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This blog has been created as a forum for students at the University of Michigan enrolled in a course titled "Technology and The Environment", designed by Professor Joe Trumpey for the School of Art and Design. This section is lead by graduate student instructor Ashley L. Lieber
15 comments:
We covered “eating out of season” in the lecture on Wednesday, and this is a concept I have been introduced to many times. My family often buys groceries from a little farm down the road during the summer, and we consider their best product to be the tomato. Now that it’s fall, we’ve noticed that their tomatoes aren’t quite as tasty as they were back in July. We do resort to buying tomatoes from the supermarket when we run out of local goods, but they never taste as good as those we find at home. It’s pretty unfortunate, but we certainly don’t expect a Michigan summer to last longer than it does. We’ll just wait until next year for great tomatoes.
Until then, we’ll settle for the subpar ones we purchase from Meijer.
It’s kind of funny—my mother would purchase more than just produce from Meijer, if the prices weren’t a little too high for her. Instead, she heads across the street to buy boxed goods and general merchandise from a super-energy-consumer called Wal-Mart. Professor Trumpey talked at length about the superstore, mentioning that it was the country’s largest consumer of electricity. This came as no surprise to me, but I was actually a little shocked to hear that they’re trying to help the environment. “Organic product rollout,” “green practices,” and a “compact fluorescent campaign?” I never would have guessed, to be honest. I mean, we’re talking about the same corporation that treats its employees like dirt.
In what I consider to be a refreshing change of pace, our class was able to view the work of a few environmental artists this week. It seems as though this was our first chance to examine such things—we first needed to know what fueled these artists to create their pieces. I’m interested to see more environmental artwork in the future.
—Eleanor Schmitt
Art & Design Perspectives III
Section 005 (Ashley Lieber)
Meredith Kramer
ADP III Section 5
Ashley Lieber
10/05/08
I think it says a lot about our society that so many artists, contemporary and historical, choose food and our relationship to it as their subjects in their work. They draw attention to something normalized that we almost forget about it when looking at the bigger picture. It is something that we all need to survive, but we take it for granted much more than we should. Using it as a subject in many different types of artwork is a great way to reach a wide audience of people and alert them that this is something we need to pay more attention to. It is also interesting to see how each different artist interprets food. The artist that created a TV dinner was obviously very aware about the change that was going on at that time. The way people were consuming was changing vastly. The uproar in technological advances, like the television, altered a normal, family dinner. People became so fixated with the T.V., that they couldn’t spare the time away from it to enjoy one another and eat a freshly prepared meal. Instead the T.V. dinner was created so that one can heat up a meal in a couple of minutes and have it all contained in one easy, small container so as not to make a mess in the T.V. room.
I also thought it was interesting to talk about the artists that celebrated food through their artwork. Claus Oldenburg is known for creating huge, larger than life sculptures. He created a huge slice of pie “a la mode” and a spoon with a cherry and displayed them as public art.
All of these examples and discussion in lecture has made me even more aware than I already was that food is life. How we eat it, where we get it from, and how society interprets it has an infinite amount of outlets, one of them being art. It is an excellent example of how, as creative people, we can think of new ways to reach the general public and educate them about how important our food cycle really is.
Here is another example of food art. I saw this exhibit at a small museum/gallery in Florida a while back.
http://static.flickr.com/40/74601908_193a4c6d7a_o.jpg
Lindsay Bienick
ADP III: sec 005
Week Five Post
This week in lecture we discussed the significance of eating food that is out of season and where that food comes from. Professor Trumpey used the term “shadowing” to categorize this. Certain foods travel miles across the boarders and countries just to end up in a local grocery store where that food may, or may not be purchased to eat. And if not purchased, then it goes to waste after a certain date, meaning all that traveling was made for nothing (which only relates to our excessive use of fossil fuels). What scared me even more was to find out what the farmer’s employees (mainly in other countries) have to go through just to get it here on time to us. Many foreign farmers still use DDT as a pesticide for their plants. This is damaging to the environment and to the humans that have to spray this toxic mess. Years of breathing it will dramatically hurt a man’s health. While listening to Professor Trumpey explain this I began thinking; is that pineapple really that enjoyable in the winter while knowing its affects on another human’s health? Do I really need those strawberries in my salad while there is snow on the ground? While now I find it easier to avoid purchase of such items at a grocery store, it becomes almost inevitable to avoid eating them while in a restaurant or dinning hall. Not to say that I eat out often-matter of fact, I rarely do- but just think about the amount of out of season food that a restaurant purchases and serves in a week!
I am thankful to learn to about these problems of poor eating habits, but I realize that many Americans still have absolutely no idea where their food comes from. If America were to make a quick shift to organic, like Cuba, many would be disappointed or surprised to see the limited availability of food options per season. Thus, it is important to educate ourselves and neighbors about the effects of out of season/ non-organic food purchasing. Today, many companies are now labeling their products as organic as we see the rise in popularity among Americans, but we must be careful in distinguishing the difference between truly organic or just company claimed organic. As Professor Trumpey described, many big name organic companies are still using bad practices to produce the food and ship it. This idea of FDA regulated organic is a very fuzzy definition. I feel that if I learned anything from what we discussed in class it is that my best bet is to go to the nearest locally grown organic market and skip the grocery store, even whole foods. There, I can inquire about where my food has actually come from.
In addition to the lecture, Professor Trumpey showed us various artists who focused on making their work about food or the environment. Much of them dealt with the idea of consumerism and how it has led various cultures to view food. My favorite was Henry Sargent’s “Dinner Party,” which displayed the traditional American ideal of celebrating food with the family and viewing dinner time as something of true importance with the white laced table cloth and the nice dinner wear set out perfectly.
This relates more on the topic of the meat industry, but i just found it and thought it was interesting.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.freewebs.com/thefigtreeonline/GMO%2520CORN.bmp&imgrefurl=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/betterplanet/2008/04/24/hell-no-gmos/&h=354&w=354&sz=368&hl=en&start=1&usg=__gQxiiL2-lSQum8A8BRKAbTNz_AI=&tbnid=q3yXc4LSgRQ-yM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=121&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgmo%2Bcorn%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
Rachel Less
Oct 6, 2006
sect 5. weekly response
I was not aware that Dr. Seuss had written a book talking about the problems of deforestation and the ruining of the environment. That really surprised me today when Professor Trumpey brought it up in class. In a sense, I think it is a good idea because it confronts the subject head on. However, Dr. Seuss books are aimed towards young children, children in fact, who are too young to fully understand the world directly surrounding them, much less the world as a whole. I think that subjecting children to a political message at that young of an age is a bit twisted in the sense that the children have no choice but to accept the views of the book, especially since it is done in such a childish, friendly, and harmless manner (rhyming, picture book, etc.) and the fact that it comes from a trustworthy author. Obviously, deforestation is rarely good, but you should still allow children to draw up their own opinions by doing their own research (through time as they get older), and not by forcing one’s views/one sided story on them. Also, they’re just young kids, sometimes as young as 2 or 3! They tend to see things as either good or evil, with no grey area in-between, and therefore do not understand the subject well enough to draw a valid conclusion on it. I think if the book was targeted towards an older audience, it would be much more effective.
http://www.worth1000.com/entries/278000/278000INPM_w.jpg
I felt that this week’s discussion applies greatly to my group project. As we research where local businesses buy their beef and other meats from, I’m very curious to find out not only who the supplier is, but how far the meat has traveled to get to our plates. I hope to include this information on our final product, possibly a flow chart, to show viewers how much oil is used to get the food to their plate. Hopefully this will further encourage others to buy closer to the source, once they realize how much unnecessary money is being spent just for their product to travel. However, maybe I’m jumping to conclusions and local restaurants are more informed than I’m expecting. I think it is safe to say that Ann Arbor houses a more informed community, so perhaps the meat being sold in restaurants is coming from a closer source than I’m initially anticipating.
One thing I’ve been struggling with over these lectures on food is the conflict of organic versus local. On one hand, buying organic is a good way to support farmers that choose not to use harmful substances to produce their meat or crops. On the other hand, buying local supports the community and eliminates the extra costs going towards transportation. Which is more beneficial? I suppose local organic would be the optimal purchase, but how much can you find in a grocery store thats both local and certified organic? Do local farmers want to bother going through the trouble to have their products labeled as USDA Organic? And then when you throw fair trade items into the mix it complicates the decision even more. Organic coffee or fair trade coffee? I often find myself once again thinking, I CAN’T WIN. One way or another I’m not going to be able to make the perfect decision on buying food.
On another note, Professor Trumpey discussed how coffee only costs Ethiopian growers about ten cents, and the shock it brought to these farmers when they learned that people in the US will pay up to four dollars for a coffee. Now I understand that this is a ridiculous price mark up, but I think this is a narrow view of this situation. It is a shock, but we can’t forget that just about everything works in the same way, in order for everyone to get some kind of profit at some point (which further encourages buying local to keep costs down). The profit distribution may not be fair, which is why I agree that fair trade is very important, but I feel like that is just how business works. It’s unfortunate, but very true in todays economical society. Everyone is out to make money for themselves, and not many step back to look at the big picture.
I stumbled across this news story today. Have our wishes been granted? Enjoy.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5959494&page=1
Samuel Hanson
ADP3 section 005
Lecture response
10/06/2008
In last weeks lecture I found it interesting that we talked about Cuba and Wall-mart back to back, as these two things are such perfect examples of American influence on big and small business. With the US embargo on Cuba and then the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, Cuba was forced to “go organic” because of its lack of imports. This forced Cubans to grow their food locally and organically rather than depend on larger farms aimed at production in huge quantities. This is not the case with Wall-mart. As a traveler once said to me when I ask him his impression of the US, his response was this, “ as far as I can tell, Americans like things BIG!” and Wall-mart does not fail to let him down. But although it is true that Wall-mart is one of the largest consumers of energy (trucking, electricity, etc.), they have arrived at a similar position as Cuba for a totally different reason, money. They cut the amount of energy being consumed by their company by simply using “green” energy such as natural light. At first I thought that this was great, and for the situation it may be, but this does not take away from the fact that they are still consuming the amount of energy they do. It is this American ideal of BIG that I mentioned before. The bigger the cheaper and the cheaper the better. A company that is totally motivated by money, no matter how green it seems, will be willing to go right back to non-organic as soon as the green fad fades.
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z1/visionon/WalMart.jpg
Erica Mouns
Section 005
Blog 10/7/2008
This week lecture was the closing for our food discussion. I am a little disappointed because I have really enjoyed learning about food in our society. Our group project has to do with food in Ann Arbor so I will be able to continue learning about this on my own.
We had discussed Wal-Mart and their commitment to being “green”. They are using energy saving lights in addition to more skylights being added. They are also attempting to make their truck fleet more environmentally friendly. Wal-Mart has a huge influence because they are one of the largest companies in the United States. They are the second largest employer in the US. Just as McDonalds influenced the fast food industry by only buying eggs from chickens that were treated well, Wal-Mart can force other companies to follow their lead in becoming “green”.
I had no idea that there was “shade grown coffee” and “sun grown coffee”. The sun grown coffee has given the farmers more areas that they can grow their crops, but it takes away the habitat for hundreds of animals. There are only a few places left in the world that have any kind of rainforests and if those few forests are cut down to make more coffee fields the biodiversity will be completely lost. I do not drink coffee, but I hope that people who do make their own coffee think about buying the shade grown instead. Do places like Starbucks support shade grown coffee beans rather than the sun grown? How much more expensive is the shade grown?
http://www.charityguide.org/volunteer/fifteen/shade-grown-coffee.htm - interesting website with fast facts about shade grown coffee and what individuals can do to help the environment.
Alyssa Ackerman
section 5
10/06/08
Food, anything we want whenever we want it, fast, nothing less. These high expectations Americans have about food and instant satisfactions, creates an increasingly competitive and demanding market for farmers and food companies. It has not always been possible to eat strawberries, blueberries, etc every season of the year, but today this is given very little thought while the supermarkets fill their shelves with produce from across the world. Professor Trumpey discussed food shadowing, which I think is very interesting especially when we think about how little consumers know about the food they even consume locally and from local restaurants and or farms. Although this should scare someone, and the fact that we are consuming these question marks with any number of chemicals contained inside, it is often easier for one to ignore. “Ignorance is Bliss”, after all.
Even for those who are conscious about the food they consume, it can prove impossible to actually find out what is in the food he or she is eating. Companies can make it a struggle and using different advertising, marketing, and packaging tactics, they definitely have the upper hand. The deceit that goes into advertising, with the sole purpose based on profits, is a disgusting yet popular game in today’s consumerist world, and an end to these problems and tricks played by large companies to make a consumer buy something he or she thinks is actually something else, may never come.
Maggie Baczewski
Section 005
October 7, 2008
It seems like ever since the Americas were discovered we have been using up our natural resources at a rapid rate. The Americas became the land opportunity. Europeans were told there are miles of ‘untouched’ land with a never-ending supply of resources here. When immigrants came anyone could make a decent living because you could do a lot with very little money. The idea of being able to buy things at a low cost became an expectation for us. We continue to over consume the world’s resources. Americans still say that this is America and anything is possible. There’s also an expectation that the government will take of all of our problems. Like Professor Trumpey said in class, we think the consumer has the right to continue to consume so the problem is in production. When we try to control production we run into problems like with salmon fishing. Too many wild fish were consumed in the past so we had to think of a new way to get large amounts of salmon. Salmon farming was invented but that then caused other environmental issues. Decreases in biodiversity and water quality are just two of the new problems we have caused.
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/a/a2/250px-Salmon_farming.jpg
Rachel McGuffin
Coffee is a very integral part of my life. It is extremely important in a must-do-now competitive learning environment. It rarely fazes me though, how important my coffee was pre-mug, pre-canister, pre-kroger and pre-michigan. We all know our food comes from somewhere else. It doesn’t take much intelligence to figure that out, but we rarely actually think about it. What I eat, what I consume entirely effects someone else’s livelihood. Its amazing thinking our world is so intensely connected but also a little sad because most of those connections are disrespected. It is my personal opinion that most people need a little practice thinking outside of their own little world and thinking of the larger impact. The amount of ‘stuff’ that’s passed through dozens and dozens or hundreds of hands before it actually gets to the consumer is absolutely absurd. I was always fascinated with the history of an inanimate object, what kind of life it had before it ended up on my shelves but learning of the massive flux of items going abroad and coming back it makes me a little queasy. If the batteries I use to operate my camera, the stem of my artist thoughts, had recycled material in theme had maimed the hand of a four year old and poisoned the lives of poor young women just trying to survive, then m work becomes tainted. I always thought I knew about my stuff. As far as food goes, Since I lived on a farm I’ve always know how hard it is to grow and harvest and that an animal breathes and bleeds before I eat it. The concept of my material worth being processed in an inhumane effect on society makes me rethink everything. Which, I see now, is a good thing. Being aware isn’t enough. That’s becoming more and more clear. Thinking about these issues is good, but what’s the next step?
Rachel McGuffin
When I was little, I memorized the Lorax. Don't think my parents were hippies-I got a hostess cupcake at the end of every meal like any good American kid. It was my absolutely favorite book, and good for Dr. Seuss, because he made me care about the trees. What a fantastic piece of literature. I love that the antagonist remains just this arm that the Lorax speaks to. Because he is so nonspecific, we have the opportunity to project onto him big business or ourselves or anyone else that happens to be responsible for abusing the environment. I was always so upset at the end of the book to see the dark world that erupted as soon as the trees were all gone, left with only the small hope provided by the very last Truffula seed. The terrifying fact I'm beginning to realize is that I have the same upset feeling now, but in relation to the actual world. A panic is always hanging out in the back of my mind like a parasite, yelling in its tiny voice that I live in urgent times. There are too many people, it says. There isn't enough world for all of us to share. We're all so greedy. We all want to live. We all want Thneeds, and they only come from Truffula trees, and there's only so many of those. And they're so beautiful and important for reasons besides our own.
Aw man, what are we going to do?
I want to live in an underground house like a hobbit and buy food only from the farmers market and raise goats-I'm one of those few people in America that really appreciates the pungent taste of goat's milk. Where can I go to do this? I'll cut my own firewood to keep warm in the winter...I already don't use air-conditioning. I'll have a big windmill sticking out the top of my little cave-home so I can have some light when it grows dark. I don't need the internet...don't think for a second that I want to hold on to this stupid phone, either.
I digress.
I wish I could keep more plants alive than my apparently immortal cactus.
Carolyn Nowak
alyssa ackerman
an image,
http://cache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/efa_10_06/31_aaa.jpg
One of the ideas that really stuck with me after last week’s lecture was the issue of distancing and shadowing. I had never given it much thought before, but it is something very much evident in the world today. With globalization in full effect, there are too many things that are happening so far away that we can’t see it. Americans nowadays have developed a sort of myopia and cannot see anything past their monitors and screens. But the world is still out there. People are still doing manual labor. People are still desperately trying to make a living. People are still doing anything and everything they can to survive. So whatever crops they’re exporting, we’ll take them without knowing much about them. Hey, what we don’t know can’t hurt us, right?
Have we been reduced to merely being a dumb, high-maintenance nation?
-Louise C.
Tae Hyung Kim
10/16/08
ADP III- Section 5
On Wednesday, we talked about food industry, which is a main industry in the United States. Industrialized food industry has enabled companies to implement mass food production; this leads to creation of giant markets such as WalMarts and Target. We also talked about coffee farms in Latin America and their contribution to global coffee market. I was actually surprised by the fact that most of coffee farms in the region are smaller than five hectares, yet provide enough coffee to the global population. Since the global population demands more coffee, the method of intensification was adopted for high yields, which I believe is a good solution to respond against the demand. However, it requires the use of herbicides and fertilizers and causes high density of coffee, and these actions are done through damaging our environment. Is it necessary to damage our environment while responding to our demands? Is there better way to cope with demands
while protecting the environment? And it is this brilliant idea of label- Fair Trade that is invented to promote a better compensation for producers. With the example of Starbucks, producers rarely make profits from planting coffee trees. Instead, most profits go directly go to Starbucks, and they are maximizing their profits through cost-saving strategies. I was pretty frustrated about the fact that Starbucks, which advertises itself as a “friendly” company, ignores its producers. Indeed, the company would not be able to maintain its business without the coffee producers in Latin America. I am so glad that Fair Trade is now taking place in several producers. The labeling method not only benefits producers but also our ecology.
In the end of the lecture, we talked about food being an art. I was impressed by the work of Gleaners that his language of art is communicated through “food”. From my point of view, food is something that people have been sharing with and connects with others. Perhaps, these characteristics of food make the art as “distinctive” and “friendly”.
Label is also used as art like the bricks that are made of Heineken’s beer bottles.
I was very interested in learning about coffee. Coffee farming has gone through a rough cycle. From being organic and natural, to being a controlled farming industry that destroyed natural forest grown coffee. Demand for food is killing our environment, we need to as a community, and a nation to fix all of the corrupt practices, we have conveniently slipped into. I was very interested in the movement to help the farmers get more money from their coffee product than the supplier, like Starbucks. We need to care for the farmer and take care of them too, and in my opinion first because they work very hard for what they get. It cost more than a dollar to buy a size small hot cup of coffee. I want to find out more why, and i want to learn more about the industry of caffeine. I definitely am going to pay more attention to what kind of coffee i buy, that's the biggest reason i am so intrigued to know more because i am a huge coffee consumer. http://www.maunakonacoffee.com/images/cherry3.jpg
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