ENG 110: Elyse Zucker - Textbook

It's about time for some fries by elycefeliz is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license. 

Unit 3. Agroindustry's Food Products Promotion

"While in an International Fragrance (IFF) lab creating, with chemicals, processed food fragrances and tastes, Schlosser, with eyes closed notes that '[i]t seemed like someone in the room was flipping burgers on a hot grill. But when I opened my eyes, there was just a narrow strip of white paper and a smiling flavorist.'”

 —Eric Schlosser
 

Unit 3 continues what students learned about agro-industry in Unit 2. They will understand how agroindustry intentionally designs and promotes their products to deceive the public for commercial gain and power.

• Read “Why McDonald’s Fries Taste so Good” in Fast Food Nation  by Eric Schlosser
  • Students: create a free Internet Archive account. 
  • Sign in and select a copy of Fast Food Nation.
  • Check out the book for 1 hour or 14 days. Remember to check it back in when you are done!
• Listen to "Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good" (alternative to reading)
• Read The Mustard Oil Conspiracy by Dr. Vandana Shiva 
  • Hostos students: sign in using your CUNY login information.
• Read The Pleasures of Eating by Wendell Berry

Supplemental

• Listen to "Trees: Survival Tool for a Changing Planet with Dr. Andy Reinmann” on the Green Street News podcast
• Watch Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply (Culture of the Land) interview with Dr. Vandana Shiva 

Writing Prompt

Drawing on the materials from this unit, write an essay in response to the following prompt:

• Food is concrete and essential for survival. Why then, in contemporary society is real food so difficult to identify and even obtain?

• Berry, Wendell. "The Pleasures of Eating." Introduction by Alice Waters. Emergence Magazine, 30 Sept. 2019. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023. License: All rights reserved.
• "Chapter 5 Fast Food Nation." Youtube, Uploaded by Maria Schembri, 17 Sept. 2020. License: All rights reserved.
• Shiva, Vandana. "The Mustard Oil Conspiracy." The Ecologist, vol. 31, no. 5, June 2001, p. S27. Gale Academic OneFile Select, l. Accessed 6 Oct. 2023. License: All rights reserved.
• Schlosser, Eric. Fast food nation: the dark side of the all-American meal. Houghton Mifflin 2001. License: All rights reserved.