REQUIREMENT: Finally, in a reflection of ~2-3 pages (using 1.5 spacing), summarize your research process and findings. An informal yet professional tone is expected. Cite all information from outside sources using AMA formatLinks to an external site.. Describe what you learned from this exercise, considering the following questions:
- What kinds of inputs (e.g., labor, energy, water, agricultural enhancement) might have contributed to the production of this food?
- What kind of environmental, occupational, or social health impacts might your food have had on the way? What kind of health impacts might you anticipate for yourself individually and those in the community/proximity of where it is being produced?
- To what degree did the food labels provide transparency to the inputs, processes, or impacts of your food?
It should have sections that (a) summarize your overall findings, (b) describe your research approach and process generally, (c) address each of the 3 prompts individually.
Day 1:
| Food/ Drink | How & where was the product/ingredients grown or raised? | Processing | Packaging | Where/ how was it sold? | Transportation | Labels | How was it prepared? | Where and who was it consumed with? |
| Water | I’m currently visited to Beijing China. Beijing have 3 large reservoirs to provide water to everyone who lived in Beijing. There are three different ways to get water. First is from the Chao river and Bai river. The second is from the groundwater extraction. The third one is “the south-to-north water diversion” because the south part of China has more water resource than north part. | The water needs to be coagulation, precipitation, filtration, and disinfection. Sometimes, the water to do the disinfection twice. However, it was not like the water in the Seattle, most of the tap water in the China cannot directly drink, we need to boiled it before we drink it. | No packaging | Each month, my mom will pay for the water to the water company. | First, the water source is extracted from rivers and lakes to the reservoirs, and then diverted to the user’s faucet. | No labels | I boiled the tap water. And I waited it to became warm and then drank it. | Everyone in the world will drink tap water. I drink the water today with my boyfriend at home. |
| hamburger | I ordered a McDonald’s delivery. The McDonald’s made it at their shop. I ordered the cheeseburger, it include the cheese, beard and meat inside. The McDonald’s get all of the ingredients through different distributors. The distributors are confidentiality to customers. | McDonald’s uses assembly lines. Some workers fried beef and heated bread, and another group of people integrated and packaged the hamburger. Later, the hamburger would deliver to my place. | The special paper to package the hamburger. It would come with some napkins in the deliver bag. | This one is sold in the McDonald’s. People can order it in the shop or on some app to require deliver. | Different ingredients are trucked from each supplier to each store. Then, after people cooked it, the couriers took the food to my house by electric car. | There didn’t have label on my food, there only have a receipt to show my food name and my contact information on the packaging bag. | Employee need to fry beef and heat the bread, and then put bread, beef and cheese together to make a hamburger. | McDonald’s had lots of shop in Beijing. Children like McDonald’s very much because they think it was delicious. Adults eat McDonald’s because it tastes good, really convenient and fast. |
| Honey | I got the honey from my father’s friend, my father’s friend kept some bees on the roof of his house. Bees produced honey every once in a while, and then father’s friend gave my father two bottle of honey. | “It is made by extracting honey from the honeycombs of the hive and pouring it over a mesh or nylon cloth to separate the honey from impurities like beeswax and dead bees. Once strained, raw honey is bottled and ready to be enjoyed.” | This honey packed in a plastic bottle. | It was not sold. My father’s friend made it to use by himself or give it to his friend. | After they made the honey, they put it in the bottle and then they drive their car to give the honey to my father. And I took some of the honey to Beijing by airplane. | No labels. | The bees made the honey, and then people can directly eat it. I ate the honey with yogurt. | The consumer is only my father’s friends and some friends. It was free to us and it will not sell to others. |
| yogurt | I used the milk to make the yogurt by myself. I bought the milk from the market. Milk is extruded from cows in the pasture. | Yogurt is made by fermenting milk with yeast. | I put it in the glass bottle. | It was handmade and will not sell it. | The transportation might only be the yogurt machine. | No labels. | I put the milk and yeast in the yogurt machine, and then I waited 12 hours for the yogurt to be ready. After the yogurt are ready, I put it in the refrigerator. | This product is not for sale. I ate it with my boyfriend. |
| Korean Barbecue | I came to the Korean barbecue with my boyfriend. This was a barbecue buffet. We selected several different kinds of beef and chicken. I don’t know the name of each meat, I only think they looks good. I asked the waiter where and how they get the meat, they said their company get all of the meat from a ranch three times a week to get the fresh meat. | The ranchers would select suitable cattle according to their condition and age, and then kill them. After they get the fresh meat from the ranch, they simply wash the meat, then freeze it, cut it into the desired shape and place it on a table for customers to choose. | No packing, it was placed on a plate. | It was sold in the barbecue buffet restaurant. Each meat didn’t have a specific price, customers only have to pay a fixed price to eat all the meat. | Meat is transported by car to the barbecue restaurants. Then, the restaurants cleaned it and cut for customers to choose. | Each meat had the name tags on the table. | After I got the meat, I bake the meat on a baking sheet and dip it in chili powder. | The restaurant was located in a shopping mall, and the customer will choose to eat it . I come to eat with my boyfriend. |
| Chili powder | The restaurant prepared the chili powder to customer. The material of chili powder is chili. Chilies are grown in soil and have a high requirement for temperature, sunlight and water. | “Chili powder is the dried, pulverized fruit of one or more varieties of chili pepper, sometimes with the addition of other spices.” The ground chili powder should be thoroughly cooled and stored in a sealed bag, | The chili powder usually packaged in a sealed bag, and the chili powder in the restaurant was placed in a big bowl that customer can pick. | It was free to all of the customer. But people can also buy it from some market. The restaurant also buy it from a supplier. | Fresh chilies are picked and then made from the people. And then it shipped to stores or distributors. Later, the customer can buy it. | Only the name tag in the restaurant. | Grind the chilies into small pieces and mix them with other spices. | The customer in the restaurant would get it. My boyfriend didn’t eat spicy food, then only me got some chili powder to use. |
Day 2:
| Food/ Drink | How & where was the product/ingredients grown or raised? | Processing | Packaging | Where/ how was it sold? | Transportation | Labels | How was it prepared? | Where and who was it consumed with? |
| Water | I’m currently visited to Beijing China. Beijing have 3 large reservoirs to provide water to everyone who lived in Beijing. There are three different ways to get water. First is from the Chao river and Bai river. The second is from the groundwater extraction. The third one is “the south-to-north water diversion” because the south part of China has more water resource than north part. | The water needs to be coagulation, precipitation, filtration, and disinfection. Sometimes, the water to do the disinfection twice. However, it was not like the water in the Seattle, most of the tap water in the China cannot directly drink, we need to boiled it before we drink it. | No packaging | Each month, my mom will pay for the water to the water company. | First, the water source is extracted from rivers and lakes to the reservoirs, and then diverted to the user’s faucet. | No labels | I boiled the tap water. And I waited it to became warm and then drank it. | Everyone in the world will drink tap water. I drink the water today with my boyfriend at home. |
| noodles | I made the noodle to be my easy lunch. I only use noodle, water, lard oil, salt and some soy sauce. I bought all of the materials in the market. Noodles came from Shanxi, China. Shanxi is famous for its pastry making in China. I really the noodles that are comes from Shanxi. | Noodles is a food made by grinding grain or legume flour and water into a dough, which is then either pressed, rolled or stretched into pieces and then cut, pressed or made into strips(narrow, wide, flat or round) or pieces by means of rolling, pulling 0r pinching, and finally boiled, fried, stewed or fried. There are various patterns and varieties. | The noodles are packed in a plastic bag in the market. I made the noodles soup in a glass bowl. | People can buy the raw noodles in the market or online. And then people can make it at home. | Noodles can be frozen or dried for transportation. Be careful when transporting dried noodles because they are fragile. | The labels on the dried noodle shows the name, the nutrition, the address, date and many information on it. | I first boiled the water and put the noodles in the water. After the water boiled again, I just put some salt, lard oil and soy sauce in the big bowl. Just wait 5 more minutes, the noodles are ready to enjoy. | Noodles are a food with a large audience, and almost every family will prepare them. It is also easy to buy, people can buy it in the supermarkets which had plenty of stock. I made the noodles to myself. |
| Lard oil | I used the lard oil in the noodles. I bought the fat meat in the market and made the lard oil at home. | After I bought the lard from supermarket, I come home to clean it. I cut the lard to small pieces and put a little water in it. And use the small fire to boil it until the lard became tiny and the color became yellow. Then the lard oil is ready to refrigerate. | I put the lard oil in a bowl which have a cover. | I bought the fat meat in the supermarket. People can directly buy the lard oil in the market. | The supplier gave the meat to the wholesale market or distribution on center and then gave it to the supermarket. After that, consumer directly bought it from supermarket. | The labels on the fat meat had the name, the packing date and market name. | I put the lard oil in the refrigerate. Every time when I want to use it, I take a spoon and dig a spoonful. | I made a bowl of the lard oil, and our family can use it at any time. It was really convenience. |
| Honey | I got the honey from my father’s friend, my father’s friend kept some bees on the roof of his house. Bees produced honey every once in a while, and then father’s friend gave my father two bottle of honey. | “It is made by extracting honey from the honeycombs of the hive and pouring it over a mesh or nylon cloth to separate the honey from impurities like beeswax and dead bees. Once strained, raw honey is bottled and ready to be enjoyed.” | This honey packed in a plastic bottle. | It was not sold. My father’s friend made it to use by himself or give it to his friend. | After they made the honey, they put it in the bottle and then they drive their car to give the honey to my father. And I took some of the honey to Beijing by airplane. | No labels. | The bees made the honey, and then people can directly eat it. I really like the honey water. I put some honey in the warm water. It was taste really good. | The consumer is only my father’s friends and some friends. It was free to us and it will not sell to others. |
| Lay’s Italian red meat flavor chips | I don’t know where the potatoes exactly grown. When I saw the packaging for the Lay’s chips, it shows that there have three companies in China to provide the chips. I have no idea which company produced this chip which I bought. The three companies are located in Beijing China, Shanghai China and Wuhan China. | The processing of chips are destoning and peeling—slicing—color treatment—frying and salting—cooling and sorting—packaging. | It was package in a blue plastic bag. | Chips are available in all supermarkets, shops and on websites. | Potatoes are first shipped from the fields where they are grown to factories. Then processed into chips and shipped to various sales venues. | The chips was produced in China. The labels showed the name of the chips, the producers’ information, ingredients, nutrient composition list and other informations. | Chips are made by slicing potatoes and then frying them in a controlled temperature using an electric stove in a container of oil. | I bought the chips in a small shop which near my boyfriends home. The people who like to eat chips will be consumer of the chips. |
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/raw-honey-vs-regular
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_powder
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noodle
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/potato-chip.html
