FOOD STUDY

by

Biology Honors Classes

Term Project

Spring 2008

Intentions

As citizens of the United States of America, we have certain rights that make our country unique, which is the freedom of choice, the freedom of finding out information, and the freedom of knowing the information, and we also have an obligation to take care of each other. So, because we have those rights and because we feel that we need to take care of our Americans and protect ourselves and others from some potential danger, we decided to do this project and research some information on our food. The intentions of our project are

· to find out information about our food production and content

· to find out about GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in our foods

· to find alternative places where there is the best choice of choosing safe food

· to find the ecological footprint that different stores and markets have

· to find out how transparent the markets and stores that we surveyed are.

Below is the data that we have gathered from various sources and conclusions. We researched Trader Joe’s, Rainbow’s, Thom’s, Whole Food Store’s, Farmer’s Market’s (Alemany, UN plaza, and Ferry Plaza) and Safeway’s products and compared the results. We also surveyed the knowledge people (students, teachers, and parents) had about GMOs. We critiqued films such as “Eyes of Nye: Genetically Modified Food: Benefits and Risks,” “The Future of Foods,” “The Hidden Dangers of Genetically Engineered Foods And Their Cover-Up,” and “Fed Up.” We all read Chew On This by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson, while some others also read books Vanishing Feast by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent or parts of In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan. We conducted research on different websites about issues of modern farming, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), and GMOs such as

ü http://www.meatrix.com/

ü http://www.spud.com/

ü http://www.malt.org/

ü http://www.strausfamilycreamery.com/

ü www.abclocal.go.com/kgo (farm animal abuse)

ü http://www.livepower.org/

ü http://www.goodhumus.com/

ü http://www.responsibletechnology.org/

ü http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/

ü http://www.foodroutes.org/

ü http://www.westonaprice.org/

What we included below are only three parts of our project: Population Knowledge Survey, Store Surveys and Farmers’ Markets. This work is the compilation of three biology honors classes.

The whole point of this project is to show our data and our reflections about what we saw so that you can make a choice about where your may want to buy you food and who you may want to support in this food dilemma.

There are some things that we haven’t and that other students may do such as research on restaurants, field trips to farms, research on other products and stores not included in this project, new released books, websites, films on biotechnology, and questionnaires such as the ones we did on the knowledge of the store staff.

Table of Contents

Knowledge Survey

Store Survey

Essays covered: stores surveyed, accessibility, product variety, cost comparison, ecological

footprint, the helpfulness, friendliness and knowledge of store staff, and group recommendation.

Essays:

Dry Goods

Bread

Produce

Dairy Products

Cheese

Eggs

Meat/Poultry/Fish

Herbs/Spices

Health Drinks

Pet Food

Cleaning Products

Farmers’ Market

Interview Questions

Ferry Building Layout and review

U.N. Plaza review

Alemany Layout and review

Teacher’s Note

SURVEY INFO AND TRENDS

Questions were generated by students. There is a very large amount of information from the survey. There were a total number 1034 people surveyed, so there is just enough for an accurate population sample. Please note that the results may not be entirely accurate for question number 6 (See next page.) The intended question was “Do you know that 61% of corn in the US is genetically modified?” Unfortunately the form most people received was “Do you know that 61% of all corn in the US?” Because of this the results from that question are suspect. Another thing to keep in mind is that many students did not take this survey very seriously and they just answered “I don’t know” to every question, especially the freshmen. The rest of the data should offer you some insight into the minds of your fellow students, parents, and teachers. The question that everyone responded yes to more than any other was that they get their food mainly from a supermarket. The question people answered no to most of all was “Do you mainly go out to eat/take out?” The people that people answered I don’t know to the most was “Are foods genetically engineered?” It seems to throw people off because it asked them to make a decision on a subject most of them knew little about. What was surprising was that nearly one third (30%) of those interviewed know what GMO’s are. That is nearly the same percentage of people of people who know where their food comes from (33%). A very large number of people feel they know what is in their food. The seniors had the highest percentage of yes’s, however nearly 80% of all the seniors interviewed said they ate mainly from supermarkets. What was surprising was that only 41% of those surveyed felt animals should be treated humanely. The average percentage of those people who ate mainly from supermarkets was 72%. Meanwhile the total percentage of those who actually care about food PURITY is 53%.

Totals

Question	#	Yes	No	I don’t know
Do you buy most of your/your family’s food from a supermarket?	1	754	156	82
Do you mainly go out to eat/take out?	2	189	777	65
Do you know what is in your food?	3	619	199	207
Do you know what genetic engineering is?	4	527	322	169
Do you learn about it in your science class?	5	336	607	187
Are foods genetically engineered?	6	427	135	464
Do you know what a G.M.O. is?	7	314	430	280
Do you know where your food comes from?	8	347	300	234
Do you know that packaged food has high fructose corn syrup (sugar made from corn)?	9	484	205	158
Do you know that 61% of corn in the US is genetically modified?	10	201	453	260
Should animals be treated humanely?	11	428	141	293
Do you feel comfortable that your raw frozen vegetables are coming from China?	12	247	365	297
Are you afraid your pet food is contaminated?	13	246	435	278
Do you know about mad cow disease?	14	588	110	91
Do you care if the cows you eat also eat feed that has other cows in it?	15	450	174	234
Do you care about food purity?	16	549	96	210

Total: 1034

Grade Teachers

Question	#	Yes	No	I don’t know
Do you buy most of your/your family’s food from a supermarket?	1	39	8	0
Do you mainly go out to eat/take out?	2	6	40	0
Do you know what is in your food?	3	40	6	0
Do you know what genetic engineering is?	4	44	1	1
Do you learn about it in your science class?	5	5	32	2
Are foods genetically engineered?	6	31	5	4
Do you know what a G.M.O. is?	7	30	11	6
Do you know where your food comes from?	8	26	13	2
Do you know that packaged food has high fructose corn syrup (sugar made from corn)?	9	43	3	0
Do you know that 61% of corn in the US is genetically modified?	10	20	13	4
Should animals be treated humanely?	11	41	2	2
Do you feel comfortable that your raw frozen vegetables are coming from China?	12	7	31	5
Are you afraid your pet food is contaminated?	13	22	17	4
Do you know about mad cow disease?	14	45	1	0
Do you care if the cows you eat also eat feed that has other cows in it?	15	40	3	1
Do you care about food purity?	16	43	1	1

Total: 47

Grade Ninth

Question	#	Yes	No	I don’t know
Do you buy most of your/your family’s food from a supermarket?	1	157	33	28
Do you mainly go out to eat/take out?	2	41	155	23
Do you know what is in your food?	3	112	50	57
Do you know what genetic engineering is?	4	60	99	57
Do you learn about it in your science class?	5	38	143	46
Are foods genetically engineered?	6	54	36	127
Do you know what a G.M.O. is?	7	36	103	74
Do you know where your food comes from?	8	99	68	48
Do you know that packaged food has high fructose corn syrup (sugar made from corn)?	9	113	57	50
Do you know that 61% of corn in the US is genetically modified?	10	57	97	62
Should animals be treated humanely?	11	104	40	74
Do you feel comfortable that your raw frozen vegetables are coming from China?