, and completely disconnected from, but it took seeing the conditions of the Chinese compounds and hearing the stories of the workers to actually connect and personalize the issue.

These documentaries also allowed me to see just how huge the disconnect between manufacturers and buyers really is. In the end "China Blue", Jasmine writes a letter to whoever will purchase the jeans that are about to be shipped out of the country, and in it, she says something that stirred many emotions inside of me and made me see this gap. She says something along the lines of "I hope you like the jeans me and my friends made...she sewed on the pockets, Orchid put on the zipper and I clipped all of the thread off at the end." I have never gotten a new pair of jeans and even thought about the lives of the people who put them together.

Supply chains in America are probably necessary for the kind of demand our people now know, love, and expect, but I think Wal-Mart's recognition of expecting leeway in place of providing the many needs for a low-price says a lot. They understand what they are doing, but also know they are doing the best supply-chaining around. With that said, one reading points out that "Wal-Mart doesn't make anything" and I think this ties in with the unawareness or disconnect from the harm that is actually being done.

I understand that America has a different standard of life than most other countries, but for a nation that wants to spread its ways to the rest of the world, it is constantly implementing the suppressing lifestyles further. Obviously, there are issues in all of our systems that are working with and against each other everyday, and most people find themselves only talking about it....

China readings, documentaries

What was striking to me was the first in-class activity regarding this assignment — the beads video. Not only was it alarming to see the conditions and the wages assigned to the Chinese workers, but it was disappointing to see the United States represented in such a way: drunks laughing and throwing away these beads, which were painstaking to make.

For me, it's always been difficult to assign any particular blame to either Wal-Mart, American consumers or China in the discussion over factory workers. The consumers have the right to buy what they'd like, so Wal-Mart has the right to provide. Its supply-chain methods are quite innovative and have been praised by businessmen, as we learned in one of our readings. Then, if it is willing, China can provide these goods. It's also providing its citizens with jobs, which they seem eager to accept.

Now here's the problem: does it matter how lousy the working conditions are? isn't a bad job better than no job at all? That's the issue I've grappled with when it comes to this. It does not look good, especially when compared to Americans' greed — as on display in the Black Friday anecdote in one of our readings.

What fraction of blame do we put on Wal-Mart for providing good that were made under such awful conditions? Or do we chalk it up to the American Way and the belief that a strong bottom line and good business trumps morals and ethics?

The Price of A Bargain, Readings and Documentaries

The most shocking thing to me was seeing how little Chinese workers are paid and how unethically these products are made. In America, we are used to wage, hour and labor laws and we are used to those laws being upheld. A lot of people do not realize that the jeans they bought were made by a 12 year old during a 15 hour shift with limited bathroom breaks. Wal-Mart has become the "China" of companies. They have excelled at supply-chaining, and they encourage global collaboration, and stay up-to-date on technology that allows them to be the most efficient company ever. Though I do think Wal-Mart customers should know where their products are coming from, it is in Wal-Mart's best interest not to tell them. It is not the customer's responsibility to change how Wal-Mart manufactures their products. However, there has been customer backlash over the last decade or so upon learning that the products they bought were made in, well, un-American conditions. And rather than standing up for these workers' rights, they have been continually lazy about actually forcing Wal-Mart to make a change.