Fun food-related research!

Posted on 12/08/2015 by gam245

The Cornell Food and Brand Lab is SO COOL! & so were the guests for this week’s Rose-Becker Cafe.

I learned about some interesting research they’ve done…..

1. In buffets, place the low-calorie food at the beginning of the table and the highest calorie food at the end because people will fill most of their plate with the first 3 items.

2. If you give someone something without a choice, they won’t think about how much they like/ appreciate it. (Happens with everything right? Not just food) But if you give them a choice between two items like carrots and celery, you start thinking about both of them and there you develop a preference for one. Once you choose it, you eat it to validate your decision. Now I know to ask my brothers whether they want to eat Salad A or Salad B instead of just making them eat salad, haha.

3. We make most of our choices through habit or convenience and we make over 200 food decisions a day. (I’m pretty sure I think about food more than anything else)

4. Men eat more when they’re with girls to impress them….. (but doesn’t this backfire because they will have a bigger bill to pay)

5. Food is comfort. Well I already knew that, but its finals week so this is ESPECIALLY relevant.

Dope.

Posted on 11/21/2015 by gam245

DOPE. Cornell Cinema. 11/20/15

I hadn’t even heard of the movie but it was well worth my Friday night. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it and because I hope you do, I won’t tell you about it or spoil it.

But all humor and plot aside…..

After the movie, I asked my friend, Jeremiah Grant, what he thought about the movie because he saw it for one of his Africana Film classes. He said that although the movie does a great job portraying the conflict in identity for students like Malcolm, it makes college the all mighty solution and perfect end when in fact, the struggles of minority students continue beyond college. The “troubles” don’t go away with the acceptance letter as we have seen through the recent events on college campuses. Jeremiah sure makes you think. (: I look forward to reading his work in relation to this topic on the Cornell Daily Sun.

Terra Incognita

Posted on 11/15/2015 by gam245

On Thursday, I had the privilege of watching “On the Verge” at Schwartz Theater. I had never heard about this play before and even while I sat waiting for it to begin, I only expected some humor and time traveling to happen. It turned out to be a play that follows the adventures of three women expolorers through their journey in “Terra Incognita” which ends up really being a their journey as they travel forward in time.

I took a lot from the play, including that it is okay to be in that “Terra Incognita” –or in that “unknown.” We do not always have to know where we are heading, what we will do next, where we will be tomorrow, or what our future will look like. Like the ladies in the play, we should be ready expect the unexpected and be open to whatever comes our way. While doing so, we cannot be holding on to the past because with time, we all change. In the play Fanny held on to her husband, writing to him daily, and that prevented her from fully enjoying the present. Another take away is that we do not always have to keep on going and going and going. If we find a place where we are happy in, why would you leave that? 2 of the 3 characters chose to stay in the 50s while the 3rd continued in time. Often, I feel like we do not like to pause and embrace the moment because we feel rushed to continue and find more. On the verge showed me otherwise. 🙂

Cornell Dining

Posted on 11/06/2015 by gam245

I eat through Cornell Dining every meal of the day so seeing 2 men behind it all was like a celebrity moment for me. Chef Daniel, of our very own Rose House and Paul Muscente were the guests of our Rose Cafe this Wednesday and they shared what it is like to be behind the scenes in attempt at making sure we have food that we like ready to eat. I really like the initiatives Cornell Dining is taking with sustainability in mind. One of the initiatives that impressed me most is that they are trying to make vegetables the center of the plate instead of the typical meat as protein. Doing so is a huge challenge for them since they have hungry students that just want some meat, but what they are doing it has impacted me personally. The idea of rationing the chicken is not only for that though, but for food waste as well. Once the food is out, they have to throw it out so the less that gets on our plate, the better. It was also interesting to hear ideas that students had such as putting the deserts away from the fruit because of the temptation to grab a cookie instead of an apple. I remember that at Appel, I would always grab a fruit on my way out since it was by the door and I would be lazy to get deserts because they were hiding behind the soda machines. Basically, this cafe made me understand the crazy things that have to happen for us to get the meals we get everyday. Personally, I hope to be more considerate and appreciative of all of that when I go into the dining halls.

Carl A. Kroch Library

Posted on 11/06/2015 by gam245

I cannot believe I am almost 3 semesters in and I JUST went to Kroch library. I learned so much from the time we were there that I made myself go back to explore the present exhibit, Gods and Scholars.

During the presentation, I learned that there is more to Cornell than Mann, Uris, and Olin; There are 18 libraries on campus, including the Carl A. Kroch Library which is full of primary sources and artifacts. In fact, they even have a vault in there which is the most secure place on the Cornell campus. It is the size of a football field and completely environmentally controlled to protect the many artifacts. In the vault is also Ezra Cornell’s bank safe.

The coolest part of this visit was seeing a lock of Charles Dicken’s hair, the plans for Charlotte’s Web, and a book of Shakespeare’s collection.

All in all, super great event!

Pay to Pollute

Posted on 10/18/2015 by gam245

“As students that are getting ready to start voting, it is important to think about what issues are most concerning to you,” said our panelists, Shanjun Li, Greg Poe, and David Wolfe, at the Becker-Rose Café on the Environment. The panelists shared that to them, environmental policies are important to look for during the elections and to them, regulations are absolutely critical because anything humans do require some sort of environmental trade off so policy and cost-benefit analysis is extremely important.

Although some politicians believe strongly in free markets and do not agree with environmental regulations, regulations minimize negative externalities. The reason we have climate change and all of this mess with our environment is that individuals are not aware they are contributing to it. People should be allowed to “buy” whatever they want but if it comes with a cost to society, they should pay for that cost. People should “pay to pollute” with either a tax or import tariff. The problem is choosing a policy that other countries can agree to.

And why should we want other countries to agree? We should not be focusing on environmental impact in the USA only. We all live in the same world; CO2 emissions in China account for 22% of emissions in the entire world. So if the USA puts in policies to reduce emissions but China does not, we lose our comparative advantage to Chinese firms and pollution does not decrease because China would still be producing more and releasing emissions. However, China is presently moving ahead the USA which will hopefully incentivize other countries. WE NEED AN INT. AGREEMENT / TO WORK TOGETHER AND ADRESS THIS PROBLEM! However, one big global agreement may not be the best way to go. What would be more effective? That? Or Little partnerships? The best strategy forward is not clear. What is clear is that we need to work together.

The faces behind your apples

Posted on 10/01/2015 by gam245

“Kids think apples come from Wegmans,” said Mary Jo Dubley at tonight’s discussion after our Farm-to-Fork meal.

It is so easy to forget about everything and everyone involved in getting an apple to our table… like the migrant farm-workers who live in fear every-day to produce them.

As I walked out of the library after the discussion, I overheard 2 students that walked out with me talk about why “they don’t just get their papers.” So instead of talking about what I learned from the speakers, I’d like to share a few things.

I was born and raised in a Juan Jose Rios, Sinaloa, Mexico which is what you would consider a “village” that relies on agriculture. I grew up on the fields helping my grandparents pick beans. Then, when I was 7 my parents brought me to this country. Since then, I have considered myself an American. I AM an American… But to this day, I have yet to be recognized as one. I have yet to have the privilege of voting. I have yet to know I can fearlessly live in this country- that I call home- for the rest of my life. And hopefully I do not have to wait ANOTHER 13 years for this to become a reality, but unfortunately, that is how it is for MANY others like myself if we don’t get deported first…

The land on which we stand

Posted on 10/01/2015 by gam245

Why did it take a Becker-Rose Café talk with Professor Cheyfitz for me to find out I live on Cayuga land obtained through force and fraud? Why had I never before heard about the US being reluctant to sign the Declaration of Indigenous Rights? Why do we have phrases like “The way of the Indian,” which imply Indians are long gone? And most of all, why had I never had a desire to learn about these things?

Ignorance. This is just not something I have learned about in school. Like Professor Cheyfitz pointed out, I learned a lot about slavery as a part of U.S. history but it ended there. I never learned about where the land for slavery to even happen was gotten and what has happened to the people it was taken from.

It’s amazing how you don’t know you’re being ignorant until you learn what you didn’t know… like that 1/3 of Indian women are raped and over 80% of these rapes are from people OFF their site, that American Indians are recognized as a political entity and not a race, that Indians are the poorest communities in the USA, an that they did not ask to be citizens of the United States; it was imposed on them.

Professor Cheyfitz summed it up pretty well: If you want to know where you are you need to learn about where your land comes from and who else lives on it.

Snap Dragon!

Posted on 09/25/2015 by gam245

Before Friday, I had never been to the Cornell Orchards before…. and I’m an international AG and rural development major… so that’s really sad. Needless to say, thank you Rose Scholars program for giving me a motive to go! 😀 Not only did I make a new friend on my way there (I got lost) but I learned some interesting facts about Cornell’s bred apples:

Cornell named one of the apples they bred “Snap Dragon” to market to children. It is sweet, crunchy, and absolutely delicious. Enjoy the pictures below of Cynthia and I enjoying them. Along with it, they made the “Ruby Frost,” which I did not get to try. After breeding these apples, they released the trees to the industry 4 years ago (and have not released more). They sold the Patent to the New York Apples Association who which to control their supply in attempt at keeping the quality great.

All in all, super glad I went!

Rose Scholars Blog Fall 2015

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