Collapse Assignment 1

One thing that I found very interesting about Easter island is how a society managed to live and thrive for a bit without any industrialization. As an American I think its rather typical for me to be surprised that a place can live without mass production and solely using their resources around them. I actually think that is a more respectable thing, the fact that they did everything themselves without the help of huge fossil fueled machinery and factories.

After reading about Easter Island I can recodnize similarities between our American civilization and that of Easter Island. The collapse of Easter Island was because of a lot of different factors such as, the way they abused their enviorment as well as political, social, and religious issues. The people on Easter Island used up a lot of unsustainable resources and gave no regard to the fact that these items may one day be unavailable. Comparing that to today, we are using up all of our resources. We are also just abusing our land with no regard to the consequences. Our mass production is based off of fossil fuels which will soon enough be gone. We are chopping down a mass amount of trees and fucking up our rain forest's causing a lot of the animals to become extinct. Animals that are crucial to our eco-system and plants and flowers that we will never see again. We used so many toxic chemicals that our O-zone layer is tearing and global warming is becoming more of an issues as each day passes. We are not only using up all of our resources but we are slowly and surely killing our own planet because of everyones carelessness.

Looking at the collapse of Easter Island and comparing it to Americas inevidable collapse shows us a deep similarity and should serve as a warning. We are going to continue to go downhill, regardless of any effort to save our society. Its sad, but we are too late.

Food Assignment #7 (REVISED)

The Recipe:

Food Network
The Elvis sandwich

2 tablespoons butter, softened
8 slices white bread
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 large, ripe banana, sliced
1/4 cup honey
12 slices bacon, Sauteed until crispy (optional)

Spread the butter on 1 side of each slice of bread. On the other side of half of the slices spread peanut butter. Place banana slices on top of peanut butter. Drizzle honey over bananas. Place 3 bacon slices on top of the banana, then place the remaining buttered bread slices on top, butter-side-out.
Place sandwiches on a preheated grill pan or griddle. Flip them over when they become golden brown and crispy. When the sandwiches are browned on both sides, remove to plates. Slice in half and serve immediately.

Responses: I made this one night a couple of hours after dinner and I was actually really excited about it. I had never had one before and I saw the recipe a couple of years ago on the food network. Making it was one of the most simple things I have ever cooked and the outcome was AMAZING. My mother walked in while I was frying the bacon and saw the ingredients and asked what I was making. When I said an Elvis sandwich she looked at me like I was crazy, knowing what it was. She then continued to ask me if I was pregnant, because only a pregnant women would crave such random things in a sandwich to which I answered a resounding NO!
Knowing my stepsister Jamie loved Elvis I called her over and invited her over for a surprise. When I showed her my finished product and told her the name she was extremely excited and rather puzzled as to how I came across this. We sat in my room and talked and ate these sandwiches which really hit the spot that night. She thought it was a really great snack, and thanked me for calling her over. I would recommend this to anyone who likes all of the ingredients in this sandwich! and even though it may sound crazy to combine them all, the outcome is simply pleasing!

Food Assignment #8 Industrial food

When looking for information on industrial food I came across a very interesting definition of how industrial food operations work. The definition is as follows: "Industrial operations strive to increase production and maximize profit. These farms can cause much harm to the environment; depend heavily on petroleum and other fossil fuels; typically warrant the use of antibiotics, hormones and chemicals; and typically rely on a lean work force." By reading this it just furthers the argument that America will do anything to get more money and to sell more products. Even if that includes enslaving a race and forcing them to work on farms for little to no money to maximize profit. Or in this case manipulating our food supply by adding unhealthy chemicals to our animals or raping our land.

Watching the video on animal cruelty was just crazy to watch. I would have never guessed that the animals we eat are treated in that way. Its hypocritical of those who say they care so much about our food and want it to be only Grade A quality meat, but we don't feed these animals the way they should properly be eating and they are abused before they are killed. It makes me think how much people actually care about what they eat. And personally I feel bad watching that video but I wish I was still ignorant because I am still going to eat industrialzed foods. Our society has wrapped our entire culture around increasing production and maximizing profit that a lot of americans don't give a shit about good values like not abusing animals, etc.