Food!!!!!! A Benchmark Targeting Health and Society

​Heya! Sasha Sapp here presenting my Food Unit Benchmark. This unit covered from individual health, to comunal health, to the food industry and its political role in the nation. My Benchmark has 3 parts: a "Food Rules" slide, a personal reflection of the unit and a recipe an analysis of my home family dish. Enjoy!

Part 1: Food Slide


 

Part 2: Personal Reflection 

I can definitely say that this has been a very relevant and engaging unit in more ways than one. While the point of this class is to merge the relevance of science within everyday society, I feel like this unit really touches more on the role of the individual, and makes everyone accountable- in a way. Firstly, I've always been aware of the disparities in our world among food, access, resources, and other things. Yet, this unit has made me see these disparities a bit differently- I now see everything as more interconnected. For example,  I learned the roles that physicians and health care play in and the national debt from Doctor Brenner. It presented the idea of a very minute group controlling the system of out healthcare; furthermore, the idea of a very small group controlling an entire system, in general. That is the way that the world works. This also ties into the very few, powerful companies controlling our entire food systems. The degradation of food quality, and even how we obtain out food has been corrupted. Yet the furthest corner of my mind, I can see no other way. 

Firstly, there are over 7 billion people on this planet; of course, we don’t have the adequate resources to feed, clothe, and house them all. It’s just impossible. That being said, how exactly is it supposed to be that everyone is “entitled” or “should” have access to the better quality food. Regardless, there’s someone out there that doesn’t have access to food in general. While our system isn’t just in some aspects, it is adequate to feed people, in the moment. It can still be improved in the long run- maybe. I say “maybe” because we have no idea how we’ll be in the next 50 years, let alone 20, so what sort of substantial promises to better access and quality to basic resources can we make, when we cannot sufficiently supply all right now? I believe it is that problem that must be tackled, in the most practical of senses. What are to do with an ever growing population, and continuously decreasing supply of land and resources- the Earth is not ever-expendable. 

In all, it’ll take years to re-work system so firmly established- when there’s money being made, it’s hard to fight against it. Food/health is just another thing that has been turned into a product of capital gain, and for that reason, the system- while wrong and corrupt- will remain. Considering the socio-economic factors that dictate health and lifestyles only solidify that. I suppose my point overall is that in a grander scheme of things, its impractical to put the importance of “good food” over food at all- though I realize that we only have this argument in the first place because we are in a country that has the luxury to do so (please don’t mind, my thoughts are sort of rambling). It's not that I don’t care about having good quality foods, I just think that looking outside- and even still within, this country- having food in general is the more important problem to be tackled. America and other nations that are developed can afford to say, “people need better food!”. Though, a ridiculous amount of other countries do not have that luxury. I think we need to look beyond ourselves as a nation, just for a bit, and see that on a grander scheme of things, having food at all will be the questions for the next generations.

Chicken Fried Rice

Serve 8:

Calories Per Serving: approximately 400

Cooking Time: 1 hour

Boneless Chicken Breast (family pack)- (140 calories per slab)

White Rice (5 cups)- (242 calories per cup)

Onion (1) (44 calories)-

Green Pepper (1)(33 calories)-- 

Habanero Pepper (1)-

Pepper (1)-

Season Salt (1)-

Onion Salt (1)- 

Chicken broth (1 can) 94.55 calories-

Recipe:

1. On a cutting board, slice the chicken slabs into assorted chunk sizes. Also, slice the onions and peppers.
2. Setting the stove to high, bring a skillet to a low simmer with butter. 
3. Once the butter is thoroughly melted, toss the chicken into the skillet and turn the burner low. Add the sliced peppers and onions as well as a few dashes of each seasoning. 
4. Turn the pilot very low and sauté the chicken for 60 minutes (the low simmer allows for a well-marinated taste). At the same time, as the chicken broth for extra flavor.
5. 40 minutes through the sautéing the chicken, fill a crocpot with water and add the 5 cups of rice to the water. Let the rice cook for 20 minutes 
6. When the 60 minutes are through, combine the chicken and the rice. Eat and enjoy!

Analysis:

My meal as a whole is mostly healthy, and ecenomically sound, but it is mostly socially impactful. 

Processed vs. Whole: The majority of the foods in this meals are whole foods, other than the white rice and the chicken broth. The white rice would be is bleached to the make it look white- it would've been healthier to use brown rice. As the for the chicken broth, it is only a compilation of chicken extract and other flavors, therefore it is not a whole food. The peppers and onions, however, are whole foods.

Environmental: Just about all of the ingredients are harvested on US soils, so any effects that we see occur here. The production off the peppers can be taken into question, as the peppers that I bought were grown commercially. The peppers are sprayed with Ethephon, which is used to promote early ripening. However, the toxicity of the Ethephon is quite low, so the environmental impact isn't as bad as it could be.