Jonathan Safran Foer Webinar Reaction Assignment

I think that the excerpt and the video chat with Foer was fascinating and persuasive at times. The name of the author that was being discussed is Jonathan Foer and we are discussing his book Eating Animals. The video chat was accessed on October 28, 2014 and the excerpt was read on October 29, 2014.

 50 Word Summary
 Basically all the video chat and the excerpt that we read was telling me that it was all about being a vegetarian and what are the benefits of it and hoe us “meat-eaters” are with our food. In the “Case of Eating Dogs” it really got me thinking that’s its true that we really don’t pay attention to what we eat. If someone was to put a plate of dog and prepared it normally like how we do with any of our meat dishes, and we just ate it and thought it tasted really good we wouldn’t know it would be dog just like how we don’t even know what we are consuming half the time when we do eat animals. What I was trying to explain there was that it’s not like we can’t tell the differences between meat and that we are killing animals souls just like if we were killing cows wouldn’t it be that same if we were killing a dog too? My ideas here are somewhat mixed up but overall I think that my point was more or less stated here. Overall impression I had here was that I can see how he wants to convey what we do and think of certain animals but then again I somewhat thought that he was making fun of the fact that dogs and other animals such as horses, cows, and pigs are the same, but yet we eat them and not dogs.

 Descriptions of three STAND-OUT moments from the video/reading

 • One thing form the video that stood out to me was that he said the vegetarian diet is more or less cheaper than a regular diet most Americans have. I found this comment very biased because most of the diets are pretty expensive (depending what you buy) and hard for people with different backgrounds. For example if I were to go vegetarian it would be very hard for me to find nutritious food and if I did I know that it would cost a good amount of money. All my family eats their dishes/meals with at least one to two meat items on them.

 • Another point that stood out was from the book. The point that stood out to me was that I felt he was making fun of the fact that we animals like cows and pigs, but how come we don’t eat dogs even if they act and that they have even better nutritional value than cows or pigs. I just felt that he was emphasizing that we should eat dogs because they are just another piece of meat that we should eat. For some reason I just felt like it was some type of “dark humor” that was being used like how we talked about in class today.

 • One last thing that I found was that he really didn’t care if half of the world went vegetarian (even though it might not happen), is that all he cared about is us knowing where our food is coming from. I found that very inspiring and moving. Like he said in the video chat is that his goal isn’t to turn the world to be plant eating beasts, but to make our food healthier and know where it is coming from.


How can this relate to my life?
This interview can relate to my life by what I eat and how the process came about in it getting to my plate. In the interview I noticed a lot of him talking about the vegetarian lifestyle and how it can benefit ourselves and the world in general. For example it's obviously good for your health and he claimed it is easy on the wallet too. When he said it was an easy process to follow I had to disagree with him because for some it's hard to adapt to considering that their own families find it extremely odd. He also talked about how he would like the world not to become all vegetarian, but for us to be cautious on what we are eating and he also said that his goal would be to make plat based food. For example like food products that are soy based and don't have meat in them.

Latin Roots #5

Roots and Derivatives:

1. cent(i): hundred

2. cid(e), cis(e): cut, kill

3. clam, claim: cry out, declare

4. cord, cour: heart

Word List:

1. bicentennial : (related to) a celebration of a two hundredth anniversary; happening once in a period of two hundred years or lasting two hundred years

There are some comets that are bicentennial; they happen every two hundred years.

2. centenarian : a person who has lived to be a hundred years old

My great-grandmother has just turned a hundred; she's a centenarian.

3. centurion : a Roman Officer commanding over one hundred men; related to the military mind, especially as it favors military solutions for handling social problems

The Greek polis, Sparta, had many centurions, as Spartans had a reputation of using war to solve any problems.

4. clamorous : characterized by continuous loud and complaining voices, noisily complaining, insistent.

The students were clamorous when the teacher announced that they had a surprise quiz.

5. concise : covering much in few words, brief and to the point

The timed essay was very concise as it was very well organized.

6. concordance : a condition of harmony or agreement, an alphabetical index indicating reference passages, as from a writer's works

The feuding cities reached a concordance after they signed a peace treaty.

7. cordial : of the heart, warm and friendly, amiable

Our busy neighbor was cordial when she took time out of her schedule to help  use fix our troublesome garden.

8. discordant : (sounding) harsh or inharmonious, clashing

Our teacher spoke in a discordant manner after realizing no one was paying attention to her.

9. genocide: the systematic extermination of an ethnic group

The Holocaust is an example of a genocide since the Germans tried to execute all the Jews.

10. incisive: keenly penetrating, cutting into

The student was an incisive reader because she undterstood everything easliy. 

11. proclamation: an official statement or announcement that informs or honors

The Proclamation of Independace was a big thing for early America.

12. reclaim: to claim again, to restore to former importance or usefulness

Once my sister found her own place, I got to reclaim my room. 

Latin Roots #4

Roots and Derivatives

1. bon, boun: good

2. capit, capt: head, chief , leader

3. carn(i):flesh

4. ced(e), ceed, cess: go, yield, surrender

Word List

1. accession-the attainment of a certain rank or dignity; an increase by means of something added; the act of becoming joined

Ashoka won accession to the throne because he was the next descendant to take it. 

2. bona fide- in good faith; genuine

The archaeologist stated that the preserved  pottery and bones were bona fide and very valuable.

3. bonanza-a sudden and unexpected source of money or riches; a win fall

The retired lady let a 550,000 dollar lottery bonanza slip at the casino.

4. bounteous-inclined to be generous, plentiful, and abundant

Every caregiver always seems to be bounteous with their things.

5. capitulation- a surrendering, usually upon prearranged terms or conditions: a final giving up

The event at Pearl Harbor ended with the capitulation of Japan.

6. carnage-a great slaughter, as in a battle

After the battle, everyone was amazed at all the carnage left over.

7. carnivorous-a flesh eating, as an animal

Many animals like the lion, panther, and bob cat are considered carnivorous animals.

8. incarnate-literally, in the flesh; in bodily form; personified; flesh colored

After seeing her dream man in a dream, she finally found him incarnated before her eyes.

9. intercede-to act on another's behalf; to mediate

When the group of girls fought, many teachers had to intercede the fight.

10. precedent-a previous act or decision taken as a valid model; having gone before

It was the precedent in case law governing consent to treatment.

11. recapitulation-a brief repetition; a summary; as of what has already been said

She gave a recapitulation of the speech Abraham Lincoln gave. 

12. reincarnation-a thing that is reborn; or comes back into being; although perhaps in a different bodily form

Hinduism is a religion that believes in reincarnation.