Final Service Learning Reflection

My service experience this semester I think very astutely reflects me as an individual. I am usually very reluctant to undertake new experiences in my life because I'm essentially perpetually nervous and afraid of having a bad time. I rose to the personal challenge a few times, volunteering time at one of the Lord's Acre trips for class and by gardening at the Womyn's Garden off campus a few times. These experiences were me stepping out of my comfort zone; my comfort zone being in my room stagnating, isolating myself from the world around me for no real reason other than feeling like I'm home. When I did exit my little bubble, I tended to actually enjoy myself despite my fears. Digging up sweet potatoes at the Lord's Acre, cutting down trees at the Womyn's Garden, and chatting with friends was a cleansing experience. I am by no means past these fears entirely, but I think these experiences are a step in the right direction.

I've learned about the community around me though, even though I don't fully feel as though I'm a part of it. I've found that there are people who dedicate their lives to helping carry the burden of those who need assistance, like the staff at the Lord's Acre. To me, that's such a beautiful sentiment that someone would make their life's work a tool to better equip the less fortunate. I want to be a high school teacher for a similar reason. I want to leave an impact on someone's life, even if it's just one lost kid like me who takes something profound from my teaching. Seeing what service can do for an individual makes me want to dive into it a little bit more and diminish a bit more of those fears of putting myself out there. Life is better when trying to work toward bettering oneself.

Feeding the World Response

Ron Finley's TED Talk (which can be viewed here) talks about issues we're more than familiar with at this junction: food deserts, food activism, and proposed solutions to issues of hunger on the community level. His tone and style of presentation is very relaxed and casual, speaking to the audience as one would imagine he'd speak to a close friend. He simply tells his story and doesn't censor himself, which is a nice rhetorical choice. It puts him on the same level as a regular individual, rather than putting himself on a pedestal like some presenters tend to do. I really enjoy his approach to getting things accomplished; "Plant some shit." really gets it's message across with no frills. He speaks of Los Angeles' gap of health, which sounds eerily like the topic I tackled in my research essay for class this semester. He proposes change from within the population, rather than through government aid or assistance. He wants his community (and others like it) to take their food into their own hands and quit relying on liquor stores and fast food for their diets. He himself took action by planting a garden in the streets on a part of city-owned land on curbsides. He has since helped build similar gardens throughout South Central Los Angeles, making a big difference.

Two articles we read this week also deal with feeding the world, though on a larger scale. One is by environmental activist and author Frances Moore Lappe about how biotechnology isn't the messiah of hunger, and the other article is written by journalist David Biello about the potential positive/negative results of widespread organic food production. They both are fairly short, interesting reads. An interesting overlap in content comes from them both noting that the world has more than enough food to go around. I really liked the quote Biello used in his article about modern industrial agriculture's sustainability, "anyone who thinks we will be using roundup in eight to ten thousand years is foolish."  He suggests that we need to change the way we produce food entirely, and essentially begin again with aims for long term sustainability. Lappe takes a different approach in answering what will be the key to feeding the world. She says we need a system of true democracy, where governments are responsive to the needs of the people, rather than the whims of soulless corporate entities. I'd be inclined to agree with that sentiment.

I believe it will take a little bit of all these methods. Local community activism, large scale change within the industrial agricultural system, and a change in the way governments make decisions & giving citizens more influence.

The Omnivore's Delusion / Real Food, Real Farming Response

The debate put together by PBS (watch here), which edits together both Pollan's (author of The Omnivore's Dilemma) and Hurst's (farmer and author of a rebuttal piece called the Omnivore's Delusion) arguments, puts the dissenting opinions side by side so as to allow a better comparison of the two standpoints. After watching the video, it wasn't clear whether or not PBS wanted to promote any of the two differing opinions on the agriculture/food system, or whether they were just presenting the news. I personally sympathized more with Hurst though, who is an actual part of the agricultural community, immersed day-to-day in his work. When compared to Pollan, who was dressed in a button down, sweater, and blazer, he comes off as an experienced every-man in stark contrast to Pollan's academic appearance and manner of speaking. It makes one wonder if things such as these two men's appearances are consciously used as a rhetorical device on the part of the director of the video, or if that is just a reflection of the two men's differing backgrounds.

In Hurst's article, he speaks of being on an airplane stuck in front of a man who is spewing out facts he learned from Pollan's bestseller, and he eventually loses his social tact and tells him not to believe everything he reads. His position in the agricultural industry, at a small-scale (though still considered industrial), gives him the credibility to challenge the information put forward by Pollan. Pollan puts forth ideas about reducing the dependency on corn for feeding & raising animals, reducing the amount of corn we consume (as it makes us fatter as a nation, in his opinion). Hurst refutes these claims on the basis of Pollan not knowing the ins and outs of the industry he is criticizing.

It is important to note and comment on the fact that these two men do not want vastly different things; they both value food immensely, and feel it is everybody's business when it comes to how their food is grown, produced and marketed. They just stand on two ends of the spectrum of food-based activism.

Reading Response to "An Open Letter from a Farmer to Angry Vegetarians"

For starters, I really enjoyed this piece. The perspective is one that I really respect, as the author is someone who comes from the same initial background as her critics. She changed her view of vegetarianism for very valid reasons that many who subscribe to that lifestyle misunderstand and demean. People denounced her actions as murder, for crying out loud. This shows a lack of basic comprehension and illustrates one flaw I've found with vegetarians and vegans (obviously a minority, though) who are very high and mighty about their perfectly self-aware and loving life decisions, and get a sense of superiority from their lifestyle. They view the author of this article as a betrayer, which is frankly silly as all hell.
I like the way the piece is structured, too. It sets up with an introduction to give background, and then what follows is essentially an open letter to those people who don't understand and look down upon her life decisions. She justifies her actions with facts that vegetarians don't always take into consideration; things like the fact that the clearing of land to grow the crops that feed them displace critters and destroy their natural habitats, killing off animals even though they're not eaten. People think without really thinking and diving into the possibility of eating meat sustainably and morally. The types of letters she received from people show that explicitly. She deconstructs the kinds of things angered vegetarians accuse her of and gives very striking counter-points that illustrate a sort of unconscious hypocrisy.
I personally like the idea of eating local meat only and the stressing of a personal connection to the production of one's food. I think it is a very noble, intelligent way to tackle eating in a society that has an industrialized approach to food that has distanced the majority of people from the reality of what eating is. If we had a sort of renaissance regarding food where it became community based all around the country, and eventually the globe, think of how much more tight-nit humanity could be. Hopefully our future is a bright one.

Service Learning Reflection

Thankfully, as this assignment's rolled around for the second time, I am actually prepared with an experience of service to reflect upon! I went to the Lord's Acre farm to give my time and labor to people who need it. Like in most instances of my life, I had no real solid expectation of how I was going to react to the new experience, and I tried my damnedest to make sure my attitude was one of open-mindedness and willingness to put forth effort. With this mind-set, one can tackle just about anything life can throw at them.

This is a sidenote regarding a personal quirk I have; I don't like to take pictures of life events very often, as I think it is sometimes better to have the memory stored in my mind and only there. So naturally, I didn't take any pictures of the Lord's Acre, though I did soak in the view around me to say the least. It was a beautiful day of a nearly perfect temperature, with sprawling views of the Blue Ridge all around us, fall colors abounded, and any mediocre attempts at iPhone photography could have easily spoiled that for me.

At the farm though, we helped as being a source of large scale free labor. Usually those poor souls at the Lord's Acre are very shorthanded unless it's a volunteer session. It did feel rewarding knowing that us going out and having a day away from campus working with the land not only helped my mental state, but that it helped a very nice organization/establishment. I stripped up their drip-irrigation lines to clear the way to harvest their sweet potato crop, and later helped in the actual collection. I also helped weed some sections of their beds, and it was fun to just dig around in the ground and forget about obligations back at school or in my daily life. It was nice to feel like a part of a community of people who help one another because they can. In the future with my service experiences, I'd love to have them be as personally rewarding as this Lord's Acre trip was. It turned my sort-of-apathy towards service learning around a good bit. I won't dread the idea of giving my time from now on, I believe.

Reading Response

Two more articles from "Food Matters" are what will be examined in this response; "Downsizing Supersize" by Surowiecki and "Why Shame Won't Stop Obesity" by Khullar. Both pieces take a look at perceptions regarding a food related issue and attack them from an educated point of view. When taking a look at the credentials of the authors, one sees that these are two people who have professional connections to the statements they are making, Khullar being an aspiring doctor & pre-med student, while Surowiecki is a financial columnist and journalist who is using a political happening to talk about an issue regarding portions and federal regulations. I noted that the pieces are similar in their rhetoric, using a casual tone to present factual information. These are not academic sources by any means (a magazine article from the New Yorker and a blog post respectively), and the less serious tone benefits the material well in each instance.

Surowiecki's piece made me ponder on why we are so prone to overeat/over-drink just for the sole reason that portion sizes have skyrocketed in the last 3 or 4 decades. I believe it is exacerbated by our attitudes regarding instant gratification and a glorification of pleasure and convenience that pervades the country's collective mind. We as consumers always want to just continue consuming and consuming, believing all the while that they are getting a bargain on their 10$ purchase from McDonalds that increases their chance for heart disease. Rhetorically speaking, he tackles his topic from a political standpoint, disseminating its message in an informative manner. He shares stories of studies in different instances to back up and almost frame his arguments. I like his choice to end the article with likening the people effected to lab rats and subjects of experiments, after using social experiments as examples for the majority of the piece.

Khullar's article comes from a casual source, a blogpost, but is a bit more academic in nature due to the background of the author himself. He was a pre-med student writing about issues he'd been directly working with in his short time in his field. He brings forth personal anecdotes coupled with evidence to support his claims. He even proposes a few solutions to his issue, the Shaming of Obesity, at the end of the article. I also enjoy the rhetorical choice of including himself blatantly in the middle of the issue instead of distancing himself as the author, sharing his own experiences that shaped how he views the obesity epidemic. Speaking about the content purely, my topic of my research essay aligns with the issue of giving the poor options that are healthier and more convenient than fast food, so it gives nice perspective into my own topic I'll be delving more fully into in the next week or so.

Reading Response

I read the two articles assigned, both "The Pleasures of Eating" by Wendell Berry and "Food Justice" by Gottlieb and Joshi, and they were both intriguing pieces. I particularly enjoyed Berry's perspective and ideas on food and where it comes from. He speaks of eating responsibly and what that entails, and he compiles his tips in a list (that doesn't try to be comprehensive, he admits there are likely many more ways to eat responsibly). He spends a lot of his article speaking about how people have lost touch with the realities of the food they eat, becoming mindless consumers of an "agricultural product" rather than active participators in an "agricultural act." We have been distanced from the processes and hard work that come with traditional agriculture in this world of instant gratification. We expect to be served on a silver platter in 30 seconds or less with little to no regard for what additives or chemicals or antibiotics are present in our foods. I believe there is merit in the tips he shares with his readers, but one must take them seriously for them to work. His first tip is make yourself involved (even if just a little bit) in growing your own food and keeping up a compost pile, in order to feel more connected to the process of eating. When I'm in the position to do so, I'd love to have my own garden to tend in order to make vegetables an easier part of my diet. I also would love to prepare a good majority of my food; as I've never been in the position of control over my diet, really. There are other tips that I like the idea of, but I don't know if I'd consistently follow through with them, like learning the origins of my food all the time. I know myself and it's tough for me to adjust to new habits like that.

Gottlieb and Joshi criticize the private sector and food industry, highlighting it's empty promises to the Los Angeles area in the early 90s. The large supermarket and grocery store chains offered to build locations in places that desperately needed them, and then within the next few years backed out and left these places dependent on fast food and convenient stores, creating what is known as a grocery gap. The inhabitants of the more low-end parts of LA didn't have the same access to fresh food that others in the same city had. The arguments posed by these two authors are definitely on the same side as Berry, even though they're tackling it from a different angle. They're attacking the industry for causing people to go hungry by being profit driven (literally distancing the food and the people), while Berry accused the industry of distancing people from their food in ideals and conceptually.