Chipotle Mexican Grill: Foodborne Illnesses

https://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/Outbreaks/ucm470410.htm

I have had my eye out on the topic of foodborne illnesses for a couple of days now. I am the biggest fan of the restaurant Chipotle Mexican Grill and find myself eating there just about once a week.

About two years ago, Chipotle had a handful of cases where people got sick with a number of different illnesses. All the way from STEC (Shiga toxic) up to E. Coli.

This news was nationwide and I found myself really wondering about how these illnesses spread, assuming it was from the different kinds of meats and all! And now as I am a senior, I have a chance to really get to research of how the unsanitary workspace can really have negative effects on innocent people. I am curious to see what the FDA does, as well as the workers do after a spread this big. They ended up closing 43 restaurants nationwide, I am just happy the Chipotle in Lakewood is still open! I guess the local restaurant news really hit home with the fact that I had to eat there with caution. I wanted to sharing this source in case anyone else was doing foodborne illness related topics! If anyone also has other sources following the topic of illnesses in foods, please share!

Teaching Students About Food

In this Ted talk, the speaker, Sam Kass, discusses the importance of teaching kids to be aware of their food. He argues that if no one teaches them, they will never learn. He points out how much better students do in school when they aren’t hungry, and instead, are fed nutritious food that benefits their body.

A student who is fed a nutritious breakfast that includes fruit and milk and is low in sugar and salt, will have to visit the nurse less, have lower levels of anxiety and depression, have a lower rate of obesity, have better behavior, have better attendance, and overall, do better in school. On the other hand, a student who is provided a breakfast that lacks nutrients and is high in sugar will have lower scores and will act out in class. Research has shown that kids who don’t have consistent nourishment, particularly at breakfast, have poor cognitive function overall. This is an issue that has invaded America and is negatively affecting the lives of thousands of students attending school.

In the ted talk, Kass discusses the program that has been successful in providing free, nutritious food to students across the country. When kids are given the nourishment they need, they are also given the chance to thrive, both in the classroom and beyond. Kass encourages his audience and this society as a whole to focus on the simple goal of properly nourishing ourselves to ensure that future generations can rely on a more stable and secure world. By teaching kids early on to be aware of what they are eating and to help them realize the benefits of healthy eating.

Here is the link to check out the video: https://www.ted.com/talks/sam_kass_want_to_teach_kids_well_feed_them_well/transcript?language=en#t-262244

Labeling

As I was looking through the New York Times articles discussing food, I came across one of Mark Bittman's old pieces and I decided to share it with you guys.

Bittman introduces the idea of labeling on food products to benefit the consumers, not the producers. As we know, a lot of processed foods have obscure ingredients that were most likely produced inside a lab and we don't have much knowledge of how it affects our body. He mentions how labeling should advance to the next step and include any antibiotics or pesticides used as well as clearly list if any ingredients are not naturally occurring.

Bittman also argues that a system of "traffic-lighting" ingredients could help consumers find out exactly how beneficial or detrimental the food available is based on a green, yellow, or red color similar to a traffic light. He includes data from a study performed on beverages and the results show that the red-lighted soda went down 16.5% while the green-lighted beverages increased 9.6%.

He also touches on how the three major things that our food labels SHOULD tell us are: nutrition, foodness, and welfare.

Nutrition would obviously point out what qualities in the food are beneficial to the consumer. Foodness covers how much of the ingredients in the product are actually food and how much of the finished product is real food. Lastly, welfare would tell us how the animals, plants, workers, and the Earth were treated in the process of cultivating it.

Although this is Bittman's version of the perfect label, it definitely offers information that should be open to the consumers and gives us a lot to think about.

Here's the link just in case anyone wants to read over it themselves!
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/opinion/sunday/bittman-my-dream-food-label.html

Side Note: I didn't know the post had to be about our topic so I did it on something else, sorry. My topic is actually food regulation!

World Hunger

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/asa-skogstram-feldt/can-we-end-hunger-in-the-next-15-years_b_8050286.html.

I decided to pick this article about World Hunger “Can We End Hunger in the Next 15 Years?” written by Åsa Skogström Feldt. I wanted to touch on this subject since we recently have been learning about food waste, and I thought, “Why can’t we find a way to provide for the hungry with the good food/leftovers we’ll eventually throw away?” Also would we be able to solve this global problem and how? Feldt claims despite the increase in world population World Hunger has declined 216 million people since 1990-92. World Hunger isn’t just food, it includes clean water, sanitation, safety-net systems, Feldt says in order to achieve this goal our first step lies within our community. “This type of development - community-led development - is critical to ending hunger by 2030.” Other factors would include Global commitment and creating programs to help in order to make an effective and sustainable way for people to reduce and end causes of hunger.

Eating is so vital to our life, people don't really know how much food is being thrown away, if you really think about it less complex the only reason we eat whether an expensive steak or just simple cereal, it all goes in and out our body anyway. How do you guys think we could help reduce hunger in different countries around the world and U.S? Thoughts on Hunger in general? Think about homeless people as well who are barely getting by with spare change, is poverty a choice? Ending hunger would be a huge improvement and achievement, we know of it but many don’t know how they can contribute to this worldwide problem. I think world problems like hunger or food waste should be given more attention, it’s an important matter the world should know more about in order to give opportunity and chance for people to commit and contribute to making the world a better place. I believe learning more about this topic can help us learn more about the source of the problem and what we can do to help others, every change starts with ourselves.

Hunger Facts:

http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/hunger-facts?gclid=Cj0KEQiA9P7FBRCtoO33_LGUtPQBEiQAU_tBgN-JplGNtGRi44qPs-cutlzIccOEGW63FKh0QvYJyKEaArz_8P8HAQ

Not all Genetically Modified Food is Bad

https://www.ted.com/talks/pamela_ronald_the_case_for_engineering_our_food#t-1223130

This TED talk is for all of you out there that are interested in genetically engineered food.  I imagine there are quite a few of you that are going to do your research paper on this topic.  I wanted to choose a TED talk because I personally think that listening to an educated person talk to you about a topic they are passionate about is way more interesting than reading an article.  Whenever we hear “GMO” when it comes to our food, most of us automatically assume the worst.  Before this video I honestly thought that all foods that are genetically modified were bad for the environment and bad for our health.  In this TED talk, Pamela Ronald makes a strong case for the pros of genetically engineering our food.  For example, rice paddies are often flooded in asian countries, and farmers were desperate for a rice that would survive the wet environment.  Ronald mentions a rice species that has been genetically engineered to be able to endure flooded farms, and, ultimately, save tons of people from hunger and losing their jobs.  Ronald compares some genetic engineering to vaccines we would get to fight off illness and disease.  In one case, genetic engineering saved the Hawaiian papaya from extinction.   So GMO’s can’t all be bad, right?  I found that her TED talk to be very informative and interesting as it provided a different perspective on something we associate with being terrible.  I hope some of you out there find this to be helpful!

AF: Politics of Food, Blog Course 1

Due by Monday March 13th (6:00 pm)  

1 post, 1 comment

Complete at least one post where you introduce a reputable source to the class. Share the link and write a 250-300-word post explaining the idea behind the source and how it might be helpful. Also, complete at least one comment on someone else’s post.

AF: Your Food Story

What is your food story?  What are your earliest memories around food, cooking, and eating?  What is  your favorite food?  Favorite cuisine? Favorite restaurant? Your guilty pleasure?   Who is the cook in your family?   Do you cook?  Are you interested in learning to cook?  How will you learn? Who is your teacher?  These are prompts! You don’t have to answer all of these questions!  They’re just here to get you started.

Many of us -- especially  women, but not only women -- have painful and troubling issues around food (and body image).  Do you know anyone who is plagued by this?  Do you enjoy food, or is food a problem?

Use all of your skills as a writer to craft your food story:  good language, good organization, sensory details -- even dialogue! This is a narrative, so use of first person is fine!

• Between 450-650 words
• MLA format
• Turnitin.com
• Due March 7