After discussing with my group members today, Megan Norris and Dawn Roy, we narrowed down our research topic/main question to something like the questions that follow:
With the growing trend to eat healthy and "all natural", how much of the food labeling is actually accurate? What kind of tricks do they use? How do advertisers manipulate words to trick the average consumer? How often do consumers fall for these schemes? Has that affected obesity rates?
Hopefully, with these questions, we can narrower our focus over the next week or so, but I think we have pretty decent start. In addition the article by Wendell Berry, The Pleasures of Eating, he also questioned just how much the food industry hides from consumers--
"How fresh is it? How pure or clean is it, how free of dangerous chemicals? How far was it transported, and what did transportation add to the cost? How much did manufacturing or packaging or advertising add to the cost? When the food product has been manufactured or "processed" or "precooked," how has that affected its quality or price or nutritional value?"
These are all great questions, and they are similar to ones found in the documentary, Food Inc. Often people think they are eating well, grabbing fruit, veggies, and lean chicken at the grocery store. Little do they know that they are serving themselves and their families chemicals and pesticides that could wind up hurting the body down the road. Unfortunately as Wendell and the makers of Food Inc. pointed out, "Food is produced by any means or any shortcuts that will increase profits." Manufacturers don't care how it will affect consumers in 10 years, they care about 10 cents more they get to keep because of lowered production costs. It truly is an upsetting epidemic, and we all fall victim to it at some point or another.
With this in mind, my partners and I are looking at the mentioned Wendell article and the the following articles to aid our research at this time (these 4 articles found by Megan Norris)
1.) supermarket_semantics_the_rhetoric_of_food_labeling_and_advertising
2.) the_relationship_between_television_viewing_and_obesity_in_young_children
3.) consumer_perceptions_of_health_claims_in_advertisements_and_food_labels
4.) big_macs_for_big_grades
With the growing trend to eat healthy and "all natural", how much of the food labeling is actually accurate? What kind of tricks do they use? How do advertisers manipulate words to trick the average consumer? How often do consumers fall for these schemes? Has that affected obesity rates?
Hopefully, with these questions, we can narrower our focus over the next week or so, but I think we have pretty decent start. In addition the article by Wendell Berry, The Pleasures of Eating, he also questioned just how much the food industry hides from consumers--
"How fresh is it? How pure or clean is it, how free of dangerous chemicals? How far was it transported, and what did transportation add to the cost? How much did manufacturing or packaging or advertising add to the cost? When the food product has been manufactured or "processed" or "precooked," how has that affected its quality or price or nutritional value?"
These are all great questions, and they are similar to ones found in the documentary, Food Inc. Often people think they are eating well, grabbing fruit, veggies, and lean chicken at the grocery store. Little do they know that they are serving themselves and their families chemicals and pesticides that could wind up hurting the body down the road. Unfortunately as Wendell and the makers of Food Inc. pointed out, "Food is produced by any means or any shortcuts that will increase profits." Manufacturers don't care how it will affect consumers in 10 years, they care about 10 cents more they get to keep because of lowered production costs. It truly is an upsetting epidemic, and we all fall victim to it at some point or another.
With this in mind, my partners and I are looking at the mentioned Wendell article and the the following articles to aid our research at this time (these 4 articles found by Megan Norris)
1.) supermarket_semantics_the_rhetoric_of_food_labeling_and_advertising
2.) the_relationship_between_television_viewing_and_obesity_in_young_children
3.) consumer_perceptions_of_health_claims_in_advertisements_and_food_labels
4.) big_macs_for_big_grades
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