The food project allowed us to take a truthful look into the food industry and how they market, produce, and influence the consumer. Throughout the project, we read Omnivore’s Dilemma which dives into the different branches of the food industry (these including industrial, organic industrial, and do it yourself) and discussed with each other what we thought while reading the book. Then we watched documentaries about how corn (specifically corn syrup) is valued in our food system and why industrialized meat is unhealthy for us. We then took a field trip to one our local farms and learned how they process food. After gathering the knowledge of the reality of the food industry and reflecting upon our own food ethics; we wrote food ethic essays which summarized what we learned.
I really appreciate the nature of having this project be interdisciplinary. I liked being able to connect my food ethic to my chemistry experiment. Because I do not agree with how the meat and dairy industry works, I decided to test whether or not vegan substitutes work in baked goods. I have always wanted to try this and so this was a great way to critically analyze if it was a good fit or not. This impacted my learning a lot because it was kind of like the two sides of good we were looking at. Interdisciplinary learning overall is something that I find to just work better for me, and when it comes to analyzing my personal food ethic and the science behind it, this was a great way to do this. Some of the main takeaways that I had throughout the food project is that I would really like to start shopping more local. I thought before the project, that eating healthy looked like buying more from the natural section of the grocery store. But after reading the Omnivore’s Dilemma, I realized that it is more than what you get at the store, it is about where you get your food as well. In the book, I learned that farms that are small and more community based, like Joel Salatin's farm that Michael Pollan visited. I now know that I need to be aware of where my food comes from as well. This is something that I don’t think I can implement all over the place in my life but it is something that can be used more often than not. |