Defense of Fast Food Labor Conditions

I stumbled on this short position paper published in something called Opus1: The Journal of Undergraduate Research. In it, the author (whose name is not given) makes an argument in defense of the fast food industry's focus on hiring teens and praises the "extreme division of labor into simple repetitive tasks" (in other words, the Fordist model of food production we've been discussing in class) as a way "to tap inexpensive footloose labor." Since this is precisely the opposite of the position most people in the class took in response to the "Behind the Counter" chapter of Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, I thought it would be useful to post it here.

By the way, Opus1 is a strange publication -- I'm not sure what to make of it. Apparently it publishes papers by college undergraduates, though strangely none of the papers are attributed to individual authors. There is an editorial board that apparently selects the work published in the journal, and the board includes mostly people who work at universities -- but none of their credentials are given, and the site doesn't give any details about the editorial process. The site seems to focus primarily on economics, with a bias toward neoliberal or free market economics.

Fast Food Map of NYC

This is a Google Maps mashup that shows the fast food restaurants in New York City, broken down by chain. I'm not sure if they're all represented or not. Still, this could be useful if you were doing research on the density of fast food restaurants or their placement.

Freddy Krueger Eats a Hamburger

For those of you who remember the old "Nightmare on Elm St." movies, and for those of you who will be going to see the "Nightmare on Elm St." remake later this year, I present Freddy Krueger Eats a Hamburger.

Sample Blogs

Here are links to some blogs that I think are good. They're not related to the cluster topic (which your blog should be) but each of them has a theme and actively engages with that theme through regular posts. Some of them might be run by more than one person, so don't be intimidated if the volume or frequency of the posts seems very high.

Gaping Void
Yellow Menace: Asian Pop Culture Upside Your Head
Strange Maps
Arbogast on Film
I Love Typography
Motomachi's Vending Blog

The last one (a favorite) requires some explanation: this person in Japan photographs a particular vending machine every day, tracking changes in the products sold in the machine and their placement, the advertising campaigns that are featured on the machine, and the price of the goods. It's a great, crazy, obsessive project.

Grading Student Blogs

Note to my Ethics of Food students:

During Monday's ENG103, I talked a little bit about how your overall performance on your blogs will figure in the "low stakes writing" part of the course grade (30%). The grade for "low stakes writing" includes all of the grades for weekly responses and informal presentations, but it also includes an evaluation of the quality and interest of your blogging activity as a whole. Having an active, creative blog will positively impact this portion of your grade; having an inactive blog will negatively impact the grade. One of you has emailed to ask me for some clarifiction on what counts as an active, creative blog, and I thought the answer should be posted here.

What I mean is that you should work to make your blog active by posting informally about topics related to the class on your own, instead of just posting assignments. For example, look at my Ethics of Food blog: I post at least three times per week, and there are posts on a variety of subjects related to what we're talking about in the cluster. Some of my posts (about 40%) are course materials: assignments, feedback, etc. Most of the posts (about 60%) are related to our cluster topic, but are not course materials: links to news items, videos, images, small pieces of informal writing on the fast food industry or industrial agriculture. Some of my blog entries are short and very informal: for example, the posts on "The Invincible Happy Meal" or today's post on George Lopez. Others are longer and more developed, but they're still just me "thinking out loud."

Keeping an active blog should be about the same for you. Post a few times every week. For each formal assignment you write (40%), do a few informal posts (60%). Your blog doesn't have to look like mine or read like mine, but it should demonstrate some engagement with the cluster topics. Use the blog as a tool to bring your course-work into your everyday life.

For example, you might post informally about a food-related experience: a meal you ate, something you noticed on a trip to the grocery store, a job you had, a crazy adventure you had trying to fulfill a food craving late at night, etc. Or you might draw a picture of your lunch once a week for the rest of the semester and post the drawings. Or you might post a Youtube video that you think relates to the class and say a little about it. ("Here's a great George Lopez routine on immigrant labor in the fast food industry...") Or you might investigate the food options you find in your neighborhood or at school.

This should be an easy way to raise your grade, and it should be fun. Note that not everything has to be writing, because I'm not grading these posts individually. If you're an "okay" writer but a good artist, you can use your art to make an exciting blog. The point is, you should try to make your blog more than a place where you deposit homework. Instead, it should be something I and your classmates want to check in with.

I know someone is going to ask exactly how the blogs will be graded. You'll find a description of how the grades will be assigned here.

George Lopez on Fast Food + Immigrant Labor

Here's a great George Lopez routine on immigrant labor in the fast food industry. I think Lopez is really funny, but I also find his stand-up work insightful when it comes to thinking about issues of labor and immigration in the U.S.

Thinking about today's class discussion, I wonder if what Lopez is saying contradicts Schlosser's emphasis on teens in the fast food workplace. Is Schlosser out of date on this topic?

Research Assignment #1

Due: Thursday 3/25
Requirements: 1 quotation

There are several steps to this assignment:

1. Critical Reading: Choose an issue, problem, or topic that interests you from your reading of Eric Schlosser's "Behind the Counter." Your topic may come directly from Schlosser, or it may be taken from class discussion or chosen in response to a classmate's blog entry. It is okay to use the same issue you wrote about in Response #2.

2. Independent Research: Using LexisNexis Academic or LexisNexis Academic (New York York News Search), find a good article that relates to your issue. In other words, find an article that provides new and useful information or a new and different perspective that helps you understand the issue better. In general, longer and more comprehensive articles are better sources for this kind of research.

3. Writing with Outside Sources: Write a blog post about your issue, using the article you found to address it. Remember to use your best skills in quoting and/or paraphrasing the source.

4. Citation: Cite your source at the bottom of the post using the following format

Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article." Title of Publication. Date of Publication.

Later in the semester we'll be using MLA format, which is very similar to this. You use MLA here, if you are already familiar with it.