A Buddhist’s Eating Manifesto

Yuan Zhou

WRIT-1133

Dr. Eric Leake

May 27, 2012

A Buddhist’s Eating Manifesto

I am a traditional Hinayana Buddhist, who does not eat meat at all, and the eating habits act like those of vegetarians. Hinayana Buddhism heavily affects my food values. My diet profoundly depends on the religious doctrine, which restrains people eating meat, fish, and eggs.

Why I always call myself as Hinayana Buddhist instead of the simple word--- Buddhist? The reason is that Buddhism has several branches, and there are two main Buddhism, such as Hinayana Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism. However, the food values between these Buddhism branches are very different. Some are eat meat and fish, while some are prohibit from eating meat and fish. In the article, “Buddhism: Diet & Nutrition”, Michael Ohlsson mentioned that “The Five Moral Precepts of Buddhism include: no killing and partaking of intoxicants.” (1) Ohlsson claimed that Buddhism does not prohibit people from eating meat but from killing and alcohol. Buddhism Ohlsson talked about refers to Mahayana Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism is not forbid people from eating meat and fish.

However, Hinayana Buddhist does not eat meat and fish. According to the article, “Buddhism Food, Diet, and Cooking”, in China, Hinayana Buddhist also has to avoid eating strong-smelling plants, such as shallots, onions, chives, garlic, and leeks. Because Hinayana Buddhist believes that the strong tastes of these vegetables can stimulate the senses and being an obstacle to Hinayana Buddhist seeking to control their desires. Monks and nuns are more devout than lay people, so they have stricter diet rules than lay people. Monks and nuns always eat only twice a day, in the morning and at noon. They always are fasting for the remaining day and night. Yet, I am not a monks and nuns. Instead, I am a layperson; nevertheless in order to become more devout to my faith, I am always fasting on the first and the fifteenth of lunar calendar. It is very important for me being a Buddhist, not only because religion is my spiritual ballast, but also believing in one belief can make life meaningful. I am steadfast in being a Buddhist and also maintain the Hinayana Buddhism diet.

Moreover, becoming a Hinayana Buddhist is good for my health too, because Hinayana Buddhist always eat vegetable, which has low level in saturated fat so that lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Some researches have already given some evidences to show that vegetarian always are healthier and have longer life than who always eat meat. In the article, “Vegetarian Diet may Cut Risk of Heart Attack; New Atkins Method Stresses Plant Proteins”, the author stated that the vegetarian who seldom eat meat have low risk of having heart attack, and the people who always eat meat likely have high-carb diet, which raises the risks of heart attacks and strokes. In addition, the author indicated that the vegetarian who has low-carb diet always could easily lose their weight and lower the levels of bad cholesterol in the blood. Losing weight by eating vegetable is quite effective. Vegetable makes the blood becomes slightly alkaline, so that can promote the metabolic activity. Thus, vegetable can burn the accumulation of body fat and sugar off, so eating vegetable would achieve natural weight losing goal. In addition, people who often eat vegetable are vibrant, and the skin appears soft, smooth and ruddy.

Therefore, becoming a Hinayana Buddhist or vegetarian is important for me. As a Hinayana Buddhist, on the one hand, I can keep my faith, which can help me get through difficulties. If I do not have my faith, probably I would throw my computer out of my window when I am frustrated on my homework. One the other hand, the lifestyle of Hinayana Buddhist is like vegetarian whose diet is very healthy. Furthermore, Hinayana Buddhist does fasting regularly, which also is a healthy activity.

Consequently, because of the religion reason and the healthy lifestyle of Hinayana Buddhist, I am insisting my diet, which does not have any meat or fish or eggs, no matter how bad the taste of vegetable is. Of course, I can refuse to eat meat or fish or eggs, even though they are much more delicious than vegetable. These are the reasons why I insist my food values, which are healthy, abstinent, and regular.

There is a question frequently flow in my mind--- Why Hinayana Buddhist does not eat meat? After I have done some researches, I know that agriculture is a reason, for which Mahayana Buddhism does not mind eating fish and Hinayana Buddhist does not eat meat and fish. Firstly, because Mahayana Buddhism originally comes from India, I have done some researches on early India farming. In the "Early Farming Communities in India", Thapar talked about how barren the soil was in the early India. Therefore, normal people did not have any chance to eat vegetable, so the food they can eat is meat, such as pork, beef, and chicken. By contrast, Hinayana Buddhism is originally comes from Southern China, in where soil was fertile, so people can grew a lot of vegetables. Hence, Hinayana Buddhist has the condition (having many vegetables, the substitution of meat) so that they can choose do not eat meat. They considered the meat is being specialized killed for consumption, which would distract them from cultivating.

After talking about why I am a Hinayana Buddhist and strictly abiding by the religious doctrine, which does not allow people eat meat, I am going to talk about how I eat in my family.

My grandmother and I are both Hinayana Buddhists, but my mother is not Hinayana Buddhist. My mother love to eat scrambled egg with leek, which is a famous Cantonese dish and is prohibited to eat for Hinayana Buddhist. Also, Cantonese love to cook with shallots, onions, chives and garlic. So my mother does. All kinds of condiments are my mother’s favorite, but they are all forbid to eat for my grandmother and I. Therefore, there must have many conflicts on what we eat. The solutions for these conflicts are the same. Every time my grandmother is cooking meal, she would separate the same dish into two dishes; one is for her and I, which does not contain any condiment. Another one is for my mother, which is very delicious, tender and crisp. Even though my mother’s dish is very tempting for grandmother and I, grandmother and I always can withstand the willing of eating the delicious food. No matter how inconvenient to cook the same dish into two different dishes, my grandmother do not complain about it, because she is a very devout Hinayana Buddhist, and willing to abide by the doctrine. I think I am as devout as my grandmother, because I weigh the Hinayana Buddhism doctrine heavier than the delicious dishes, especially for a foodie like me!

Actually, being a Hinayana Buddhist is very difficult for me, because I think the food diet of a Hinayana Buddhist is very austere (no meat, no fish, and have to fast two days a month). Before high school, I did not have any religious faith. Nevertheless, because the exam in high school is extremely intensive, I choose to believe in Hinayana Buddhism to relief my pain from study. Although it is very challenging to preserve the diet habit, I force myself to love eating vegetable, which is healthy to my body. Because eating vegetable, which has low calories, is not satisfy my hunger very well, and I usually work out, which takes a lot of calories, I always have to eat a lot of rice.

I was in a dilemma since I came to the United States, because vegetable was usually uncooked, which was too tasteless to eat. Rice is not common in American food diet, but I have to eat vegetables and rice. At last, I eat sandwich (two pieces of bread with some vegetables) instead. According to my research of American food culture, I found out that American are concerning about convenience. Hence, I think it is the reason why the vegetables in the United States are always raw. Because I can hardly accept the uncooked vegetables, I sometimes would break my religious precept--- eating meat instead of raw vegetables. I would feel guilty every time I eat meat. Therefore, in order to obey my doctrine, I would choose to move out campus and cook by myself. I can be fully mindful of my eating, so that I would not be particular about food. Mindfully eating is an important idea of Buddhism eating habit. In the article, “Engaged Buddhism in Retreat”, the author argued that “If we are fully and genuinely mindful of our eating, we will not allow our choice of foods to bring needless suffering and death to living beings.” Thus, I think I can strictly execute my eating schedule when I can practices mindfully eating very well. Mindfully eating can solve my difficult dilemma, which is very exciting.  

       Hinayana Buddhism affects my food diet a lot. My food diet is austerely abided by the Hinayana Buddhism doctrine, which does not allow people to eat meat. Even though the food diet of mine is too lite, I am very glad to execute my food diet, because my food diet is very healthy.

Work Cited

Anonymous. “Vegetarian Diet may Cut Risk of Heart Attack; New Atkins Method
    Stresses Plant Proteins.” Edmonton Journal: A.11. Print. 2009.

Balisunset. “Buddhism Food, Diet, and Cooking.” Journal of Religion and Philosophy
    (2009). Web. 2009.

“Buddhism: Diet & Nutrition.” CultureVision  : Buddhism 1 Nov. 2008: ProQuest
      Nursing & Allied Health Source, ProQuest. Web.  25 May. 2012.
Kemmerer, Lisa. "Engaged Buddhism in Retreat." Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge 6.3 (2008): 135. Print.
Thapar, B. K. “Early Farming Communities in India.” Journal of Human Evolution
    7.1 (1978): 11-22. Print.

A Buddhist’s Eating Manifesto

Yuan Zhou

WRIT-1133

Dr. Eric Leake

May 27, 2012

A Buddhist’s Eating Manifesto

I am a traditional Hinayana Buddhist, who does not eat meat at all, and the eating habits act like those of vegetarians. Hinayana Buddhism heavily affects my food values. My diet profoundly depends on the religious doctrine, which restrains people from eating meat, fish, and eggs.

Why I always call myself as Hinayana Buddhist instead of the simple word--- Buddhist? The reason is that Buddhism has several branches, and there are two main Buddhism, such as Hinayana Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism. However, the food values between these Buddhism branches are very different. Some are eat meat and fish, while some are prohibit from eating meat and fish. In the article, “Buddhism: Diet & Nutrition”, Michael Ohlsson mentioned that “The Five Moral Precepts of Buddhism include: no killing and partaking of intoxicants.” (1) Ohlsson claimed that Buddhism does not prohibit people from eating meat but from killing and alcohol. Buddhism Ohlsson talked about refers to Mahayana Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism is not forbid people from eating meat and fish.

However, Hinayana Buddhist does not eat meat and fish. According to the article, “Buddhism Food, Diet, and Cooking”, in China, Hinayana Buddhist also has to avoid eating strong-smelling plants, such as shallots, onions, chives, garlic, and leeks.

Zhou 2

Because Hinayana Buddhist believes that the strong tastes of these vegetables can stimulate the senses and being an obstacle to Hinayana Buddhist seeking to control their desires. Monks and nuns are more devout than lay people, so they have stricter diet rules than lay people. Monks and nuns always eat only twice a day, in the morning and at noon. They always are fasting for the remaining day and night. Yet, I am not a monks and nuns. Instead, I am a layperson; nevertheless in order to become more devout to my faith, I am always fasting on the first and the fifteenth of lunar calendar. It is very important for me being a Buddhist, not only because religion is my spiritual ballast, but also believing in one belief can make life meaningful. I am steadfast in being a Buddhist and also maintain the Hinayana Buddhism diet.

Moreover, becoming a Hinayana Buddhist is good for my health too, because Hinayana Buddhist always eat vegetable, which has low level in saturated fat so that lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Some researches have already given some evidences to show that vegetarian always are healthier and have longer life than who always eat meat. In the article, “Vegetarian Diet may Cut Risk of Heart Attack; New Atkins Method Stresses Plant Proteins”, the author stated that the vegetarian who seldom eat meat have low risk of having heart attack, and the people who always eat meat likely have high-carb diet, which raises the risks of heart attacks and strokes. In addition, the author indicated that the vegetarian who has low-carb diet always could easily lose their weight and lower the levels of bad cholesterol in the blood. Losing weight by eating vegetable is quite effective. Vegetable makes the blood

Zhou 3

becomes slightly alkaline, so that can promote the metabolic activity. Thus, vegetable can burn the accumulation of body fat and sugar off, so eating vegetable would achieve natural weight losing goal. In addition, people who often eat vegetable are vibrant, and the skin appears soft, smooth and ruddy.

Therefore, becoming a Hinayana Buddhist or vegetarian is important for me. As a Hinayana Buddhist, on the one hand, I can keep my faith, which can help me get through difficulties. If I do not have my faith, probably I would throw my computer out of my window when I am frustrated on my homework. One the other hand, the lifestyle of Hinayana Buddhist is like vegetarian whose diet is very healthy. Furthermore, Hinayana Buddhist does fasting regularly, which also is a healthy activity.

Consequently, because of the religion reason and the healthy lifestyle of Hinayana Buddhist, I am insisting my diet, which does not have any meat or fish or eggs, no matter how bad the taste of vegetable is. Of course, I can refuse to eat meat or fish or eggs, even though they are much more delicious than vegetable. These are the reasons why I insist my food values, which are healthy, abstinent, and regular.

There is a question frequently flow in my mind--- Why Hinayana Buddhist does not eat meat? After I have done some researches, I know that agriculture is a reason, for which Mahayana Buddhism does not mind eating fish and Hinayana Buddhist does not eat meat and fish. Firstly, because Mahayana Buddhism originally comes from India, I have done some researches on early India farming. In the "Early

Zhou 4

Farming Communities in India", Thapar talked about how barren the soil was in the early India. Therefore, normal people did not have any chance to eat vegetable, so the food they can eat is meat, such as pork, beef, and chicken. By contrast, Hinayana Buddhism is originally comes from Southern China, in where soil was fertile, so people can grew a lot of vegetables. Hence, Hinayana Buddhist has the condition (having many vegetables, the substitution of meat) so that they can choose do not eat meat. They considered the meat is being specialized killed for consumption, which would distract them from cultivating.

After talking about why I am a Hinayana Buddhist and strictly abiding by the religious doctrine, which does not allow people eat meat, I am going to talk about how I eat in my family.

My grandmother and I are both Hinayana Buddhists, but my mother is not Hinayana Buddhist. My mother love to eat scrambled egg with leek, which is a famous Cantonese dish and is prohibited to eat for Hinayana Buddhist. Also, Cantonese love to cook with shallots, onions, chives and garlic. So my mother does. All kinds of condiments are my mother’s favorite, but they are all forbid to eat for my grandmother and I. Therefore, there must have many conflicts on what we eat. The solutions for these conflicts are the same. Every time my grandmother is cooking meal, she would separate the same dish into two dishes; one is for her and I, which does not contain any condiment. Another one is for my mother, which is very delicious, tender and crisp. Even though my mother’s dish is very tempting for

Zhou 5

grandmother and I, grandmother and I always can withstand the willing of eating the delicious food. No matter how inconvenient to cook the same dish into two different dishes, my grandmother do not complain about it, because she is a very devout Hinayana Buddhist, and willing to abide by the doctrine. I think I am as devout as my grandmother, because I weigh the Hinayana Buddhism doctrine heavier than the delicious dishes, especially for a foodie like me!

Actually, being a Hinayana Buddhist is very difficult for me, because I think the food diet of a Hinayana Buddhist is very austere (no meat, no fish, and have to fast two days a month). Before high school, I did not have any religious faith. Nevertheless, because the exam in high school is extremely intensive, I choose to believe in Hinayana Buddhism to relief my pain from study. Although it is very challenging to preserve the diet habit, I force myself to love eating vegetable, which is healthy to my body. Because eating vegetable, which has low calories, is not satisfy my hunger very well, and I usually work out, which takes a lot of calories, I always have to eat a lot of rice.

I was in a dilemma since I came to the United States, because vegetable was usually uncooked, which was too tasteless to eat. Rice is not common in American food diet, but I have to eat vegetables and rice. At last, I eat sandwich (two pieces of bread with some vegetables) instead. According to my research of American food culture, “Subway Sandwiches Reveal American Food Value”, I found out that

Zhou 6

American are concerning about convenience. Hence, I think it is the reason why the vegetables in the United States are always raw.

       Hinayana Buddhism affects my food diet a lot. My food diet is austerely abided by the Hinayana Buddhism doctrine, which does not allow people to eat meat. Even though the food diet of mine is too lite, I am very glad to execute my food diet, because my food diet is very healthy.

Work Cited

Anonymous. “Vegetarian Diet may Cut Risk of Heart Attack; New Atkins Method
    Stresses Plant Proteins.” Edmonton Journal: A.11. Print. 2009.

Balisunset. “Buddhism Food, Diet, and Cooking.” Journal of Religion and Philosophy
    (2009). Web. 2009.

“Buddhism: Diet & Nutrition.” CultureVision  : Buddhism 1 Nov. 2008: ProQuest
      Nursing & Allied Health Source, ProQuest. Web.  25 May. 2012.
Thapar, B. K. “Early Farming Communities in India.” Journal of Human Evolution
    7.1 (1978): 11-22. Print.
Zhou, Yuan. “Subway Sandwiches Reveal American Food Value.” (2012) 18 April.
    2012.

Draft

A Buddhist’s Eating Manifesto

I am a traditional Hinayana Buddhist, who does not eat meat at all, and my eating habits act like those of vegetarians. Nevertheless, different from vegetarians who eat fish, Hinayana Buddhist also does not eat fish, because Chinese consider meat and fish as “Hun”, and consider vegetable as “Su”. Even though nowadays Hinayana Buddhism religious doctrine restrains people from eating meat, fish, and eggs, it is very important for me being a Buddhist. Not only because religion is spiritual ballast, but also believe in one belief can make life meaningful, I am steadfast in being a Buddhist.

The Buddhism has several branches, such as Hinayana Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Esoteric Buddhism--- can be called Vajravana Buddhism or Mantrayana. However, the food values between these Buddhism branches are very different. Some are eat meat and fish, while some are prohibit from eating meat and fish.

Obviously, Hinayana Buddhist does not eat meat and fish. Mahayana Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism and Esoteric Buddhism are not forbid people from eating meat and fish. Why are they having different food values eating habits?

At the beginning of founding Buddhism, Sakyamuni does not clearly defined the abstinence of meat, but avoid of killing. He specified people should not eat animals killed by human, but he advised people that meat should be eaten only when the animal had not been specifically killed for consumption.

In the article, “Buddhism: Diet & Nutrition”, Michael Ohlsson mentioned that “The Five Moral Precepts of Buddhism include: no killing and partaking of intoxicants.” (1) Ohlsson’s claim is that Buddhism does not prohibit people from eating meat but from killing and alcohol.

//going to explain why eat meat.
   There is a reason, for which Hinayana Buddhism does not eat meat and fish. Firstly, because Buddhism originally comes from India, I have done some research on early India farming. In the "Early Farming Communities in India", Thapar talked about how barren the soil was in the early India. Therefore, normal people did not have any chance to have meat.

For me, in such a thriftily society, the reason why do not I eat meat is that being a Vegan is healthy for my life.

            //explain why I eat vegetable.

"Buddhism: Diet & Nutrition. " CultureVision  : Buddhism 1 Nov. 2008: ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source, ProQuest. Web.  25 May. 2012.

Wiist, W. H., et al. "Buddhists’ Religious and Health Practices." Journal of Religion and Health 51.1 (2012): 132-47. Print.

Thapar, B. K. "Early Farming Communities in India." Journal of Human Evolution 7.1 (1978): 11-22. Print.

Food Advices

After reading the article, “History of Food Advice”, written by Dupuis, I found an interesting thing. Nowadays, popular food writers write many confusing food advices. Nevertheless, there are a huge number of people obey the food advices without thinking, and they just let the popular food writers changing their diet habits. They even do not have think about the food advices are reliable or scientific, and blindly follow the popular food writers. Obviously, in this article, Dupuis is opposed to follow the popular food writers. He gave an example that in the past time, we were always pursuing eating perfectly, and we failed every time. People always liked to follow the food advices, and the advices did not help, because the advices did not improve our diets.

In the opposite side, Pollan gave some eating advices in his article, “Unhappy Meals.” However, at the beginning of the article, he mentions some food advices, which were unreliable and confusing. He points out that nutritionism is not science. Instead, it is ideology. After talking about some confusing food advices, he gave us some his points of view of eating. He suggests that industrial foods and processed foods are not natural and, of course, not to eat. Instead, we should have natural food, which is higher quality than industrial foods or processed foods.

All in all, I agree with Dupuis’s point, and I always choose do not listen to what the popular food writers said. Instead, I would eat in Chinese tradition. One of the traditions is that having more vegetable than meat is healthier. 

Review post

I have read Yusi's blog and found some interesting things. Yusi is talking about tomatoes, which contained carotene lycopene. Because carotene lycopene is a kind of natural antioxidants, it can heal cancer diseases. Moreover, eating tomatoes even can protect ourselves from harmful UV rays!

Healthy Breakfast

Yuan Zhou

WRIT-1133

Dr. Eric Leake

May 17^th, 2012

Healthy Breakfast

            Among my writing classmates, I find that some people do not have scheduled mealtime, while some people strictly implement their meal schedule. The classmates who do not have scheduled their mealtime always miss breakfast, and they sometimes do not have a regular lunchtime or dinnertime.

Most of the people who do not have constant daily schedule do not have class before 10:00 am. Of course, the people who strictly execute their daily schedule often have class before 10:00 am. From the class time distribution, we can easily conclude that the schedule of class heavily affects the mealtime schedule.

In the article, “Harvard Men’s Health Watch”, the author mentioned that “It is important to start your day with a good break- fast, and your first meal of the day will help flip the switch back to energy storage, so it’s important to do it right”, which means that not only breakfast is important to ourselves, but also how to have breakfast is important. In the rest of the article, the author talked about breakfast can lower the risk of diseases, such as diabetes and heart diseases, if and only if people start right at breakfast in healthful way. Additionally, the people who usually do not have breakfast would have higher risk of contracting a disease. Therefore having breakfast is significant to our lives, and having right pattern of breakfast is also important. If you do not have healthful pattern of breakfast, your health were not better than those of who do not have breakfast.
           I am the one who having the healthful pattern the author talked about. I always have breakfast in the morning at the certain time--- 9:00am. I also have lunch and dinner on time according to my timetable. I choose to eat the food with high protein in the morning--- eggs and potatoes. In order to take in vitamins, I drink orange juice every meal. According to the article, it is not important to eat vegetable in the morning. Thus, I seldom eat vegetable, because vegetable always is raw in the United States, and raw vegetable is hard to eat for me. Therefore, orange juice becomes the complement of vegetable.
           By contrast, Difei, one of my classmate, usually prefer to drink coke when he eating, which is bad for his health. He likes to eat fried food, which may causes cancer. Erratic mealtime would causes digestive system diseases, and missing breakfast is abnormal and is harmful to people, especially teenagers.
         In addition, during the discuss in the class, I noticed one point that the people who have erratic daily scheduled rules often were addicted to computer games, and were likely to follow television show. Moreover, they always eat food before computer screen or television, which is very unhealthy. Because of addicting to computer games, they stay up so late that they always miss their breakfast, which is a very unhealthy habit.
           According to “Breakfast and Mental Health”, written by Andrew P. Smith, having breakfast is good for our mental health. Regular breakfast eaters were significantly less stressed, less depressed than the people who have irregular breakfast. Furthermore, breakfast even can affect health-related behaviors, such as smoking. Regular breakfast eaters were less likely to smoke than the people who usually do not have breakfast.  
           All in all, breakfast is significant to our lives. It is not exaggerated to say breakfast equals healthy lives. In order to have healthy minds and bodies, we should have breakfast and keep our diets healthy.

Work Cited

"Breakfast and Your Health." Harvard men's health watch 9.7 (2005): 1. Print.

Smith, A. P. "Breakfast and Mental Health." International journal of food        
      sciences and nutrition 49.5 (1998): 397-402. Print.

Post 8 comment

Some people have scheduled meal time, while some people do not have scheduled meal time. Almost the people who do not have scheduled meal time are likely to play computer games. However, most of the people who have scheduled meal time have class before 10:00 am.
Ying Zhang always have an apple in the morning, and eat healthy food in lunch and unhealthy food in dinner. She’s meal is like mine. I always have orange juice, in breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Food journal

10^th May, Thursday.

I got up at 8:30 am and have breakfast at 9:00 am. I went to Nelson dining hall to have some fired potatoes and 2 over-mediums (eggs). I drink some orange juice.

At 12:00 am, I had some Navy Bean Soup and turkey burger, and then I had some Entrée--- Greek Gyro. Also I drink some orange juice. After that, I ate some Angel Cookies.

At 6:00 pm, I had some Onion Soup and BBQ Burger with Crispy Onions. I love corn, so I eat some steamed corn. For sure, I drink some orange juice, too. After finished my meal, I eat some almond cookies.

11^th May, Friday.

In the morning, I have breakfast at 9:00 am. As usual, I went to dining hall and have some fired potatoes and 2 over-mediums and some orange juice.

At 11:30 am, I had some Chicken Corn Chowder, and ate some Tuna Melt in Nelson dining hall. French fries are my favorite food and I ate some. Dessert time, I ate some Berry Blue Jell-O Parfait. Orange juice for sure.

At 5:00 pm, I had some Cheese Pizza and orange juice, because I was not hungry.

12^th May, Saturday.

At 10:00 am, I ate the same breakfast everyday--- fired potatoes and 2 over-mediums. Orange juice is the necessity of my daily life.

Because on the weekends, the dining hall only offers the brunch beginning at 10:00 am, I do not have lunch on weekends.

At 6:00 pm, I ate some chicken taco and Pepsi in my dorm. I brought that food from Nagel dining hall.

Always, I have my meal at school dining hall. This is my three days food journal.

An Amazing Aquaculture Product

Yuan Zhou

WRIT-1133

Dr. Eric Leake

May 9, 2012

An Amazing Aquaculture Product

            I was amazed at one extremely delicious seafood dish, Sauteed Shrimp in Szechuan Style, last week in Star Kitchen. Sauteed Shrimp in Szechuan Style is only made of shrimps and red peppers. Ingredients of this dish are so simple that I cannot believe the facts, because the shrimps in that dish not only are fresh and soft but also are peppery and biting. Because of the taste of the shrimps, the dish is very delicious and becomes my favorite food.

            Seafood Health Facts, a project funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, said that “Shrimp is the most popular seafood eaten in the United States. It represents over 25 percent of the nation’s annual per capita seafood consumption. This calculation indicates that the average consumer eats 4 pounds of shrimp per year.” We can see that shrimp is important to Americans. Shrimp is a normal food in our daily life.

In this paper, I am going to talk about the production of this amazing food. As we all know, shrimp is an aquaculture product. There are so many kinds of shrimp in the world. Like the classification of fish, the classification of shrimp can be divided into two classes, freshwater shrimp and saltwater shrimp. According to PlanetInverts, a non-profit website, there are more than 300 kinds of shrimp in the world, which means shrimp is a huge class of living creature. Here are some kinds of shrimp we used to eat.

In Seafood Health Facts websites, I have learned that there are significant number species of shrimp but they can be sold only in one word--- shrimp. Sometimes people sold shrimps and call them prawns, because in certain international markets people are more likely call some types shrimp as prawns. Moreover, in Spanish, people call shrimp or prawns as camarones. Here is an interesting thing. In China, lobster and shrimp have the same appellation, because Chinese call everything looks like shrimp as shrimp, for the convenience.

However, there are only five types of shrimp we usually eat. They are Cold water shrimp, Warm water shrimp, Wild shrimp, Farmed shrimp and Imported shrimp. Farmed shrimp is consists of cold water shrimp and warm water shrimp, which are both farmed by people. According to Seafood Health Facts, “Over 90 percent of the shrimp eaten in the United States come from farmed sources grown in other countries around the world”, which means farmed shrimp is significant to the United States.  Moreover, the imported shrimp refers to the farmed shrimp imported from China, Thailand and many other Asian countries, and the imported shrimp is a major component of American shrimp market.

Cold water shrimp, known as Pandalid shrimp, are small varieties farmed and harvested in ocean waters comparing to other sources of shrimp. We often remove the shrimp shell and previously cook Coldwater shrimp, and commonly used them in salads, soups, or chowders.

Warm water shrimp are farmed in tropical area. Based on the color of the shell, we can recognize the warm water shrimp (white, brown, and pink shrimp). Tiger, banana and hopper shrimp are the species of shrimp. People buy the warm water shrimp depending on the taste, texture, size and costs. Of course, different species of shrimp have different prices.

            Wild shrimp is either cold water or warm water species, and people harvested them from the coastal ocean waters by using traditional vessels. Because there is an annual production limits set by management programs, wild shrimp consists less than 10 percent of the shrimp people consume. Thus, the wild shrimp always used to make traditional flavors and recipes, which are very delicious, because of the precious raw material--- wild shrimp.

            By looking up the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, I found that the word shrimp originally comes from the Middle English shrimpe, akin to the Middle Low German schrempen, which means “pygmy”, or to contract or wrinkle. It is very interesting that the people in ancient time are likely named things using their appearance. The book also mentioned that harvesting of shrimp is starting at 17^th century. People in where Louisiana bayou used seines in circumference to catch shrimps. Moreover, people start to use machine to harvest shrimps after 1917.

            After the research on shrimp, I have found that the shrimps are more complicated than I was thought, because before my research, I did not know there were so many kinds of shrimp. The most astonishing thing is that most of shrimps we have eaten are farmed instead of the wild shrimps. Additionally, before I do the research on shrimp, I am afraid to eat shrimp, because I think the shrimp are wild and might become extinct. Therefore I am in a “to eat or not to eat” dilemma, because shrimp is a kind of very delicious food. However, after I knew most the shrimps are farmed by human beings, I am not afraid to eat shrimp anymore.

Work Cited

Merriam-Webster.Int. “Shrimp”. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. October 13, 2008.

Planet Inverts. “Shrimp Species”. http://www.planetinverts.com/shrimp_species.html.
            2010.

Seafood Health Facts. “Shrimp Market”.
             http://seafoodhealthfacts.org/seafood_choices/shrimp.php. 2010.

In the infographic, “FOWL TROUBLE”, Cook talked about the differences between nowadays chicken and the chicken in the past time, and those between nowadays chicken production and the chicken production in the past time. The chicken is bigger than the chicken in the past time. He mentioned that “And as demand has increased, so have line speeds in processing plants: in 1979 the USDA limit was 70 birds per minute; today it stands at 91 birds per minute, a figure based not on how quickly workers can safelydo their jobs but on how quickly USDA meat inspectors can examine the carcasses”, which means that the limit of number of chicken killed is larger than before. (Cook, first part) The demand of eating chicken is increasing. Cook mentioned the chicken plants too. Because of the worse of the working condition, there is fewer and fewer Americans want to work in the chicken plants.

            In the introduction part of the book, “Tomatoland”, talked about the taste and the look of the tomatoes. The author argued that different tomatoes, which were grown in different area, would have different taste and look. Because of the reason of this, she claimed that we should compare the taste and look of different tomatoes, which were grown in different area, to find out the history and production of different kind of tomato.

            In the Michael Pollan’s article, “An Animal’s Place”, she talked about her experiencing “Animal Liberation”. In order to illustrate and do research on Animal, she went to observed different animals’ living condition in different farms. She found out that whether people chose to eat animal or not, animal would die. Thus we should respect what animal deserve, and make their death more meaningful. She concluded that it was not right enough to talk about whether people should eat animal or not.

            The most interesting part I think is that whether people eat animal or not, animal death rate would still increase, and the best way to solve this dilemma is that people should go with the flow and respect what animal deserve.