Saturday, June 6, 2009

Dressing Up to Save!


So I work at the Segundo Dining Commons and have been to the other side of that dish wall, let me tell you, it is not pretty. It should come as no surprise to anyone that people frequently waste food. I do it myself all the time, food gets thrown away before finished or they just rot. I'll confess something here; I know what happens when you leave vegetables (vegetables = yuck) in the storage part of your refridgerator for more than 8 months. Lets just say if it wasn't for my memory, I wouldn't know what it was/used to be. According "Some Statistics on Poverty and Food Wastage In American" by Samana Siddiqi of http://www.soundvision.com/, Americans waste nearly 100 billion pounds of food per year. I think a large part of our waste comes from mindless eating. Food comes so easy to us, so mass produced, that we lose sight of what happens to all of it, despite how many people starve their days away.
That's why I am suggesting for everyone to start dressing up their food. As mentioned in "Toward a History of Appearances" by Phillipe Perrot, "The nineteenth-century bourgeoisie worked out an elaborate system of appearance, which reveals the importance it attached to clothing's signifying role as opposed to its functional role." The French reimagined themselves to a look of refinement, so can your food! I'm not saying you have to buy or learn how to make 5-star quality cuisine, just take your regular food and do something that makes it more unique. This way you appreciate the food more, and eating becomes less function, more emotion.
Janice Lam
Blog #2

Phillippe Perrot. "Introduction," "Toward a History of Appearances."

Siddiqi Samana, "Some Statistics on Poverty and Food Wastage In America" http://www.soundvision.com/info/poor/statistics.asp

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