A few weeks ago, my friend and I took a road trip up North to a state school in New York. Here, we would meet some of our best friends from home and spend the weekend. Keep in mind that our friends are from a much lower income family than my own. For the past few months, I have been working on my nutrition, eating healthier, taking in less calories and carbs and more protein. Generally, eating healthier foods, cooking them, or ordering healthy meals out to dinner can get much more expensive than if you would eat less healthy foods such as fast foods. My friends, use to spending a very minimal amount on food, suggested that we get McDonalds for dinner. This of course would violate the diet I was working to keep. I wanted to suggest we get something healthier, maybe even make something from supermarket foods. I felt too bad asking my friend to go somewhere else for food, being that he even offered to pay. It is a social norm not to inconvenience someone who is doing things for you, especially if you know they do not have the funding for more. I felt too bad and therefore settled for the McDonald’s dinner with a smile on my face. Social norms caused me to make a poor food choice.
Poor food choices can lead to very big societal issues. Based off of my food choice, I can connect a societal issue that our country faces everyday. This is the issue of obesity. Agriculture subsides were put in place in order to reduce the cost of food so that the average citizen can obtain the energy that they need to live everyday. Like every other good thing in life, this can also have major consequences. By reducing costs of foods, such as McDonalds fast foods, people tend to consume more food because they are getting such good deals. This leads to over consumption, and eventually obesity. The next societal issue that we face from these poor food choices is environmental damage. Farmers tend to over farm, especially if they are not benefiting from these subsidies. Over farming can lead to damage caused on the land. This is a big issue, especially for long-term consequences.
Hi, my name is Ashlee. I agree that it is very hard to make yourself eat these fast foods when you have been on a diet but it is a norm for a lot of people to eat out at these places all the time which can lead to an awkward situation for yourself. Obesity is becoming a great problem in the United States. I like how you brought up the topic of reducing costs of foods and its impact. If you would like to read my blog here is the link, : http://sites.psu.edu/geog30/2016/03/03/module-6-7/. Your post definitely describes a great social norm and ongoing problem in our country.
Hello! My name is Joelle and I talked about the social pressure of eating what someone else planned in my post as well. Here is a link: geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/03/food-in-relation-to-norms/
I find it interesting that you brought up a little bit of the pressure of agreeing to eat what the majority wants to eat even though you may not like what they have in mind. In my personal post I talked about how I did not like what my best friends family cooked but ate it anyways to avoid a confrontation or being made fun of by my friends dad. I felt that I would’ve also inconvenienced the cook had I said anything as well. I can definitely relate to this post