Time to Acquire (Minutes)

Food

Acquisition

Time to Acquire (minutes)

Preparation

Prep time (minutes)

Cost

Bowl of chili

Bought at Winn-Dixie

60 minutes (portion of travel time, standing in line and selection of onions, peppers, ground beef, chili beans, and tomato sauce)

Sauté (onion, pepper, garlic), stove top simmer

100 minutes

$15.00

Pork Chop, Early peas

Bought at Winn-Dixie

60 minutes (travel time, shopping for food, waiting in line)

Grill, simmer

60 minutes

$2.50

Beef ball soup

Mother made it

.5 minutes (In freezer)

Heat

30 minutes

$0.0

Two slices of pizza, five Buffalo wings

Domino’s

35 minutes (time to wait)

None

0 minutes

$22.59

Beef ball soup

Mother made it

.5 minutes (In refrigerator)

Heat

2 ½ minutes

$0.00

T-bone steak, 6 kabobs (one pepper, one potato, half an onion)

Bought at Winn-Dixie

60 minutes (travel time, shopping, waiting in line)

Grill

90 minutes

$17.00

Slice of pizza

Domino’s

.5 minutes

Heat

.4 minutes

$0.00

Three regular hard tacos, two cheese gordida, Dr. Pepper

Taco Bell

10 minutes

None

0 minutes

$8.50

BBQ sandwich, Brunswick stew, Bud light

Dreamland

60 minutes (travel time, waiting)

None

0 minutes

$15.00

Chicken sandwich, chili, sweet tea

Wendy’s

20 minutes (travel time, waiting in line)

None

0 minutes

$8.00

/ / / / /

Total

/ / / / /

$88.59

[Highlight and delete the example data in the table before entering your data]

Time to earn cost (minutes)

Total time (minutes)

What was the meal and who did I eat with?

What was discussed or thought about during meal?

180

340

Chili, I ate alone

Alabama football was thought about

150

Pork chop and early peas, ate alone

Alabama football was thought about

Beef ball soup, ate alone

What ever was on the History channel

240

Cheese pizza and Buffalo wings, I ate alone

Was watching Southpark

1 1/2

Left over beef ball soup, I ate alone

Alabama football was thought about

174

324

T-bone steak and six kabobs made of a bell pepper, half an onion, and one potato, I ate alone

Was watching Southpark

Slice of cheese pizza, I ate while getting ready for class

Was thinking about getting to class

Three hard tacos and two cheese gordidas, I ate at a friends house while he got ready

We talked about old friends and how all the family was doing

180

240

BBQ sandwich and twelve ounces of Brunswick stew from Dreamland, I ate with a friend from Auburn

We talked about football, the basketball game, and hunting

105

Chicken Sandwich and a bowl of chili with a sweet tea, I at alone

I thought about how bad we beat Auburn

Total

/ /

978 min

1519.5 min

/ /

16.3 hrs

25.3 hrs

/ /

Assignment 2

After recording the amount of time and money spent on food, it becomes apparent that we, human beings, spend a great deal of time and energy either eating or trying to get food. On the other hand, the quest for food serves as an important and efficient means of social connection.

All though exact numbers between individuals will vary, but if mine are any indication then at the very least one full day of every week goes toward trying to eat. In other words, we spend about one seventh of our life trying to meet our nutritional demands. These numbers may seem a bit outrageous at first, but to power the human body takes a large amount of energy, which ultimately must come from the food we eat. My data is also for a single college student always on the move; obviously the amount of time of any individual will vary greatly depending on social status, metabolism, job, and family size. Considering that it takes me about twenty five hours a week obtaining the proper nutrition, my first thought is what about the head of a household who must feed an entire family? Using my mother as an example, I extrapolated from my data to find the estimated amount of time and energy that the average head of the house spends feeding a family of five. With three children we can multiply that one day a week by three plus the husband and mother’s needs makes five days of seven in the effort to supply the family with food. Obtaining that much food will also raise the amount of time spent in the grocery store, working to get money for the food, and the necessary time needed for the preparation of the food, which adds at the least one more full day to this never ending quest. So with all taken into account, the mother of a family of five, with all the children living at home, will spend about six out of seven days feeding their family! What is more amazing is that these numbers are for 2008 with mega-stores and microwave ovens, it’s hard to imagine the time and energy that my great-grandmother must have spent feeding a family of fourteen with only a wooden stove and no Winn-Dixie’s. Using extrapolation again, it becomes apparent that with the technology we have, an important theme in this “new” world is to spend as little time as possible “wasting” on the quest for food. Looking at the amount of time required for my great-grandparents to get food in comparison to the time that it takes me to get food, it is only logical to assume that the same trend of spending less and less time in the quest for food will continue.

The social impact of acquiring food has a much greater impact than I thought. Of course, the social aspects are very obvious during times such as holidays or celebration when family gets together to spend time with one another, but the process of getting the food has more of a social impact than I thought. Every time that we eat a meal, we have to come into contact with someone at some point in time. Whether it be the person working at a fast food restaurant, the lady in line behind you at the grocery store, or the waiter waiting on you at a high class restaurant, it’s a must that you come into contact with another person and have a conversation with them. One positive biological impact that results from this is boost in the immune system due to the constant contact with other people. Another important result is the social skills learned, usually from immediate family, for the development of children. The social aspect may be the most to have “evolved” from our ancestors. The best proof for this statement is just to think if technology failed and there was no more ground beef and canned food for the masses, no more drive through, or no more carry out, how many people would be affected? Everyone would be affected, but some more so than others. For example the average New Yorker probably has never hunted their own food or had to plant their own crops, but how can they? They live in a concrete jungle totally reliant on someone else to prepare their food, or in other words, they must have social skills in order to survive. On the other hand, my sister and brother-in-law, for example, live on a farm, away from the “glamour” of the big city, but most of the food they eat comes from right out the back door. In order for them to survive, unlike the city folks, they don’t need to rely on other people and technology to promise them food. They probably grow seventy to ninety percent of vegetables they eat on the farm, plus about half of the meet comes from deer, fish, or their hogs.

The results of the experiment were about what I thought they would be for the time required to obtain food, as I said earlier the human body is warm blooded and requires a great deal of energy to keep it running at its optimal level. I was surprised at the social side of things because I never really paid attention to the amount of time it takes socially in order to get food. The process to get food on the table is a long one, starting at the farmer, down to the trucker, to the cook and so forth, takes a great deal of time, energy, and social communication.