The Omnivore Dilemma Part One Summary free essay sample

Industrial/Corn Summary The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, analyzes the eating habits and food chains of modern America in an attempt to bring readers closer to the origin of their foods. Pollan’s blend of humor and philosophical questions about the nature of food serves both to enlighten readers about the environment from which their food is harvested and to teach readers about alternative ways of eating. In the first chapter of Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, we are introduced to the topic of industrial corn and its origins some thousands of years ago. Originally known as â€Å"Zea Mays†, corn started off slow in biological terms but blew up after the discovery of Christopher Columbus. Now that there was corn the settlers were free from the Natives and could now support themselves on the agriculture of corn. Now in modern times we have created new types of corns to feed humans and animals but also to create over 25000 products in supermarkets today. We will write a custom essay sample on The Omnivore Dilemma: Part One Summary or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Pallon mentions in Chapter one the differences between American and Mexican diets. Stating that the Mexican diet is that of a corn-based nature, where as Americans is on the other side of the spectrum eating more meats than anything. In truth it’s the opposite, it’s the Americans that are eating more corn. It all comes down to the way we feed our animals and process our foods. Americans feed their livestock with corn, and pump corn-based products into readily available food. Whereas Mexicans although they eat a wide variety of corn and grains still feed their animals with grass and sweeten with sugar cane versus corn-based sweeteners. So the Americans really do beat out the â€Å"Corn walkers†, I guess you could say they’re walking corn from the high levels of corn consumption. Pollan pulled me into chapter one with the information he provided about corn. I was enlightened by this chapter and decided to do some research of my own. I started looking into several different food and products that are corn based and animals that are corn fed. For example, corn feeds the steer, chicken, pig, turkey, lamb, and some fish, we eat; corn is in processed foods, like a chicken nugget contains corn starch, corn flour, corn oil, as well as lecithin, mono-di- and tri-glycerides, and citric acid, which all contain corn; Corn is contained in soft and fruit drinks, alcohol, mayonnaise, mustard, margarine, salad dressing, cereal, toothpaste, cosmetics, disposable diapers, trash bags, cleaners, matches, batteries, magazine covers, linoleum, fiberglass, wallboard and gasoline (ethanol). Needless to say, corn is everywhere! In chapter two, Pollan visits a small farmer in Iowa owned by George Naylor. Most of the 470 acre farm is used to grow corn, to ensure a high yield rate for the season. While at the farm Pollan sets out to understand the mysteries of the Industrial Corn world and to get an in depth look at the life of a farmer’s life after corn surpluses have been put in. Last, in chapter three, Pollan visits the great grain elevator not far from the Naylor farm in Iowa. He goes in-depth with the governments funding and the living of a farmer on the subsidies. To be perfectly honest, I was expecting â€Å"The Omnivore’s Dilemma† to be boring, overly written and full of words I could not only pronounce but did not know the meaning of but I found it to be well defined and though out in terms of the structure and sentence transitions. Many writers attempt to grab the reader’s attention with over-inflated words, when a simple description is adequate, and quite sufficient to convey the though, idea, or concept, that the book is about. I was thrilled reading about corn, which was not expected, and it made reading the book that much more enjoyable.

Marketing Concepts Essays

Marketing Concepts Essays Marketing Concepts Essay Marketing Concepts Essay 1- Consumer Behaviour. One of the most challenging concept in marketing deals with understanding why consumers behave in a certain way or do what they do (or don’t do). Two major psychological concepts are often used to explain and understand the consumer’s behaviour. The first is the so called in psychology the cognitive psychology in which the focus of the study is the mental behaviour i. e. the internal influence such as perception, memory, attention, attitude, beliefs, values, personality and buying motives. The second psychological concept is the social psychology in which the phenomenon of consumer behaviour is completely influenced by the external forces, i. e. social and referenced groups. There is no doubt that the consumer behaviour is extremely complex due to the nature of human beings differences in all the levels. Nevertheless, a common definition of consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes of the buying units and the exchange processes involved in acquiring, consuming, and disposing of goods, services, experiences, and ideas. But such knowledge is critical for marketers since having a strong understanding of buyer behaviour will help shed light on what is important to the customer and also suggest the important influences on customer decision-making. Using this information, marketers can create marketing programs that they believe will be of interest to customers. 2- Consumer Decision making Consumer decision making is explained and viewed as a complex process that is conducted in steps in which consumers identify their needs, collect information, evaluate alternatives, and make the purchase decision. Some refer this process as problem solving phenomena. These actions are determined by psychological and economical factors, and are influenced by environmental factors such as cultural, group, and social values. Consumer’s decision making differ in many ways, just as problem solving to certain issues is done; the same is in the case of consumer buying decision. For example some buying results from the consumer’s need for fun, to create fantasies, obtain emotions, and feelings. Some others are because of strong environmental forces that propel consumers to make purchases without necessarily first developing strong feelings or beliefs about the product. Some buying is done on the basis of innovation, some on the basis of the so called impulse purchase, some of the basis of discount purchase or sale purchase. As you can see there is huge variety of examples that reflect buyer’s decision other than necessity. Thus, mmarketers have successfully influenced the consumer’s decision making by understating the consumer behaviour and adapting and improving their marketing strategies and hence creating attractive messages through smart and effective advertising propagandas that effectively reached the consumers. -What influences purchases There are many factors that can affect this process as a person works through the purchase decision. The number of potential influences on consumer behaviour is limitless. However, marketers are well served to understand the Key influences. By doing so they may be in a position to tailor their marketing efforts to take advantage of these influences in a way that will satisfy the consumer and th e marketer (this is a key part of the definition of marketing). There are three main factors that influence purchasing: Internal, External and Marketing. The internal factors consist of attitude, life-style, knowledge, personality, role, involvement and perception. The external factors consist of culture, groups, and situations. The Marketing factors embrace the following: product, price, promotions, distribution and service. For the most part the influences are not mutually exclusive. Instead, they are all interconnected and work together to form who we are and how we behave and what influence our purchases.

What have you learned about Asian culture (you may wish to distinguish Essay

What have you learned about Asian culture (you may wish to distinguish between various countries and cultures) in this course - Essay Example The discussion will be based on the analysis of a number of films being produced in the region. The films chosen for the analysis are: Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa, Hanabi by Takeshi Kitano, Apur Sansar by Satyajit Ray, Salaam Bombay! by Mira Nair, Red Sorghum by Zhang Yimou, and Chungking Express by Wong Kar-Wai. The paper will examine how the variations of Asian culture are presented in these films. Before going into any further discussion on the nuances of Asian culture, it is important to understand what culture means. A general definition of culture argues that the concept of culture can be best described as â€Å"a shared, learned, symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes that shapes and influences perception and behaviour. It is an abstract ‘mental blueprint’ or ‘mental code’.† Concepts and ideas of culture can be studied by means of exploring behaviour, customs, material culture (artefacts, tools, and technology), language, etc. of a particular community or region. So to say, culture is a learning process through which a community or society can be studied both at individual and collective levels. This process of learning one’s culture can be labelled as enculturation. One of the characteristic features of culture studies is that there is nothing like a ‘culture of one’, it is a collective possession shared by a ll the members of a society. Commonness in behaviour, customs and other traditional practices can be achieved by mutual construction of a culture by means of a constant process of social interaction. Besides, culture, language and thought are based on symbols and symbolic meanings. Apart from this symbolic nature, the definition of culture features arbitrariness and habitualness as culture is internalized and created by humans. Coming to the more specific discussion of the Asian culture, it is characterized by the concept of cultural variation. Some of the most important ingredients of Asian culture are: Asian art,