Classport

Observation- At Baldwin Park, I noticed that there were more people walking or riding bikes than driving in cars. It was a busy place, but everyone seemed to be friendly and happy. Drivers and pedestrians were curtious to eachother and it seemed like an altogether pleasant place to live. There were many stores, restaurants, banks, and service centers. I had not seen any type of law enforcment until right before i left. I saw one police car drive by. The community had an elementry school and a middle school, a huge lake in the middle, and lots of gyms/places to workout or get excersise.

Speculation- The fact that more people were using bikes or walking as transportation shows that the people are probably much more fit then most places. Also, everyone seemed to be happy and there were almost no police or firetrucks driving around. This shows that Baldwin Park is probably a calm, stress free, safe place to live. Most homes were very big and looked expensive. This shows that the majority of people here are very wealthy.

Analysis- In the interview, we talked to a realator in one of the model homes. We asked him what the reasons for Baldwin Park being bulty there were. His answer was to add a boost to the economic communtity, and escape long commutes and live in an established, well organized area.

Evaluation- I think Baldwin Park was built in the idea of a "utopia" image. It was made in one of the most well organized, thought out plans you can think of. Everything seems to be in the right place, no matter how hard you try to find a flaw. The community is useful in many ways, and makes living life a more pleasant experience. It has lowered the crime rate a lot, and has high security. The air was fresh, the people were happy, everything seemed in place in Baldwin Park.

Comparison- Baldwin Park is different from my neighborhood in too many ways to describe. I live in Casselberry, a not so wealthy city. The homes in my neighborhood are lower middle class to middle class homes. The homes in Baldwin park are much nicer, and much more expensive. That community had their own schools and stores. It reminded of a dome. Every little thing was perfect, everything living together in harmony. While in my neighborhood, there are crimes, fights, people walking around looking upset for who knows what reason. In fact, there is a police station right around the corner from my neighborhood. Every house in Baldwin Park was two stories, or it was an apartment home. Not one home had a front yar, and there was only about a yard of space between each house. Where i live, everyone has a front yard to run around and play in, and there is pleanty of space inbetween homes to have your privacy. Both communities have their ups and downs. But I would much rather live where i live now, than move to Baldwin Park and give up the privacy of your own home, the front yards to play in, being able to ride your bike down the street where people seldom drive by, to live in a place where everything is public, and everyone knows eachother. Or there are always cars driving down the narrow roads, while even more people are walking, biking, or skating down the even narrower sidewalks.

Chapter 10

- Why did the author visit Plauen, Germany?

The author wanted to visit Plauen because he found it fascinating, and it has a lot of history behind it. Events there have forshadowed the rise and fall of great social movements. It has a beautiful, lush and green countryside. Old buildings with a lot of charm, and the people are friendly. Plauen was the first city outside of bavaria to organize its own chapter of the Nazi party. In May of 1923, the Hitler Youth movement was launched in Plauen, and the following year, the little city became the Nazi headquarters for Saxony. For most of World War II, Plauen remained strangely quiet and peaceful. Thousands of German refugees stayed there safely, fleeing bombed cities. On April 10, 1945, hundreds of British Lancaster bombers appeared over the city of Plauen. During a single raid, the Royal Air Force dropped 2.000 tons of high explosives on the city. Overall, the city of Plauen has had massive amounts of improtant history, including devostation and many great improvements in their society.

- In what ways might there be a connection between the obesity rate in America and the fast food industry?

The United States has the highest obesity rate of any industialized nation in the world. More than half of the adults and about one-quarter of children in America are now obese or overweight. The amount of adults has gone up two times as much since 1960, and the amount of children have also doubled since 1970. Today about 44 million American adults are obese. An additional 6 million are "super-obese"; they weigh about one hundred pounds more than they should. As people eat more meals outside of home, they consume more calories, less fiber, and more fat. Over the last fourty years in the U.S, per capita consumption of carbonated soft drinks has more than quadrupled. In the late 1950's the typical soft drink order at a fast food restaurant contained about eight ounces of soda. Today a "child" order of Coke at McDonalds is twelve ounces, and a "large" is thirty-two ounces- and about 310 calories. An order of Super-sized fries at McDonalds is a serving size about three times larger than what their servings of fries were a generation ago. Super Size fries have 610 calories, and 29 grams of fat. These are only a small percentage of the dangers of fast food, and it is obvious by just these few examples how fast food is directly linked to a great majority of obesity in the U.S.

Chapter 1

- What restaurant chain did Carl Karcher start?

Carl Karcher started the Carl's Jr. restaurant and the Hardee's restaurant. He started out woking his own hot dog cart, which he then decided to buy out a barbeque shop. Then he decided to expand and he created a chain of restaurants called Carl's Jr. His bussiness expanded more and more until he grew so wealthy he created Carl Karcher Enterprises (CKE). Carl then purchased the restaurant chain called Hardee's for $327 million dollars.

- What was the "Speedee Service System" and how was it different from what other fast food restaurants were doing?

Before the "Speedee Service System", restaurants were more like diners. They had higher quality chefs, waitresses, carhops, dishwashers, and they were teen hangouts. The McDonalds brothers created the "Speedee Service System" in which restaurants would have an assembly line similar to those in factories, food was made faster, and customers could either come in and get their food or go through a drive-through. There was no longer a need for dishwashers, because dishes were replaced with paper plates. Higher quality chefs were replaced with faster, cheaper, factory style workers. This was all done to make the food faster.

Chapter 9

- Compared with several decades ago, how common are food-related illnesses today?

In the book, you will find that every day in the U.S, roughly 200,000 people are sickened by a foodborne disease, 900 are hospitalized, and 14 die. Over the past two decades scientists have discovered more than a dozen new foodborne pathogens other than E. coli 0157:H7. These pathogens include Campylobacter jejuni, Cryptosporidium parvum, Cyclospora cayetanesis, Listeria monocytogenes, and Norwalk-like viruses. According to the CDC, it is estimated that more than three-quarters of the food-related illnesses and deaths in the U.S have not yet been identified.

-How has the centralization of food production influenced the spread of food-related illnesses?

During this generation of people, meat production is more centralized than ever before. This is because fast food restaraunts or meat manufacturing businesses are trying to do everything they can to provide massive amounts of uniform beef. For example, McDonalds produces their hamburger patties the exact same way every time to get the same exact taste every time. This keeps consumors coming back for more, noticing that every hamburger will always taste just as good as the last. Although this is good for the businesses, people are beginning to suffer much more than they were just a couple of decades ago. The centralization of meat producing companies has gotten to the point where only thirteen large packinghouses now slaughter the majority of beef consumed in the U.S. In result, if one mass production of beef from only one packinghouse is released with the pathogen E. coli, almost one-thirteenth of the beef provided throughout the whole country will be infected with the lethal pathogen.

Chapter 8

- How does the injury rate in meat packing compare with the injury rate in other occupations?

In the meat packing industry, more than one-quarter of the meatpacking workers in this country- roughly fourty thousand men and women- suffer an injury or a work-related illness every year. There is also strong evidence that these numbers, compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, understate the number of injuries that occur. Thousands go unrecorded. The author also states that the injury rate in a slaughterhouse is about three times higher than the rate in a typical American factory.

- What kinds of injuries do workers in meatpacking plants typically suffer?

The author gives many examples of different injuries reported in the meatpacking industry. Lacerations are the most common, but many other examples are used. These injuries include tendinitis and cumulative trauma disorders such as back problems, shoulder problems, carpal tunnel syndrome, and "trigger finger," a syndrome in which a finger becomes frozen in a curled position.

Chapter 7

• What changes did IBP introduce to the meatpacking industry?

IBP opened a large plant in Dakota City, Nebraska. This plant not only slaughtered the cattle, but came up with a process of "fabricating" them into smaller cuts of meat. Instead of shipping whole sides of meat like The Jungle, IBP shipped the smaller cuts in vacuum-sealed and plastic wrapped boxes. This new way of marketing beef enabled supermarkets to fire most of their skilled, unionized butchers. IBP was then left with a ton of leftover bones, blood, and scrps of meat that were then used for things such as dog food. This whole new process of marketing kept the company making tons of money, because of handing out low wages, and firing a lot of workers.

• Why were newer meat packing plants located in rural areas rather than in cities?

IBP was among the first companies to notice that immigrants were willing to work for lower pay than American citizens would. Companies then started moving their plants into more rural areas because there were more immigrants living there than in cities. More immigrants started coming down to work for these companies, and the more money the companies would make.

Chapter 6

• What impact has the consolidation of the meat packing industry had on cattle ranchers?

According to the author, the five meatpacking companies, Armour, Swift, Morris, Wilson, and Cudahy, signed a consent decree in 1920 that forced the ranchers to sell off their stocyards, retail meat stores, railway interests, and lovestock journals. A year later, the Packers and Stockyards Administration, a federal agency with a broad athority to prevent price-fixing and monopolistic behavior in the beef industry was created. For the next fifty years, ranchers sold their cattle in a competitive marketplace. In 1970 the top four meatpacking firms slaughtered only 21 percent of the nation's cattle. Today, the top four meatpacking firms, ConAgra, IBP, Excel, and National Beef, slaughter about 84 percent of the nations cattle. This is one of the main reasons for cattle ranchers pay decreasing so much. Over the last twenty years, the rancher's share of every retail dollar spent on beef has fallen from 63 cents to 46 cents.

• What are "captive supplies" of cattle?

Captive supplies are cattle that are either maintanined in company-owned feedlots or purchased in advance through forward contracts. The captive supplies are maintained until cattle prises start to rise. That is when the large meatpackers can flood the market with their own captive supplies, driving prices back down.