Chapter 3: Forbidden Food

• Sociology/Anthropology Lecture: Forbidden Food

• Good morning. Last week we looked at the definition of culture and some examples of norms in 1. different social
groups. Ah, and this week we’re going to look at some cultural norms as they relate to food. The 2. question we’re
going to explore today, is . . . why do we avoid certain foods, in particular, certain kinds of meat? I’ll first explain food
choice as a part of culture, then discuss the history of some meat 3. taboos, and finish by describing current, ah,
trends regarding the consumption of meat.

• Humans have a great need for 4. protein in our diet because of our brains, which require a lot of energy. One-fifth to
one quarter of the energy required by 5. humans is used by the brain. 1 The food pyramid shows that we can get that
protein from dairy foods and eggs, or meat, 6. fish, poultry, ahh, soy products, dried beans, or nuts.

• Because we are omnivorous, human beings can choose from a wide variety of plants and 7. animals for our nutritional
needs. Yet most of us eat only a fraction of what is available to us. [Cough or clear throat.]

• We learn from an early age what is edible and inedible, in other words, what we can and can’t eat, even though what
we are told is inedible is often 8. something that our bodies can digest and metabolize and, and use for energy. But
for cultural reasons—and cultural 9 reasons alone—we are forbidden to eat it. Take the example of a young child out
in the back yard playing in the dirt. He sees 10. worms and

• begins to eat them, thinking they taste good.1 How do the older children and adults react? They’re disgusted—worms
are not for people to eat!

• So, on the basic level, umm, we 11. learn the idea of edible vs. inedible as part of our socialization. Later on in life, we
learn to associate foods with other foods, with a 12. specific meal, and with a time of day. For example, what other
food do you associate with bacon? . . . Right, bacon ‘n eggs. And what meal is that associated with? . . . Uh-huh, 13.
breakfast. And certain foods are associated with special occasions. Ahh, what do we eat in order to `
14. celebrate someone’s birthday? . . . Yes, that’s right—a cake.

• And, at a 15. higher level of socialization, food is a symbol of our social status, or class, our gender, or sex, and our 16.
membership in a group, for example, a religion. In every society, certain foods are associated with higher and lower
social classes. For instance, would you 17. choose the upper, middle, or lower class to be symbolized by champagne
and lobster? And by eating a jalapeño pepper, are you showing how feminine or masculine you are? What 18. about
fasting, not eating at all, during a specified period of time because your religion requires it? By not eating, you are
showing your membership in that religion.

• This brings us to meat taboos. Now, you will recall that a taboo is a ban or prohibition that results from social custom
or tradition, and it’s a very strong, very serious, norm for behavior that a person shouldn’t do. Most meat taboos, or
meats that are 19. forbidden to be eaten, originate in traditional religions. For example, two of the world’s major
religions, Islam and Judaism, prohibit the eating of pork. Both Muslims and Jews consider the pig, the 20. animal the
meat comes from, “unclean.” And the main religion of India, Hinduism, prohibits the consumption of beef. Hindus
consider the cow to be sacred, or holy.1 Both Hindus and Buddhists tend to be vegetarians, avoiding all meat, not just
beef, pork, and lamb—what we call 21. red meat—but also chicken and fish.

• Other reasons for meat taboos most likely come from tradition. Why don’t we in the West eat cat, or camel,
cockroach, or kangaroo? Well, the main reason we don’t eat 22. domestic animals like cats and dogs is that we look at
‘em as a pets. We give ‘em names, treat ‘em as members of the family, and eating them would be awful—it would be
like cannibalism! 1 The other reason we don’t eat some animals, cockroaches, for example, is that as a society we
reject foods that are disgusting to us in some way.2 And we 23. fell this way about insects and snakes, regardless of
the taste. Some people actually like the taste of these foods when they try them without knowing what they are, and
24. as soon as they find out what they are eating, they react violently.

• OK, our time is up. Don’t forget there’s a quiz next week, and I need to tell you that my office hours have changed.
Instead of Monday and Wednesday 25. afternoons from 1 to 3, I’ll be there Tuesday and Thursday from 2 to 4.
Chapter 4: Bacteria Burgers

• Business Lecture: Crisis Management: Bacteria Burgers

• Have any of you ever had food poisoning? . . . What happened? . . . What had you eaten that made you sick? . . . What
did you do afterwards? . . . And how is food poisoning related to business? . . . . . Well, the food industry is big 1.
business —huge, really—and a major crisis can, uh, occur in the food industry because of a tiny problem . . . like a
microorganism.

• What tiny—microscopic, actually—bacterium, or one-celled organism, makes thousands of people sick 2. every year ,
kills some of them, and has cost businesses millions of dollars? . . . . . A bacterium called Escherichia coli 0157:H7,
otherwise known as . . . Come on, now, this has been in the news. . .. That’s right, E. coli. These bacteria are
commonly found on 3. vegetables, fruits, and nuts,

• and in the intestines of cows and humans. Now generally, umm, E. coli bacteria are harmless; however, this particular
kind of E. coli 0157: H7, is so toxic, 4. meaning poisonous, that for some individuals, especially young children and the
elderly, being exposed to only ten of these tiny bacteria can make them deathly ill.2 In 1993 in the 5. states of
Washington, uh, Idaho, and Nevada, hundreds of people got sick after eating . . . What do you think? . . . . . yes,
hamburger

• at a fast-food restaurant, Jack in the Box.4 Three children died from 6. complications related to the infection.

• Now I don’t want to scare you. . . and make you think that this is common—that you eat a hamburger and die—it’s
not. Of the millions of cases of food poisoning in this country each year, let me think of the numbers now, yeah, about
7. 76 million, only maybe point seven percent are caused by E.coli That would be approximately how many . . . ?
Anybody have a calculator? C’mon. . How do you figure that? Yeah, multiply 76 million, how 8. many zeros is that?
OK, that’s 76 and six zeros, [writes on board] by.., no, not point seven—point seven is seventy percent--it’s point
seven percent, which is 7 tenths of a percent, in other words, less than 1%, so you multiply it by, uh, point zero zero
seven. OK, and that 9. comes to how many cases? 532,000? All right, 532,000, [Write number on board.] that’s about
a half a million people per year. [Write on board] And only a tiny fraction of those half million actually die from the
infection—maybe about a total of 50. So don’t let this 10. story scare you—too much, anyway.

• Today we’re going to 11. analyze the case of Jack in the Box, by examining the steps that were taken by the company
[Cough or clear throat.] in handling the E. coli crisis. We’re, um, also going to see from the events that occurred how
interrelated business, government, and society are in today’s world.

• The case began in late 12. 1992, when, in a beef processing plant, E. coli bacteria were spread in hamburger that was
being ground [Cough or clear throat.] at the facility. The supplier delivered this contaminated meat to Jack-in-the-Box
restaurants in the Seattle area, where they were not cooked to a high enough 13. temperature to kill the bacteria. By
the way, only high temperatures (160 degrees Fahrenheit) [Write number on board.] and radiation can destroy E. coli.
. . . Many of the people who had eaten these, uh, “bacteria burgers” and gotten sick 14. sought medical care at local
hospitals, where the staff notified the Washington State Health Department about the high number of E. coli cases.

• The health 15. department, in turn, conducted an investigation, sent a sample of the Jack-in-the-Box hamburger to a
USDA lab, and the meat was found to be contaminated with the toxic E. coli bacteria. So, . the USDA subsequently
[Cough or clear throat.] 16. recalled all ground beef from the beef processing plant, thereby preventing further spread
of the dangerous bacteria. Jack in the Box alone had to replace, um, 28,000 pounds of ground beef. 4

• The president of Jack in the Box, Robert Nugent, as soon as he heard the news of the E. coli contamination, 17. sent a
team to Seattle to investigate. The details were unclear as to the, um, source of the contamination, but then Jack in
the Box was identified as the source. Thus began the 18. management crisis, the first domino to fall in a long
sequence of events.