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A different type of election

A new election is underway. There are no feuding political parties or town hall debates, no perfectly practiced candidates trying to garner support on the campaign trail. Voters will not cast their decisions by going to a voting booth or marking a ballot.

The election taking place starts in neighborhood grocery stores and local farmers markets. The 2009 film documentary “Food, Inc.” persuades American citizens to demand safe, nutritious food that is properly labeled so consumers are able to make informed purchases. One way consumers can influence change is similar to any other election: vote.

“Food, Inc.” exhibits how far removed the average U.S. citizen is from the production of their food supply, illustrating the foods that fill the shelves in most grocery stores. While a small percentage of Americans plant or grow their own food, the rest are relying on the supermarket or nearby fast food restaurants. The food we get today is ready-to-eat and processed, resembling food but made mostly from human ingenuity.

After years of eating fresh and mostly unprocessed food, I don’t condemn other diets that might appear to be less nutritious. I realize everyone’s diet is an individual practice of what works best with their schedule and bodies. Despite that fact I do believe that we, as a U.S. population, have been living in ignorance about the food we eat, where it comes from and what it does to our body.

One natural farmer in the film complains that we want to pay the cheapest price for food but don’t realize that it comes with a price. Which consumer wants to buy the cheapest car?

Dollar menus and value meals are now on every fast food menu since the decline of the economy, but what is the real cost to consumers? Are we willing to give up substance and safe food in exchange for an extra buck?

The question lies in who to blame. Personal responsibility is one factor since people have the freedom and choice to decide what to eat. On the other hand, price might be the biggest culprit to skewing how Americans eat.

The price tag on my weekly grocery bill is nothing to boast about since eating fresh is not cheap. In the film Michael Pollan, food journalist and author, pointed out that most people on a fixed budget are going to purchase what will fill them up as opposed to what is better for them. Our food system has been skewed, Pollan said, to make bad calories more affordable and accessible than nutritious calories.

The proof lies in the numbers. Obesity rates are higher today than in any other time in our nation’s history. According to an article in USA Today published in January, about 34 percent of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese. The trend is similar in U.S. children, with about 30 percent overweight or obese. Our food system is creating a vicious cycle of people eating more, spending less and loaning out their health.

My family is an exemplary portrait of a typical American family dealing with obesity and the toll it has on the person both emotionally and physically. In the highly innovative and informational world we live in today it baffles me that a head of lettuce is more expensive than a fast food double cheeseburger.

I am campaigning for each person to cast their vote by what they purchase at the grocery store. It’s unrealistic to imagine that everyone will be able to afford all fresh and organic food, but I petition to purchase a few items that will show the corporations in charge of our food supply that we’re ravenous for better food and affordable prices.

Whether anyone is as moved by “Food, Inc.” as I was is a personal judgment, but the underlying message rings true: everyone has a right to healthy food.

Long lines at campus facilities daunt students during first week of school

Students who need financial aid assistance, a parking permit or an order of orange chicken from Panda Express had to endure long lines the first week back on campus.

As the fall semester kicked off last week, students taking care of back-to-school business waited in lines around campus for up to 90 minutes. Junior business administration major Melchor Santillan waited at Financial Aid for one hour on Wednesday and again late Friday afternoon for 25 minutes. Santillan said he knew it would be busy the first week back and expected the long line that wrapped around the building. Read more

No sweets before veggies

‘Nanny’ Sam wages legitimate fight against the fats

What used to be known as the “War on Tobacco” is starting to look more like a massacre. Smokers from California to Italy to Japan have been forced deep underground, feeding their nasty habit only in their cars, their houses, and anywhere outside, so long as it’s at least 3,000 feet from a public building.

Having safely secured the world’s lungs, it appears the nanny state’s next target is the stomach.

New York City’s health commissioner Thomas Frieden, who orchestrated one of the first bans on indoor smoking in 2002, is leading a new war on trans fats and salt, and is even trying to impose a tax on soda in order to curb the consumer appetite for it.

Would you buy a can of Coke if it cost three or four dollars? How about five bucks for a two liter bottle?
And it’s probably only a matter of time before California joins this movement.

People who get a hankering for “the fizz” may soon feel the pain that smokers do. The question is, do they deserve it?

The smoking battle was won largely on the grounds of secondhand smoke, which causes harm to people who are around smokers. The Coke battle will be waged on another premise: that soda (and other junk food) isn’t actually food because you don’t need it to survive.

The libertarians will rail, “Personal choice! The nanny state is trying to save us from ourselves again!”

They are exactly right, but it’s still a good idea. The truth is, there is considerable evidence that we really do need saving from ourselves. As we all know, obesity and diabetes are huge problems in the central San Joaquin Valley, and there is no reason to believe that people will wake up one day and suddenly change their ways.

And no one is going to make you quit consuming anything, they will just make it more inconvenient to do so. Think of the old imaginary devil on your left shoulder arguing with the angel on your right. The angel says, “That’s bad for you.” and the devil responds, “Yea, but it tastes so good.” Apparently the devil is winning most of these battles in the Valley, and with good reason.

Isn’t it frustrating that junk food is both cheaper and better tasting than health food? Don’t lie, you know there’s nothing better than a grease-drenched dollar menu double cheeseburger.

But if soda and junk food go up in price, the angel will have more in her arsenal. She can then say, “That’s bad for you, and look how much it costs! You can’t afford it and you don’t need it anyway.”

Like it or not, some form of food policing is probably coming to a restaurant near you, so be positive.

Don’t think of it as big brother, think of it as reinforcements for that lovely angel on your shoulder, the one you wish won more often.

Who can argue with that?

Drinks for your daily grind

In order to compare the options for coffee, tea, pastries and other snacks on campus, I have enjoyed eating and drinking at the various establishments.

While my bank account cannot support this habit on a regular basis, I now know where I can get the best service and product while still leaving my tummy and my wallet satisfied.

Let’s start with the newest option, the Starbucks in the library. I visit Starbucks off-campus regularly and the one thing I love is that no matter where you go, you know exactly what you are going to get.
Overall, I found this to be true on campus. My only gripe? The service could be improved. In my opinion, it should not take 10 minutes to get a drink. The employees were definitely friendly, but it would have been nice if they had stopped talking about their weekend plans to help the customers. Maybe if they were paying a little more attention, they wouldn’t have had to remake my drink. In the end, my drink tasted like it always does and my blueberry muffin, although quite tasty, left my stomach still feeling empty.

There is a Planet Java in the Peter’s Business Building and the Kremen Education Building. I have no complaints about this establishment. My chai latte, although different from my usual one from Starbucks, was delicious. The employees were friendly and my blueberry muffin was delectable and filling, probably because it was four times the size of the one from Starbucks.

Coffee Spot is located downstairs in the USU next to the bowling alley. While the name makes you think coffee, they may want to pride themselves on their large selection of convenient snacks. The coffee drinks, although significantly cheaper, left something to be desired. I will say, however, that you can get hot tea in any size for the same price. Unlike Starbucks, who charges you for extra water or a bigger cup. I’m not quite sure which one. Here, you will find the normal bagels and muffins as well as unique offerings like ice cream and sushi as well as fresh fruit and wraps.

While you may not want to trek all over campus to put together the perfect, cost-effective breakfast, I do recommend each of these establishments for different things.

If you want your signature drink and don’t mind paying a little extra, I think Starbucks is the best bet. For a regular cup of coffee? Starbucks again. Despite the prices on the rest of its menu, their coffee is actually the cheapest on campus.

For something a little different, I would head to Planet Java. The food is reasonably priced and the drink menu is fun and unique. Some of the drinks are a little pricey but they are also bigger than the competition’s.

Finally, for an actual meal, and not a sugary frozen coffee drink or calorie-filled pastries, Coffee Spot has the best variety at a reasonable price. The service was fast, and it’s conveniently located right in the middle of campus.

‘Submerged in meat culture’

Leaving ‘Veggieland’ after a four year stay

Never in my life have I been able to resist Shake ’N Bake.

When mama pulled that pan of crispy golden turkey cutlets out of the oven, my heart just about melted.

I hesitated only a few brief seconds before inhaling two of them, then scraping the fried crispies off the bottom of the pan.

You see, she had mixed the Shake ’N Bake with parmesan cheese, and that is precisely what weakened my knees—and my resolve.

The next morning I was back to being a vegetarian. Or a pescetarian, as we’re actually called, because we eat fish.

I’ve been a fish-eating herbivore since Christmas Eve 2004, and it was hard at first, because I loved meat, but loved animals more.

The first year, I’d go on these meat binges, only to return to Veggieland after a couple of days. By 2006, however, I had turned my back on eating all creatures, save the ones who dwelled in the sea.

I realize this probably makes me a hypocrite, even though we Catholics have never considered fish to be meat; for what reason, I have yet to find out.

But I figured I needed some kind of protein besides rice and beans, and I simply could not do without shrimp.

This is why I find it considerably ironic, this direction my diet has taken.

When PETA debuted their “sea kittens” campaign about a month ago, I stopped dead in my tracks
.
This new campaign featured little cartoon fish sporting cat ears and whiskers, making it difficult to ignore the pangs of guilt every time I sank my teeth into a fish taco.

By morphing fish into cuddly whiskered kittens, PETA was forcing me to consider the ethical implications of my shrimp addiction.

It was around this time that several other things became clear. On my last date with my dude, before he switched jobs and zip codes, he took me to Famous Dave’s, where I was instantly submerged in meat culture.

But the slabs of beef smothered in barbeque sauce no longer held me in their sway, as they once had.
I even gave it a try again for the heck of it, forking a big bite of brisket into my mouth. But alas, the thrill was gone.

But turkey, that’s another story.

I’ve leapt off the veggie wagon twice for a bite of gobble-gobble, and my interest has been piqued once again.

You see, my relationship with turkey dates way back to the early ‘90s, when my dad went on a turkey binge, buying nothing but gobbler for the better part of the next decade.

By the time I finished high school, though, I was ready to move on and I could never look back at that Thanksgiving staple without a slight shudder.

But something has recently changed. Those cutlets worked their magic on me, thanks to Shake ’N Bake.

Sarah Peterson is a post-baccalaureate student at Fresno State. She holds a BA in English and is returning for a degree in mass communication and journalism, with an emphasis in print journalism. She likes cats.

Braving cold for free food and good times

It’s tough to get up at 5 a.m. when you have nowhere to be until six. Especially when the six is followed by the letters “p.m.” It’s not like I had a part-time job to wake up for — not in this economy, at least!

But I did it. I got up bright and early Tuesday morning, because all my poor friends and I were trying to beat the crowd at Denny’s.

Now, before you say “heard it before,” and flip over to the sports page, consider this: the Denny’s story beat out 12 homicides, potentially deadly fog and a pungent cow-poo smell Tuesday night for the front page of Wednesday’s Fresno Bee. It was the biggest thing in the Valley.

Anyway, we didn’t beat the crowd. The line was out the door and around the corner when we got there.
It was cold, and there was a shady-looking homeless guy standing next to us. We considered leaving, but decided we better not: the food in our apartment isn’t free.

After 15 minutes in line and with 30 more to go, something happened. We were still cold, still hungry and were surrounded by other strangers in the same circumstance, but it happened nonetheless: it started to get fun.

We started making jokes about telling our grandkids in 2065:

“Waaaaaaay back in the recession of 2009 I stood outside a Denny’s for two hours in the freeeeeeeezin’ cold!”

“…Granpa, what’s Denny’s?”

“They did a commercial for the Super Bowl and gave out free breakfast for everybody in America who showed up one morning.”

After a while, reporters from local news channels showed up and directed cameras to us. Everybody started cheering and dancing. My roommate was even interviewed live on CBS 47 news.

Everytime they would let a new group inside we’d all say “Heeeey,” and excitedly move up a few inches. The homeless guy in front of us got his turn, and then we finally had ours. We clapped when they brought our food and ate in satisfied silence.

Once I got home, I realized that, regardless of money, I had a lot more fun at that bread line stunt than I did during any normal breakfast.

Everyone there came cold and hungry, some were obviously from the streets, and many said it was their only opportunity to eat out in the last three months. Regardless, we were all there together, and everyone made the most of it.

As more people are feeling the effects of the recession, hopefully we’ll get more chances like this one to appreciate what we’ve got and actually enjoy ourselves.

Who knows? Maybe racism, bigotry and whatever else can be curtailed just a little by our economic difficulties. Even if it means standing outside a Denny’s at six in the morning, looking like an idiot.

Cooking 101: Thanksgiving, Take 2

In this episode of Cooking 101, host Toni Martinez explores new and creative ways of using Thanksgiving leftovers. She explains how to properly store leftovers and when to throw them out.

See below for recipes.

Turkey melt (serves 1):
• 2 slices whole grain bread
• 3 slices (3-5 ounces) roasted turkey breast
• 1-2 slices Swiss cheese
• ¼ cup raw, fresh baby spinach
• 1 tsp. light butter

Pumpkin Pie Parfait (serves 2-4):
• 2 cups pumpkin pie filling, scooped from cooked pie
• 2 cups light vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt, softened
• ¼ cup graham cracker crumbs
• 8 Tbs. light whipped cream
• 4 Tbs. candied walnuts or pecans

Leftover Safety Tips
• Keep food out of the temperature danger zone (41-135°F) to keep bacteria from growing.
• Put food in a cooler or ice box if traveling with it for more than an hour.
• Leftovers can be kept at 41°F or lower for 7 days, and at 45°F for 4 days.
• When using your leftovers, take out only the food that you are going to use.
• Do not let food sit out at room temperature for long periods of time.

SPREADING THE WEALTH

MAN NAMED JOE WURZELBACHER NOT LONG AGO asked president-elect Barack Obama if his new business would be subject to increased taxes. Obama was quoted as responding, “I think that when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

Since that day, the Democratic senator from Illinois has received weeks of backlash for a platform that is said to echo the works of Karl Marx and so many socialist principals. McCain supporters don’t believe the statement was an innocent slip of the tongue.

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) compared Obama’s policies to those of Cuba, saying, “Where I come from, where I was raised, they tried wealth redistribution. We don’t need that here, that’s called socialism, communism, not Americanism.”

You can sit around all you like and blame the poor for their own plight, but there are children that go to bed every night cold and hungry. According the charity organization Bread.org, 16,000 children die every day from hunger-related causes. In the U.S., 11.7 million children have to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet.

Around the world, famine and diseases ravish thousands. Out of a population of 12 million in Zimbabwe, there were 2.7 million cases of malaria, according to the World Health Organization’s most recent estimates. A little over 1.2 billion in the world live below the poverty line of $1 per day and 6 million children under five die each year from malnutrition.

Here in the U.S., the National Coalition on Health Care reported in 2005 that nearly 47 million Americans were without health care. That number rose by 2.2 million in 2006, an increase of 9 million since 2000.

The United Nations Development Program estimates that the basic health and nutrition needs of the world’s poorest people could be met for an additional $13 billion a year. That should be easy for a country that spends at least $200 billion and 120 billion hours on legal forms of entertainment every year according to author and financial analyst Harold L. Vogel.

That should be easy for a country that, according to the Department of Agriculture, can afford to waste 100 billion pounds of food each year and whose citizens consume 162 gallons of water over the sufficient limit every day. That’s incredible when stood up against countries like Switzerland at 28.9 gallons per person per day and Botswana at 19.3 gallons.

In a statement before the United Nations in 1982, President Ronald Reagan began by saying, “I speak today as both a citizen of the United States, and of the world.” That statement still resonates today, I dare say, in people like Barack Obama. It’s not that I endorse him, but I do endorse a society that extends compassion to ailing nations and values the preservation of life over voracious capitalism.

In Plato’s “Apology” and also in “The Republic,” his distaste for democracy comes through strong. He did not believe that ordinary citizens were fully capable of making wise choices because everyone has natural biases, myself included. Instead, Plato believed that the wisest and most publicly aware among us should guide and govern.

I doubt a strategy like this would ever work in the U.S because the spirit of cooperation is so hard to foster in a capitalist society. While it has its virtues, Karl Marx might have been on to something when he said capitalism was a market that catered more to profit than to social need. Hence, about 5 percent of the population controls 95 percent of the wealth in the U.S.

Right now, I am giving $24 a month to a child named Beatrice Musonda living in poverty-stricken Zambia. I know it’s not much, but can you imagine if every working person in America gave that much to curb poverty and hunger in the world? According to my calculations of the eligible working-age index, that should ideally generate $3.75 billion a year in humanitarian aid for destitute nations.

I guess the question is, how much are we willing to give up to battle hunger, to make sure our 1.6 million square miles of arable land is cultivated efficiently, to put an end to the 6 million tons of carbon being released into the atmosphere every year and the 230 millions tons of trash generated every day, less than a quarter of it recycled.

It’s all matter of prerogative. If Maslow’s physiological needs, including adequate food and water, take a back seat to profit and self-sufficiency, then we’re in the perfect country.

But it should really be the other way around. Individual success should wait on clean air, clean water and enough food for everybody. It should wait on life.

Campus dining cuts back on open hours

In response to decreasing sales and business rates, The Bucket on campus has been given new hours. Taco Bell has also been given new hours as well. The Bucket’s new hours are from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m while Taco Bell is now open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

“From a student standpoint, we do realize this will alter their routine, but we’re doing everything we can to better help serve our students in this time,” said Brent Hansen, University Courtyard Housing staff member.

“The situation is us taking a step back and surveying when and where our students are going and altering the hours based on these demands,” Hansen said in reference to The Bucket’s lack of business between 3-5 p.m., which helped prompt for the change in hours. “There’s no point in keeping a place open that no one’s going to.”

Debbie Astone, Associate Vice President for Auxiliary Operations, elaborated on The Bucket’s situation. “We do keep the seating area open for students until 5 p.m.,” she said.

“With the closure of the library for construction, we had many students using the seating area to study, group meetings, etc. without ordering food or beverages,” Astone said. “We wanted to make this area available for the students during this time.”

According to Astone, the Taco Bell has seen more business and improvements in customer service. Pizza is no longer sold there, however, it is being sold in The Bucket to decrease the wait time for Taco Bell customers. Sitting room for studying can also be found here, just as it is in The Bucket.

“We plan to continue to operate the current operating hours for the USU Food Court operations,” Astone said.

Hansen backed up this promise.

“We will continue to keep those operations open because we continue to see a demand during breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Hansen said.

Hansen also mentioned how the USU Food Court gets extra business due to students who use the area for studying and socializing. Therefore, the demand is high for these businesses stay open. He also noted the snack bar near the USU’s bowling alley and how its location is key to its steady business due to those who come to play games and want a snack while they’re at it.

Astone discussed future plans regarding campus dining.

“With the planned demolition of the University Center building next summer, Dining Services in consultation with the Food Services Advisory Committee is challenged with identifying additional locations for food and beverage sales without any new facilities being brought on line except for the new Starbucks Coffee location that will be operated by Dining Services in the new Henry Madden Library,” Astone said.

The announcement regarding a Starbucks location might just make the wait worthwhile for regular coffee drinkers on campus.

Astone followed up her first statement saying, “We continue to evaluate the mix of dining options offered and value student input that we get from ASI, USU, and our Web site as well as our Advisory Committee.”

“It has been a challenge with the growing population to find the right locations and food options for our campus community, but we are making improvements,” Astone said. “We also plan to start offering some of our farm market products and snacks in some of our grab ‘n’ go locations.”

The change in hours might require a change in schedule for some students, especially if their classes are in the evening.

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