P7

Kerry dePenaloza

Prof. Leake

Writ 1133

1 May 2013

P7

            In each piece that was read for this post, all three authors give specific examples that trace the history and the production of our food.  In Barry Estabrook’s Introduction to “Tomatoland,” he talks about his experience with tomatoes.  He talks about how the production of tomatoes has changed from home grown to mass production.  With this change towards mass production, the tomato has lost its original value.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that Americans spent over $5 billion dollars in 2009 on these mass produced attempts of delicious tomatoes.  The mass produced tomatoes have lost so much nutritional value that tomatoes in the 60s had.  However, tomatoes now a days have 14 times more sodium.  Clearly the way tomatoes are produced has changed significantly over the past 50 years. 

            In Michael Pollan’s piece, “An Animal’s Place,” he writes about how the treatment of animals has changed over time.  In the beginning of his essay, Pollan writes about how pigs and dogs used to get Christmas gifts.  This is when he seriously questions the attitude we have with animals.  Another argument that Pollan makes about our history with animals is that some animals are sentenced to a life of suffering.  He makes an argument about whether or not it is acceptable to breed animals for a life of suffering.  The life of some animals has changed immensely over the past years.  In Christopher Cook’s infographic, “Fowl Trouble,” he talks about how the production of chicken.  The workers in poultry-processing plants go under a lot of pain and stress to get the chickens through the entire process.  Angry chickens can be a handful, literally. 

            In comparison, both Estabrook and Cook talk about the worker quality in mass-producing factories.  Granted one is about tomatoes and the other chicken, but both places have workers that go through a lot in order to mass produce these things.  They both mention the low wages, as well as the mental and physical harm that comes with working in a modern day food factory.  Pollan and Cook compare in their methodologies and findings because they both talk about the mistreatment of animals.  Cook talks about how chickens are mistreated and bred to be slaughtered.  Pollan does the same when talking about breeding animals for a life of suffering.  There are similarities in both pieces when they talk about the negative effects that can be passed to the consumer due to the modern day food factories and their practices.  If not caught, disease can get taint the product and eventually lead to a sick customer.