Author Michael Pollan says "Cheap food is an illusion" about halfway through the film Fresh. Using evidence from the film and your own experience, do you agree with him? Why or why not?
Please post your responses by class on Tuesday, November 27.
Here's a link to the film: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8gyP_Zr4xebNW84dndfbHBVN00
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Author Michael Pollan says "Cheap food is an illusion" about halfway through the film Fresh . Using evidence from the film and you...
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ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement that “Cheap Food is an illusion” because when food is made to be cheaper its also made to be less valuable and nutritious. As he said, if the cost of the food is not paid at the register, its paid somewhere else. Like in the environment and in your health. This definitely helps me to understand that “you’re paying for what you’re getting”. If you want to get the best product possible, you’re going to pay what you feel necessary to get what you think is the best. In the video he explained how he was making much more money per acre than his neighbor even with abandoning the chemicals. This shows that in the long run, using the technology you can and relying on nature in its true form would benefit everyone in the long run. Cheap food is not nutritious food.
I agree with the statement made in this film. Cheap food is an allusion. You may not be directly paying much money for the food but you will be paying for it in other ways. The cheap food that you buy costs the environment and those around you. Cheap food costs the environment in which it is produced in, the products it is produced with, as well as your health. You may think that you are finding a cheap alternative but you actually aren’t,
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement "cheap food is an illusion" because even though food that's cheap is convenient and less costly it also had less nutritious value. Not only is the nutritional value less in cheap food, but cheap foods are mass produced. In the video it shows how inhumane and unhealthy it is for animal products to be mass produced. Disease can spread from large amounts of animals being in one confined space and plants with chemicals poured on them become more unhealthy for people. Henceforth, while cheap food is convenient and makes more money for large companies, slightly more expensive food is nutritious and helps out local farmers and your health.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement "cheap food is an illusion". In the video it says that although the food may be cheap cost wise, you pay the price in other ways. Cheap food not only has negative effects on your health, but it also affects the environment as well. Cheap food may be convenient and less costly, but buying slightly more expensive food will pay off in the long run.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree that cheap food is an illusion. When we buy cheap food, it was cheap in terms of the selling price, but it has other, much more expensive costs. Economically speaking, it is very difficult to have the amount of benefit that both the consumer and producer gain from consuming and producing cheap food without imposing a cost somewhere else. While the cheap food gives a good profit to the producer and gives a low price to the consumer, the consumer has to pay the cost of a lesser health, which will eventually lead to expensive medical care. Society, too, will have to pay the cost of fast food production, such as potential governmental programs when biodiversity starts to gain more attention or rising prices as disease in farms becomes more difficult to control with drugs. Cheap food doesn't seem costly because the short-term benefits are all that we consider. We don't have enough foresight to see the long-term costs that we are putting on ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI like that you brought up the difference between short-term cost and long-term cost here.
DeleteI agree with the statement Pollan said that “cheap food is an illusion” because the video showed us that even if the value of the food isn’t directly paid at the cash register, it paid somewhere else like the environment for example. The way cheap food is produced also very unhealthy for animals and farmers themselves. So I would say that cheap food might be good in the short run where it’s convenient and cost less, but in the long run, people should pay more attention to the way their food is produced rather than just the price.
ReplyDeleteI agree with many of the arguments provided but I still think you can still make a small difference that doesn’t cost much. You can start your own little garden and gain access to a verity of fresh fruits and vegetables. Since I was little my family has had a small vegetable garden in our back yard. Everything you need to for the garden is not extremely expensive, it’ll just take some hard work. Though the work is tedious, it is so rewarding to make a sandwich filled with vegetables you have grown. Large factory farms are destroying the food industry but that doesn’t mean it is impossible to get good food.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement that cheap food is an illusion. A common thought is that the quality of what you buy will be what you pay, meaning if you buy something cheap, it will most likely be of cheap quality. Food is no different. The less you pay, the less nutrients and quality the food has. The money payed may not be the direct cost, but it is payed in other areas, such as in the amount vitamins and nutrients sound in the food. This is not only payed in your body, but in the environment as well. The farms where the cheap food is produced is not always grown with great quality in mind. Paying a little more for good quality food can be very justifiable versus paying less for low quality food.
ReplyDeleteI somewhat agree with the statement that cheap food is an illusion. Cheap food in this instance is non nutritious and is bad on your body. A three dollar bag of chips has no value to you body, but if someone would buy three dollars worth of spinach, then that is more than a couple of days vitamins, such as iron. A person could buy a two dollar packet of seeds and have the ability to grow produce that is good for them and good on their wallet. The modern idea of cheap food is just that an illusion is true, but there are loopholes in it, if people are willing to work for it themselves.
ReplyDeleteI like that you're thinking about the question differently than most of your classmates here, Connor.
DeleteI liked the way the video produced the emotion felt from the farmers and how the animals were getting treated. I definitely think that cheap food is a problem because it has less nutritional value and can damage our health. It is definitely an illusion and has detrimental effects on the environment and us. I also agree that organic food should be the way to go to help our environment and also our health. I liked the program that promoted organic food compared to cheap food.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that cheap food is an illusion. I say this because being cheap can mean that the nutritional value also decreases. However, this isn't always true. When something is in abundance, prices can be marked down. From experience, at Giant Eagle the store had an oversupply of strawberries, therefore the prices were marked down. But can be true in many other situations. The video displayed the harshness of how animals are treated, literally throwing the baby chicks out of buckets. Cheap food has become very common because of it's convenience, but the health benefits are not the best from those foods, which does display that cheap food is an illusion.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with the statement made by Pollan. I think that this is in reference to the cost of production, not necessarily the cost at the consumers end, which does not always reflect quality. It appeared that the farmer who rotated his fields/pastures between cows, chickens, turkeys, etc was not spending as much to produce his live stock as the large farms were. He did not pay for expensive feeds or antibiotics. The livestock fed off the land and the land off the livestock. This process is saving money in places that large farms are spending it. Large farms have to pay to clean the areas the animals live in, buy antibiotics, and feed for the animals. They may be able to produce more, but it is costing them more in the long run. On the consumers end, buying from a local butcher shop, as I have before, does not always cost more than shopping at Walmart. For example, I have a small, local butcher shop in a town near me. They source their meat locally and make almost everything in house. They off "Bundles" which include a large variety of meats for around $80-$120. All of this meat would cost a similar price at Walmart. Also, during the summer there are lots of grown on sight produce stands up towards lake Eerie. I have found a few that have decent prices, or cheaper prices than Walmart, or similar stores. So, in my opinon cheap food is not an illusion, it is up to the consumer to find the local, decently priced, and tasty food.
ReplyDeleteI love that you're bringing your experience and your community into thinking about this. Nice work, Clara.
DeleteI agree with Pollan's statement that "cheap food is an illusion". In Fresh, viewers have the opportunity to see the differences between two different kinds of farming processes: Factory farms based on speedy production in bulk versus organic farming which uses the natural organization of animals to the advantage of farmers. These two types of production are complete opposites and have immensely different results. In factory farms, antibiotics must be used constantly to prevent the spread of disease while in organic farming no antibiotics are needed due to the usefulness of the natural order. Organic farms are actually proven to produce more than factory farms and the food they produce is much more nutritious, although it costs more. That is why I agree with Pollan, the food produces by these factory farms may not cost very much money, but it's price is paid elsewhere. This cheap food is much less nutritious and the animals used to produce this are treated very poorly. So this food may be cheap in monetary value, but certainly it costs much more than we realize.
ReplyDeleteIsn't there a moral cost to treating animals so badly? A moral cost to despoiling the earth? I wonder about the expense of our collective ignorance of these things, too.
DeleteI agree with the statement that cheap food is an illusion. I think the video did a good job educating people on different farming methods. I do think you get what you pay for and sure, organic, natural food is going to be more expensive but it’s worth it. It also kind of shows that farmers who care about making sure the food is natural and organic, also tend to treat the animals better which is a positive side effect of it. Overall i’d love to see us go more towards eating healthier and running toward healthier options but it probably won’t happen because of the convenience of lower quality food.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement that cheap food is an illusion, although to some extent. In America and nations or parts of nations where food is mass produced and handeled with almost no care, this statement is true. Nations like Japan don’t treat their plants and animals this way, making their food vertually really cheep and affordable for the public. I liked the video and it’s connection with Local and Industrial farms, and how they show all the negative effects of our fast pace nation with food. Although I did talk about this in my essay, I think bringing it back here is somewhat important; American’s just aren’t educated enough to care for their food. Sure, we learn about the newest cow disease or lettuce infection, but most individuals don’t care enough to dig deeper, or make an impact, or even stop eating it all together. Yes this food is cheep in out end, but economically we are in the ruts. Compared to countries in Asia, we cannot compare. So imported goods and products are a heavy influence on our economy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement. In the film, he highlights this concept when he was describing the new dietary plan many farms are using for the cows. They choose to feed their cows ones that have died because it is cheaper and allows them to gain more profit. The cost is the chances of disease that their meat could possibly carry because of the different dietary plan. This film goes along with a saying that my grandfather used to tell me, “There’s no such thing as a free meal.” I never really understood this until I got older, then it hit me. Whenever there’s a “free meal” the cost may not be monetary, but for every action such as giving this meal away, there’s an opportunity cost that the person pays.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement “cheap food is an illusion” because after watching the film I learned a lot about how the food we eat is grown/fed and the effects of the food given to cows and other livestock has on the animals, and in turn the effect that it has on us as consumers. One of the most interesting things I learned from the film was that some farmers are now feeding their cows dead cow. This astounds me because cows are herbivores and feeding them dead cow makes them very sick, however the dead cow feed is much cheaper and makes the cows grow faster. In reality, however, even though we as consumers think we are buying cheap meat or cheap vegetables, you might not really be buying food that is the best overall for your well-being. Organic food may be more expensive, but it is certainly worth it to give yourself the best possible nutrition.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement in the film "cheap food is an illusion". I thought the film really educated us on the effects of mass production of cheap foods and the chemicals that can be found it them from how they are being produced. I also agree that we need to start supporting small, local farmers for a healthier lifestyle. The sad thing about America is we are educated on how bad these cheap, mass production foods are for our body and can cause major health effects but we still continue to purchase it. Its like we don't even care what we put into our body and the government won't stop it because it helps with the economy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement “cheap food is an illusion” in the film fresh. Many places are only interested in acquiring the most amount of a good for the cheapest price. This is shown in the film when the honey farmers complained about out of country farmers being able to sell their honey for far cheaper then their American counterparts. In my experience at midway the owner will often buy local produce to help support local farmers. He purchased strawberries and honey that looked far too small or not quite the right color. This trade off of the color or size was made up in the taste of the products. Many people said that the cost of the lack of size or color was made up for in the delicious taste of the local goods. This helps explain that although you may be getting larger strawberries or more golden honey the cost for these characteristics comes from the lack of taste showing that all farming both industrial and local have their costs
ReplyDeleteThis is a clear and well-explained example.
DeleteI agree with the statement “cheap food is an illusion” , however, I will disagree with the reasoning behind it. I live in a farming community so I decided to speak with some of the generational farmers and they told me that industrialized farming isn’t as it was presented to us. They don’t use pesticides or antibiotics on the animals unless they absolutely have to which is 1 every once in a while, they also said that industrialized farming doesn’t yield diminishing nutritional value, they also informed me that they don’t feed dead animals (fixed into the feed as the video claimed) into the pig feed, however, it wouldn’t make as big of a difference as they claim because pigs eat dirt which is a composition of dead animals and worms and other natural nutrients. So yes I agree there is an illusion, but it seems to me that industrialized farming is not the culprit as it was presented, it seems that the issue is very complex and is more than meets the eye.
ReplyDeleteInteresting--I like that you go beyond what you're told here. Usually, video is so persuasive that people just accept it at face value. I guess I'd ask what "1 every once in a while" means.
DeleteI believe that cheap food is an illusion, but I also believe that some things in the video can be easily proven wrong with a few minutes of research (though most of it is factual). I agree with the main points of the video nonetheless. Chemical additives are not good for you. This is the same reason that when I see people drinking vitamin water or diet soda, I cringe. Diet soda is easily worse for you than regular soda. Regular soda is still bad, but for different reasons.
ReplyDeleteThe market for meat is so screwed up, but it makes perfect sense that it is. The standard for meat has already been accepted by the masses with their dollar. This is why the crappiest products are the cheapest. Normal people can't exactly afford to live off of expensive organic food.