Socratic Seminar

The socratic seminar we had Friday afternoon in class was thought-provoking and fun to participate it. The main topic referenced an editorial written by Michael Pollan - Farmer in Chief.

Going into the socratic seminar, I predicted that the seminar would focus on ideas of how to change America's obsession with junk food; sure enough, quite a bit of the seminar did focus on this. Many of the ideas that were presented seemed more idealistic than realistic, but it was interesting to hear what my classmates thought. I had hoped we would be able to focus more on the reading itself and analyze Pollan's ideas, but the direction it took was just as interesting.

What I found most interesting was the idea of banning junk food - or atleast smearing the image of it. I thought many of the ideas presented were very socialistic. I was hoping to explore the notion of banning junk food further because it is certainly something I find interest in. While I disagree with the notion of banning junk food, I'm perfectly open to the idea of creating public awareness campaigns regarding the health issues found in the fast food industry. However, despite the dislike I have fast food, I believe it is ultimately up to the individual to choose what they eat. The government shouldn't decide for it's people what to eat for dinner; if people decide on unhealthy meals, then so be it. Let them suffer the long-term effects and realize their own mistakes. However, a public-awareness campaign to inform even more than before should be implemented. This can be a method of indirectly telling the public what to eat without the use of force. In this instance, fear (the fear of long-term health effects) should be an excellent tool. I find the use of fear, in this case, completely justifiable because junk food is a threat to living a healthy lifestyle and should be feared if you are to care for yourself.