Article Summary

What Other Americans Can and Cannot Learn from Native American Environmental Ethics

            This article introduces the idea that Americans are dealing with a moral crisis related to spirituality and the environment. It then discusses the idea of looking back at the ways of the Native Americans in order to solve the crisis. There is a good chance that a lot could be taken away from studying Native spirituality, morals and ways of life. These studies could then be easily applied to and improve Americas’ current culture. The article tells two sides to the argument. The first side is that we can in fact learn from the natives, but the second side is that the natives’ culture can’t easily be applied to ours. Natives may not have intentionally been environmentalists and in some cases they may have been harmful to the environment just as Americans are today. The article discuses these opposing views in order to show that no matter how much we criticize, there are still many things we as Americans can learn from the Natives.

            This article is relevant to my paper because it helped me define my focus. I want to discuss what can be learned from Native Americans to improve our environmental crisis today. After reading this article I decided that I want to take the same approach of telling the two sides of the issue in order to create a compromise or prove my side more worthy. 

Food Inc. Rogerian Argument

The film Food Inc. is very well made and informative. It tells about very important issues in the food industry and exposes people that have caused the problem in the industry. Drama and emotions play a big role in the film, but the context of the terrible thins the food industry is doing, the drama is appropriate. The film is very effective in making people want to take action, which is important. One thing that could have been better though was if Food Inc. described exactly how consumers can make a difference. It is hard for some under privileged families to shop well even if they wanted to so what can they do?

Food Inc. is a very bias film that tells the sob story of one side of an unimportant issue. The film is just trying to scare consumers into believing that the food industry is a terrible and corrupt thing. Really though, the consumers are the problem because the companies just try to produce a lot of what is needed in the easiest way possible. Food Inc. also tries to use sob stories, but in reality it is a very small fraction of people who are affected with diseases such as e coli, so it is really nothing to worry about. All this film is good for is getting people worked up and worried about issues that aren't very important and that will be taken care of by the companies. Also if there are people struggling to get what they need or want that is there own fault and if they live right they will be able to work themselves up in the world.

Food Inc. is bias and skewed towards one perspective, but it is informative about that perspective. Both sides are important so it would be better if they were shown, but what is show is better than nothing. Unfortunately the film is over dramatic, which makes people want to take action, but their actions may be too strong. It is important to take action in order to create change, but Food Inc. works people up an unnecessary amount. The viewers may just become agitated and stressed over the issues which only hurts them more. 

The Truth About What You Eat

If anyone wants the outright ugly truth about something very important to their life then watch the Documentary Food Inc. If I had the choice I may not go on eating after watching this film. This is the second time I have seen Food Inc. and both times it has made me immensely grateful that I was raised as and remain to this day a vegetarian. There are two main reasons for my choice of being a  vegetarian: the first is that I can't even imagine the idea of eating a dead animal and the second is that the meat production industry disturbs and terrifies me. This second issue is exactly what Food Inc. discusses and exposes in detail, but as disturbing as it was, I already knew about the terrors of the meat industry, so it was not very shocking. For me, the most shocking truth told in the film was about other foods such as corn and soy beans.

As a vegetarian, soy is a much bigger part of my diet and I have always seen it as a healthy and reasonable protein source. Food Inc. exposes though, that there is a type of genetically modifies soy bean that isn't effected by round up and that this is now almost the only soy bean available. One company owns all of the seeds for this soy bean and no farmer is aloud to keep their own seeds. I find it completely insane that one company can own all of the rights to such a large production. It is also the same with meat, there are just about four leading companies that control it all. 

As terrifying as this all is though, there are things that can be done and the film gives the viewer hope. The truth that most consumers don't understand is that they have all the control over what companies produce. Each purchase a person makes in the store is a vote for that product and that leaves many choices and opportunity for change. We can blame the corporations all we want, but no change will come unless each person puts in some effort.