Project 1, Draft 1:

The End of Food

Jaymeson Maheux

            Since the beginning of time, food was essential for survival. Back in the beginning of time, it did not matter what we ate or how we ate, if we were eating and gaining the strength to go the rest of the day until you find your next meal. The way that food has been prepared and eaten has changed over time and with that, the perspective on why and how we eat has changed as well. In the essay “The End of Food” written by lizzie Widdicombe, it talks about the invention called Soylent that was created by an engineer named Rob Rhinehart. Soylent was a drink that had all the required necessities that your body needed and was with the use of his website it could be customized to fit your lifestyle and what you need. Without having to get out pots and pans for when you want a meal, instead you would just pull out your blender. This Soylent was used to essentially eliminate the time in preparation and eating of meals today. In this essay I will be giving my opinion on what I think about this Soylent solution and whether I think it is a good solution to a lot of the food problems that some people face today.

            When you hear someone say the end of food you almost immediately think of how that is possible and think of starvation. When you hear the end of meals, some may think that it is the same thing as the end of food, but others think of meals in a different meaning. To some people meals are eaten separately, and to others, meals are eaten as a whole family or shared with someone.  I am going to start by saying what a “meal” means to me. To me a meal is food that is cooked and assorted and usually takes some time to prepare. The conflict that resides in the passage “The End of Food” is the time aspect of having to dedicate a portion of your busy day to eat or prepare to eat. Rhinehart the creator of Soylent said something very interesting in the last paragraph of the fourteenth page saying, “meals provide punctuation our lives: we’re constantly recovering from them, anticipating them, riding the emotional ups and downs of a good or bad sandwich”. I thought that this very interesting to look at it in the aspect that it gives us punctuation. Food is looked at as nuisance and a waste of time to Rhinehart due to his overloaded schedule and lack of breaks. I believe that to a lot of people that may also have a schedule like Rhinehart would agree that it is a waste of time to take a break from whatever they’re doing to “just eat”. For what seems like is wasted time I believe is essential, not only to the physical aspect but to also the mind.

            As I mentioned in my favorite meal essay, I think that no matter how small a meal may be, it can have an emotional impact on an individual. When taking a break from what you’re doing to eat may seem like a waste of time, I think that it is important to do so. When taking that break, it gives you time to reflect and build a connection with the food as it can be full of memorabilia and be of emotional significance. With Rhinehart not taking a break to enjoy any meals it seems as if he can’t really build an emotional connection with food and the Soylent doesn’t seem to hold any emotional significance, but something that seems more like a chore and something that he has to do. This method takes away the emotional aspect and significance that is seen today. It is as if he is reverting to the beginning of time where it did not matter about the meal and how it is being eaten but getting the nutrients and gaining the strength it gives you is all that matters. As Rhinehart stated previously in Widdicombe’s essay that, meals provide punctuation to our day where we are always anticipating and recovering from the next one. In a sense punctuation is important because you would not want to write an essay without punctuation so why would you want to live your life without it either?

Project 1, Draft 2

Project 1, Final draft