Monday, October 24, 2016

For Food Day, a guide to entries with answers to 'Food, Inc.'


A Happy Food Day to my readers!  To celebrate the occasion, which is also my wedding anniversary, I revisit my motivation for writing Cracked on the Food Pyramid--"I'm showing Food, Inc. to my students this week."  I continued by writing "I'll have more to say about the movie on Monday," which elicited the following comment from Infidel753.
I'll be looking forward to that. It figures the official recommendations about food would reflect lobbying and food-industry profits more than actual nutrition.
My response was brief.
Thanks for your anticipation. It means I'll be sure to have something interesting to say. And, yes, it figures.
Before I try to fulfill that promise, I'm listing what I've already covered about the movie to produce a guide to entries with answers, much as I've done for "The End of Suburbia" and "An Inconvenient Truth."  That may not be an interesting thing to do for Infidel753, but it will certainly be helpful to my students.
It looks like I have more answers available to my students on my blog than I thought!  Even so, there is still room for one more answer today.


2. For which agricultural products is McDonalds the largest or one of the largest customers?  List at least five.

The slide above listed four.  CBC has a more complete list in How McDonald's has shaped the food biz.
With 36,000 restaurants in 119 countries serving 69 million customers a day, it's an accepted fact that McDonald's holds enormous sway over consumers' eating habits, food production and prices.

McDonald's is now the biggest purchaser in the world of beef, pork, potatoes, lettuce and tomatoes, and the second-biggest buyer of chicken, after KFC.

When it decided to add apple slices to Happy Meals a few years ago, the company quickly became the biggest buyer of the shiny red fruit in the United States.

Analysts expect the chain to soon become a power in kale as well, if its tests with the leafy vegetable – reportedly under way in Canada – are successful.

Indeed, every tweak to its menu has a butterfly effect, sending ripples that reverberate all the way to the dinner table, from the price of your meal to how it gets to your plate.
When my students ask about how McDonalds became a major purchaser of apples, I usually cite their apple pies.  Now I'll be sure to add apple slices in Happy Meals to the explanation.  Welcome to blogging as professional development!

18 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have entries about Bitcoin. This wasn't one of them. Deleted.

      Delete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HAHAHAHAHA! The irony of this being a comment to this entry is too delicious for me to delete it. Lucky you!

      Delete
    2. It's not worth the laugh anymore. Deleted.

      Delete
  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's "prize," spammer, not "price." Just the same, your spam is on topic, so it stays.

      Delete
    2. Since my students are likely to see this, I'm canning this spam. I'm not going to give you a captive audience.

      Delete
  5. I've added a new entry to add to the list in this post: Joel Salatin from 'Food, Inc.' for Food Day. It has answers for questions 19, 20, 21, and 24.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've added two more entries about "Food, Inc." during the past two years, The revolving door between Monsanto and government for Food Day 2018 and Diabetes and the dollar menu from 'Food, Inc.' for Food Day. The first has answers for 26 and 27 while the second has answers for 17 and 18.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I answer Question 3 "In 1970, how much of the beef market was controlled by the top beef packers? In 2010?" in Vox explains how 4 companies control the beef industry for a late National Food Day.

      Delete
    2. I've added three more entries answering questions and prompts from this worksheet over the past two years. I answered questions 21 (again) and 22 in Vox explains 'The chicken industry’s worker safety problem' for Food Day 2022. I answered questions 12-15 in 'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver' on food safety for World Food Day, 14 and 15 for the first time. I answered 12 and 13 again in Vox examines hog farming's poop problem for National Food Day along with providing examples of Commoner's Laws, everything must go somewhere, everything is connected to everything else, there is no free lunch, and nature knows best.

      Delete