Our Daily Bread Review

The documentary Our Daily Bread showcases some tough and thought-provoking issues. Rarely does one get such an intimate glimpse of the food production process. This makes such a stark presentation of the process quite shocking, and at times disturbing.

The filmmaker wants the audience to think about several things. First, he is highlighting the distance between the modern consumer and the way food is produced. Most people don’t even know how their food is made. He wants to show how mechanical, orderly, and efficient the process is. He wants us to see that there is cruelty involved in the making of animal products, and destruction in the making of plant products.

The film does have stars, depending on how you look at it. You could certainly see the workers as stars. He often focuses on them or at least includes them in most shots. Also, he shows them eating and socializing as well as doing their jobs, which makes them appear in the most contexts. On the other hand, you could see the plants and animals being made into food products as the stars, since they are what is focused on the most.

Several techniques are used to convey the film’s message. The most obvious one is the lack of any narration, and in fact the near silence of the whole thing. The only sounds are those the machines make, those the animals make, or the conversations between workers that the audience can’t hear well. The silence requires the viewer to interpret what’s being shown on their own. It also reinforces the distance that the viewer has from the methods of food production. The camera angle often shows the food product or the machinery most prominently, which puts the focus on what’s being produced, and also on the weird, almost futuristic ways it’s done. Some of the machines are really interesting and ingenious. A third technique is the juxtaposition of workers’ dirty, horrifying jobs with their break times. This affects the way the viewer sees the people in this film.

People in Our Daily Bread are workers in repetitive jobs that are often also shocking and gross to the viewer. Showing the people on their lunch breaks, on their smoke breaks, and simply interacting allows the viewer to see that although they have potentially horrifying jobs, they are used to them and it is just a job to them. Despite working in dehumanizing conditions, they are still quite human. This is also shown in the scene where the woman drops the chick and instinctively cradles it. It also shows that even when modern people are not distanced from the food production process, they must create distance for themselves in order to be alright with what they do.

The film shows that in the modern world we are much more distant from our food sources than in the ancient world. Today, getting food is automatic, guaranteed, and we don’t have to think about how it became a burger, for instance. In the ancient world, however, people were working directly off the land, and would slaughter their own animals for meat (when they ate meat). However, one can see the beginnings of specialization in the various roles for those who slaughtered animals for the sacrifice. One could see the modern way of producing food as a natural progression from ancient ways, after the implementation of our new technologies. In the ancient world, people got as much food as possible for themselves out of the land, and that is the purpose of our means of food production today.

I liked seeing many of the ways we produce food today – a lot of the technology is quite fascinating, like the machine to shake the trees to get its fruit and even the machines used in gutting the fish. As expected, the scenes involving animals were quite disturbing. I didn’t really like seeing them, but I think it should be necessary to know how we’re getting the meat products we have. I was definitely grossed out, and horrified by some of the poor conditions animals were kept in, but also definitely enlightened. This documentary is definitely worth viewing, at least as much as you can stand. Everyone today should know how their food becomes what it is, so they can have an informed opinion when it comes to issues like whether or not to eat meat.

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This review was written for CLCV 412: Food and Drink in the Ancient World.

Sal's: The Best Bread in Williamsburg

Sal’s by Victor Restaurant and Pizzeria is a cozy but classy Italian restaurant located in the Williamsburg Shopping Center, which is at the intersection of Richmond Road and Monticello Avenue. It is tucked into an unassuming corner between Bloom, the grocery store ever-popular with students, and the Hallmark store. Many people, for this reason, have never noticed it. However, if they have, they speak of it with fondness.

When entering Sal’s, the first thing you will notice is the atmosphere. It’s a curious blend of loud families and couples on dates, business meetings and teens going to the prom. It can best be described as a family restaurant, but it has just a touch of class that makes it a suitable location for that slightly fancier dinner. Rarely do you see anyone dressed up, unless it’s the night of a school dance.

Immediately after you sit down you are given the menu, with its almost overwhelming amount of choice, and, soon after you get the drinks, you receive the complimentary bread and butter. The bread is heavenly; slightly warm, soft, and lightly coated with sesame seeds. Recently they have started giving out a tougher, crunchier bread in addition to the loaf of warm, fluffy bread. The butter you are given is just soft enough to spread wonderfully.

More than likely, you will have to ask the waiter for those few more minutes to decide, unless you have discovered a favorite. The menu is an exhaustive list of basically everything that Americans associate with ‘Italian’ cuisine. First, you’ll see a page-long wine list. The appetizers include antipasto, garlic bread, mozzarella sticks, bruschetta, and more. Next, the pasta dishes occupy a large part of the menu. They include ‘the usual’ American Italian restaurant fare like manicotti and lasagna, and some more interesting choices such as rigatoni with broccoli and zucchini, eggplant parmigiana, and linguini with clam sauce. Each pasta dish comes with a fairly hefty house salad. The next page is full of meat dishes like mussels marinara and veal parmigiana. After this you come to the pizza, and finally the foot-long subs. Clearly, this restaurant can serve well for a variety of food moods.

My personal favorite dish is the four-cheese tortellini. It doesn’t look like enough when it arrives at the table, but it is deceptively much more filling than it appears. It consists of large pasta pieces folded over a delicious four cheese blend served in a rich, creamy alfredo sauce. It is exquisitely flavorful and quite hearty.

If that’s not enough, Sal’s has a nice selection of desserts as well. However, on many trips there, I have never found room for dessert, though I know that they bring out a dessert tray that you can peruse.

For the convenience of the college crowd, Sal’s offers both take-out and delivery. The delivery requires a minimum amount purchased, and comes with a surcharge, however.

In conclusion, Sal’s is a delicious restaurant with a friendly atmosphere. It is reasonably priced, no more expensive than most Italian restaurants. It is, in my opinion, one of the best restaurants near campus to go to for any occasion. Go for the bread, and stay for the meals.

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Note: This food review was for a class, but I still think it's worth posting.

a quick lament

Oh, computer, why hast thou forsaken me? Thou used to worketh so well, but now, you are super-glitchy and riddled with viruses, you stupid piece of crap. I blame it all on using IE for 5 pithy minutes when Firefox decided to kill my video-watching ability. And so, I've been misunderstanding TechSpot articles for the last 3 hours in a vain attempt to pretend I know anything at all about the deeper workings of this hellspawned machine. 'Giving up and taking it to IT' is sounding like a good option, except they like to say, "we'll let you know before we reboot your hard drive" (that's their inevitable solution), then give you your computer back 3 weeks later, saying "ha, you dumb bastard, we rebooted it anyway!" And if you didn't back up your stuff, well, you're SOL. I think they thrive off of that tiny bit of power. It's sad, really.

the return of the SX100

My camera magically healed itself. Here are some results.

more on cheating

My friend Maya's sex column from last week was about cheating. Here is my response to it:

A further, interesting consideration is how to define cheating in the internet era. More info, from a class I took in New Zealand, is in an earlier post.

It seems that our feelings about cheating is maybe one of those things that stems back to evolutionary pressures – that’s what they told me in one of those intro psych classes, anyway. It was once important for people not to cheat, because women need someone to provide for them and their offspring, and men need to pass on their genes. It may no longer be important in a biological way, since sex doesn’t necessarily lead to pregnancy anymore. However, it’s still hardwired in our brains that cheating is wrong, it’s bad and harmful. And it is definitely emotionally harmful for most people. It’s still something a lot of people fear when in a relationship, and those kinds of things are hard to change.

But there’s another reason why cheating can be problematic, and that’s the spreading of STIs. If a partner cheats, and doesn’t use a condom, he or she may have contracted a disease. The other partner may not be concerned about STIs if it’s a monogamous relationship, so if the cheating partner doesn’t confess, the STI can be spread. Of course, this is not much different than the risk you take if you don’t know a partner’s sexual history, but you can see how it has potentially damaging consequences.

hey, this reminds me of something...

I read on BBC News today that Dutch researchers think that beta-blocker drugs, generally used as a heart medication, could affect memories. They could even potentially be used to erase bad, painful, or traumatic memories. Of course, there's a whole slew of ethical repercussions and potential unwanted side effects, but my immediate thought was: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, anyone?

So... could you really erase them fully from your memory, or just from conscious knowledge? Would there still be an emotional connection?

(PS - if you haven't, see Eternal Sunshine, it is brilliant!)

new website obsession

Cracked.com is my new favourite website of the moment. It has hilarious yet informative posts such as "6 Insane Discoveries that Science Can't Explain." It also posts hilarious videos such as "The Terrifying Truth behind Valentine's Day." And there are non-listy blog posts that will make you giggle, too. Go there! Enjoy! It's mental_floss-esque but more funny, a bit less trivia-based.