Super Size Me
Kento and Shinji
The purpose of this movie is to enlighten people especially in the U.S. about how bad fast food is. This film may seem to be unrelated to "Animal Rights", however, the gist of the problems which the film tries to tell us is essential and useful to realize the situations with which many animals are faced and the reasons why a lot of animals must be "consumed" by humans. It was an Independent film, but received great acclaim for its unique and informative movie plot and story. Actually this revolutionary documentary changed some American bad food customs and affected the improvement of social recognition of necessity of food education for children.
In this film, a young American tries to survive for 30 days only by eating Mcdonald's menus. The name of this reckless man is Morgan Valentine Spurlock, who is an innovative American documentary filmmaker and able screenwriter. His girlfriend named "Alexandra Jamieson" is
a vegetarian and is also a skillful vegan chef. Until the making of this film started, they had eaten quite fresh and healthy vegetable food. Thanks to the good diet style, his health condition was diagnosed by doctors with very good. Though he were eventually becoming ill as he continued to eat the junk food.
At the very beginning of the film, he narrates; "Everything's bigger in America. We've got the biggest cars, the biggest houses, the biggest companies, the biggest food, and finally the biggest people." This line is so impressed. Big people need big things. This seems so ironic, but it is right to the point, but the most important thing is why more and more people in American are becoming obese. Morgan says in the film that Americans used to be not so fat. According to his opinion, this terrible obese trend in the U.S. has definitely been linked to the rapid growth of fast food stores. Law Professor John Banzhaf, who are famous for the lawsuits against big cigarette companies points out that those franchises try to dominate the diet style as people especially children eat fast food regularly in various ways.
Bad food habits have made big people. However, there is a simple question. Why do people choose to eat fast food? Probably most people who love to eat it would understand the dangerousness of fast food to some extent. Then, why are those people stick to eating it? The answer would be the price of the food. Simply, fast food is much cheaper than vegetable and it gives the people the sensation of fullness so fast and makes them obese so easily. People, especially poor people, opt for eating fast food because it is cheap and it is easy to get satisfaction. Then they become fat and ill. In short, bad food customs endanger our health. At this point, another question comes up. Why is the fast food so cheap? That is because many animals are "used" to create meat everyday. Meat is a essential part of fast food ingredients. Those junk food stores often insist they are also selling salads for customers healthy diets, but everyone knows that these rebut is merely a facade of sincerity. First of all, people who want to live healthy lifestyle do not go there. The film concludes that eating fast food too much leads to bad health. We eat meat by sacrificing animals life and we become ill.
Some people say that this film is quite biased and nobody eats fast food menu so much. This accusation might partly be right, but the most important thing we need to think about is how to improve our life and diet style. If we can find a way to change our collapsed eating habits, it would be beneficial not only for humans, but also for animals. The precious thing that we learned from this great documentary is that good things for humans are the good things for animals as well.
-Reference-
"Super Size Me." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 9 July 2014.
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390521/>.
"Pink goop in Chicken McNuggets? McDonald's Canada answers." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 9 July 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua5PaSqKD6k>.
"The Push for Humane." tory. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 July 2014. <http://www.qsrmagazine.com/consumer-trends/push-humane>.
"McDonald's Cruelty: The Rotten Truth About Egg McMuffins." McDonald's Cruelty: The Rotten Truth About Egg McMuffins. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 July 2014.
<http://www.mcdonaldscruelty.com/>.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Questions and Answers for Q18
18.Are we able to survive without eating animals' meat?
Firstly, one of the important reasons why we, humans, have eaten animal's meat is nutritional aspects. For example, meat has a lot of protein which is essential for us to sustain our body functions like the immune system. However, some people are against this opinion. they say that we can get necessary nutrients without eating meat. One alternative food they suggest is soybeans. This is because they have as much protein as meat, and they are easy to grow. In addition, these days, there are many soybeans products such as, Textured soy protein(大豆肉), Soy flour(大豆粉), Soy oil(大豆油) and things like that.
"高齢者こそ肉を？！ ～見過ごされる高齢者の." NHK クローズアップ現代. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 July 2014. <http://www.nhk.or.jp/gendai/kiroku/detail02_3429_all.html>.
Kerns, Michelle . "Nutrition Information for Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP)." LIVESTRONG.COM. LIVESTRONG.COM, 9 Feb. 2014. Web. 9 July 2014. <http://www.livestrong.com/article/88796-nutrition-information-textured-vegetable-protein/>.
"Textured Soy Protein" . Soyfoods., Soyfoods. Web. 9 July 2014. <http://www.soyfoods.org/soy-products/soy-fact-sheets/textured-soy-protein-fact-sheet>.
Firstly, one of the important reasons why we, humans, have eaten animal's meat is nutritional aspects. For example, meat has a lot of protein which is essential for us to sustain our body functions like the immune system. However, some people are against this opinion. they say that we can get necessary nutrients without eating meat. One alternative food they suggest is soybeans. This is because they have as much protein as meat, and they are easy to grow. In addition, these days, there are many soybeans products such as, Textured soy protein(大豆肉), Soy flour(大豆粉), Soy oil(大豆油) and things like that.
"高齢者こそ肉を？！ ～見過ごされる高齢者の." NHK クローズアップ現代. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 July 2014. <http://www.nhk.or.jp/gendai/kiroku/detail02_3429_all.html>.
Kerns, Michelle . "Nutrition Information for Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP)." LIVESTRONG.COM. LIVESTRONG.COM, 9 Feb. 2014. Web. 9 July 2014. <http://www.livestrong.com/article/88796-nutrition-information-textured-vegetable-protein/>.
"Textured Soy Protein" . Soyfoods., Soyfoods. Web. 9 July 2014. <http://www.soyfoods.org/soy-products/soy-fact-sheets/textured-soy-protein-fact-sheet>.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Questions and Answers for Q12 and Q14
12.How many vegetarians are there in the world?
Unfortunately, we were not able to find the solid information about how many vegetarians are in the world. However, we could get some survey reports including the number of vegetarians in the U.S.. According to the data, there are at least 7.3 million adult vegetarians in the U.S. in 2009.
14.Does the Japanese government take necessary measures to protect animals' welfare ?
As of 2014, there is a strong law which are related to animal rights/welfare in Japan. It is called "Act on Welfare and Management of Animals (In Japanese "動物愛護法")". These days, people in Japan are being more and more interested in animal rights, so the development of this law has enthusiastically been promoted.
The Article 1 of this law is shown below.
-------------------------------
Article 1 The purpose of this Act is to engender a spirit for animal welfare among citizens and contribute to the development of a respect for life and sentiments of amity and peace by providing for the prevention of cruelty to animals, the proper handling of animals and other matters concerning animal welfare, as well as to prevent animals from causing an infringement on the life, body or property of humans by providing for matters concerning the management of animals.
-------------------------------
--Reference--
"Vegetarian Journal 2009 Issue 4." Issue 4 2009. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 July 2014.
<http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2009issue4/2009_issue4_2009_poll.php>.
"The Number of Vegetarians Around The World." The Number of Vegetarians Around The World. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 July 2014. <http://www.raw-food-health.net/NumberOfVegetarians.html>.
"動物の愛護及び管理に関する法律." 動物の愛護及び管理に関する法律. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 July 2014. <http://law.e-gov.go.jp/htmldata/S48/S48HO105.html>.
"日本法令外国語訳データベースシステム - [法令本文表示] - 動物の愛護及び管理に関する法律." 日本法令外国語訳データベースシステム - [法令本文表
示] - 動物の愛護及び管理に関する法律. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 July 2014. <http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/law/detail/?id=61&vm=04&re=02>.
Unfortunately, we were not able to find the solid information about how many vegetarians are in the world. However, we could get some survey reports including the number of vegetarians in the U.S.. According to the data, there are at least 7.3 million adult vegetarians in the U.S. in 2009.
14.Does the Japanese government take necessary measures to protect animals' welfare ?
As of 2014, there is a strong law which are related to animal rights/welfare in Japan. It is called "Act on Welfare and Management of Animals (In Japanese "動物愛護法")". These days, people in Japan are being more and more interested in animal rights, so the development of this law has enthusiastically been promoted.
The Article 1 of this law is shown below.
-------------------------------
Article 1 The purpose of this Act is to engender a spirit for animal welfare among citizens and contribute to the development of a respect for life and sentiments of amity and peace by providing for the prevention of cruelty to animals, the proper handling of animals and other matters concerning animal welfare, as well as to prevent animals from causing an infringement on the life, body or property of humans by providing for matters concerning the management of animals.
-------------------------------
--Reference--
"Vegetarian Journal 2009 Issue 4." Issue 4 2009. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 July 2014.
<http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2009issue4/2009_issue4_2009_poll.php>.
"The Number of Vegetarians Around The World." The Number of Vegetarians Around The World. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 July 2014. <http://www.raw-food-health.net/NumberOfVegetarians.html>.
"動物の愛護及び管理に関する法律." 動物の愛護及び管理に関する法律. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 July 2014. <http://law.e-gov.go.jp/htmldata/S48/S48HO105.html>.
"日本法令外国語訳データベースシステム - [法令本文表示] - 動物の愛護及び管理に関する法律." 日本法令外国語訳データベースシステム - [法令本文表
示] - 動物の愛護及び管理に関する法律. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 July 2014. <http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/law/detail/?id=61&vm=04&re=02>.
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