As a college student, I am usually too busy (or broke) to go out and eat a good, healthy meal. And as a college student AND an American, I find it easy, and acceptable, to eat pizza at least a few times a week. Americans are known as unhealthy eaters, eating mostly typical American food like hamburgers and hot dogs. This is clear from the video we watched in this module about all of the consumption of beef in our country. Most Americans like myself are typically “on the go” and too busy to sit down and eat a family dinner. I consider it a social norm in our country, especially as a college student, to eat cheap, fast food meals at least a few times a week. For me, I find it especially easy to eat pizza, another food that Americans have taken as their own and made even more unhealthy, about 5 times a week. It’s quick, easy, and really, it’s the college student way.
I think that pizza, just like hamburgers, is hurting our planet. Pizza does take less plant products than beef does, because the dough is made from flour and yeast, the sauce is made from tomatoes, and the toppings are sometimes vegetables. Cheese though, just like beef, needs cows to be made. This means we must feed the cows to get the milk from them, and then the milk must be transported and made into cheese. Although, no other ingredients in a pizza need to be fed themselves, except for other meat toppings. Pizza still takes a lot of transportation to be made and to bring all of the ingredients together. It takes big tractors to plant these vegetables and to harvest the wheat. Especially in college towns like State College, pizza is delivered very frequently, which again is releasing these toxic fumes into our atmosphere. I think that pizza is really great, but maybe we shouldn’t have made it into a “fast” food. The social norm should be as it is in other countries; pizza should be eaten in a restaurant, maybe once a week or a few times a month.
Here is my system diagram. In my system diagram, all of the arrows point towards what they are affecting. For example, pizza (over)consumption leads to greenhouse gases from delivery vehicles, and unhealthy food choices leads to pizza (over)consumption.
3 thoughts on “Module 6: Food Choice & Social Norms”
Hi Sarah here’s my post [http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/04/cody-rhodes-where-is-it-coming-from/]
I found your post poignant and good-humored describing life as a college student. Definitely relatable that eating healthy is difficult for young Americans on their own. I wrote about how Americans, in general, eat poorly, and used the Super Bowl as an example. Also, your system diagram touched on the fuel burned by delivery vehicles, which I did not illuminate myself.
HI Sarah I liked how your post centered around pizza which is arguably one of my favorite foods. My post is was similar in that it is becoming more common to just buy cheap and quick unhealthy food. I agree it is hurting us environmentally. People are eating pizza too much (which I am guilty of). I think it would be better if it strayed away from being a fast food.
Here’s a link to my post: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/04/food-choice-michael-celoni/
Hi Sarah here is a link to my blog post for this week https://wp.me/p3RCAy-bNL. Your argument is very interesting to me because i have never thought about pizza’s environmental impact. There are many vegetables and animal resources that go into making pizza that I never thought about before. I agree that people in America are eating pizza too much. Your system diagram also does a good job at explaining the connections mentioned in the second paragraph.
Hi Sarah here’s my post [http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/04/cody-rhodes-where-is-it-coming-from/]
I found your post poignant and good-humored describing life as a college student. Definitely relatable that eating healthy is difficult for young Americans on their own. I wrote about how Americans, in general, eat poorly, and used the Super Bowl as an example. Also, your system diagram touched on the fuel burned by delivery vehicles, which I did not illuminate myself.
HI Sarah I liked how your post centered around pizza which is arguably one of my favorite foods. My post is was similar in that it is becoming more common to just buy cheap and quick unhealthy food. I agree it is hurting us environmentally. People are eating pizza too much (which I am guilty of). I think it would be better if it strayed away from being a fast food.
Here’s a link to my post: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/04/food-choice-michael-celoni/
Hi Sarah here is a link to my blog post for this week https://wp.me/p3RCAy-bNL. Your argument is very interesting to me because i have never thought about pizza’s environmental impact. There are many vegetables and animal resources that go into making pizza that I never thought about before. I agree that people in America are eating pizza too much. Your system diagram also does a good job at explaining the connections mentioned in the second paragraph.