I've changed my pull quote on the sidebar, as you may notice, from a Bible verse to a Mark Twain quote. I've got no problems with people expressing their religious beliefs as motivating factors for their work- in fact, I think it's a good thing as long as people aren't prostelyzing. But I just thought I should make it clear that my work isn't motivated by a Christian perspective, which the Bible quote may have suggested. I am motivated to reclaim religious language from the fundamentalist right, though. But anyway... what actually motivated me was a trip to the mall, specifically Forever 21. I was kind of disgusted as I walked in at how much their close infantilize women. Not that this--and the obvious sweatshop-quality workmanship--kept me from buying stuff (It was on sale! For $10!). The off-kilter feeling continued, however, when I got home and found "John 3:16" printed on the bottom of the Forever 21 bag. As evangelizing goes, pretty subtle, so I can't argue with that. Just a disturbing juxtaposition, cheap slutty clothes and a New Testament Verse.
Round One wasn't really a fight, but whatever. Caught your attention, right? Elyzabethe posted about Montgomery County's trans fat ban, which inspired my post last week on the Guerrilla Nutrition Labels, which inspired her response . Well, over on my new favorite website, Culinate, there is a review of a --I guess you could call it a debate--between food and agriculture writer Michael Pollen, and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. Apparently, Mackey impressed the Berkeley crowd with his commitment to reforming the food system. I have no doubt he's genuine, either, but this article points out some of the facts he left out of his (seriously) PowerPoint presentation. What got me especially (no surprise to anyone who heard me ramble on about Spinach and e.coli last semester) was his classification of Earthbound Farm as a group of small organic farms banding together under one brand name, allowing him to say that 78% of Whole Foods produce comes from small farms. I call bull...
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