Assignment # 3

Assignment #3

1.a. Groceries from my last shopping trip:
1 head of lettuce, local organic
Motivations: Nutrition, Cost, Taste
1 peach, organic Motivations: Nutrition, Taste, Convenience 1nectarine,organic Motivations: Nutrition, Taste, Convenience
2 apricots, organic Motivations: Nutrition, Taste, Convenience
1 package of Tofurky breakfast links
Motivations: Convenience, Ethics, Cost
½ gallon Organic Valley soy milk
Motivations: Taste, Ethics
¼ lb bulk ginger cereal
Motivations:Convenience, Taste, Cost
Nancy's plain yogurt
Motivations: Taste, Nutrition

1.b. I know that some of my motivations for buying the items on this shopping list are because of marketing done by the grocery store because many of these items were on sale. The head of lettuce was on a special for over a dollar less than normal. The peach, nectarine, and apricots were not on sale, but were displayed beautifully and I'm sure that that contributed to my desire to buy them. The Tofurky breakfast sausages were also on sale, and I probably wouldn't have bought them if they weren't on sale because I usually don't buy fake meat products. The soy milk wasn't on sale either, but it was less expensive than the other brands of cow milk and milk alternatives. The ginger cereal wasn't on sale or attention grabbing, but sounded good from the bulk bin description, this descriptive sign definitely influenced my purchase. The yogurt wasn't really heavily marketed either, but I feel good about buying Nancy's brand yogurt because it is organic and delicious.

3. The day of healthy foods was pretty fun. For breakfast I at locally produced ginger granola with some soy milk. This breakfast was delicious and filling and also was ready to eat in 30 seconds. I don't know the nutritional content of the granola because it came from the bulk bin a People's and I didn't write down the nutritional info. The soy milk has dietary fiber, protein, and potassium, and is fortified with other vitamins. For lunch I made spring rolls with lettuce, organic tofu, carrots, green onions, and in some, beets. I ate these with some homemade peanut sauce. These were very good. The tofu has 16 grams of protein for the amount that I used. The lettuce was local and organic, this head of lettuce might be the best I've ever had from a store. It is a good source of vitamin A and C, a good source of calcium and selenium. The carrots are a great source of Vitamin A, B6, K and C, also dietary fiber, calcium, iron. The green onions were local and organic and is a good source of Vitamin A and C. The beets in the spring rolls came from the People's farmers' market, and they are a good source of dietary fiber, Vitamin C, Iron, Potassium, Folate, and Manganese. I had an apple for a snack, a red delicious from Washington state. Apples are high in Vitamins A and C and also in dietary fiber. For dinner, I made stir-fry with carrots, ginger, garlic, and broccoli served over brown rice. The ginger in the stir fry was from New Seasons, I don't think that it is locally grown. Ginger is a good source of potassium and copper. The garlic is also from New Seasons and I'm not sure if it is organic or local. Garlic is a good anti-inflammatory, and a good source of Vitamin C and B6, calcium, and Phosphorus. The broccoli was from People's and is a great source of Vitamins C, E, A, and K. High in dietary fiber, protein, iron, and calcium. It is also high in Thaimin, Riboflavin, and Magnesium. The brown rice was from the bulk bins at New Seasons, it is a good source of dietary fiber, selenium, and Manganese. At the end of this day I felt good about eating only foods that were whole and not too processed. The tofu and soy milk were both processed but not to the extent of a frozen lasagna or something like that. This project definitely felt good though, and I want to keep doing this and try to make this my regular diet.


4. I went to New Seasons to compare their store with People's using the “Leg-strecher” article as a model. From the point of view of the “Leg-Stretcher” article, I think that New Seasons would be ranked higher than People's. This is because many of the points that the article looked at are being consciously ignored and steered away from at People's. The first example that comes to mind is when the article assumes that major national corporate brands are always represented in the grocery store, there are some items that you find in virtually every grocery store that People's has never carried, whereas at New Seasons these are considered standard. People's customers appreciate this for the most part because the store refuses to sell brands that are notorious for pollution, bad labor conditions, and other non-appetizing corporate qualities. Another thing that distinguises People's from New Seasons is that New Seasons is constantly creating the image of farm freshness and local options with an extensive marketing campaign. People's on the other hand does not have as big of a marketing budget and in turn despite their much more local and sustainable product line, New Seasons is more recognizable as a leader in natural food stores. The reason that New Seasons can promote itself as the leader in sustainable grocery shopping is because there are a much bigger profiting and spending corporation than People's. They have many stores and thus higher profit margins, this allows them to promote their image as local and sustainable. Something that People's is probably better at is customer satisfaction. Because People's customers are primarily looking for whole and healthy foods, they are happy to shop at a place that doesn't sell products and profit from companies that don't agree with them ethically. This creates a different, more personal grocery shopping experience which leads to happier customers.

5. Hungry Planet” definitely cemented the idea in my head that Americans eat more processed food than anywhere else in the world. In the stories with the American families they had mostly packaged convenience foods, whereas in other places in the world there little or no foods that had already been prepared. The amount of soda consumed by Americans in this book was also an eye-opener. It became clear that the trend of drinking soda is also spreading all over the world. Some of my favorite families/foods in “Hungry Planet” were the Celiks from Turkey. I liked that they ate some meat, but mostly fruits vegetables and grains. In their monthly groceries there were very few packaged items, but they still consumed soda and beer. It was as if they had access to the modern Western diet, but still maintained their cultural food preferences. My other favorite family was the Matsudas from Okinawa. Their food choices looked mostly like fresh fish and fresh vegetables. There were some convenience foods, but again, even with modern amenities they have kept their food history alive and not converted to a Westernized convenience diet.