The European Union

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Middle Eastern Practice Test

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Food Unit Reflection

It’s been about a week since we started our food unit in class, and it’s definitely changed my view when it comes to food. When we first started the unit, I’m not going to lie and say that I had an open mind towards the concept. My family tends to think in the way that, this has worked for us thus far, why do we need to go and change how we’ve been doing things? It’s never had any effect on us directly, so why should we change how we live? I feel that this whole unit has been extremely eye-opening to me, and I will try to persuade my parents to see what’s really going on, so that maybe we can change how we do things at home.

                When we first started watching the video, I had almost completely convinced myself that everything I was about to hear was just a bunch of organic activists who think they’re better than everyone else, trying to tell me what to eat. What I found was so much more than that. During the Food, Inc., I found many disturbing facts that made me look at my food a little more. What really got me were the legal situations. Why were there so many laws protecting the food industry? Kind of like the oil pipes in the BP incident, if nothing was wrong in the first place, why did they need so much protection? Something has to be wrong there, otherwise nothing would be hidden.

                After recording the food log, I felt like I really haven’t been seeing the big picture. Weekly, I don’t consume a single ounce of organic food. I’ve always eaten the brands that my mother buys without question. Your parents are supposed to know everything about what’s healthy for you, right? It’s interesting, because the same week we did the food log, I got in an argument with my mom about the food companies and processed products. She puts a lot of her faith in the authorities, which is something that I will never fully understand. We had a sort of, debate, if you will, about what was going on in the food industry, and who was really to blame when it came to those cases of E. Coli poisoning.

She argued with me that since humans began eating meat, bacteria such as E. Coli have always been infecting our meat, and that’s why we have to cook it. She argued that the case with the boy and the fast food restaurant was completely at the fault of the restaurant, for not cooking his meat properly.  I have to say that her point of view does make sense, but I still cannot agree completely.

I know for sure that there are new germs in our meats now, germs that are not as easily cooked out. I also don’t completely trust that just cooking the meat can get everything bad out of it. Some bacteria are so powerful it could take hours to cook all of it out. I think that there is always a chance that diseases can get into foods, and after seeing the “farms” that processed food comes from, I know that a big part of the reason meats get so many diseases is the sanitary conditions that these animals live in.

Cows aren’t supposed to eat corn. Biologically, they are made to eat grass, and so that is what keeps them and their meat healthy. When I talked to my mom about the conditions that the cows are under, including their food supplies, her answer was, “Well, it’s easy to say that all we need to do is this, or the only thing that needs to change is that, but doing it is a whole other obstacle.” On this part of it, I do have to agree with her. If we want to change the way our food industry works, it will take a lot of time, money, and effort to get things right again. There is no saying just how much of each we will have to give up, or how much we have available in the first place.

Coming home from a dance rehearsal tonight, I heard on the radio that within 25 years, our supply of helium, the 2^nd most common compound in the universe will be completely gone. If something that big can happen so quickly, we are obviously losing other resources just as fast, if not faster. Something needs to be done, and soon.

At the moment, my family is still the group of people that doesn’t really take reason seriously. My parents will probably never by organic foods, unless some extreme change of events occurs. I’m not happy about this, but I know it is true, and there isn’t much I can do about it. I am certainly not comfortable with the way our food industry works, and every time I look at a piece of food that is not organic or is obviously processed, I have a hard time not thinking, I know where that comes from, and it’s not right for humans or for the animals.

Will I be able to make an immediate change in my family’s daily life when it comes to their diets? Probably not. Bu I do know that I have a chance of effecting the government, at least in some small way. This unit has inspired me to make a goal for myself not to visit any fast food restaurants for at least six months.  After those six months (if I don’t go any longer), I will evaluate how I feel about my energy and health. I think that processed foods are not only hurting the environment by limiting resources and space, but they are also hurting our bodies. The processing food goes through to make it taste better than what it’s really made out of involves adding lots more salts, sugars, and fats that can be terrible for your body. That’s why organic food tends to be healthier.

I feel like if I can get myself to have more control over what I eat and the company I get it from, maybe I can have more of an influence on my family’s day-to-day decisions. Maybe, after some time, I can get my stubborn parents to put some organic foods in our shopping carts, even though it might cost a little more. In the end, its possible that it will cost a little less overall. Our community can only handle processed foods for a short time longer before something needs to be done. I am seeing that it is our generation that needs to be setting the standard, and this unit has inspired me to do as such the best that I can.

Word count: 1,130

Food Log

Monday:


Dinner- Spaghetti and Milk

Noodles: San Giorgio

Sauce: Newman's Own

Redner's Ground Beef

Milk: Clover Farms (1%)

Tuesday:

Breakfast- Tea

Regular Lipton
Tap Water
 Clover Farms Milk (1%)

Lunch- Peanut Butter Sandwich and a Granola Bar w/ water bottle

Peanut Butter: Jiff 

Bread: Old Tyme Split-top Wheat Bread

Granola Bar: Quaker Oats

Water: Redner's Water

Dinner- See Monday

Wednesday:

Breakfast- See Tuesday

Lunch- None

Dinner- Pizza and Soda
Pat's Pizza
Coca-cola

Snack- Candy Corn

Branch's

Thursday: 

Breakfast- See Tuesday

Lunch- See Tuesday

Snack- Granny Smith Apple and Juice

Product of USA

Ocean Spray (Cranapple)

Dinner- Wendy's Baked Potato and Orange Drink

Plain Potato

Fanta

I went to the grocery store on Sunday and noticed that for Kashi/General Mills, there is a replacement organic cereal for almost every breakfast. I also saw that Georgio's mushrooms sold organic regular mushrooms, but their shittacki mushrooms were non-organic. Redner's grocery store doesn't have very many organic foods, so they don't have an isle dedicated to organics; they only have a separate cereal section for Kashi products, which is an organic company. I also noticed that not only did they charge less for farm grown shrimp, but the wild shrimp were a lot bigger and healthier-looking as well. 

Map: http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=100698919291781865497.000492588904cb9483f2a&t=h&z=6

Group 2

I was in group 2 in class today, and we won the competition, along with some extra points.

Highlighted Language Map

Pink=Italic
Aqua=Germanic
Yellow=Balto-Slavic
Green=Celtic

Podcast 9/14/10 Interpretation

The beginning segment of this podcast was themed around political communication. Although on the surface, the theme of the segment was the success of Iran’s leader through his communication, the true meaning was the need for language in the political world. They were talking about how leaders in the political world can be more successful if they learn to speak to people as they would to their neighbors, in their own language and dialect. The more language you know, the more people will want to understand and listen to you.

                The next segment was about global culture transforming and changing so that an entire group of people’s way of life may cease to exist. This means perhaps another dead language, another dead culture, another dead civilization. The changing world affects not only the Earth’s looks, but also the inhabitants on our planet, and our way of life. This is why the study of different endangered cultures is so important. If we don’t take the time now to study them, we’ll have to use past evidence to find out more, once they’re already gone.

                The third segment was about the attention that the current general public will pay to a foreign film. About 20-30 years ago, foreign movies like “Beautiful Life” were extremely popular and made millions in the box offices. Current trends show that movies that aren’t in English aren’t as popular anymore in the United States. This could be due to the different public mindset, the quality of the movies, the promotion level, and many other things. Foreign films are a great way to entertain and a great way to spread language through the world. The hope is that foreign films will make a comeback and help to further educate every human in the world.

                The final segment was a listener contribution, focusing on confusion when speaking a secondary language. The language Urdu uses the same word for “right,” as they do for “straight,” which can definitely cause problems when giving directions. The point of this segment was to show the differences and similarities in other languages, and what gets confusing. It seems to me like it would be very difficult to speak a language like Urdu, or live in a country that speaks it.

~Megan Greig 

How Did The 9/11 Attacks Effect Air Travel Internationally?

   The tragedy of 9/11 effected our country's structure in many ways. One of the areas most effected was the international air travel for Americans. Before September 11th, 2001, an American leaving the country for business or pleasure matters was not a very big deal. There was normally a metal detector and a bag check to go through, or something along those lines. But after the incidents on that day, security had to tighten up. Preparation for international air travel suddenly became a much more tedious and time-consuming process. There were certain restrictions that were given for carry-on bags, and any violators were pulled aside for individual inspection. Not to mention that more security tests were added to look for any hidden suspicious objects.

   But before someone can even think about boarding a plane to another country, they have to obtain a passport. This has always been a law that people have had to obey, but since September 11th, 2001, it's been a lot harder to get ahold of one. The first step is getting an application, from either your local post office, or the internet. With the application, proof of citizenship is required, along with things like financial records, and reason for needing the passport. You also need to submit two color passport photos, taken within the past six months of applying. After doing all of this, it can take up to a few months to be approved for a passport, and it costs anywhere from 40-60 dollars, depending on the person's age.

   Once a passport is finally obtained, in order to get on the flight on time, it's best to show up to the airport at least three hours early for all of the security obstacles that passengers are required to go through in order to board the plane. Much security was added after the attacks, to ensure nothing like that could ever happen again. Most passengers who have flights at around seven in the morning end up having to get to the airport by at least five, just to get there on time, let alone be early, which many people prefer to do, to ensure their preparation.

   Through this terrorism experience, our country's airport security has learned not to "judge a book by its cover," and check every citizen that comes through the gates of the airport, because terrorist attacks can come in all shapes and sizes. Anyone who looks even slightly suspicious is taken aside and inspected individually, in case of possession of a bomb, knife, poison, or any other kind of weapon.

   The week after the terrorist attacks, all planes, national and international, were grounded. No planes took flight for any destination until Tuesday, September 18th, and even then, very few planes were permitted to take off, with very few available spaces. This, in turn, lead to a very large amount of people going after those few seats for weeks after, until the normal number of seats was again offered on the average number of planes around the country.

   The costs of oil to power the planes has increased since 9/11 because the relations between the U.S. and areas where we get oil were strained. There were other places for our country to obtain oil, but the risks were much higher and the costs may well have been, too. For this reason, fewer planes were able to be fueled enough to fly internationally, so the number of international flights plummeted considerably.

   For many years after these attacks, Americans all over were afraid to board planes, always being conscious of what happened on that fateful day. This fear has decreased the amount of Americans boarding international planes each year. No matter how slight this decrease is, it is always something to consider. The cost of plane tickets has also increased, because fewer people are boarding planes, because of suspicion that incidents like these might occur again. The result of this is that people who are willing to trust airport security and board an international plane are having to pay more for that trust, and are having to go through much more of a hassle to get out of the country. "Fleeing on a whim" isn't really an option anymore.

   Even after all of the issues U.S. international air travel has gone through, there is still more to tell of in other areas across the globe. America's allies were also strongly effected, because they feared the same might happen to them at any time. For this reason, countries like Britain and Canada also went under similar security "makeovers" in their international airports, to ensure passengers' safety. Not only did allies have to take these precautions, but also the opposing forces in the middle east. Who's to say that we won't strike back? Because of this, the countries in the middle east knew that they had to bulk up on security as well if they didn't want a counter attack coming at them months after the damage had been done.

   One of the biggest changes that occoured after the attacks was that the U.S. did more to develop tracking technology when it came to planes. That way, if a plane was getting to close to a building or an area it wasn't supposed to be, the government would have the power to alert the officials on the plane and have then correct the error or land the plane. Eventually, technology was developed so that any plane in the United States territory could be seen by a satelite, from basically any computer in the country. There are a few sites that have this option, so that even the public can view what goes on above. An example of one of those sites can be found here: http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/briefing/ This kind of technology not onl makes it easier for the government to have more control over air traffic, but it also gave the citizens of the U.S. more comfort in the fact that they knew what was going on. Sometimes, that's the thing that can keep a contry from turning into complete chaos.

   Through this experience, there were a lot of things that were added to our society.We have new rules that take more time and effort to follow. We have new technology that helps to enforce those rules. And probably most importantly, we have citizens who might be a little more aware of patriotisim. Citizens who maybe care just a little bit more.

   There is much that changed in the U.S. after that terrible day in September. Some call it, "the day the world stopped turning." But in some ways, our country took action, and started something bigger than any of us could imagine. So in some ways, yes, our world "stopped turning." But in other ways, it just started turning faster and tougher than ever before.

All pictures are public domain; http://www.wikimedia.com/

Sources:

* Wysong, By James. "Eleven Lessons Learned from 9/11 - Travel - News - Msnbc.com." Breaking News, Weather, Business, Health, Entertainment, Sports, Politics, Travel, Science, Technology, Local, US & World News- Msnbc.com. Web. 08 Sept. 2010. .








* Rentoul, By John. "9/11: They Say It Changed the World for Ever. But How?" Common Dreams

News & Views. Web. 08 Sept. 2010. .







* "Air Traffic - NextGen Briefing." FAA: Home. Web. 08 Sept. 2010. .







* 2013, By. "Travel Facts and Statistics

U.S. Travel Association." U.S. Travel Association. Web. 08 Sept. 2010. .







* "How to Get a Passport

EHow.com." EHow

How To Do Just About Everything!

How To Videos & Articles. Web. 08 Sept. 2010. .* http://www.englandtravelguide.org/files/2009/07/airplane.jpg




~Megan Greig Taylor Hoch, and Katie Davis

Five Keywords- HW for 8/31/10

• Globalization- To become adopted on a global scale, or to cause something, especially social institutions, to become adopted on a global scale. "It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity." ~Kofi Annan
• Culture- Art, music, literature, and other related intellectual activities, considered collectively in a comunity. "No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive." ~Mahatma Gandhi
• Civilization- A society that is at a high level of culture and social organization. "To be able to fill leisure intellegently is the last product of civilization, and at the present very few people have reached this level." ~Bertrand Russell
• History- The past events of a period in time or in the life or development of a people, institution, or place. "History is the cyclic poem by time upon the memories of a man." ~Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Progress- Development, usually of a gradual kind, toward reaching a goal or higher standard.  "Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." ~George Bernard Shaw

Sources:

All definitions- Microsoft Office Word 2007 Dictionary

Globalization Quote
Culture Quote
Civilization Quote
History Quote
Progress Quote