The Fries we ate
So last Monday, we read Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation chapter on Why the fries taste good. After pages of exposing the inequities of potato farming, the history of McDonald's preparation of the fries in everything from beef tallow to vegetable oil with "natural flavors" and an expose of what those "natural flavors" might actually be, Schlosser narrates eating a plate of fries at the test kitchen. In response he admits, "I finished them and asked for more."
Interested in how this sort of muckraking is affecting the eating habits of my students, I decided to get sneaky, and for the day's discussion of the ethics of eating, and on Schlooser's rhetorical tactics, I went out and bought a small order of McDonald's fries for each of the students in my 12:30 class. Almost everyone ate them.
The dilemma: One student rightly noted that there's a difference between eating the fries (what she was doing) and buying the fries (what I had done), while another mock-complained that she had sworn off fries forever, until she came into the classroom, "and there they were."
So did I undermine my pedeagogy of challenge? Or did I expose a potential hyopcrisy that might have played out in a matter of days or weeks anyway?
This is perhaps complicated by the fact that I, who otherwise never goes to McDonald's (occasionally Burger King, though), ate my fries dutifully--they were gross, but I ate them. Next time, I'll buy them for the class, but I shall pass on my own portion.
Comments
Surrrrrre you'll pass on the fries! It's an interesting conundrum, and one that I've had to face many times. I typically choose to eat sustainably-harvested fish (thanks to Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Guide) or kosher chicken (which are raised more humanely), but I've been known to eat beef - or even goat - when I'm in Africa. Tricky, because you sometimes can't be sure that it's not more than that. But I rationalize it by thinking about protein hunger, too many carbs, and hey - I didn't BUY it, I'm just eating it! Thanks for the updates!
Posted by: natalie | March 5, 2004 12:56 PM
Well, Natalie, you raise an even more complex issue, which is how the variables of place and available resources fits in: GW students, while certainly not all rolling in cash (they are college students after all), are hardly without resources to eat well. Being in Tanzania with a limited menu avaiable is far mroe complicated than being perched precariously on the brink of starvation on 22nd and Eye Streets, NW.
Posted by: Ryan | March 5, 2004 1:58 PM
I don't think you undermined your pedagogy... I think you strengthened it. You made the inevitable distancing between what you're learning and what they're eating a topic of discussion rather than something they just refuse to think about when they buy the fries on their own. I'm with you though... McDonald's ick, Burger King yay! (Only fast food place with a veggie burger).
Posted by: Jenny | March 5, 2004 7:48 PM
If FFN doesn't make them swear off fries, the chapter on the potato in Michael Pollan's _The Botany of Desire_ will (and potato salad, and mashed potatoes, &c.)
Posted by: JBJ | March 5, 2004 8:05 PM
You're not the first person to recommend the Pollan book, one that I think I'll need to check into now.
Ryan
Posted by: Ryan | March 6, 2004 8:38 AM
"the fries we ate" -- this is a pop culture allusion, but i can't get my brain around it. please reveal.
Posted by: fritz | March 10, 2004 2:50 AM
No specific allusion. Just what the post is about.
Posted by: Ryan | March 10, 2004 4:42 PM
at last! the mystery has been revealed to me in a bolt from heaven. it's the missing lyric from INXS's hit song, "Mediate."
...Hallucinate
Dessegregate
Mediate
Alleviate
Try not to hate
The fries we ate
Don't suffocate on your own hate
Designate your love as fate
A one world state
As human freight
The number eight
A white black state
A gentle trait
The broken crate...
Posted by: fritz | March 17, 2004 6:48 PM