Commodity fetishism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Commodity fetishism - Essay Example Significantly, these dynamics form the framework of both subjects and popular cultural forms. Commodity fetishism is not merely a notion or illusion. It refers to the functioning of capitalism as a system, and explains why media representation has ideological power. The 1994 Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or award-winning film Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, USA, 1994) consists of a trio of stories revolving around the â€Å"violent misadventures of a collection of outlaws – right out of the pages of pulp fiction† (Marlow, 2001: 90). Marx’s theory of commodity fetishism explains the ideological concepts in the film. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to provide an ideology critique of the film Pulp Fiction written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, 1994. The critique will be based on Marx’s theory of commodity fetishism. Extensive changes have occurred in cultural, political and economic practices since around 1972. These changes are related to the new major ways in which time and space are experienced by individuals. Postmodernism is related to the culture of the advanced capitalist societies, with a changing sensibility and a shift in the structure of feeling, in practices, and discourse formations. This leads to new assumptions, experiences and propositions, as evident in cultural manifestations and the media including films (Harvey, 1989). Developed by modernist culture, â€Å"the postmodern is characterized by experiments in time, space and perception† (Wayne, 2005: 108); it is now increasingly integrated with popular genres, as in Pulp Fiction and other films such as The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995), and Sliding Doors (Peter Howitt, 1998). Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film Pulp Fiction is â€Å"one of the best examples of the mysterious subtext of the curio shop in contemporary narratives† (Goh, 2002: 19). The film has been highly popular, winning critical acclaim,

Boston Tea Party Essay Example for Free

Boston Tea Party Essay On December 16, 1773, a monumental event took place that was crucial to the growth of the American Revolution. This event was known as The Boston Tea Party, taking place in Boston, a city in the British colony of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Patriots were in immense disapproval on how parliament was trying to monopolize the market on American tea importation granted to the East India Company (Boston Tea Party). The East India Company was a failing British corporation. This Company was on the verge of bankruptcy. They had millions of pounds of unsold tea that sat in warehouses. The idea was to persuade English and colonial consumers to buy East India Company tea to save one of Britain’s largest corporations. In order to make this happen, British Parliament proposed the Tea Act of 1773. The Tea Act allowed the East India Company to sell through agents in America without paying the taxes normally collected in Britain, which allowed the company to undersell even smugglers in the colonies (David Goldfield). What drew major controversy with the Tea Act was that it retained the three pence Townshend duty on tea imported to the colonies. The colonists objected to the Tea Act. They believed that this act violated their rights to â€Å"No taxation without representation,† which meant that they would only be taxed by their own elected representatives and not by the British Parliament that did not represent them. Regardless of what the colonists thought, consignees were selected in Boston, New York, Charleston, and Philadelphia, and then 500,000 pounds of tea were shipped across the Atlantic in September. The first tea ship, Dartmouth, reached Boston November 27, and two more were sent shortly after that. There were several meetings held demanding that the tea be sent back to England with the duty not paid for. Tension was rising when patriot groups tried to persuade the consignees and the governor to accept this approach. On December 16th, citizens, some disguised as Mohawk Indians, pushed toward Griffins Wharf and boarded the tea ships (Boston Tea Party). In a course of three hours they dumped three hundred and forty two chests of tea into the harbor, turning it into a teapot (Boston Tea Party Historical Society). The chests held more than 90,000 pounds of tea, which would cost nearly $1,000,000 dollars today (Boston Tea Party). There were certainly several participants and witnesses to the accounts of what occurred at the Boston Tea Party. Although all of the participants were taking part in the same event, their memories of their accounts do seem to differ. The first thing that I noticed was the number of participants. David Kinnison, the longest surviving participant from the Boston Tea Party, claims that there were only 24 men involved (Boston Tea Party Historical Society). His statement matches up well with Samuel Cooper, a participant that was just 16 at the time, who claims that there were around 20 men (Boston Tea Party Historical Society). Then you have John Andrews, claiming that there were around 200 citizens dressed as Indians. Another thing that seems unclear is the way the ships were taken over (Boston Tea Party Historical Society). George Hewes, a Boston shoemaker and participant, states that they were divided into 3 groups, one for each ship. Joshua Wyeth, also a participant, who was only just 16, also states that they took to the three ships at the same time. On the other hand, the Massachusetts Gazette states that they worked their way from ship to ship, after emptying one ship they would move to the next. There are many differences in the accounts of what exactly happened at the Boston Tea Party, which I think helps decipher the truthful accounts from the fabricated ones (Boston Tea Party Historical Society). Most of the witnesses that were actually a part of the Boston Tea Party had testimonies that were exceptionally similar. I believe the only thing that may have caused them to be slightly different would be the fact that it was a little over half a century later when they were trying to recollect the events. I also think that the participants swearing to secrecy had an impact on some of the misleading information, such as the discrepancy on the number of participants. Most of the participants had mentioned around 20 men being involved, when in fact the number was found to be a lot greater than that. The participants in the destruction did not even acknowledge each other even when boarding the ships, breaking open the chests and dumping the tea, so of course they are not going to be truthful about how many citizens were actually involved. I also believe that some of the information misinterpreted for fabrication might be due to the participant not writing their story themselves. George Hewes account of what happened was written by him, Joshua Wyeth’s account was recorded from his words, Samuel Cooper’s came directly from him also. All of these accounts seemed to be relatively similar; where as accounts that were retold by biographers may have changed along the way. Also, participants stories did not coincide on what time the event was actually over. John Andrews wrote that before nine o’clock every chest was destroyed, but Samuel Cooper’s account placed the end of the destruction at ten o’clock (Boston Tea Party Historical Society). Considering that Samuel Cooper had a role in this momentous event, I would give him the benefit of the doubt as to telling the truth of when the event actually came to an end (Boston Tea Party Historical Society). Another person who played an interesting role in the Boston Tea Party was Paul Revere. Revere felt strongly about the movement toward political independence from Great Britain. He was a very well rounded artisan and intellectual. Revere was a silversmith whose work brought him in close contact with patriots like John Hancock and Samuel Adams. He used his talents to support the colonial struggle against Britain. Revere soon assumed the role of a leader, along with Adams, of the Sons of Liberty. The Sons of Liberty were a secret patriotic organization formed in 1765 to prevent the Stamp Act (Paul Revere). The Sons of Liberty also organized the Boston Tea Party. Revere was also one of the many patriots who dressed up as an Indian and took part in the Boston Tea Party Protest against parliamentary taxation without representation (Boston Tea Party Historical Society). After the Tea Party, Revere was sent by the citizens of Boston to deliver news of the party to the other colonists in New York and Philadelphia. When he returned, he was appointed one of 25 men by the citizens of Boston to stand guard over the tea bearing vessels, in order to prevent the overexcited townspeople from doing further damage to the ship (Facts on Paul Revere). I would say Paul Revere played a significant role in the Boston Tea Party; he played the part of a ringleader and was a very influential role model. The acts that he participated in would not be condoned by Britain. The Boston Tea Party ultimately captured the attention of Parliament and produced a furious reaction. A lot of people in America and also in Britain were surprised about the destruction of property in the Tea Party. Parliament decided that this epic event demanded an immediate display of power. In the spring of 1774, parliament passed a series of totalitarian measures to be known as the Coercive Acts. These acts included the Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boston until Bostonians paid for the tea and uncollected duties. The Massachusetts Government Act, this act stated that members of the governors council and sheriffs would be appointed rather than elected and limited the number of town meetings that could be held without the governors prior approval. The Administration of Justice Act, which allowed any British soldier or official who was charged with a crime to be tried in England, where they would most likely receive a slap on the wrist. The Quartering Act of 1774 permitted the army to lodge soldiers in any civilian building if necessary. All of these acts were in response to the Boston Tea Party and attempts of Britain to gain royal control. Most colonists referred to these acts as the Intolerable Acts rather than the Coercive Acts, they viewed these acts as a threat to liberty in the colonies. The spirit of protest began to spread, more and more colonists became politicized. They began to realize their common interests as Americans and their differences from the British. America was starting to rebel, but had not yet launched a revolution (David Goldfield). Although, the acts they were taking were starting to have a major influence on America. The Boston Tea Party effected America in many ways. There were a lot of different factors and rebellious acts that eventually snowballed into war, but I would say the Boston Tea Party was the most significant. The passing of the Coercive Acts and parliaments refusal to revoke them led to a great deal of disgruntlement from the colonists. The Boston Tea party most definitely sparked the Revolution, which may have otherwise been delayed or never happened at all.

Analysis of Juliana Barrs Theory on Indian Communities

Analysis of Juliana Barrs Theory on Indian Communities Juliana Barr. Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press). 2007. ix + 397 pp. $24.00 paperback. Juliana Barr focuses on the Texas borderlands and the Caddos, Apaches, Payayas, Karankawas, Wichitas, and Comanches. Her research demonstrates how these bands retained control over their homelands and how they left the French and Spaniards no choice but to culturally adapt to indigenous practices. Barr argues that these encounters were molded by the kin-based systems of the Indian communities, their traditional diplomatic practices and rituals, and the social structures that deferred to matrilineal households. She contends that the Texas borderland experience was vastly different than Indian-European interactions in New Mexico and Arizona, where the Spaniards were able to subordinate and control the native peoples, often forcing them into labor and converting them to Catholicism. In Texas, the indigenous peoples did not allow themselves to become victims of the Spaniards. The tables were turned and the Texas Indians controlled the interactions. Unlike Richard Whites Indians of the Gr eat Lakes region, there was no middle ground. Europeans had to abide by to the native practices of diplomacy. She describes a world in which Indians dictated the terms of conduct, diplomacy, alliance, and enmity in their interactions with the Spaniards. (7-8) When Europeans first encountered the Caddos in 1686, they were impressed by the native villages. Their cabins were forty to fifty feet high and one Spaniard remarked, that the Caddo villages had nothing barbarous but the name. (21) The Caddos were receptive to the Europeans because they decided they could be valuable allies because of the guns and horses the Europeans came to trade. Alliances between the indigenous people and the Europeans was constantly influenced the Indians traditions. They developed elaborate public welcoming rituals conducted by the male hierarchy. The Caddos used the same methods of diplomacy as they did when they did business with other bands. The French culture was similar to that of the Caddos, and they shared Caddo values without expecting the Caddos to adopt French doctrine. The French allowed them to continue their sovereignty and recognized the elevated status of women in Caddo culture. The French were open to become integrated into the Caddo matrilineal system in order to trade their goods with the Indians. The same cannot be said of the Spaniards. They did not understand native culture and traditions centered on matrilineal kinship and immediately tried to change it. Spanish soldiers and missionaries tried to force their dogma on the Texas Indians. The situation was further complicated by the lack of Spanish women. The Indians placed much value on women and considered them to be vital to survival of their culture. The presence of women was considered to be a sign of peaceful intentions and a commitment by the Spanish to peace and stable relationships. Because the Spanish had no women and children with them, the natives considered this to be an indication that the Spaniards were in Texas as aggressors. At first, the Caddos believed the Spaniards images of the Virgin Mary was meant as a signal of their appreciation of the value of females, but they were soon disillusioned. Spaniards did not understand that in these native cultures, gender structured social and political relationships. Women played important central roles in hospitality rituals, and fictive kin relationships were vital to creating truces. The Spanish soldiers frequently abused and mistreated women. Their missionaries attempted to convert Indian women and mistook their openness to be a sign of promiscuity that needed to be rectified. The Indian communities came under pressure from the Spanish missionaries to abandon their deviant ideas about gender and alter basic fundamentals of their societies. In response to this pressure and the mistreatment of native women by the Spaniards which violated cultural and political protocols, in 1693 the Caddos drove the Spaniards out of their territory and into central Texas. Apache women played a significant diplomatic role because they were associated with peace and were allowed to move freely throughout the territory and across social and political boundaries as mediators and emissaries. (13) Barr demonstrates how the diplomatic overtures begun by Apache women ended with the meeting of Spanish and Apache women to hammer out a truce. (174) Political use of female captives were often brokers of peace. In response to Apache horse raids, the Spaniards began taking Apache women and children as prisoners of war or as slaves and refused to return them to their families. These captives were then used them as bartering tools. This created increased tensions with the kin-based native peoples. In addition to their role in diplomatic relations, women were also vital to strengthening alliances between the Indian groups and the Europeans. In the early years, Apache women were captured by Caddo men and purchased by the French. Eventually, the Apaches and Spaniards reached a military alliance in mutual defense against attacks by Comanches, Wichitas, and Caddos, but only after the Spaniards recognized the value of women in regards to diplomacy. As a show of their peaceful intentions, the Spaniards freed their Apache female slaves. In good faith, the Apache sent women to Spanish presidios to convey their reciprocity towards peace. The Apache women and children who were prisoners of the Spaniards learned Spanish and served as negotiators and translators. Women and children were traded back and forth between the Indians and Europeans. They also served as symbols of peace. According to Barr, Native American constructions of social order and of political and economic relationships-defined by general terms of kinship-were at the crux of Spanish-Indian politics. (2) According to Barr, these raids placed women at the very center of violence and diplomacy. (164) As the Spaniards finally came to understand the importance of women in the Indian communities, they were allowed to mingle and intermarry with the Indians. As a result, Spaniards were able to achieve some political power and the natives attained economic gain. Barr points out that native women not only served as negotiators in diplomacy, but they also were full contributors to Texas history. Although men of the different warring groups established truces, but customary practices involving women proved crucial to maintaining the peace agreements that followed. (246) Barrs research is important to Plains Indian and Texas historiography because she demonstrates how the Texas Indians controlled the rules of engagement between the indigenous peoples and the Europeans. The author distinguishes three phases of Spanish-native interactions which fall under the categories of trade, mission, and settlement. She contends that the natives were demographically superior to the Europeans. The author also postulates that gender was the foundation on which the native kinship systems in the Texas borderlands operated. She contends that these Spanish-Indian relationships were not based on hierarchies of race and class, but instead relied on gender. According to Barr, gender was the basis of power of the Caddos, Apaches, Karankawas, Wichitas, and Comanches. This allowed these native groups to negotiate with Europeans through gendered standards and practices in political economies of gift giving and hospitality, alliances instituted in joint family settlements, hono rs and dishonors inherent in violence and war, exchanges of women through intermarriage, captivity and hostage taking, and political relationships conceived through fictive and real kinship. (289) Barrs main argument is that the potential for success or failure of Europeans to forge associations with the various native groups depended on the Europeans capability to understand and accommodate gendered kinship practices. She also maintains that the various Indian groups had no concept of state; therefore, their political organizations were based on age and gender. She contends that in cross-cultural encounters, gender was performative, meaning not what people are, but what people do through distinctive postures, gestures, clothing, ornamentation, and occupations. (11) Thus, gender serves as a form of nonverbal communication in situations where there is no common language. To substantiate her arguments, Barr has recreated the social structures of the different Indian groups and uses them to analyze the accounts of the encounters. Because there were no original native sources, Barr relied heavily on Spanish sources. As a result she has had to make some conjectures to understand Indian perspectives on power and peace. Barr uses a variety of primary and secondary sources. She has included maps and illustrations to help the reader understand the ever-changing alliances and interactions. Barr invites her readers to stand metaphorically in Indian country and to contemplate Spanish colonialism in eighteenth century Texas from the perspective of the Texas Indians. (295) Her book is a study of interethnic relations which encourages historians to explore the perspective of gendered practices of peace. Juliana Barr has been an associate professor at the Duke University since 2015. Dr. Barr previously was associated with Rutgers University and the University of Florida-Gainesville. She specializes in early American history, the Spanish borderlands, American Indians, and women and gender.

Personal Narrative- Growing Closer to God Essay -- Personal Perspectiv

Personal Narrative- Growing Closer to God My head spins as I fly down Capital Circle on my way back home from church. Church has always been the highlight of my week, but something was missing tonight. I just couldn't seem to focus on worshiping God. My usual words of praise were empty. My hectic life had become a distraction and kept me from focusing on God, who should be my main priority. The butterflies in my stomach feel more like a herd of elephants tearing through my body. I cry out, "Why God? Why am I so busy? Why can't things just slow down for a single night?" As I pull into my driveway the "elephants" continue and my stress level only escalates. An incredible urge to disappear overwhelms me. As I slump over my textbook and try to focus on studying, my gaze keeps shifting to my Bible. "Are you trying to tell me something God? Because I don't think you understand how much I have left to do tonight. My grade depends on studying for this test and I'm not ready for it at all." My arm creeps toward the Bible and snatches it up. It's as if the arm isn't my own; I can'...

English Language and Composition

AP ® English Language and Composition 2011 Free-Response Questions About the College Board The College Board is a mission-driven not-for-profit organization that connects students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the College Board was created to expand access to higher education. Today, the membership association is made up of more than 5,900 of the world’s leading educational institutions and is dedicated to promoting excellence and equity in education.Each year, the College Board helps more than seven million students prepare for a successful transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and college success — including the SAT ® and the Advanced Placement Program ®. The organization also serves the education community through research and advocacy on behalf of students, educators and schools.  © 2011 The College Board. College Board, Advanced Placement Program, AP, AP Central, SAT and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Board.Admitted Class Evaluation Service and inspiring minds are trademarks owned by the College Board. All other products and services may be trademarks of their respective owners. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. Permission to use copyrighted College Board materials may be requested online at: www. collegeboard. org/inquiry/cbpermit. html. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. AP Central is the official online home for the AP Program: apcentral. collegeboard. om. 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION SECTION II Total time—2 hours Question 1 (Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score. ) Locavores are people who have decided to eat locally grown or produced products as much as possible. With an eye to nutrition as well as sustainability (resource use that preserves the environment ), the locavore movement has become widespread over the past decade.Imagine that a community is considering organizing a locavore movement. Carefully read the following seven sources, including the introductory information for each source. Then synthesize information from at least three of the sources and incorporate it into a coherent, well-developed essay that identifies the key issues associated with the locavore movement and examines their implications for the community. Make sure that your argument is central; use the sources to illustrate and support your reasoning. Avoid merely summarizing the sources.Indicate clearly which sources you are drawing from, whether through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. You may cite the sources as Source A, Source B, etc. , or by using the descriptions in parentheses. Source A Source B Source C Source D Source E Source F Source G (Maiser) (Smith and MacKinnon) (McWilliams) (chart) (Gogoi) (Roberts) (cartoon)  © 2011 The College Board . Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -2- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source A Maiser, Jennifer. 10 Reasons to Eat Local Food. † Eat Local Challenge. Eat Local Challenge, 8 Apr. 2006. Web. 16 Dec. 2009. The following is an article from a group Weblog written by individuals who are interested in the benefits of eating food grown and produced locally. Eating local means more for the local economy. According to a study by the New Economics Foundation in London, a dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. When businesses are not owned locally, money leaves the community at every transaction. Locally grown produce is fresher.While produce that is purchased in the supermarket or a big-box store has been in transit or cold-stored for days or weeks, produce that you purchase at your local farmer’s market has often been picked within 24 hours of your purchase . This freshness not only affects the taste of your food, but the nutritional value which declines with time. Local food just plain tastes better. Ever tried a tomato that was picked within 24 hours? ’Nuff said. Locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen. Because the produce will be handled less, locally grown fruit does not have to be rugged† or to stand up to the rigors of shipping. This means that you are going to be getting peaches so ripe that they fall apart as you eat them, figs that would have been smashed to bits if they were sold using traditional methods, and melons that were allowed to ripen until the last possible minute on the vine. Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic. In a March 2005 study by the journal Food Policy, it was found that the miles that organic food often travels to our plate creates environmental damage that outweighs the benefit of buying organic.Buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons. By eating with the seasons, we are eating foods when they are at their peak taste, are the most abundant, and the least expensive. Buying locally grown food is fodder for a wonderful story. Whether it’s the farmer who brings local apples to market or the baker who makes local bread, knowing part of the story about your food is such a powerful part of enjoying a meal. Eating local protects us from bio-terrorism. Food with less distance to travel from farm to plate has less susceptibility to harmful contamination.Local food translates to more variety. When a farmer is producing food that will not travel a long distance, will have a shorter shelf life, and does not have a high-yield demand, the farmer is free to try small crops of various fruits and vegetables that would probably never make it to a large supermarket. Supermarkets are interested in selling â€Å"Name brand† fruit: Romaine Lettuce, Red Delicious Apples, Russet Potatoes. Local producers often play with their crops from year to year, trying out Little Gem Lettuce, Senshu Apples, and Chieftain Potatoes.Supporting local providers supports responsible land development. When you buy local, you give those with local open space—farms and pastures—an economic reason to stay open and undeveloped. Jennifer Maiser, www. eatlocalchallenge. com  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -3- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source B Smith, Alisa, and J. B. MacKinnon. Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally.New York: Harmony, 2007. Print. The following passage is excerpted from a book written by the creators of the 100-Mile Diet, an experiment in eating only foods grown and produced within a 100-mile radius. Food begins to lose nutrition as soon as it is harvested. Fruit and vegetables that travel shorter distances are therefore likely to be closer to a maximum of nutrition. â€Å"Nowadays, we know a lot more about the naturally occurring substances in produce,† said [Cynthia] Sass. It’s not just vitamins and minerals, but all these phytochemicals and really powerful disease-fighting substances, and we do know that when a food never really reaches its peak ripeness, the levels of these substances never get as high. † . . . Yet when I called to confirm these facts with Marion Nestle, a professor and former chair of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, she waved away the nutrition issue as a red herring. Yes, she said, our 100-mile diet—even in winter—was almost certainly more nutritious than what the average American was eating.That doesn’t mean it is necessary to eat locally in order to be healthy. In fact, a person making smart choices from the global megamart can easily meet all the body’s needs. â€Å"There will be nutritional differences, but t hey’ll be marginal,† said Nestle. â€Å"I mean, that’s not really the issue. It feels like it’s the issue— obviously fresher foods that are grown on better soils are going to have more nutrients. But people are not nutrient-deprived. We’re just not nutrient-deprived. † So would Marion Nestle, as a dietician, as one of America’s most important critics of dietary policy, advocate for local eating? Absolutely. † Why? Because she loves the taste of fresh food, she said. She loves the mystery of years when the late corn is just utterly, incredibly good, and no one can say why: it just is. She likes having farmers around, and farms, and farmland.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -4- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source C McWilliams, James E. â€Å"On My Mind: The Locavore Myth. † Forbes. com. Forbes, 15 J ul. 2009. Web. 16 Dec. 2009.The following is excerpted from an online opinion article in a business magazine. Buy local, shrink the distance food travels, save the planet. The locavore movement has captured a lot of fans. To their credit, they are highlighting the problems with industrialized food. But a lot of them are making a big mistake. By focusing on transportation, they overlook other energy-hogging factors in food production. Take lamb. A 2006 academic study (funded by the New Zealand government) discovered that it made more environmental sense for a Londoner to buy lamb shipped from New Zealand than to buy lamb raised in the U.K. This finding is counterintuitive—if you’re only counting food miles. But New Zealand lamb is raised on pastures with a small carbon footprint, whereas most English lamb is produced under intensive factory-like conditions with a big carbon footprint. This disparity overwhelms domestic lamb’s advantage in transportation energy. N ew Zealand lamb is not exceptional. Take a close look at water usage, fertilizer types, processing methods and packaging techniques and you discover that factors other than shipping far outweigh the energy it takes to transport food.One analysis, by Rich Pirog of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, showed that transportation accounts for only 11% of food’s carbon footprint. A fourth of the energy required to produce food is expended in the consumer’s kitchen. Still more energy is consumed per meal in a restaurant, since restaurants throw away most of their leftovers. Locavores argue that buying local food supports an area’s farmers and, in turn, strengthens the community. Fair enough. Left unacknowledged, however, is the fact that it also hurts farmers in other parts of the world.The U. K. buys most of its green beans from Kenya. While it’s true that the beans almost always arrive in airplanes— the form of transportation that consumes t he most energy—it’s also true that a campaign to shame English consumers with small airplane stickers affixed to flown-in produce threatens the livelihood of 1. 5 million sub-Saharan farmers. Another chink in the locavores’ armor involves the way food miles are calculated. To choose a locally grown apple over an apple trucked in from across the country might seem easy. But this decision ignores economies of scale.To take an extreme example, a shipper sending a truck with 2,000 apples over 2,000 miles would consume the same amount of fuel per apple as a local farmer who takes a pickup 50 miles to sell 50 apples at his stall at the green market. The critical measure here is not food miles but apples per gallon. The one big problem with thinking beyond food miles is that it’s hard to get the information you need. Ethically concerned consumers know very little about processing practices, water availability, packaging waste and fertilizer application.This is a n opportunity for watchdog groups. They should make life-cycle carbon counts available to shoppers. Reprinted by Permission of Forbes Media LLC  © 2010  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -5- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source D Loder, Natasha, Elizabeth Finkel, Craig Meisner, and Pamela Ronald. â€Å"The Problem of What to Eat. † Conservation Magazine. The Society for Conservation Biology, July-Sept. 2008. Web. 16 Dec. 2009.The following chart is excerpted from an online article in an environmental magazine.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -6- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source E Gogoi, Pallavi. â€Å"The Rise of the ‘Locavore’: How the Strengthening Local Food Movement in Towns Across the U. S. Is Reshaping Farms and Food Retailing. † Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg, 20 May 2008. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. The following is excerpted from an online article in a business magazine.The rise of farmers’ markets— in city centers, college towns, and rural squares—is testament to a dramatic shift in American tastes. Consumers increasingly are seeking out the flavors of fresh, vine-ripened foods grown on local farms rather than those trucked to supermarkets from faraway lands. â€Å"This is not a fringe foodie culture,† says [Anthony] Flaccavento. â€Å"These are ordinary, middle-income folks who have become really engaged in food and really care about where their food comes from. † It’s a movement that is gradually reshaping the business of growing and supplying food to Americans.The local food movement has already accomplished something that almost no one would have thought possible a few years back: a revival of small farms. After declining for more than a century, the number of small farms has increased 20% in the past six years, to 1. 2 million, according to the Agriculture Dept. . . . The impact of â€Å"locavores† (as local-food proponents are known) even shows up in that Washington salute every five years to factory farming, the Farm Bill. The latest version passed both houses in Congress in early May and was sent on May 20 to President George W.Bush’s desk for signing. Bush has threatened to veto the bill, but it passed with enough votes to sustain an override. Predictably, the overwhelming bulk of its $290 billion would still go to powerful agribusiness interests in the form of subsidies for growing corn, soybeans, and cotton. But $2. 3 billion was set aside this year for specialty crops, such as the eggplants, strawberries, or salad greens that are grown by exactly these small, mostly organic farmers. That’s a big bump-up from the $100 million that was earmarked for such things in the previous legislation.Small fa rmers will be able to get up to 75% of their organic certification costs reimbursed, and some of them can obtain crop insurance. There’s money for research into organic foods, and to promote farmers’ markets. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said the bill â€Å"invests in the health and nutrition of American children . . . by expanding their access to farmer’s markets and organic produce. † Reprinted from the May 20, 2008 issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek by special permission, copyright  © 2008 by Bloomberg L. P.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. ollegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -7- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source F Roberts, Paul. The End of Food. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008. Print. The following is excerpted from a book about the food industry. [T]he move toward local food, for all its trendiness (the more adamant adherents, known as â€Å"localvores,† strive to buy products that have traveled the least â€Å"food miles†), highlights one of the problematic pieces of the modern food economy: the increasing reliance on foods shipped halfway round the world.Because long-distance food shipments promote profligate fuel use and the exploitation of cheap labor (which compensates for the profligate fuel use), shifting back to a more locally sourced food economy is often touted as a fairly straightforward way to cut externalities, restore some measure of equity between producers and consumers, and put the food economy on a more sustainable footing. Such a shift would bring back diversity to land that has been all but destroyed by chemical-intensive mono-cropping, provide much-needed jobs at a local level, and help to rebuild community,† argues the UK-based International Society for Ecology and Culture, one of the leading lights in the localvore movement. â€Å"Moreover, it would allow farmers to make a decent living while giving consumers access to healthy, fresh food at affordable prices. † While localvorism sounds superb in theory, it is proving quite difficult in practice.To begin with, there are dozens of different definitions as to what local is, with some advocates arguing for political boundaries (as in Texas-grown, for example), others using quasi-geographic terms like food sheds, and still others laying out somewhat arbitrarily drawn food circles with radii of 100 or 150 or 500 miles. Further, whereas some areas might find it fairly easy to eat locally (in Washington State, for example, I’m less than fifty miles from industrial quantities of fresh produce, corn, wheat, beef, and milk), people in other parts of the country and the world would have to look farther afield.And what counts as local? Does food need to be purchased directly from the producer? Does it still count when it’s distributed through a mass marketer, as with Wal-Mart’s Salute to America’s F armer program, which is now periodically showcasing local growers? The larger problem is that although decentralized food systems function well in decentralized societies—like the United States was a century ago, or like many developing nations still are—they’re a poor fit in modern urbanized societies.The same economic forces that helped food production become centralized and regionalized did the same thing to our population: in the United States, 80 percent of us live in large, densely populated urban areas, usually on the coast, and typically hundreds of miles, often thousands of miles, from the major centers of food production.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -8- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONSSource G Hallatt, Alex. â€Å"Arctic Circle. † Comic strip. King Features Syndicate, Inc. 1 Sept. 2008. Web. 12 July 2009. The following is a ca rtoon from an environmentally themed comic strip. ARCTIC CIRCLE  © 2008 MACNELLY. DISTRIBUTED BY KING FEATURES SYNDICATE  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -9- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Question 2 (Suggested time—40 minutes.This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score. ) Florence Kelley (1859-1932) was a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women. She delivered the following speech before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905. Read the speech carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze the rhetorical strategies Kelley uses to convey her message about child labor to her audience.Support your analysis with specific references to the text. We have, in this country, two million childr en under the age of sixteen years who are earning their bread. They vary in age from six and seven years (in the cotton mills of Georgia) and eight, nine and ten years (in the coal-breakers of Pennsylvania), to fourteen, fifteen and sixteen years in more enlightened states. No other portion of the wage earning class increased so rapidly from decade to decade as the young girls from fourteen to twenty years.Men increase, women increase, youth increase, boys increase in the ranks of the breadwinners; but no contingent so doubles from census period to census period (both by percent and by count of heads), as does the contingent of girls between twelve and twenty years of age. They are in commerce, in offices, in manufacturing. Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.In Alabama the law provides t hat a child under sixteen years of age shall not work in a cotton mill at night longer than eight hours, and Alabama does better in this respect than any other southern state. North and South Carolina and Georgia place no restriction upon the work of children at night; and while we sleep little white girls will be working tonight in the mills in those states, working eleven hours at night. In Georgia there is no restriction whatever! A girl of six or seven years, just tall enough to reach the bobbins, may work eleven hours by day or by night.And they will do so tonight, while we sleep. Nor is it only in the South that these things occur. Alabama does better than New Jersey. For Alabama limits the children’s work at night to eight hours, while New Jersey permits it all night long. Last year New Jersey took a long backward step. A good law was repealed which had required women and [children] to stop work at six in the evening and at noon on Friday. Now, therefore, in New Jersey , boys and girls, after their 14th birthday, enjoy the pitiful privilege of working all night long.In Pennsylvania, until last May it was lawful for children, 13 years of age, to work twelve hours at night. A little girl, on her thirteenth birthday, could start away from her home at half past five in the afternoon, carrying her pail of midnight luncheon as happier people carry their midday luncheon, and could work in the mill from six at night until six in the morning, without violating any law of the Commonwealth. If the mothers and the teachers in Georgia could vote, would the Georgia Legislature have refused at every session for the last three years to stop the work in the mills of children under twelve years of age?Would the New Jersey Legislature have passed that shameful repeal bill enabling girls of fourteen years to work all night, if the mothers in New Jersey were enfranchised? Until the mothers in the great industrial states are enfranchised, we shall none of us be able to free our consciences from participation in this great evil. No one in this room tonight can feel free from such participation. The children make our shoes in the shoe factories; they knit our stockings, our knitted underwear in the knitting factories.They spin and weave our cotton underwear in the cotton mills. Children braid straw for our hats, they spin and weave the silk and velvet wherewith we trim our hats. They stamp buckles and metal ornaments of all kinds, as well as pins and hat-pins. Under the sweating system, tiny children make artificial flowers and neckwear for us to buy. They carry bundles of garments from the factories to the tenements, little beasts of burden, robbed of school life that they may work for us. We do not wish this. We prefer to have our work done by men and women.But we are almost powerless. Not wholly powerless, however, are citizens who enjoy the right of petition. For myself, I Line 5 45 50 10 55 15 60 20 65 25 70 30 75 35 80 40  © 2011 The Colleg e Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -10- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS shall use this power in every possible way until the right to the ballot is granted, and then I shall continue to use both. What can we do to free our consciences? There is one line of action by which we can do much.We can enlist the workingmen on behalf of our enfranchisement just in proportion as we strive with them to free the children. No labor organization in this country ever fails to respond to an appeal for help in the freeing of the children. For the sake of the children, for the Republic in which these children will vote after we are dead, and for the sake of our cause, we should enlist the workingmen voters, with us, in this task of freeing the children from toil! 85 90 95  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org.GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -11- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Question 3 (Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score. ) The following passage is from Rights of Man, a book written by the pamphleteer Thomas Paine in 1791. Born in England, Paine was an intellectual, a revolutionary, and a supporter of American independence from England. Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay that examines the extent to which Paine’s characterization of America holds true today.Use appropriate evidence to support your argument. If there is a country in the world, where concord, according to common calculation, would be least expected, it is America. Made up, as it is, of people from different nations, accustomed to different forms and habits of government, speaking different languages, and more different in their modes of worship, it would appear that the union of such a people was impracticable; but by the simple operation of constructing g overnment on the principles of society and the rights of man, every difficulty retires, and all the parts are brought into ordial unison. There, the poor are not oppressed, the rich are not privileged. . . . Their taxes are few, because their government is just; and as there is nothing to render them wretched, there is nothing to engender riots and tumults. STOP END OF EXAM  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. -12-

Eating Fast Food May Cause Obesity

Elizabeth Collins English 1302 March 27, 2013 Eating Fast Food May Cause Obesity Most American eat out daily and fast food is fried and high in calories, the bottom line is it’s all about choices. Making the decision to choose fried, baked or grilled food is a choice. Fast food, namely McDonald’s, tends to get a bad rap, McDonald’s got a bad rap because it is not only convenient but they made their food look attractive and desirable to kids. They placed those golden arches high in the air on the bright neon sign, and they put toys in their happy meals.While McDonald’s happy meals was not the most nutritious, now there are options as to what you can put in a kids happy meal. Statistics show that more than two-third of United States adults are obese: â€Å"Currently 58% of adults and 39% of children are classified as overweight or obese. † (4). Younger adults are less like to be obesity than adults at age sixty. In 1999-2000 obesity among boys increas ed from fourteen percent to eighteen point six percent in 2009-2010; there was no significance change among girls.In 1999-2000 obesity rate was 13. 8% and 15. % in 2009-2010. Then in 2007-2010 there was no change in general in obesity among boys and girls. Around 25% of children are overweight or obese. Most children that are obese in their childhood will be obese in their adult life. It is appropriate to say fast food may cause obesity. According to these statistics; this is because at most fast food restaurants you can up-size: medium, large, or super-size. Ordering oversized portions of servings may cause you to overeat.Although in the past McDonalds was blamed for a large part of obesity rate, McDonalds has made efforts to consciously make consumers more aware of what their food contains. It has also made more choices available, with much better nutritional value. In comparison, KFC chicken pot pies has 790 calories in them and wouldn’t this much soda be higher in calorie s. Much like big business where there’s a need; there’s an opportunity to make money, but many fast food restaurants are putting more healthier choices on their menu: For instance, Chipotle, my fit foods, Fuddruckers, 2nd even Luby’s.Studies have been done to show the effect of fast food on obesity. Americans may be prone to other behaviors that affect obesity when they eat fast food. It is a concern that fast food restaurants close to schools lead more children to obesity. To begin with, Data is computed to determine how many miles the fast food restaurants is within distance of the school. Knowingly there is a fast food restaurant in the area; if the restaurant is very close to the school, its questionable how so and that is a good way to recognize the effect of fast food on obesity.Next, the studies monitor a rich set of school and area individuality in their analysis. Finally, over a period of time, these studies will vary. Not long ago I was asked to look a t a choice between making a hot dog using a hot dog bun or using regular bread. The actual content of the hot dog is pretty ordinary, but the biggest difference can be made when choosing to eat an actual bun versus using bread for better or worse? Some people say fast food does not cause obesity.They say fast food restaurants have food now with less calories and a menu to show how many calories in the serving you are eating, and that fast food restaurants has more than doubled, because more American say it convenient to eat out than the go home and cook. While in the reports on popular press have repeatedly suggested that fast food is slightly to blame for the rise of the obesity rate in the U. S, it’s hard to show a connection between fast food and obesity. As an American, you have the ability to make healthier choices, so do it.With all things considered, you just need to know what to order and watch the amount of calories you take in. On salads, try using Balsamic Vinaigre tte instead of Ranch or Thousand Island. Consider picking grilled chicken over breaded. Maybe try eating a sandwich without any type of dressing, or just try exercising at least twice a week. Yes; fast food can cause obesity, but it’s all about the choices we make. Work Cited Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 20 Jan. 2011.Web. 25 Mar. 2013. . â€Å"How Is Fast Food Contributing to Obesity in America? † LIVESTRONG. COM. N. p. , n. d. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. http://www. livestrong. com/article/457854-how-is-fast-food-contributing-to-obesity-in-america/. â€Å"Obesity Facts. † Obesity Facts. N. p. , n. d. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. . â€Å"The National Bureau of Economic Research. † The National Bureau of Economic Research. N. p. , n. d. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. .