This blog was co-wriiten by myself and Danielle McCleery to provide readers with detailed information of our progress on our research of meat labels. Researching and then some……. Our research project has been coming along quite nicely. On Thursday, April 19th, we took a trip to Whole Foods Market in Marlton, NJ. Neither of us have ever been in a whole foods market and were quite blown away by the displays and variety of foods that they offer. We made our way over to the meat department where we were “WOWED” with quite a display of meat. The meat was not pre-packaged but rather displayed in cases. Costumers made their ways up to the counter and told the butchers what they like. The meat was labeled with individual descriptions and their ratings. We asked the butcher some questions and he informed us that the stores do not carry a lot of 5 and 5+ rated meats yet. The only 5 and 5+ rated foods they carry right now is for chicken. The butcher explained to us how the closest to #5 rating the better conditions the animal lived in. As we took in everything the butcher told us, our minds were reeling. We were trying to figure out how we were going to proceed with our project. That’s when it hit us! We each decided to buy the best meat available and then go to Shop Rite and buy the best meat they have available. We are going to cook using both meats and ask people to be test takers. We want to test to see if consumers can taste the difference between grass fed beef from Whole foods and average beef from Shop Rite.
We had decided to change our project once again, but this time for the last time! Now we are researching the difference between the meats sold at Whole Foods and the meats sold at Shop Rite. We took separate trips to Shop Rite and bought meat. We both spoke to the butcher’s on our separate visits (at separate stores) but received similar responses when asked where the beef comes from. Danielle’s butcher couldn’t really tell her, he had no idea. Angela’s butcher went on and on to say how Shop Rite makes sure to buy only high quality meat with no pink slime. The problem is, the question wasn’t about pink slime, the question was, “Where does the beef come from?” Angela’s butcher had no concrete answer either.
Since Friday we have both performed individual taste testing on the meat at home. Danielle prepared burgers for her family and Angela prepared meatballs for her family. The results are pretty interesting and we will share our results very soon! We are both very busy composing more research on Shop Rite and Whole Foods as we speak. We are both very excited about our new topic and can’t wait to see where our results lead us.
This blog post was created to inform readers about our research project and the collaboration involved in the project. This post was co-written by myself and Danielle McCleery. So far, our project is coming along great. At first, we had a very broad topic in mind and Professor Mangini helped us make it more specific. We were interested in food labels on meat and what they mean to consumers. This topic was broad because we would have to cover every label in each different supermarket. Narrowing our project down to Whole Foods Stores gave us a focus point and a finite source to go in depth on. Looking over the Whole Foods website in class last week gave us a lot of information. We learned about their 5- step rating process for meat and poultry. Getting a good understanding of some of the workers of Whole Foods and their meat is important for us to ask the right questions in order to receive information useful to our project. Using those questions, we are going to visit a Whole Foods store and interview a butcher and another employee. Our collaboration process has been going great so far. We have been emailing each other back and forth and will be setting up a Google doc next. Up through this point our process has been very dialogic. We have shared in all the responsibilities and are working very well together!
This blog is all about the research we have found for our research project thus far. This post was co-written by myself and Danielle McCleery. For our project we are researching meat and poultry labels used at Whole Foods markets. For this assignment we will be visiting a Whole Foods market and speaking to the store butcher and perhaps a few consumers. To begin our research, we went to Whole Foods website where we were able to find a significant amount of information about the meanings of different labels. On the Whole Foods website we have learned that Whole Foods market offers step-rated, organic, grass-fed, or grain-finished beef. The site also offers a description of each of these types of meat. Whole foods has partnered up with Global Animal to certify their producer’s animal welfare practices and provide this information to their consumers. Whole Foods now offers Global Animal’s 5-step Animal Welfare Rating Standards in most of its stores in the United States and Canada. This step-rated program rates how pigs, chicken, and cattle are raised for meat. On an interesting side note, Global Animal Partnership is in the process of creating a step-rated program for turkey, lamb, and others. Here is a look at what the 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating Standards looks like with a brief description: Before we make the trip to Whole Foods we will research this 5-step Animal Welfare Rating Standards more in depth on the Global Animal Partnership website. We have found our research thus far very interesting and are intrigued to see where further research will lead.
This blog was co-wriiten by myself and Danielle McCleery. Together we will be researching food labels for a collaborative research project. This blog is about our topic for the project and the reasons why we chose this particular topic. For our project, we went back and forth about many different topics. What really intrigued us at first was the law about not being to criticize meat. In Food Inc., we found out that Oprah was sued for saying she did not think she would want to eat burgers after a tainted meat outbreak. We proceeded to try and find information about this topic but it just seemed to be a lot of people being sued over this issue. It was something we were both pretty interested in; however, we did not think there would be enough information for our project. In class, we learned some of the terms of the labeling that is put on meat, eggs, and poultry. What these labels really mean was pretty interesting and a bit disturbing. We thought about doing this topic and decided this was a pretty good idea; we both really wanted to find out more. We thought about interviewing people we knew and see what they thought these labels meant and then give them the information of what they really mean and see their reactions. Another idea we have is to go to a grocery store and look at all the different labels and foods they are on. We feel as though this project can lead us in many different directions. Our focus will be on the egg and meat labels but we are excited to see where our research will lead us. After researching the topic we thought we might be able to explore the different labels on food products we discussed in class, and other products as well. For example, have you ever noticed most cereals today claim to be made with whole grains? What does that mean? Are they really made with whole grains? We found several other claims on food labels that may be worth exploring in our project as well such as made with natural goodness, kid approved, doctor recommended, and contains natural fruit juice. The food industry definitely misleads its consumers with their labels. We look forward to researching the topic more and interviewing consumers on their perspective on food labels.
This blog post is all about collaboration and answers the question: What are the different types of collaboration and what types of collaboration have you done before.
After reading Fontaine and Hunter's article on collaborative writing I've learned that there are two forms of collaboration, dialogue and writing. In the article the authors state that all writing is collaborative to some point. We all get ideas from somewhere. I have used both types of collaboration in my everyday life and in school. I collaborate with my husband on a daily basis about what's best for the kids, or what's for dinner. I collaborate with students in my class during peer reviews, group projects, etc. I am collaborating with two students right now on a lesson plan for our second grade students. Collaboration is necessary and very useful in all aspects of life.
This blog post will answer the question: What is your understanding of being a reflective and reflexive researcher?
In order to understand the difference of a reflective and reflexive researcher we must first understand the difference between reflective and reflexive. Qualley defines Reflexivity as a "response triggered by a dialectical engagement with the other - other idea, theory, person, culture, text, or even another part of ones self or past life." Reflection is different because it originates in the self unlike reflexivity. "When we reflect, we fix our thoughts on a subject." We consider or meditate when we reflect.
A reflective researcher will be more likely to consider all the evidence before coming to a conclusion. They will mediate and consider all aspects of the research. A reflexive researcher will make conslusions based on interactions with other people. They will be more likely to research people, theories, and texts.
This blog post will explore Qualitative Research and Narrative Inquiry.
Qualitative Research was developed to explore the "Why" in research. Qualitative research allows us to explore issues, understand, and ask questions. After reading "An Introduction to Qualitative Research", by Beverly Hancock, I discovered that qualitative research is "concerned with developing explanations of social phenomena." Qualitative research allows us to understand our world and why things are the way they are. Qualitative research ask questions such as: why, how, and in what way? Qualitative research expresses people's opinions and is not manipulated. Most data is collected through interviews with people.
Narrative Inquiry is an analysis of narratives in human interaction. I read in "Situating Narrative Inquiry," that narrative inquiry is similar to qualitative research in that it is the study ofn stories or narratives or descriptions of a series of events. Narrative inquiry "embraces narrative as both the method and the phenomena of study."
This blog post will act as my reaction to a film we watched in class, titled Food Inc. The blog will include question and answers from the film.
3. Whose responsibility do you think it is to inform us about what is in our food? Is it our responsibility to find out, the producer's responsibility to make it more clear, or both? Why do you think so?
I believe that most of the blame for consumers not knowing what is in their foods belongs to the producer. Sure, people should do their research before they make food purchases, but most people believe that their food is prepared safely and their should be no need to question the ingredients. Producers need to label all ingredients on their products. Human health should take top priority over industrial growth and profits. It makes me sick to see that producers are able to hide ingredients from consumers that could lead to possible illness or even death.
4. Kevin's mother says, "Sometimes it feels like industry was more protected than my son." What do you think of her words.
Kevin's story is so terrible and tragic. It sickens me that his story alone is not enough to force the food industry into changing procedures. I can understand why Kevin's mother feels as though the food industry was more protected then her son. It's the truth. The food industry has government officials in their back pocket, so of course they are going to be protected. This movie has opened my eyes to just how money hungry and greedy American industries can be. Their success and wealth is more important then the life of a two year old child. I hope someday Kevin's mother will find peace and that Kevin's law will go into effect. I can't even begin to imagine the pain and regret she must live with everyday. She has opened my eyes, and I will be way more aware of what I am feeding my own children going forward.
4. Do we have the right to assume that our food is safe? If so, who do you think should be responsible for ensuring it's safety?
I do believe that we have the right to assume that our food is safe. We have laws and procedures that are suppose to be met to ensure food safety. Obviously, after watching the movie Food Inc, I feel ignorant for assuming our food is safe. Before watching the movie I assumed that the FDA and government were assuring that food in grocery stores were safe for consumers. It's sad that I can no longer make that assumption. Producers need to be responsible for ensuring the safety of our food. All ingredients must be labeled.
This blog post is all about how technology has helped or challenged me while creating my twitterive.
I am by no means a digital native. I remember getting my first computer when I was a freshman in highschool. That doesn't mean I don't know how to use technology, I do, but it does not come as easy to me as it may for others. While I was working on my twitterive there were times when technology drove me crazy. In fact, weebly caused me some moments of insanity. At first, I could not figure out weebly for the life of me. I had to watch "how to" videos on you tube until I finally figured it out.
Weebly was notorious for giving me error messages or not publishing when I asked it too. The most frustrating aspect was downloading my slideshow that I created for my twitterive. It took me almost two and a half hours to download the slideshow because weebly was up to it's bad tricks. However, weebly wasn't all bad, I like the aspect of dragging the different document elements into my twitterive. It helped me keep the project very organized. I love that I will always be able to access the site so that I can someday share my twitterive with my daughter.
While creating the twitterive I became familiar with new technologies like yodio and jing. Yodio is so much fun. You can add your own voice overs to pictures or videos. Jing is a great tool that I will use in all of my classes going forward. I used jing in my second draft of my twitterive so I could add screen shots of my tweets.
I didn't realize how much I didn't know about technology before this class. I love learning new aspects of technology and I know it will be beneficial to my career. Hopefully, I will learn even more before completing the final draft of my twitterive.
This blog post is about the response I received after presenting my twitterive project to the class.
I have to admit, I was very nervous to present my twitterive to the class this past week. I am not sure why I was so nervous, perhaps because my twitterive is something I have worked really hard on and means a great deal to me. I was nervous presenting something so personal. Once I started receiving feedback my fears started to disappear.
The class and Professor Mangini gave me great feedback and opinions. I was happy to learn that the twitterive was not too long and that I used enough genres. I loved Erin's idea to bold or add color to the dates that were "good" days. I left the class with so many great ideas to add to my twitterive. I want to add more pictures of memorabilia from the NICU. I have pictures that the Nurses drew for Bella and hung up in her incubator when she reached a certain weight and pictures of her tiny footprints from the day of her birth that I want to add to the twitterive. I started revisions this weekend and started to clean up the journal entries. This project means a great deal to me. I want to create something that my daughter will appreciate and be proud of some day.
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