Speed-Eating
I think we can all agree on the pointlessness, not to mention heath risks, of speed-eating contests but have we ever thought about the message this sends to the 798 million people in the developing world that are undernourished. Or what about the 153 million children under 5 in the developing world that are underweight or the 11 million children younger than 5 that die every year, more than half from hunger-related causes.
Food is a basic necessity for human life, yet we glorify the waste of it while millions die every year from a lack of it. I mean, do we glorify the waste and burning of oil? A commodity that tens of thousands have died for in the past year. Wait, yes we do. It's called NASCAR, INDY, Formula One and so on...
So this Forth of July when your watching that "amusingly feel-good" 10 second segment on your local news channel with those big burly men downing tube steaks in record time, just stop and think to yourself. What impression would this have on a poor undernourished child in India if he happen to catch a glimpse of this "amusingly feel-good" segment outside an electronics shop in Mumbia. I don't know about you but I'm guessing he would a little less than happy about it. And maybe a bit vocal too, thought most likely would not have the energy to do so.
I saw a special about that Japanese guy once... I felt sorry for him (assuming it's the same guy). He had an ultra-high metabalism, and his food bills were outragous. I don't know if he ever eats out in real life, but if he did once at a moderatly priced place...
::posted by: kevin at June 22, 2004 08:28 PM
A New Hunger for Eating Contests ( NPR Talk of The Nation )
Hot dogs, pie, pizza, whatever -- eating contests are all the rage. We talk to "Crazy Legs" Conti, nationally ranked eater, about how to prepare for an eating contest.
From The Oil We Eat
The common assumption these days is that we muster our weapons to secure oil, not food. There's a little joke in this. Ever since we ran out of arable land, food is oil. Every single calorie we eat is backed by at least a calorie of oil, more like ten. In 1940 the average farm in the United States produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil energy it used. By 1974 (the last year in which anyone looked closely at this issue), that ratio was 1:1. ... There is another energy matter to consider here, though. The grinding, milling, wetting, drying, and baking of a breakfast cereal requires about four calories of energy for every calorie of food energy it produces. A two-pound bag of breakfast cereal burns the energy of a half-gallon of gasoline in its making. All together the food-processing industry in the United States uses about ten calories of fossil-fuel energy for every calorie of food energy it produces.
::posted by: kevin at July 6, 2004 01:24 PM
Vincent recently posted on this same topic and had this to say regarding my article.
"Yes, I found your entry when I did some research for the radio. I agree with you that such contests are pointless and a pure waste. I was not very happy with the topic, but the media want sometimes funny, entertaining topics. The distinction between information and entertainment is sometimes blurred. Even the BBC and the serious The Economist thought it was worthwhile to mention Kobayashi.
Anyway, speed-eating has a long history in Japan. It not exclusively the result of consumer society. Already in the Edo era Speed-Eating (Ogui) was a common attraction during festivals.
Fortunately, the commercial TV in Japan seems to have abandoned almost completely disgusting but popular TV speed-eating programs after a 14 boy died in April 2002 trying to imitate with his friends a speed-eating contest they had seen on TV. "
you can read Vincent's entire post here.
::posted by: mark at July 7, 2004 09:59 PM
