The Meatrix/Organic Rap/OD

Starting with the Meatrix... I thought it was a very interesting and minimally informative clip. While it was not loaded with information that the public already has a general idea about, it still found a way to connect with the audience. The producers of this video realize the importance of capturing their audiences attention, an overstimulated time obsessed audience at that. What fails to interest people of my age in lectures, articles, and interviews, is found to be newly said when put into the mouth of a cartoon mocking a well known movie. I also found it very interesting that after all we have read this quarter, almost everyone in our class still flinched at the debeaking part... and this was from a cartoon, not even actual footage. I also agree with what we discussed in class, this short clip's major downfall was its lack of explanation as to how the family farm turned into a factory farm. It seems as if it was an overnight process when it clearly was not. A question though, for those who still read this, what did our class mean when we agreed that "this is alienating to those who support the big-agro industry?" I understand that it portrays a truth that they do not wish the public to think about, but I don't know if I think the word 'alienating' works here. Opinions?

Moving forward to the Organic Milk Rap Video:
My only thought that I had that I cannot find myself at peace concerning this, is is it not sort of hypocritcal of us to mock them when this company is actually out there doing something to inform others, while at the same time staying in business by selling their products? I think more power to them. Dismissing this video purely cause of a culture clash with ours seems immature for us to do as scholars who are looking to better ourselves and our planet through education. As the video states, "harmony and nature take presidence."

Alas, while writing this I find myself looking over my way over detailed notes from class this past Monday. I apologize if this seems somewhat scatterbrained but it is written in a way that reflects my personal stream of consciousness. If I quote our class members, please realize that I am taking what they say and putting it in my own words, while still attempting to give credit where credit is due.

Starting you with Pollan's opinon that the food industry's biggest threat to us is Global Warming... not health. Does this almost seem to wreck one's opinion of OD? I now feel the health aspect was almost only a ploy in the novel, or a trick of a sort, while not being a truth. I think this is because of society (and my own) social stigma towards Global Warming. While I now believe in it, I still see those two words and feel resentment for my old teachers who droned on about it while not actually explaining the effects it has on me, today.

I like the idea that food preperation should be a pleasure rather than an unwanted time consuming duty. It not a lack of time that people have - it is a lack of ambition. We make decisions and we make time for that which we believe in. "Not having time is a bit of brainwashing" (Pollan), rather it is about adjusting the time we use each day (I'm one of those obnoxious people that demand that we do not make or posess time, we use a culturally formed sense of time. I became this way after reading a book called Here's Looking to Euclid. The narrator of the story spends time in an African culture where time and numbers have no meanings, it is a fascinating easy read, if anyone has time for it).

'The food industry is skewed to seem to support us, when actually we support it' (Kevin). The food industry realizes how the truth would skew us from supporting it if the veil of where our food comes from was lifted. People like living in ignorance (ignorance is bliss- ha), this is something the food industry preys upon. This is why that veil becomes darker, thicker, and more enforced as time passes. Everyone is for cleanliness and higher standards but people aren't willing to suffer the consequences of change, people do not care enough to change. 'We have come from a society of hunters and gatherers' (Natasha) to a society of false pacifists who preach kindness by having others hunt for them. we all have come from people who killed to eat and now we refrain from taking part in the hunt? Now we blame it on money and time, even when we should be able to live off what is around us, yet we would rather side with unnecessary cruelty than the side of human nature.

Closing notes:
Think more of reform rather than renew in an attempt to make a change as an individual. Rather than supporting radical changes that we know cannot happen, collectively organize to support plausible solutions to one problem at a time. To be an individual who causes change, one must act collectively with others to be heard and to tear down social stigmas. Remember, the winner of this fight against the factory farm will be able to write a new future.