from Joey
Week 3

The Italian meal that we ate was the best food I have ever eaten. I have never tasted something with SO much flavor. It is unreal how ignorant people can be in thinking that you can only get that much flavor from meat. There is a lot of flavor in what you put on meat, but the only meat that I think actually has its own flavor is bacon. I have not eaten a whole meal since that one because the nutrients in it have kept me so full! I never miss meals, so this is a rare and odd occurrence for me to not be starving come dinnertime. I absolutely loved how the taco salad made me feel. It was so light and filling. The flavor was really unique in it too. The thousand island dressing didn’t make me feel as guilty as normal thousand island. I liked that.

I wanted to listen to my body last night. I was craving a burger, and after not eating meat for a very long time, I decided I would give my body what it wanted. The burger itself did not make me sick, which is what I thought would happen like the typical reaction of a vegan to a meat product. I felt so heavy. I felt like shit. I had been eating like a king of vegetables, and feeling so healthy and young. I couldn’t move, I lay down on my boyfriends gross and dirty wood floor and felt defeated. I gave my body its’ craving, only to find out, that was not what it wanted at all. 

I thought our discussion about rights went really well. I found so much horrific stuff about agent orange that I was repulsed and so upset that we were putting people through such cruelty. The other presentations were really interesting within this topic too. Workers harsh conditions, and the contradictory facts were so terrible to listen to. How can we not listen to the 99%? How are their voices so muted? Just liked the Diet for a Dead Planet is saying, we are eating labor. We are depending on half the world in just our breakfast. These are such weird and revolutionary thoughts, I love it. 

from Ali

 Over the past two weeks, I feel like I've been so informed with all of the problems that we have today due to the meat and dairy industries that staying vegan for me is inevitable. Over the past week that I've been vegan, I have noticed that I no longer feel sick after eating. Surprisingly, I think I recently became lactose intolerant and so being aware of what I've been eating has really affected the way that I've been feeling after meals. This class has really benefitted me so far because I've become not only more health concious, but I've also become much more environmentally friendly in all of my decisions. 

The reading that affected me the most this week was the Rolling Stone's article on Boss Hogs. To read information like that is so depressing and it's so difficult to believe that our government is allowing this to go on. Pig shit so poisonous that it takes the lives of those working with it is nearly unbelieveable. Yet it's continuing to go on regardless of all of the problems coming out of it. Not only is it bad for our environment, but it is also disgusting that the pigs so pumped with hormones and anti-biotics are allowed to be sold to the public for food. To think that our country is putting something so toxic in their body without being well aware is not fair. Plus, with the laws that our country has, it's now illegal to speak about what actually goes on. This article was so intriguing, yet so disturbing. I'm just thankful that other governments are refusing to allow Smithfield into their states.

from Jack
Week Two

Watching my room mates gobble down mcdoubles and mcchicken sandwhiches turned my stomach as well as my mind after our converstaions this week in class. The idea that what we consume has been turned into an industry and is so far away from the natural processes of the world is mind boggling- how can we as humans believe that we can sustain ourselves on these things?  This food  is as much of crap as the plastic garbage we buy to please ourselves.  it is empty and disconnected, but most of all for me, it is killing the planet we inhabit.  To imagine that the spill from the pig waste polluted far more than the exxon valdez and no one heard about it is appaling.  I ponder these facts we are presented with and wonder how we have let ourselves get to a place where what we put into our bodies is so ... fake.  It seems that much of our society is developed around a premise that the cheapest, fastest, and most individualistic method is the best.  In America it is all about effeciency and because of that health, environment, and ethics is tossed out the window.  And this is not just in the realm of food, we let these rules govern all whole culture.  In order to get to the point of it and understand our place in the world we must slow our consupmtion rates and educate our selves on how to live simply and conciously. 

One afternoon this week when I cut out of class I went and was able to sit at a table with congressmen Matheson.  To hear what he thought about the current state of a couple issues in Utah was interesting, and yet it felt fairly scripted.  He said what we thought he would say as the cameras rolled.  But it was nice to meet with someone who makes the decisions in the place we live, and to see that we do see eye to eye on some things.  But in order to make a real change, we need a radicle candidate who will not buy into the coperate lobby but be able to understand what the people and their land need.  This person will be able to call out companies like smithfeild farms on their malpractice.  Maybe they will start to put sustainable, local business back on top and we can once again be connected with our bodies and our environment. 

from Nate
Week Three

I have a shirt my best friend gave me for Christmas that says "Bacon Strips and Bacon Strips and Bacon Strips and Bacon Strips, EPIC MEAL TIME." As funny as I thought it would be to wear it to class during Boss Hog, I did not. Oh well.

Again I am greeted with the question of whether I am happy I took this class or would have rather remained ignorant, a bit of blue-pill-red-pill dilemma. This week of class made me want to cry because bacon is awesome. Fact. And it makes me sad that now I get to feel that America-corporate-exploitation feeling that I associate with superstores like Walmart and other companies that slice their profits out of the souls of their employees and customers. I’m not sure whether I would have rather lived in the reality created for me, that I was born into, or whether I’m glad I took the red pill and realized that I haven’t been fed the full story. 

from Amanda
Week Three
Doing research on the impact of meat and dairy on the environment has been very interesting.  The statistics that my group presented were absolutely astounding.  For example, going vegan saves more energy and causes less pollution than switching to a hybrid car!  I never really thought about the fact that producing meat released greenhouse gases, other than the fact that cows release a lot of methane.  It's not something that one usually associates with meat production!  However, a simple google search of "meat and the environment" returns hundreds if not thousands of results about the negative impacts of producing meat on the environment.  More and more, people are beginning to open their eyes and want to bring about change through their diet.  One great website that I found was the Veganic Agriculture Network.  (http://www.goveganic.net/spip.php?article68).  This website discusses how sustainable agriculture and a vegan diet go hand in hand.

from Amanda
Week Four Blog
This last week's class was probably the most difficult and interesting for me.  I have always been upset by the treatment of the animals in the meat industry, but talking about it was intense for me.  The video that we watched in class was especially difficult!  Actually seeing what happens to the animals that we eat made me more sure than ever that I want to not be a part of the consumption of meat. I was shocked and appalled at the way the workers treated the animals as if they were not living beings.  They were so cold and withdrawn from the entire process, as if in their minds they were not registering what they were doing.  I think that if our society actually knew what was going on behind the closed doors of the slaughterhouses, if we actually saw videos like the one that we watched in class and everybody knew what happened to the animals, there would be a whole lot les meat consumption in the United States.  I think it would also cause the meat industry to be re-evaluated, replanned, and rebuilt.  

From Ali
Week Four

 As I read Into the Fire, it really got me thinking about Westminster's Campus. We're a little bit smaller than the 4,500 students at Yale University, but if their students had such a large impact on their campus, why can't we? We don't need Sodexo to provide us with their disgusting, fake food when we can eat organically and locally from farmers around the Salt Lake Valley. If we began to purchase large amounts of local food, we would see a different in the demand of the food, but also in the health of our students. We could also provide more vegan and vegetarian options, and food that would be preferred by most. It was really neat to read that just by purchasing apples, they were able to also get local meat in their school as well that was treated humanely and without hormones. If more universities began to do this, the demand for organics and local would sky-rocket, and the prices would decline, as well as the health problems in our country. 

This week, the presentation was on ethics. I've seen videos before, read books, and I'm very well aware of the things that go on in slaughterhouses, however, each and every single time I watch a video, I can't help but burst into tears. It really bothers me the things that they do the animals. It is so cruel and if we were to do something like that to any domesticated animal, it would be and is illegal. Hearing stories like Michael Vick with the dog fighting comes out in the news everywhere, but slaughterhouses are rarely heard of and when they are, people think it's just the radical, hippie point of view making up things. If people actually knew what went on in slaughterhouses, they would greatly reconsider what they ate...

I loved the last day of class, the meal was fantastic, and I'm so excited to embark on this journey of veganism!