Classport

Avalon Park ^^^

My neighborhood ^^^

Observation: Since Avalon is a brand new neighborhood, there were many houses for sale. Every single house matched the beautiful landscape, and though most were uniform in size, some varied in structure slightly. The streets were rather narrow; only two cars could pass by comfortably, and with the driveways of the houses barely able to fit one car, there was an obstacle course of parallel parking that needed to be navigated. The schools seemed to be extremely nice; outdoor pavilions and basketball courts lined the outside, and the building themselves were small, but tall, still trying to conserve land space. Inside the house we observed, which was a 5 bed and 4 bath, I found everything to be...organized. The layout of the house was carefully planned; looking back on my images of the house now I realize that every room had an adequate amount of items in it, like the economy of a story. I laughed when I saw that every book on the bookshelves were classical in origin, leather-bound with fine gold print on the spine. My only question was why the houses were spaced so close together; there was literally less than 5 feet of space between the houses.

Speculation: The main reason I think Avalon is where it is, and not someplace else, is 408. It is near this major highway, allowing all residents relatively easy access to the interconnected system of highways that allows them to travel anywhere. There are many grocery stores and services offered nearby; Avalon really is in the center of a business area.

Analysis: Our interviewee was rather...careful about her answers, avoiding seemingly harmless questions like "What is the main ethnicity of the residents here?" or "And the main religion?". It is understandable that she can't legally answer these questions, but she was a little rude about the entire experience. Otherwise, she acted like she was trying to sell us the house, playing up every aspect of the neighborhood, providing us with a biased answer. It would have been nice to receive an impartial answer to allow us to more accurately depict the neighborhood we studied.

Evaluation: My basic evaluation is that: Avalon was placed where it is because of its location. It is placed in the center of things. There are elementary, middle, and high schools within walking distance, grocery stores and other services down the street, shopping malls within biking distance, and 408 conveniently located nearby. It is the perfect place for a neighborhood because it mitigates the gas costs of traveling by being as close to everything as possible.

Compare and Contrast: The main difference between my neighborhood is the lack of a homeowner's association. The houses in my neighborhood are not uniform in any way; possibly 15% of the lawns are perfectly manicured. The styles differ greatly between the houses, but it generates more of a diverse feeling, rather than what I find to be a constricting housing code. My neighborhood is minuscule compared to the vastness of Avalon park, while we may have 30-35 houses, they get that many houses built each month. However, each of our 30 houses has about an acre of land, providing ample space for a birthday bonfire or a touch-football game. Land in Avalon park costs so much that they must make due with less than 6 ft. of space between houses. Both of the neighborhoods were predominantly white, as far as I have observed in my neighborhood, but the income levels were rather different (I won't elaborate on who has more or less).

To Mr. Rodriguez: I'm not really sure what happened when I tried to post, something went wrong with my Internet around that point. It may have been that my Dad accidentally cut our cable while planting a garden, I'm not entirely sure. But here it is. I expect my grade to drop dramatically tomorrow, but when this is graded, hopefully it'll go back up. Thanks.

Fast Food Nation Chapter 10: Global Realization

1.Why did the author visit Plauen, Germany?

-According to him, "Plauen has been on the margins of history, far removed from the centers of power...the events have have oddly foreshadowed the rise and fall of great social movements". "...the first McDonald's in East Germany [will] occupy an abandoned lot in the center of Plauen...the first new building...since the coming of a new Germany." The author knows that Plauen foreshadowed the globalization of McDonald's and its far reaching chains. Plauen, in East Germany, having a McDonald's? Surely a sign of a global era in which fast food, a commodity before seen just in American society, is now being ushered in.

2. In a discussion of fast food corporations why is it important to talk about their overseas operations?

-Fast food corporations are now global; their reach and influence affect countries around the world. McDonald's, for example, opens "five new restaurants every day, and at least four of them are overseas". Since the U.S.A. occupies only half a continent, the rest of the world contributes greatly to McDonald's profits. The effects this American culture trait have on the communities there are inserted into are diverse and important to study. Fast food corporations can study use the effects of McDonald's on certain areas, like in India, where Hinduism limits McDonald's menu, to better understand how to monopolize the market.

Fast Food Nation Chapter 1: The Founding Fathers

1. What restaurant chain did Carl Karcher start?

-Carl Karcher started the Carl Jr.'s restaurant chain.

2. What was the "Speedee Service System" and how was it different from what other fast food restaurants were doing?

-The Speedee Service System incorporated production techniques originally seen in factories into the restaurant kitchens. The McDonald brothers liquidated all of their workers and completely changed their system. They separated every single task that needed to be completed during the production of a hamburger (now their only item, another part of the system) such as the cooking, the buns, the ketchup, etc. The simplified each job so that it could be performed by an untrained worker. This regulated employee costs and allowed them to advertise employment to a new demographic: teenagers. Unskilled, unemployed, looking to make some extra money. Other restaurants still had a wide variety of choices on their menus and chefs making each order. These highly trained chefs were difficult to replace, and the wide variety of food took more time to make, essentially costing these companies money.

Fast Food Nation Chapter 9: What's in the Meat

1. What kind of meat is selected for consumption in public schools?

-The USDA selects the cheapest ground beef available for public school consumption. This kind of meat is the mostly likely to be produced in factories where cleanliness and sanitation are foreign words and harmful bacteria, like E. coli 0157:H7 are in abundance. I understand the pecuniary logistics behind buying cheap meat, but it still strikes me as inhumane that the USDA would subject the nation's youth to such a dangerous threat.

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of irradiating meat?

- Irradiating meat involves blasting the carcass with gamma radiation, disrupting the DNA of viruses like E. coli and preventing them from reproducing. It virtually stops a virus in its tracks. However, the maintenance of these machines would be handled by illiterate, non-English speaking peoples, making it quite dangerous.

Fast Food Nation Chapter 8: The Most Dangerous Job

1. How does the injury rate in meat packing compare with the injury rate in other occupations?

-The injury rate in modern slaughterhouses is three times higher than that of the average American factory. That number may not be entirely accurate either; thousands of less noticeable, but just as debilitating, injuries go unreported. Its astounding that unlike every other occupation that has developed over the past few hundred years, this job's safety level has deteriorated. With the increase in production and line speeds, injuries have become far more common than every before in the meat packing industry.

2. What kinds of injuries do workers in meatpacking plants typically suffer?

-Lacerations, tendinitis, back and shoulder problems, carpal tunnel syndrome, and "trigger finger", along with pinched nerves, herniated disks, fractured or broken bones, injuries requiring amputations, and torn muscles are just a few of the many injuries that can be accumulated while working in the slaughterhouses.

3. Why don't more workers complain about safety conditions in the plants?

-They know that the managers of the plants get bonuses based on injury reports. The more injuries reported, the smaller the bonus given to the plant manager. So, plant managers make life very hard for employees who come forward about injuries that are not visible, like pinched nerves or fractured disks. They make examples out of honest employees and encourage injured employees to not report it.

Fast Food Nation Chapter 7: Cogs In The Great Machine

1.Why were newer meat packing plants located in rural areas rather than in cities?

-Meat packing plants are "put..close to feedlots--and far way from the urban strongholds of nation's labor unions". This kept the labor unions from investigating the brutal conditions of the meat packing plant as easily, and also allowed them to use trucks, instead of railroads, for transporting the meat.

2. How do wages in meat packing plants today compare with wages in the early 1900s, after the workers became unionized?

-Meatpacking butchers in the early 1900s organized many unions, hoping to improve the wages of this dangerous job. After World War 2, their wages improved tremendously, "exceeding the national average for workers in manufacturing". After Iowa Beef Packers, IBP, opened their meat packing industry, incorporating the McDonald's Speedee Service System into the meat packing industry, these wages were cut again. They de-skilled every job required by butchers, allowing them to employ immigrants who took much lower wages. It's still a high paying job, with above average income, but its still very dangerous.

3. What is the impact on small communities of having a meat packing firm?

-When IBP opened a new slaughterhouse in Lexington, Nebraska, in 1990, the effect was astounding. The crime rate soared, the town became a major distribution center for drugs, gangs ran rampant, and the whites of the town left, leaving the Hispanic population to become the majority. The slaughterhouse brought in many illegal immigrants, and many of the problems faced by towns harboring illegal aliens, with it.

Fast Food Nation Chapter 6: On the Range

1. How does the nutritional value of a McNugget compare with that of a hamburger?

- McNuggets, now made with "100% percent white meat", are now a integral part of the American

diet. McDonald's may advertise them as the healthiest part of the menu, but in reality, they are just

as disastrously unhealthy as the rest of the choices. Researchers found that their "fatty acid

profile" resembled beef, rather than poultry. They contain two times as much fat per ounce than

the regular McDonald's hamburger. They now incorporate beef tallow into their vegetable oil to

retain that familiar taste that America's youth knows and loves.

2. How does the suicide rate for ranchers and farmers compare with the rate for U.S. citizens in general?

- The rate of suicide for farmers and ranchers is about three times higher than that of regular U.S. citizens. Ranchers' ways of life have been destroyed with the homogenization of the cattle, pork, and poultry market, and therefore, the death toll has been steadily mounting in rural areas. This issue, like many of the problems resulting from fast food, has been almost completely ignored since the farm crisis of 1980.

3. What are "captive supplies" of cattle?

- Captive supplies are products that are supplies (surprisingly) not actually owned by a company but used by companies at the expense of those who actually own the supplies. Usually, the market for captive supplies, such as cattle, are controlled by several large corporations. In the case of cattle, ConAgra, IBP, Excel, and National Beef. These companies usually illegally collude and dominate the market together, as shown by the case of the Beef Trust of the early 1900s. Now, laws have been passed to make sure that the beef market is not monopolized like it was before, but this hardly stopping the companies. Cattle are owned by independent ranchers, who get paid by companies to raise them and prepare them for the slaughterhouse. Since beef consumption has declined in recent years, farmers have taken the advice of agribusinesses and given their cattle growth hormones. According to some ranchers, captive supplies of cattle are used to control the cattle market, and not improve slaughterhouse efficiency, as stated by the four major beef companies.

Fast Food Nation Chapter 5: Why the Fries Taste Good

1. Who is J.R. Simplot? What connection does J. R. Simplot have to the fast food industry?

J.R. Simplot, born 1909, was a self made entrepreneur who began to sell potatoes in Idaho in the early 1920s. As an eighth-grade dropout, he used his wits to turn a profit in several business transactions, thus allowing him to start his potato business. By the 1940s, "Simplot was the largest shipper of potatoes in the West, operating thirty-three warehouses in Oregon and Idaho". After World War II, Simplot began to experiment with frozen french fries, convinced that they would be the food of the future. In 1965, Simplot met with Ray Kroc, McDonald's chief executive of sales, to discuss his idea. They partnered, opened a warehouse used solely for the production of McDonald's frozen french fries, and by 1966, McDonald's began to sell J.R. Simplot Company fries. J.R. Simplot's fries turned an enormous profit for McDonald's and therefore helped them advance as a business, from 725 restaurants to 3000. He accelerated the growth of other fast food companies and contributed greatly to the industry as a whole.

2. What is the "fallacy of composition"?

"Fallacy of composition is a logical error- a mistaken belief that what seems good for an individual will still be good when others do the same thing". So, in Idaho, this directly relates to potato farmers. There are only a few multinational cooperations that handle potato production in the U.S. So, many potato farmers belong to the same company and earn their wages through that same company. The U.S. agriculture business employs specialized crops, advanced technologies, and an array of pesticides that makes our farmers the most profitable in the world. The only problem is, with more farmers adopting this lifestyle, many more "driven off the land". So, what is good for one person is not necessarily good for another whatsoever.

3. What are some of the similarities and some of the differences between "artificial flavors" and "natural flavors"? Where is the "flavor industry" located?

The only difference between natural and artificial flavors is the extraction process. Artificial flavors are made in a laboratory by mixing certain chemicals to get the desired smell. One might mix thousands of chemicals together in minute amounts to get the flavor of a marshmallow. Natural flavors, on the other hand, are directly obtained from the source. Amyl acetate, a banana flavoring is natural when you get it by distilling a banana in a solvent, but artificial when you get it by mixing vinegar with amyl alcohol. The flavor industry is mostly concentrated onto the New Jersey turnpike, where 2/3 of the United State's flavors are produced. Companies from around the world are based there.

Fast Food Nation, Introduction

How does the amount spent on fast food compare with the amount spent on other things in our society?

- Americans spent 6 billion on fast food in 1970. We spent 110 million on fast food in 2001. And now, we spent 145 million on fast food in 2009. This is more than we spend on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music combined, according to Eric Schlosser. This spending facilitates an incredible socio-economic trend that will inevitably take over the American life. If we spend more on fast food than higher education, technology, or cars, our already-failing industries will be run to the ground by the monopolization of our market through fast food.

Why is fast food worth studying?

- As I stated before, the socio-economic trend erupting from the impact of fast food on the American market is staggering. Fast food, with its massive resources, has seeped into every aspect of our lives, attempting to influence us from the day we're born to the day we die. It has become a fixated part of our lifestyles. Never before has food undergone such massive commodification, throughout history, and the impact on our entire culture is impressive. Therefore, studying the monopolizing commodity may help us understand our culture system. Fast food is the most noted part of our culture that we didn't steal from another culture, like many of our so-called "American cultural traits" such as football. It may help us predict the future of our economy and better prepare for it.

According to the author, why did he write this book?

- He wrote this book, because, " out of a belief that people should know what lies behind the happy, shiny surface or every fast food transaction." He did not write it to try and ruin the fast food industry, or endorse it, he simply wrote it to inform of the truths behind the industry. Fast food is such a broad, fascinating subject, and in reality, all we see, as consumers, masks the truth of the inner machinations of these titans of fast food. Where does the meat really come from? Why does it taste so good? And why is the marketing so effective? Eric poses and answers each of these questions, and more, to inform the American public of the fast food industry.