Author: mike

Cover Letter

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Dear Portfolio Committee,

Before I started English 101, I saw myself as a below average writer.  The time frame from when I started English 101 and the time I took English in high school was about 5 years.  During this time, I didn’t do a lot of reading when it came to books. I did however read a lot of articles and short stories online.  I also spent a lot of time in blogs talking about topics I found interesting.  I learned a lot during my time away from school, but I was still nervous when I decided to go back to school. Reason being is that I didn’t do well in English back in high school, so my expectation of how well I was going to do was low.  Expecting to do poorly is one of my weaknesses not just as a writer, but as an individual.  I had to overcome this weakness before I started because I knew it would affect my work.  It was very difficult for me to change my thought process.  But when I did my first assignment, I saw how easy it was for me to write. The assignment had me read an article titled, “10 Ways To Think About Writing.” The article changed the way I viewed writing and helped me improve my writing. As I took the course, I learned many things about myself, such as my weaknesses and strengths.  The pieces I choose for my portfolio represent how I improved myself throughout the course.

For my first piece in my portfolio, I decided to use the first essay I completed. The memoir assignment demonstrates my skills as a writer before I learn any new skills or tips to improve my writing.  The memoir explains the reason why I decided to go with food as a theme, but also showed me a weakness I have as a writer.  Describing a scene using specific details is one of my weaknesses I discovered when doing this assignment.  I usually use vague descriptions when it comes to describing something, so this assignment challenged my thinking process and pushed me to improve myself.  The hardest part of the assignment would be the part when I was trying to describe the theme of the restaurant for my scene.  I describe the restaurant fine, but I couldn’t present it as a Texas theme restaurant that I had hope for.  I had the sense of writer’s block when it came to this part and it frustrated me to no ends.  I done many revisions to this essay and yet I’m still not satisfied with the final draft.  This assignment taught me that I need to work on my development skills when it comes to describing details. Discovering my own weakness is the first step in improving myself. It gives me a sense of direction to what I should work on as a writer.

For my second piece in my portfolio, I decided to use the text wrestling assignment because it really shows my improvements in my writing compared to the first piece in my portfolio. At first, I thought this assignment was not going to be as interesting as I hoped, but I was wrong. It was not my initial intention, but for a plain topic as broccoli, I was really into it. This assignment was one of the easier assignments for me to write because it relies on my strength in reading comprehension. This most likely has to do with the time I was out of school where I spent a lot of time reading online. I was able to focus on the assignment and write everything I found to be important to the subject. I wrote everything down in a bullet list to organize the information and then match the information that relates to each other. I then put the information in paragraphs and wrote a response for each one. This assignment demonstrates my improvements in focus, development and organization.

For my last piece in my portfolio, I decided to use the Ethnography assignment because it was the hardest assignment I did for the course.  I was to research a subculture and write about it and I choose to do it on a dairy farm.  Unfortunately, I struggled to attain information about the subculture because it was during Thanksgiving week that I was doing the assignment.  The dairy farm was also a bakery that is very popular in Springfield, RI.  I manage to get a tour of the place, but I was only able to look around for a short time.  I didn’t get much out of the tour, but I did do some research online of the dairy farm.  This assignment challenge both my strengths and weaknesses from my other two pieces in my portfolio.  I struggle to describe the theme of the bakery but made up for it using my strength to do research online.

When I started this course, I wasn’t sure how I would do or how much I would learn.  This course taught me how to focus on what I am struggling with and use my strengths to my advantage.  Discovering my weaknesses and strengths helped me focus on what I lacked in my writing.  I hope to use this lesson in real life situations such as work or relationships.  There is a lot I still need to learn. I know I need to work on my verb agreements and structure of my essays. Hopefully, I will continue to improve in my next English course.  Thank you for your time for reading my work.

Sincerely,

Mikey Phimmasene

Exploring Places for Food

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I’m not a very picky eater. I would say it was due to the food I was exposed to when I was young.  My father cooked all sorts of dishes from his home country, Laos. My favorite of them all was a dish called Pho, a noodle soup with a thick beef broth, mixed with beef, chicken or seafood. There are a lot of dishes from my father’s country that are very exotic and insane. One very rare dish from Laos is a dish called Laap (Larb). The dish is a type of meat salad containing a large assortment of meats seasoned with fish sauce, lime and may or may not use the blood of the animal as a soup base. It is often eaten with sticky rice, a dish that originated from Laos.  My father once told me the dish Laap is considered the national dish of Laos and is said to be a feast that brings good luck and good health.  The dish can be eaten raw, but I highly recommend eating it cooked. The dish can be bought at Lao or Thai restaurants in the U.S. Although the item itself may not be on the menu, asking the waiter about the dish wouldn’t hurt as some restaurants still serve it. This is a dish that is special in my culture, almost always made in every Lao social gathering. Because of the food I had when I was young, I was the kind of person that wanted to explore into other cultures and try food I never had before.

Traveling is a great way for me to experience other cultures and try great food in the local area. Traveling around the world and trying food from all kinds of cultures is something I dream of doing. One show I often watch on the food network is called ‘“Bizarre Foods’ with Andrew Zimmern. Andrew Zimmern is renowned as most influential chef all around the world. He travels around the world and eat all kinds of exotic dishes not known to the rest of the world.  He make it seem so delicious when the dish seems very unappealing, but not being picky is key to trying something anyone wouldn’t normally eat. I also want to travel around the world, but first I would like to travel around the United States and try food from other states.

Last year I visited my friend Steven who lives in Dallas, Texas. He was a few years older than me and he used to live in Rhode Island. We planned a Airbnb in Austin, Texas for a few days. It was a group of at least 20 people all around the age group of 23-27 years old.  I had BBQ in New England, but I never had BBQ down South. So one of the places we went to was a restaurant called Salt Lick BBQ located in Austin, Texas. It was a very large one-story stone building with a large wooden gable roof. It was built on a hill with a stone staircase leading up to the patio and front entrance. The patio was very nice, gray stone floor matching the staircase. Faded red colored wood log fence supported by tall stone columns all around the perimeter. The patio was about 40 feet in length with about 15 red painted picnic tables. The center of the patio had a small stone structure with an outdoor bar and restroom on the side.  The restaurant was playing country music inside. I could see horses and cows far in the distant fields.  I didn’t see much inside since we ate outside and the restroom was outside too. The menu was very standard and had basic BBQ dishes such as pulled pork and smoked ribs. I made the assumption that it was like any other BBQ place I been to. I was mistaken.

We arrived at the restaurant at noon on a Sunday. It was busy and the place was packed. The people there generally kept to themselves and their group.  The attire was very casual with almost every single person in the restaurant wearing jeans and a T-shirt with a few wearing cowboy hats. Everyone was laughing and talking cheerfully to one another. The waiter’s uniform was casual like everyone else.  Luckily, the patio had enough tables for everyone in our group. After everyone made their order, it was about a 30 to 40 minute wait, due to the size of our group. I ordered smoked BBQ ribs with a side of fries and a lemonade. It was hot, about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I could feel the the cold sweat going down my back. I could hear the stomachs from my friends roar as we waited and talked about the upcoming events. When the food got to the table, everyone stopped talking. It was a moment of silence as everyone got their meal.   When I received my food, I was surprised by the size of each rib were about the size of my hand with a total of 5 ribs on my plate. The meat was tender and pulled right off the bone, still hot to the touch. I took my first bite and the meat just melted in my mouth. Sweet, juicy and a blast of flavor. It was a taste I can only find in Texas. Everyone enjoyed their food and all could agree, it was the best BBQ we ever had. I couldn’t even compare to the BBQ back in New England. The experience motivated me to travel even more and continue to explore more places and eat more food.

Anyone can be inspired by others to follow their dreams and do the things they want to do.  I’m inspired to travel and explore the world because of my childhood, my culture, the food network and most importantly, food.   It’s such a simple thing but that’s all I need to motivate me. I wish I had the money to travel all the time. But as long as I’m patient and save money, I can go almost anywhere.

Bringing Broccoli Back

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Broccoli is a vegetable that is considered unappealing by many. Not many people will buy broccoli at a supermarket or order a side of broccoli at a restaurant.  Advertisement of vegetables is almost nonexistent as junk food and other products are more popular in taste and appearance than broccoli.  A group of researchers found that broccoli provides many health benefits such as “…antioxidants, regulating enzymes and controlling apoptosis and cell cycle.” (Vasanthi, et al.). But even with the health benefits provided by broccoli, people still choose not to eat it.  People choosing unhealthy alternatives to vegetables creates concern in American society.  A change of how broccoli and other vegetables are viewed may be necessary to improve the consumption of vegetables.

In “Broccoli’s Extreme Makeover,” Michael Moss explains the cultural viewpoint of broccoli as a food in America and more generally how modern society is slowly moving away from buying fruits and vegetables, resulting in unhealthy eating habits.  He shares his research of interviews with farmers and formed a meeting with an advertising agency to determine how the people of today’s society view vegetables and to start an advertising campaign for broccoli.  Although the opinions of many consumers are mostly on the negative side, Michael Moss explains his attempt to promote broccoli using creative advertisement with the agency Victor’s & Spoils.

Produce nowadays are expensive and not as appealing as cheap alternatives. Moss seeks out a way to reduce the cost of produce by increasing its production.  He provides a lot of information about a farmer name Brain Reeves who he interviewed when he visited Reeve’s farm. However, increasing the production of vegetables was a challenge and encounter many issues.  One major issue that reduces the chance of increasing the production of broccoli is that corn is overly dominant and take over most farmland due to it being so viable in modern society and easy to harvest. Corn can be used for animal feed, syrup or ethanol. It also takes about 99% of all available farmland leaving only 1% to any other produce. Government grants provided by the department of agriculture shows that corn has a research funding of $121 million and broccoli has only $3.2 million.  It adds on to the issues that farmers cannot simply switch from corn to other produces because the incentive to grow corn is greater than broccoli and other produces. Reeve explains that corn is far easier to grow and harvest due to the available technology, lower labor requirement and does not require a water system to keep it hydrated as it only requires rain water.  Broccoli requires more water and need expensive machines that will harvest the crop without damaging it.

Farmers have many difficulties and require a lot of work to maintain their farms.  Reading the article has taught me how difficult it is to increase the production of produce, thus making it difficult to reduce the cost.  It also changed my viewpoint of farmers and how much is put into growing produce.  It is very surprising to know that corn takes up more farmland and requires less labor to maintain than any other produce.  Reducing the cost of produce have shown to be very difficult, thus making it harder to advertise.

Michael Moss shares research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that shows “As of 2010, diet surpassed smoking as the No. 1 risk factor for disease and death in America.” Moss explains, using sources from the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, that the average American are not eating the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables.  The health benefits explained in the article shows favorable results, yet people still opt to consume other products.

At first, I didn’t quite understand the benefits of eating produce, but after reading this article I concluded that I need to eat more fruits and vegetables.  Broccoli provides many health benefits that can help with “chemoprevention to cardio protection.” (Vasanthi, et al.). All the health benefits explained in the articles further provides me with motivation to eat healthier.  Although this is a personal agenda, not everyone will eat produce just because it’s healthy.  This is an issue that continues to grow and need to be address.

Moss and ad agency Victor’s & Spoils formed a meeting to start an advertisement campaign aiming to promote broccoli. They used surveys to see the general public’s view on broccoli and the results shows that broccoli is an undesirable food choice due to its poor taste and texture.  The group visited an elementary school in Boulder to find out how children view broccoli.  Moss explains how the children have positive views of vegetables because of a garden the school has.  Although he made good points that schools can have positive influence on children, he brings up that the children’s parents don’t have the same viewpoint on vegetables and this can also influence the children in a negative way. In the article “They said I’m a square for eating them” the authors explain how parents, siblings and friends can easily influence how children view fruits and vegetables.  The article also mentions that schools and homes should promote fruits and vegetables.  This correlates to the garden in the school that Moss and the team visited.  Moss points out that many people he interviewed concluded that there must be another way to advertise broccoli instead of advertising health benefits of broccoli. Moss wrote, “the universal response was to stop sending the message that this is something dutiful you have to do for your health and start advertising more creatively.”  Moss brings up Michelle Obama’s speech about produce and the marketing towards children. This speech has a huge impact in promoting healthy eating.  Many produce companies started advertisement campaigns by using characters from shows such as iCarly to promote produce.

An issue I came across in the article is that Moss doesn’t bring up the issue of how few schools and parents promote eating healthy to their kids.  I believe that the promotion of fruits and vegetables should be targeted at a young audience because children are easily influenced than adults. Catching the attention of the adults can be difficult but catching the attention of children is easy.  The issue is that school funding is limited and cannot support the advertisement of produce.  Current school systems are simply relaying the information that produce is healthy for you and don’t teach individual students on how this can affect them in the future. A professor from the University of Sydney states, “…campaigns which focused only on the transmission of information and failed to take account of the social and economic circumstances of individuals…” (Nutbeam)   A way to change the way broccoli is viewed is to change the educational system by giving the students a reason to eat healthy.  A garden can be a positive influence for kids in elementary school.  Improving the educational system can prove difficult. I will agree with Moss that major changes are impossible for any normal person to do.

Michael Moss brings up many points to show how much broccoli is neglected and the difficulties to change such viewpoints.  Moss and his team from the Victor’s & Spoils agency worked together to bring about a culture change using social media. Social media has always influence children and adults alike. It is not only a very power advertisement tool, but a affordable one as well. One of the slogans they used is “broccoli vs kale.” Pictures were provided with the article showing such advertisements with broccoli vs kale. Many of the advertisements seem to be aimed towards 16-22-year old. Moss doesn’t really explain the results of the advertisements, but the total cost of the whole campaign would have cost $3 million to $7 million dollars.  The end of the article goes on about how the campaign can be a tipping point but stops there, leaving me questioning what happens next.

Works Cited

Moss, Michael. “Broccoli’s Extreme Makeover.” (2013). <https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/magazine/broccolis-extreme-makeover.html>.

Nutbeam, Don. “Health Literacy as a Public Health Goal: A Challenge for Contemporary Health Education and Communication Strategies into the 21st Century.” 2000. <https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/15.3.259>.

Povey, Rachel; Lisa Cowap and Lucy Gratton. “They Said I’m A Square for Eating Them: Children’s Beliefs About Fruit and Vegetables in England.” 12. Vol. 118. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 21 September 2016. <https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-03-2016-0131>.

Vasanthi, Hannah R; Subhendu Mukherjee and Dipak K Das. “Potential Health Benefits of Broccoli- A Chemic-Biological Overview.” 2009. <https://doi.org/10.2174/138955709788452685>.

 

Life in a Dairy Farm

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Farms are home to many different animals and people who work to ensure these animals are cared for. There are many kinds of farms that specialize in specific things. During a very busy time of the year, I visited a farm called Wrights Dairy Farm. The farm is a family business known for its high-quality dairy products sold daily and its care for their cows. Products range from customizable birthday cakes to simple as fresh milk. I visited this place many times before to purchase many of the products they sell, but I never actually saw how everything operates in the back until I took a tour of the farm. When I went to the back, I saw how people who work there, progress throughout the day and saw how well everyone worked with each other.  The employees do well to work together and with the advancement of technology, their work is cost and time efficient.

The first thing I did before taking the tour of Wrights Dairy Farm was research the farm on their official website (Our History). The farm has been active since 1896, but the bakery was officially open in the year 1976. The history of Wrights Dairy Farm started off from milk delivery to selling milk and eggs in a retail store in 1970. Many innovations were made to improve the cost and efficiency of the farm. The bakery uses a lot of high-quality equipment that helps employees work efficiently. Some of the very important machinery was the milk processor and the oven.  The milk processor is the most important as it is necessary to process out the impurities in milk to avoid any diseases or illness from raw milk.  The stainless-steel oven is about as big as a refrigerator, can fit large numbers of goods in multiple rotating platforms.  The farm has technology such as machines that automatically milks the cows daily and painlessly.  The farmers take extreme care for their cows to ensure they are healthy and live a stress-free life.

The life of a dairy farmer is difficult as they would start their day as early as 3:00 a.m. in their soon to be dirty jeans and long boots. During this early morning, they spend it by cleaning up the barns, keeping the cows fed and prep the cows in the milk pump machine, a machine that milks the cows. Their clothes would be dirty all over by the time they finish. Everything gets done by 8:00 am and then the farmers go home to relax until they come back later in the day. The farmers get back to work at 3:00 pm and to have the cows milked again and continue with their daily routine and finish work before 6:00 pm. The process repeats in the morning and the cycle continues. The work they do is something that most people wouldn’t be able to do. Like the bakery, daily routine is based on the season. During the warm seasons, they would plant and harvest corn. Chores can range from fixing anything that needs to be fix or spreading manure on the fields. The most important job they have is taking care of the cows and ensuring they are as happy and healthy they can be. The farmers take their jobs seriously as any farmer should.

Every time I visit the grounds of Wrights Dairy Farm, I always smell the scent of cows as soon as I get out of my car. The odor of cows is a very odd, familiar smell comparable to gardening, but it’s very hard to describe. The farm has a very traditional look to it with red painted metal barns and two white painted buildings. Customers from all ages come and go to visit the bakery or to view the cows that are visible in the barns. When I enter the bakery, the smell of cow disappears, and the fresh scent of baked goods is filled within the building from front to back. The store has a nice maroon marble floor with a large opening in the ceiling where you can see the second floor with many lights to brighten up the room. The store itself is not very big, probably as big as a small convenience store. Customers come in with a smile on their faces when they see all sorts of items they can buy. People usually go straight to the cake display, grab a number ticket and wait for someone to call their number to be assisted with. Employees are patient when taking customer’s orders and treat everyone kindly, creating a relaxing atmosphere. All the employees dress in black uniforms while some uniforms were stained with a hint of white powder, most likely sugar or flour, covered them as they come around the corner from the back.

Behind the scenes of Wrights Dairy Farm is not as slow as the front. I notice a lot of stainless-steel equipment and hard wood tables to work on. The daily routine changes depending on the season. Employees start up work as early as 3:00 am. During this time, the employee’s startup the day by preparing the dough for baking later during the day. I had the chance to watch and observe the employees while they work, right before Thanksgiving, so it was a very busy time.

Everyone has their role in the bakery, but they are not afraid to help other members of the staff out when necessary. The bakery was in the process of making large number of pies to sell for Thanksgiving and with the help of advance technology, the process is easier on the employees. The bakery staff range from 18 to 30 years old with a few old timers but consist mostly of young female employees. Some of the employees are college students who are working part-time. Everyone treats each other kindly and with respect and had no problem with talking to each other, regardless of gender, age and ethnicity.  Some of the older employees would treat the younger employees as if they were their own children or grandchildren and would address another as, “sweetie” or “sweet heart.” Although, some of the female employees are shy and didn’t speak at all when I was observing them. I watched as some employees were rolling up dough very carefully and skillfully, prepping the dough for baking. Others oversaw baking or mixing the raw dough. A lot was going on, but the workflow was very organized and quick. Certain employees oversee making decisions on what must be done next. I heard one of the employees who was making a product by hand, call out to another employee and said, “We need more dough here.” Not even a minute went by before it was delivered to her and her group, ensuring that there wasn’t any pause in workflow. Everyone was busy, or shy, and this made it very difficult to approach employees for some questions. Everyone is working there for different reasons, but they all get along well.

Wrights Dairy Farm is very fun and exciting to visit. I wish that I came at a better time when it wasn’t as busy, but I learned a lot during the tour. The history of the farm and the changes it gone through made it very successful thanks to the technology advancements. The employees are patient and work very well together, creating a healthy work environment. I didn’t get to meet all the farmers but the job they do requires a lot of dedication and motivation.

Works Cited

“Our History” Wrights Dairy Farm & Bakery 2018. https://wrightsdairyfarm.com/our-history.html

Essay 2: Text Wrestling (Final)

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Broccoli is a vegetable that is considered unappealing by many. Not many people will buy broccoli at a supermarket or order a side of broccoli at a restaurant.  Advertisement of vegetables is almost nonexistent as junk food and other products are more popular in taste and appearance than broccoli.  A group of researchers found that broccoli provides many health benefits such as “…antioxidants, regulating enzymes and controlling apoptosis and cell cycle.” (Vasanthi, Mukherjee and Das) But with the health benefits provided by broccoli, people still choose not to eat it.  People choosing unhealthy alternatives to vegetables creates concern in American society.  A change of how broccoli and other vegetables are view may be necessary to improve the consumption of vegetables.

In “Broccoli’s Extreme Makeover,” Michael Moss explains the cultural viewpoint of broccoli as a food in America and how modern society is slowly moving away from buying fruits and vegetables, resulting in unhealthy eating habits.  He shares his research of interviews with farmers and formed a meeting with an advertising agency to determine how the people of society view vegetables and to start an advertising campaign for broccoli.  Although the opinions of many consumers are mostly on the negative side, Michael Moss explains his attempt to promote broccoli using creative advertisement with the agency Victor’s & Spoils.

Produce nowadays are expensive and not as appealing as cheap alternatives. Moss seeks out a way to reduce the cost of produce by increasing its production.  He provides a lot of information about a farmer name Brain Reeves who he interviewed when he visited Reeve’s farm. However, increasing the production of vegetables was a challenge and encounter many issues.  One issue that Moss provides is when the farmer Reeves suffered heavy losses when his cucumbers were killed from an unexpected chill. A simple natural occurrence that can impact a farmer’s livelihood cost the farmer money.  Another issue that reduces the chance of increasing the production of broccoli is that corn is overly dominant and take over most farmland due to it being so viable in modern society and easy to harvest. Corn can be used for animal feed, syrup or ethanol. It also takes about 99% of all available farmland leaving only 1% to any other produce. Government grants provided by the Department of Agriculture shows that corn has a research funding of $121 million and broccoli has only $3.2 million.  It adds on to the issues that farmers cannot simply switch from corn to other produce because the incentives to grow corn is far greater than broccoli and other produces. Reeve explains that corn is far easier to grow and harvest due to the available technology, require less labor and can grow with only rain water.  Broccoli requires more water and need expensive machines that will harvest the crop without damaging it.

Farmers have many difficulties and require a lot of work to maintain their farms.  Reading the article shown me how difficult it is to increase the production of produce, thus making it difficult to reduce the cost.  It also changed my viewpoint of farmers and how much is put into growing produce.  It is very surprising to know that corn takes up more farmland and require less labor to maintain than any other produce.  Reducing the cost of produce have shown to be very difficult, thus making it harder to advertise.

Michael Moss shares research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that shows “As of 2010, diet surpassed smoking as the No. 1 risk factor for disease and death in America.” Moss explains, using sources from the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, that the average American are not eating the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables.  The health benefits that is explained in the article shows favorable results, yet people still opt to consume other products.

At first, I didn’t quite understand the benefits of eating produce, but after reading this article I concluded that I need to eat more fruits and vegetables.  Broccoli provides many health benefits that can help with “chemoprevention to cardio protection.” (Vasanthi, Mukherjee and Das) All the health benefits is explained in the articles further provides me with motivation to eat healthier.  Although this is a personal agenda, not everyone will eat produce just because it’s healthy.  This is an issue that continues to grow and need to be address.

Moss and ad agency Victor’s & Spoils formed a meeting to start an advertisement campaign aiming to promote broccoli. They used surveys to see the general public’s view on broccoli and the results shows that broccoli is an undesirable food choice due to its poor taste and texture.  The group visited an elementary school in Boulder to find out how children view broccoli.  Moss explains how the children have positive views of vegetables because of a garden the school has.  Although he made good points that schools can have positive influence on children, he brings up that the children’s parents don’t have the same viewpoint on vegetables and this can also influence the children in a negative way. In the article “They said I’m a square for eating them” the authors explain how parents, siblings and friends can easily influence how children view fruits and vegetables.  The article also mentions that schools and homes should promote fruits and vegetables.  This correlates to the garden in the school that Moss and the team visited.  Moss points out that many people he interviewed concluded that there must be another way to advertise broccoli instead of advertising health benefits of broccoli. Moss wrote, “the universal response was to stop sending the message that this is something dutiful you have to do for your health and start advertising more creatively.”  Moss brings up Michelle Obama speech about produce and the marketing towards children. This speech has a huge impact in promoting healthy eating.  Many produce companies started advertisement campaigns by using characters from shows such as iCarly to promote produce.

An issue I came across in the article is that Moss doesn’t bring up the issue of how not many schools and parents promote their kids to eating healthy.  I believe that the promotion of fruits and vegetables should be targeted at a young audience because children are more influential than adults. Catching the attention of the adults can be difficult but catching the attention of children is easy.  The issue is that school funding is limited and cannot support the advertisement of produce.  Current school systems are simply relaying the information that produce is healthy for you and don’t teach individual students on how this can affect them in the future. “…campaigns which focused only on the transmission of information and failed to take account of the social and economic circumstances of individuals…” (Nutbeam)   As I stated before, promoting fruits and vegetables should be aimed towards a young audience.  A way to change the way broccoli is viewed is to change the educational system.  Improving the educational system can prove difficult. I will agree with Moss that major changes are impossible for any normal person to do.

Michael Moss brings up many points to show how much broccoli is neglected and the difficulties to change such viewpoints.  Moss and his team from the Victor’s & Spoils agency worked together to bring about a culture change using social media. Social media has always influence children and adults alike. It is not only a very power advertisement tool, but a low costing one as well. One of the slogans they used is “broccoli vs kale.” Pictures were provided with the article showing such advertisements with broccoli vs kale. Many of the advertisements seem to be aimed towards 16-22-year old. Moss doesn’t really explain the results of the advertisements, but the total cost of the whole campaign would have cost $3 million to $7 million dollars.  The end of the article goes on about how the campaign can be a tipping point but stops there, leaving me questioning what happens next.

Works Cited

Moss, Michael. “Broccoli’s Extreme Makeover.” (2013). <https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/magazine/broccolis-extreme-makeover.html>.

Nutbeam, Don. “Health literacy as a public health goal: a challenge for contemporary health education and communication strategies into the 21st century.” 2000. <https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/15.3.259>.

Povey, Rachel; Lisa Cowap and Lucy Gratton. “They said I’m a square for eating them: Children’s beliefs about fruit and vegetables in England.” 12. Vol. 118. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 21 September 2016. <https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-03-2016-0131>.

Vasanthi, Hannah R; Subhendu Mukherjee and Dipak K Das. “Potential Health Benefits of Broccoli- A Chemic-Biological Overview.” 2009. <https://doi.org/10.2174/138955709788452685>.

 

Reading Journal 4

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In Chinese Noodles From a Chile-Haunted Region, Pete Wells explains how the cuisine in the Hunan region in China is overshadow by the other Chinese regions.  The name Hunan is used by restaurants in America and is generally overlook as a simple Americanize Chinese restaurant. The article focus on a single Hunan restaurant named Hunan Slurp. This restaurant has many traditional dishes and is located in New York city. Wells explains how Hunan Slurp does in New York and tells about some of the dishes this restaurant explains.

What I found interesting and surprising in the article is how the name Hunan can be overlooked when looking at Chinese restaurants.  When I order from any Chinese restaurants, I believe that they generally have the same dishes with slight alterations, which most of them do.  Taking in consideration from this article that there are Chinese restaurants out there that serve traditional food, I will definitely explore those options.  When I was reading article, I started to question if there is a website I could use to search for traditional restaurants.

The description of the dishes is very interesting and I can learn a lot from it. I always have a hard time describing dishes in my essays. It usually seem uninteresting or bland when it’s really not. The methods that was use to describe the dish as the dish is presented, served and eaten were very well done and I can picture it in my head. I hope to learn from this and further improve myself.

Reading Journal 3

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by Melissa Clark

  • Summaries the joys of a green bean dish and the preparation it takes to make it. Comparing it to Sichuan dry-fried long beans, it is a dish that focus on the green beans and pork. It can also be made with turkey or no meat contents at all.
  • Green beans is a vegetable I dislike since my childhood. Although I’m not a picky eater, I wouldn’t eat it if I had the choice.
  • The ways that green beans can be prepare is indeed interesting, especially the fact that it can be made into a stir-fry with turkey.
  • The line, “The crisp nuggets are my favorite part — crunchy and salty, almost like meaty popcorn.” has a interesting writing style. Describing the pork nugget in a very desirable way while stating that it’s her favorite. Using (-) is quite interesting since I would never think to use it.
  • When she compares the green bean dish to Sichuan dry-fried long beans. She made sure that it was “loosely” similar to where it has similar aspects in both dishes but very different dishes that is prep very differently. I would sometimes compare things to one another and not point out how very different the two things in question can be.

Essay 2 Comment

mike on

I think a way to improve your essay would to add reminders that this is a summary/respond for Erika Christakis’s article.
In paragraph 3, what is the main respond? Are you agreeing with her and supporting her statement? Paragraphs 4 and 5 are an example of a response is and are very well done.
I feel that Paragraph 4 can be better if a source is added to further support the argument. This is a response to where you agree with the author. I feel it could deliver a strong message.
Paragraph 5 response is well organize and thought out but how would you compare it to the article? How would you change or alter the author’s ideas to be more accurate to what you know or think?
Final paragraph could be more about summarizing the author and if her article is accurate and have a strong message. More information about the author and her writing style would be helpful. I didn’t know if the author was male or female until paragraph 3.
You could read the assignment to see what kind of responses you can make to the article. http://bccenglish11.edublogs.org/3-text-wrestling/
Important note: Need work cited page. If you do have one, that’s great but I believe it should be in the blog as well.

Essay 2: Text Wrestling

mike on

In “Broccoli’s Extreme Makeover,” Michael Moss explains the cultural viewpoint of broccoli as a food in American and how the general public is slowly moving away from buying fruits and vegetables, resulting in unhealthy eating habits. He shares his research of interviews with farmers and formed a meeting with a advertisement agency to determine how the people of society view broccoli. Although the opinions of many consumers are mostly on the negative side, Michael Moss explains his attempt to promote broccoli using creative advertisement with the agency Victor’s & Spoils.

Produce nowadays are really expensive and not as appealing as cheap frozen foods. Before reading the article, I didn’t know much about how hard farmers work in order to grow and provide stores with produce. I now understand that it’s difficult for farmers due to many issues that Moss brings up. Because of the difficulties that farmers have, produce become expensive and are difficult to lower the price value. Moss provides a lot of information about a farmer name Brain Reeves who he interviewed when he visited Reeve’s farm. One of the experience that Moss provides is when the farmer Reeves suffered heavy losses when his cucumbers were killed from a unexpected chill. A simple natural occurrence that can impact a farmer’s livelihood. It would seem Moss felt pity towards the farmer, thus a good portion of the article was about Reeve’s life as a farmer. However, I feel it was too much information and it drift away from what the main point of the article was.

Following the section about the farmer, Moss brings up a information concerning the government grants provided by the Department of Agriculture. It adds on to the issues that farmers have and that these problems can be researched if enough funds were provided. Moss states that $3.2 million is not enough research funds to support broccoli. Compared to corn, with a research funding of $121 million, $3.2 million doesn’t seem like a lot. Although Moss brings up valid points, I will have to disagree with this saying that broccoli has enough funding towards research and development. I don’t know about everyone else but $3.2 million is a lot of money.

Michael Moss shares research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that shows “As of 2010, diet surpassed smoking as the No. 1 risk factor for disease and death in America.” Moss explains, using sources from the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, that the average American are not eating the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables. The health benefits that is explain in the article shows favorable results. At first, I didn’t quite understand the benefits eating produce, but after reading this article I come to the conclusion that I need to eat more fruits and vegetables. In the source “Potential Health Benefits of Broccoli- A Chemico-Biological Overview,” the abstract explains basic health benefits that result from broccoli. This further provides me with motivation to eat more healthy. Although this is a personal agenda, not everyone will eat produce just because it’s healthy.

Moss and ad agency Victor’s & Spoils formed a meeting to see if they can promote broccoli. They used surveys to see the general public’s view on broccoli and the results shows that broccoli is a undesirable food choice due to its poor taste and texture. The group even visited a elementary school in Boulder to find out how children view broccoli. Moss explains how the children have positive views of vegetables because of a garden the school has. Although he made good points that schools can have positive influence on children, he brings up that the children’s parents don’t have the same viewpoint on vegetables and this can also influence the children in a negative way. In the article “They said I’m a square for eating them” the authors explain how parents, siblings and friends can easily influence how children view fruits and vegetables. The article also mentions that schools and homes should promote fruits and vegetables. This correlates to the garden in the school that Moss and the team visited. Moss doesn’t bring up many problems of how not many schools and parents promote their kids to eating healthy. I believe that the promotion of fruits and vegetables should be targeted at a young audience because children are more influential than adults. Catching the attention of the public can be difficult. Moss points out that many people he interviewed came to the conclusion that there has to be another way to advertise vertise broccoli instead of advertising health benefits of broccoli.. Moss wrote, “the universal response was to stop sending the message that this is something dutiful you have to do for your health and start advertising more creatively.”

Moss brings up a factor that can help support the need for healthy eating. He brings up Michelle Obama speech about produce and the marketing towards children. I felt that health benefits can still be a asset to promote broccoli, but that is only possible if the person in promoting broccoli has any power or influence. In the article “Health literacy as a public health goal: a challenge for contemporary health education and communication strategies into the 21st century,” Don Nutbeam describes the possible ways to improve healthy habits. Nutbeam does this by showing the failures of the current educational system on health care. As I stated before, promoting fruits and vegetables should be aimed towards a young audience, thus school. A way to change the way broccoli is viewed is to change the educational system. Improving the educational system can prove difficult. Only a political power can have any impact on such matters concerning education. Overall, I agree with Moss that major changes is impossible for any normal person to do, thus changing the approach on the advertisement campaign.

Michael Moss brings up many points to show how much broccoli is neglected and the difficulties to change such view points. Moss and his team from the Victor’s & Spoils agency worked together to bring about a culture change using social media. Social media has always influence children and adults alike. It is not only a very power advertisement tool, but a low costing one as well. Moss talks about some of the methods they used or plan to use. One of the slogans they used is “broccoli vs kale.” Pictures were provided with the article showing such advertisements. Many of the advertisements seem to be aimed towards 16-22 year olds. Moss doesn’t really explain the results of the advertisements but the total cost of the whole campaign would have cost $3 million to $7 million dollars. The end of the article goes on about how the campaign can be a tipping point but stops there, leaving me questioning what happens next.

Work Cited

Michael Moss. “Broccoli’s Extreme Makeover.” The New York Times Magazine, 24 Nov 2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/magazine/broccolis-extreme-makeover.html

Vasanthi, Hannah R; Mukherjee, Subhendu; Das, Dipak K. “Potential Health Benefits of Broccoli- A Chemico-Biological Overview.” Mini Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry, Volume 9, Number 6, pp.749-759, June 2009, https://doi.org/10.2174/138955709788452685

Rachel Povey, Lisa Cowap, Lucy Gratton, (2016) ““They said I’m a square for eating them”: Children’s beliefs about fruit and vegetables in England”, British Food Journal, Vol. 118 Issue: 12, pp.2949-2962, https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-03-2016-0131

Don Nutbeam. “Health literacy as a public health goal: a challenge for contemporary health education and communication strategies into the 21st century.” Health Promotion International, Volume 15, Issue 3, 1 Sept 2000, pp.259-267, https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/15.3.259