Time to Acquire (Minutes)

Time to Prep time Acquire Food Acquisition Preparation (minute Cost (minutes s) ) 60 minutes (portion of travel time, standing in line and Sauté (onion, selection pepper, Bought at Winn- of Bowl of chili garlic), 100 minutes $15.00 Dixie onions, stove top peppers, simmer ground beef, chili beans, and tomato sauce) 60 minutes (travel Pork Chop, time, Bought at Winn- Early shopping Grill, simmer 60 minutes $2.50 Dixie peas for food, waiting in line) .5 minutes (In Beef ball soup Mother made it Heat 30 minutes $0.0 freezer) Two slices of pizza, 35 minutes five Domino’s (time to None 0 minutes $22.59 Buffalo wait) wings .5 minutes (In Beef ball soup Mother made it refrigerat Heat 2 ½ minutes $0.00 or) T-bone steak, 6 60 minutes kabobs (travel (one Bought at Winn- time, pepper, Grill 90 minutes $17.00 Dixie shopping one , waiting potato, in line) half an onion) Slice of pizza Domino’s .5 minutes Heat .4 minutes $0.00 Three regular hard tacos, two Taco Bell 10 minutes None 0 minutes $8.50 cheese gordida, Dr. Pepper BBQ sandwich, 60 minutes Brunswi (travel Dreamland None 0 minutes $15.00 ck stew, time, Bud light waiting) Chicken 20 minutes sandwic (travel h, chili, Wendy’s time, None 0 minutes $8.00 sweet waiting in tea line)

Total $88.59

[Highlight and delete the example data in the table before entering your data] Time to earn What was the meal and who What was discussed or Total time cost did I eat with? thought about during (minutes) (minutes) meal? Chili, I ate alone Alabama football was thought 180 340 about Pork chop and early peas, ate Alabama football was thought 30 150 alone about Beef ball soup, ate alone What ever was on the History 1 31 channel Cheese pizza and Buffalo Was watching Southpark 240 240 wings, I ate alone Left over beef ball soup, I ate Alabama football was thought 1 1 1/2 alone about T-bone steak and six kabobs Was watching Southpark made of a bell pepper, 174 324 half an onion, and one potato, I ate alone Slice of cheese pizza, I ate Was thinking about getting to 0 1 while getting ready for class class Three hard tacos and two We talked about old friends and cheese gordidas, I ate at how all the family was 87 87 a friends house while he doing got ready BBQ sandwich and twelve We talked about football, the ounces of Brunswick basketball game, and 180 240 stew from Dreamland, I hunting ate with a friend from Auburn Chicken Sandwich and a bowl I thought about how bad we beat 85 105 of chili with a sweet tea, I Auburn at alone

Total 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.