I have finally landed on a topic for my junior theme project. In my paper, I plan to explore the impact that corn has on the US economy as well as the farmers. The corn industry itself has become very powerful in the US, especially in the last 50 years. According to the USDA, consumption of corn products has nearly doubled since the 1950s, and consumption of corn sweeteners, such as high fructose corn syrup,(which didn't even exist until the 1970s) has increased by about 700 percent.
Clearly,
our economy wouldn’t be the same without corn. However, although corn is used a
lot in food, the majority of it is used in ethanol. According to a blog I read,
“for every 10 ears of corn grown in the U.S., two are consumed by
humans, and the other eight are used for feed and fuel.” So although our nation
consumes many more corn products in out diets, we are actually burning right
through it a much more rapid rate in the fuel tanks of our cars.
There are many pros and cons to the
use of ethanol. Many are included in this video, which should give a clear
picture of what ethanol is and the impact that it has or has potential to have
on our society.
In summary, ethanol has made a huge
impact on our society. Corn production rates have gone through the roof. The US
government is also closely considering the sustained production of ethanol as a
way to benefit our society.
Why should or shouldn’t the US
look at ethanol as a major fuel supply? How will the increased production of ethanol affect the corn industry?
For my junior theme, I am planning on investigating the
social hierarchies of fast food corporations and tying them back to the slave
industry. In an effort to jumpstart my thinking, I decided to watch a movie
called Fast Food Nation, a movie about a mock McDonalds company called
Mickey’s, which supposedly was using bad meat in their most famous burger, “The
Big One.” The movie investigated the lives of a wealthy white marketing manager
in the company, teenagers working in the restaurants themselves, and illegal
immigrants working in the meat processing plant for Mickey’s. Here’s a preview
of the movie to give a better idea of what the movie is all about:
After
actually watching the movie, I was horrified at some of the things that went
on, even if this was just a made up story. But, it was all based on real
statistics, real facts, and real stories coming from fast food restaurants
(hint: McDonalds possibly?). The movie depicts some of the things the
immigrants had to go through, such as getting raped or having sex to get a job
in the first place, horrible work conditions, one many actually had his leg
severed off in the meat mincer, another man got a concussion and other
injuries, which unfortunately needed to eventually get paid off by his family
who already had no money.
On the other side of things, the
marketing manager was given a false taste of reality when he came in. He asked
to get a tour of the meat processing plant, and was only shown parts of the
plant, or at least the better parts. He was told there was fecal matter in the
meat by an expert, but when he went in to the actual plant, he was given no
reason to believe such a fact. Luckily, he was able to find another man who
actually told him the truth about was going on in there. However, had he not
found that man, he would never of known a thing about that plant.
I then began to wonder if this is
how all fast food corporations work today. Are there immigrant workers in the
meat processing plants of all fast food companies? Do the workers work under as
poor of conditions as depicted in the movie? I believe there is a hierarchy in
these fast food industries. They had to develop from somewhere, and they seem
to mirror the slave industry very closely…
I
was listening to music this afternoon, when I started listening to a song by
Billy Joel, entitled We Didn’t Start the Fire. It had a catchy tune and interesting lyrics. But after listening to
the song, I wanted to know more about it, and what the meaning of the song is.
According
to one website I went to, the lyrics are “a stream of consciousness list of
events” that Joel believed his generation shouldn’t have been blamed for. In
the chorus, when he says, “we didn’t start the fire,” he’s saying that all of
the societal issues going on during that time weren’t caused by his generation.
The phrase, “it was always burning since the world’s been turning” states that
these issues were already in place before Joel’s generation was born. Finally,
he says, “ but we tried to fight it” to show that although his generation
wasn’t the cause of all the social turmoil, they did try to stop it.
This
song was very interesting to me because it made me start to realize that issues
in our society today might be blamed on my own generation by the time we become
adults. Although these issues might not be our faults, we will have to take on
the burden of taking blame for them as well as fixing them. Issues like
immigration, poverty, and laws on gay marriage will become our problems to fix.
It’s quite daunting to think about.
Why
are different generations blamed for all of the things that went wrong in our
country? Will this happen to our own generation?
Today
I was watching TV and a commercial came on that reminded me of a fellow
classmates blog post. (Unfortunately, I cannot remember who wrote it). Their
post was about a Pepsi commercial and it directly related to gender. It talked
about how it was “not for women” and “only men can handle the taste of it.” The
blog then went on discussing gender related issues as to why companies would
use this commercial and try to appeal to men. Well… The commercial I watched
compares to the Pepsi commercial in that it appears to appeal to only women.
Let’s take a look…
There
is definitely an obvious appeal to women here in this commercial. First we get
the tough girl questioning the crystal light girl on her drink of choice
because she thinks she’s putting herself at lower standards than men. Then,
however, we get a twist in the action when two men on a motorcycle steal her
purse and crystal light girl runs after them. Eventually, she catches them,
gets the purse back, and scares them away using her “girl power.” This is what
has been portrayed to us by this commercial.
So
what are we to make of it? I think the commercial has a direct relation to
feminism, and is directly targeting women to buy the product. By seeing this
commercial, women will want to be more independent and powerful, triggering
them to buy the product. But why only women? Why target just one half of the
world essentially, in this commercial? I am yet to understand why companies
decided to appeal to only one gender when they are advertising a product…
A
few days ago in American Studies class, we were discussing the topic of racial
discrimination in politics. One of the most shocking statistics to me was the
fact there have only been four black senators, three of whom were from
Illinois. More popularly known is the fact that Barack Obama was the only black
man to ever be elected president. But why is this? Why are black politicians
rarely elected into office? Is it merely their race that prevents them from
being voted for? I was watching a show on Comedy Central, when the comedian,
Gabriel Iglesias, began talking about the issue of race in politics…
(sorry for the inconvenience but the video wouldn't load properly onto the blog... here's the link: http://www.tubechop.com/watch/283689 )
I
found it very interesting when he mentioned, “he’s not Snoop Dogg.” I think in
that statement, Iglesias brought to light the idea of stereotyping black
people. Although we think racism is over, it clearly isn’t because people still
have their stereotypes of black people today. In fact, in class today, we were
discussing the concept of racial stereotypes in television in the past and
present. I find it very interesting that even today, blacks are put under this
umbrella of stereotypes by the media. For instance, on clip today that caught
my eye was of black men eating fried chicken and watermelon. Although people
think that blacks love fried chicken and watermelon, race has nothing to do
with taste buds or food preference. All of these ideas leave me very confused
about the identity society has given black people. We don’t really know who
they are.
Why
do people in society stereotype black people the way they do? Why does the
media portray black people the way it does?
In
American Studies class today, we discussed many ways in which whites
differentiated themselves from blacks before and during the civil rights
movement. In some instances, whites would go so far to say that the genetic
makeup of white people was different than that of black people, which somehow
made whites more superior. We then very briefly touched upon the subject of
black track stars and how they possess the fast-twitch muscles, allowing them
to run faster. This reminded me of a certain video clip from Family Guy, a show that constantly identifies many social
issues in the US as well as around the world.
This
clip got me thinking. Is it just track that blacks have become more dominant in
than whites, or are they starting to make their mark on other sports as well?
And which ones? In did some research on the subject, and learned that a lot of
the success of black athletes comes from their ability to combine their
eagerness to compete with their desire for aggression. I remember one classmate
in our discussion brought up a scene in the movie, Friday Night Lights, in which the coaches put the whites in as the
quarterback and other “thinking” positions, while they put the blacks in as
linebackers where brute force and quick instincts are necessary. I read one
article in particular that discussed the education level of some of the most
successful black athletes in our day and age. The author talked about how many
of the black players seemed to be lacking a substantial education. In
particular, he talked about Tony Allen, and how “he can play basketball but
beyond that he barely knows what planet he is on.” But then again, if you were
born with natural talent in a sport, and had little opportunity for a quality
education, what would you pick: “unemployment and a good chance at jail or tens
of millions of dollars?”
I
then started to wonder about other sports that require more finesse and less
aggression, golf and tennis in particular. It doesn’t seem like blacks have
acquired the same popularity in those sports as others. I looked into it a
little, and came across an article that discussed the segregation of sports.
Apparently, these sports maintained the “whites only” policy long after other
sports like baseball, football and basketball had become integrated. But is it
merely the fact that blacks have not been integrated into these sports as long
as others that has hindered their progress in them? Or is it the fact that
these sports require a much lower amount of athleticism and aggression compared
to the amount of thinking and finesse involved as well?
I
have been pondering this idea for a while now. I am not sure exactly why blacks
are more successful in certain sports than others. Is it due to the different skill sets required in certain sports that limit blacks from excelling, or is there still segregation through sport today?
