Helen and Sarah Charlotte Food Project

Ingredients

Most of the ingredients we used were mostly whole, fresh foods. The biggest difference was the 100% whole wheat pasta, it contained nothing in the ingredients box other than whole wheat. We changed canned tomatoes to fresh tomatoes and used fresh garlic as well. We also used other natural ingredients such as olive oil and water. Although we used mostly healthy ingredients, I wouldn’t recommend it to eat every day. This is because it still leaves out many food groups. For example, there isn’t any kind of meat or a lot of protein. This means that if you ate it every day, you wouldn’t get all the nutrition that you need. As for calories, the thing that would probably add the most to that count would be the pasta. 

The tomatoes we used most likely came from California because they are the top tomato producing state. This leaves them a fairly far distance to travel. Other ingredients we used probably didn’t come as far. 

Our meal didn’t cost too much to make. We spent less than $20.16 overall not including some items from our homes. The people who probably earned money from our meal would be the farmers that grew the tomatoes, the garlic, the people who made the seasoning, and also Shop Rite, since that is where we bought the food. Most of the food did not come from small companies considering we went to a chain supermarket.

These food items came from all over, the tomatoes were shipped from Jersey to here, The garlic was grown in PA, the Pasta was made in New York, and the Olive oil was manufactured in NY but it says it's Italian. If we grew the tomatoes at home we would have less pesticides (even though they say they don't have any) and they wouldn't have to come from Jersey. If we made the 100% whole wheat pasta at home we would probably mess up, homemade pasta is difficult to make let alone making it with just whole wheat.  

Reflections:

Sarah Charlotte- 

Many things that I learned this unit had to do with some things I already knew, however, I learned about them more in depth during this unit. I found this really interesting. There are a few things (such as some of the things we saw in videos) that cannot be unseen, and that might make some of the food I eat seem slightly less appetizing. For example, the meat industry needs to be changed and I might not look at corn the same way ever again. 

I think that we each have big roles in the food system. I think the main role we have is choosing what we eat, where we get the food from, and who we pay for our food. The companies that make the most money are going to be the ones that stay out there. Like McDonalds. If they don't treat their chickens or cows right and we still buy from them, that won't be stopping anything because we are still giving them our money so they don't see the need to change anything. I think that one of the first things we need to change (besides where we give our money to) is to stop using corn in everything. An easy change to step towards that would be to stop feeding cows and other animals that we raise for meat corn and give them what they are supposed to eat (like grass for cows). 

There are a few things that I can change in my food choices. One of these things would be to change out my regular pasta for whole wheat pasta, buy organic foods, and to overall eat healthier. I don't know if I can actually easily do this, but I am willing to try. 

Helen-

I have honestly learned so much in this unit, obviously I knew that not organic food was worse for you because of the pesticides and growth hormones they inject it with, but I had no idea how bad. In this unit we watched a documentary of this women who worked in a chicken farm, she showed us illegal footage of how the undocumented workers treat the animals. Another thing that ties into not treating animals right is how ecoli spreads in large factories, and could also lead to consumer death. Another thing we did in class was learning about the western diet. The western diet is super bad, not only because of weight gain but because of all of the chemicals to "preserve" or "enhance" flavor. Overall I've realized you should make your own food from scratch.

Basically this unit has widened my eyes to the terrible truth, before this all I knew was organic is better... now I know why. From now on I am going to try to only by organic fruit, meat, and dairy. Although it is going to be super tough, seeing what those animals went through and what I am putting in my own body, I would rather sacrifice a couple of bucks than my health. 

Food Slides:

Helen- cake

Sarah Charlotte- plate