So, my group's collaborative research project is up and posted to our googlesite, and the link is https://sites.google.com/site/sellingthenarrative/home. I was up last night until 12am linking everything from page to page and site to site, but it was worth it. As I looked over it today, I was proud, and that is an accomplishment in and of itself. One thing that I mentioned in part of my afterward on the site, is that I was glad I learned how to convert files and things for youtube because it was going to help me with finishing my twitterive. Of course when I go to use said skills tonight, they all of a sudden didn't work. I am frustrated to say the least. The audio files/ youtube videos are the missing piece to twitterive, and I just want them up! I'm going to keep trying. Currently, I am receiving help from a professor and another student at Rowan. I am praying that something will work. I guess I am just venting in this blog. I was very proud of my technological accomplishments a mere 14 hours ago, and now I feel like they suddenly fled me. Hoping to get a boost of confidence soon.
So my group decided to use google.docs to publish our website instead of a new weebly. It was hard for me to figure out at first, but then I got the hang of it. The site is not set to public yet, but when it is I will post the link in a blog and/or tweet (@linzz88).
In other research updates, I went to Trader Joe's yesterday to find some meat companies that I could include as suggestions for my part of project. I found a couple decent options, and I even got to talk with one of the friendly employees about their farms. I asked them about their name-brand, and he actually told me that he can't say what major company they are affiliated with. He said, "TJ's is pretty closed-lip about their farms." I didn't push him to tell me more, but he was able to tell me that most of their meats come from local farms in Pennsylvania, and their organic yogurt is produced by a major name brand company. My husband seemed to think it was WaWa farms, but that was just a guess. I think it may be Yoplait or something of the sort. Overall, I'm glad I made the trip out there. I always forget how great that store is.
This Friday, April 22, my group also has an interview the Natural Health food store in Blackwood. We will either be interviewing the owner or another regular staff member, so our questions may vary a little. Our interview questions thus far are:
1 .) How long has the store been here? 2.) Why did you want to start/start working at a store like this? 3.) What kinds of things did you eat growing up? 4.) Has your food lifestyle and choices changed drastically from working/starting this store? 5.) How well does your family eat? 6.) What is your favorite product the store sells? 7.) What is your favorite company that the store carries? 8.) What makes the store carry one brand over another? 9.) What are some top sellers in the store? 10.) How has business been over the years? 11.) Right now in the struggling economy? 12.) Do you think the store will ever expand with another location? 13.) What is some advice you can offer new consumers of all natural and organic foods?
In putting together my project, I also found this interesting video.
I can't wait to see how everything comes together in a few days!
One of my group members suggested an article to me for my part of the project. It was from NPR news and can be found HERE. In it, the author talks about strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria that has been found in America's meat. In a random meat sampling, over 47% had traces of staphylococcus aureus. Basically, the strains they found would be very hard to get rid of if a person contracted it.There are more than 30 different strains of staph, and they cause "staph infections in people, including skin infections and food poisoning, according to the National Institutes of Health." These bacteria have been exposed to so much antibiotics while they were in the animal, that they have built up immunities to our antibiotics. This was an interesting article for me to read because a couple months ago one of my friends was in the hospital with a really bad staph infection. He was a young man, and very healthy, yet he still contracted a pretty bad staph infection on his leg. He visited the hospital numerous times, and they had to try a plethora of antibiotics on him until they found one that could clear up the infection. He wound up being alright, but it was a pretty intense battle. I wonder now, after reading this article, if it had anything to do with some meat he ate. Scary.
So since narrowing our research topic, my group is researching the "narratives" behind certain food companies and how they use pictures and words like "whole grain" and "natural" to appear to more health-conscious customers. I am focusing my part on the Perdue chicken company.
Evidence Piece #1:
On the bottom left corner, there is a farm blatantly pictured. Looking at this, customers are immediately thinking about the countryside. Perhaps they grew up on a farm, where their father or grandfather raised and grew meat and produce more "naturally" and honestly. Unfortunately, that is not the case today. Yet companies are still advertising like this, because it is still appealing to the customer. They want that home-grown feel, even though it doesn't exist in companies like this anymore.
Evidence Piece #2:
In my group's interview piece, our interviewee, Jackie, talked about buying hormone free Perdue chicken. Though this is clearly a good option, as opposed to hormone injected chickens, I decided to look into it further. I am a skeptic, and I had a feeling I would find out more than I wanted to. I stumbled up a blog post from Organic Fanatic from 2007. In it, they advocate and support that Perdue does not inject antibiotics or hormones in their chickens for the purpose of growing the chicken quicker or larger. The blog claimed that although Perdue's chicken was not "organic", it was still a good option for those who could not afford "organic". Upon further reading of the comments on this post, I found one particularly interesting:
Fayna said... Perdue chickens are actually fed the antibiotic Bacitracin (also a growth drug).
"What about chickens labeled ''no growth hormones used''? That is just stating the obvious. Although the Agriculture Department has approved the use of growth hormones in beef, it has not sanctioned their use in veal, pork or poultry. But drugs, as opposed to hormones, are another matter. Bacitracin, an antibiotic that is also a growth drug, is part of the feed of many young chickens, including those of Perdue and Bell & Evans. The Agriculture Department, while acknowledging that bacitracin can be a growth drug, characterizes it as an antibiotic, which processors contend are necessary to eliminate disease."
Though the article Fayna references was from 1996, I still think the claim is true. It is from a reliable source (The NY Times), and Perdue's current Q&A section of their website is still a little, shall we say "iffy", with the information about antibiotics given to their chickens. They claim that they while they do not inject hormones or steriods, they still administer some antibiotics for use of basically protecting and prolonging the chickens' health. They do not say exactly what antibiotics they use, which makes me believe that they probably do use bacitracin. As explained in the comment and linked article above, a side-effect of that antibiotic is accelerated growth.
This past Wednesday, my group completed our first oral history interview. We actually wound up interviewing my sister-in-law to get a consumer's stance on advertising and organic food. She was a good choice because she talked about the expense of eating organically, and of course the benefits. She is a mother of three, so she talked about how important it was for the baby to at least eat organic for the whole first year. She thinks that a good foundation establishes healthy habits and immunities. When my sister-in-law was younger, her father and grandfather actually raised chickens, so she was able to give us some insight on the meat side of things too. Towards the end of the interview, she gives valuable advice to people who are just starting to eat organically. I don't want to tell you yet, because I want you to listen to the interview when it is up in a couple of days (that's my teaser).
In other oral history updates, Dawn Roy interviewed her boyfriend about his eating habits because of the recent changes he made. His interview provides us with good consumer comparisons. Check our sites for that too later.
In further oral history news, I am stopping at Natural Health in Blackwood, NJ tomorrow before I come to class. This story has been around for a long time, and for the size of it, it carries a great selection of organic products. I am going to ask the manager if she would be willing to do an interview with us. My father did some wiring at her store a few years back, so I am hoping that connection will maker her feel comfortable enough to help us. Plus, it's practically a free advertisement for them!
So in the process of trying to find information about our topic that didn't completely fly over my head, I found this article. I really enjoyed reading it because it was simply written, and it still provided meaningful, seemingly researched information. It also was relatively recent---from 2005, so that was encouraging. One thing I found especially interesting was that the claim on labels that say "natural" or "all natural" have no real legal standard. So when you see crackers and cookies with this claim, read the ingredients. These claims are really only legitimate when it comes to meat, and even then they are not strictly regulated (see article). In addition, when meat claims that it is "natural", that does not mean that it is antibiotic free. Consumers have to look for that specification separately if it is important to them. Another issue that stood out to me was the caution toward buying "free range" eggs. The author pointed out that this could simply mean that the chickens had about 5 minutes a day to go outside, or maybe just the option to with a door somewhere in the coop. A lot of companies that claim this for their chickens, are really no different from the horrible conditions depicted in Food Inc. The author suggests looking for phrases like "pasture-fed". Other good phrases to look out for include the following:
"100% Organic"
"Organic"
"Made with Organic Ingredients"
"Free Farmed" poultry, beef and pork
"Food Alliance" beef and pork
"Pasture-fed" or "Grass-fed" beef, lamb, and eggs
rBGH free
I really enjoyed this reading, and I think the breakdown of catch-phrases will give my group a good frame of reference for our research. Group members: Dawn Roy, Megan Norris
Update on Research Project: So after a little finagling, we set up our first interview for this Wednesday night. We are actually conducting the interview with my sister-in-law. She is a mother of three, and she is very into the "organic" lifestyle. As stated in the previous post, we will be focusing on how advertising affects how customers purchase, with a focus on advertising for organic food. We have questions about her general grocery shopping, some questions about what she purchases at local produce places, and some personal questions. Below, are some of the questions from each category. I didn't want to post them all because I want you guys to find out everything when we present : ) Enjoy the process thus far! General Shopping Do you ever find yourself being attracted to a certain food display or commercial? Remember any 0ffhand? Did you wind up buying the product? Where do you normally frequent? Where have you shopped in the past? What makes you start going somewhere, then stop, etc? Produce Do you shop any local farm markets? Where? How often? What kind of produce do you buy there? Is it cheaper than your normal year-round grocer? Would you say you buy more produce at farmer’s markets or your regular grocer? Personal I know your dad raised chickens when you were growing up. Did he ever explain why he did that? Do you notice a difference in the quality of an egg that comes from your dad’s chickens as compared to regular eggs in a supermarket? Did your parents having any “food” traditions that they passed down to you? i.e. --making your own food, growing your own food, or other “natural, home grown” things?
So this is a little of what we have for Wednesday. I am sure things will change, but I think we have a good start thus far. Group Members: Dawn Roy, Megan Norris, Linsey Seifert
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)
The following are questions posed for a research project with 2 of my peers, Megan Norris and Dawn Roy. Some of these questions are from their pages as well.
1.) What are the main companies in charge of school lunches in Southern New Jersey?
2.) How are we socialized to eat?
3.) What impact does the way developed countries consume food have on the world hunger crisis?
4.) What exactly is seed saving and why and when was it made illegal?
5.) How many companies is Monsanto actually affiliated with? Does it go by any other pseudo-names?
6.) What is the projected national cost of health care for obese patients come 2020?
7.) How drastically has the Farm bill impacted local farmers?
8.) How has the antibiotics used in meat affected the growth and development of children?
9.) With the current trend in "all natural" foods, how much is actually false advertising? Have any companies been sued for false advertising of their product?
10.) What is the current presidential cabinet doing
"I would be an audience before whom she could make an honest analysis of her life" (pg. 31, "Like It Was")
I think that initial quote pretty much sums up the importance of an oral history interview. As in interviewer, I must make sure whoever I interview is comfortable and knows that I will not be judging them about what they say. The interviewee should be encouraged to be open and honest about their experience and their personal reaction to it. This also leads to another point made in the chapter about avoiding "leading questions". Interviewers should have questions prepared, but they should not be "assuming" questions that would make the interviewee afraid to disagree with the interviewee. At all times, the interviewee should feel comfortable expressing their deepest feelings about whatever topic they are speaking on. So far after watching a little of FoodInc., I think I want to do something with school lunches, but that will all depend on my group and such. Yet if I do get to explore this topic, I would like to interview a child, a adult (perhaps a parent), and maybe a lunch aide/server. In doing this, I have to be sure not to push my thoughts and opinions on them (frankly, I am disgusted with the food that is served to our kids now at school). I want their true, untainted opinions about the issue. I know this will be hard for me, but I will try my best. I also think that this part could turn out more like a feature story like the chapter reading suggested. Because I will be collecting histories from different perspectives, my part may be more topic-driven, yet I will be sure to follow the same rules/suggestions and make sure my interview stays like a monologue, not a dialogue. The whole point of an oral history is to get the interviewee to talk as much as possible about the topic at hand. The interviewer needs to be sure not to talk to much, as this will delude the perspective and thoughts of the interviewee. After reading this, I am actually really excited about starting my research/oral history project. I think it will be really fun and enlightening. I have never really done anything like this, and I can't wait to start.
RSS Feed