Eating green in America

“In many folklores and literatures, green has traditionally been used to symbolize nature and its embodied attributes, namely those of life, fertility, and rebirth” (Robertson, page 470-472). It is true because when talked about green, everyone will come up with the words “spring” or “tree” or “vegetable”. The color green is always connected with the beautiful things or sceneries. However, in Chinese culture, the color green is a symbol of luck. Because the clover is green and it represents the luck, so Chinese people also take the color green as a representation of the luck. Maybe in American literary culture, the color green represents life, fertility, and rebirth, but in American food culture, the color green has different meanings. It represents the freshness, healthiness, naturalness, and environmental consciousness of the food. The phrase “Eating green” means that eating in a fresh, healthy, natural, and environmental conscious way.

         From my own perspective, I think that the freshness of the food is the first thing American people care about when they choose the food. The Subway and Ben & Jerry’s advertisements can serve as the perfect examples for my point of view. In Subway’s advertisement, the designer used the color green as the main color of the background. The reason why the designer used the color green is that he wanted to tell the customers the Subway fast food restaurant obeys the “Eating green” rules. In the middle part of the image advertisement of the Subway, there is a sentence “endless fresh creations”, which means the food served in Subway are all fresh food and the Subway restaurant will keep on invent some new sandwiches for customers to try. Under this sentence, the designer gave out the ingredient of the sandwiches served in Subway. For example: fiesta, zesty sauces, crisp veggies, and freshly baked bread. Through the ingredient of the sandwiches, customers can easily find out whether the sandwiches served in Subway restaurant is fresh or not. In the right part of the advertisement, there are some real sandwiches pictures. All these sandwiches look tempting and really fresh. The designer used the real pictures of the sandwiches to send this kind of message to the customers: our sandwiches are the best tasty sandwiches and they are really fresh.

Different from the Subway’s advertisement, the Ben & Jerry used color green in another way. The background of the Ben & Jerry’s video advertisement is the blue sky, white clouds, and the green grassland. Some cute cows are eating the green grass happily and relaxing. The explanation that why the designer used this kind of picture as the background is that the designer wanted to show the freshness of the milk used by Ben & Jerry. Because the cows are eating the fresh green grass, so the milk they made should be fresh as well, so this maybe the key point that why Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream and frozen yogurt tasted so delicious.

Not only the restaurants or ice-cream shops follow the “Eating green” rules, coffee house did it as well. Starbucks, one of the most famous café all over the world, is a great example. The main color of the logo of the Starbucks is green and the straws used in Starbucks are green as well. The staff in Starbucks all wore the green aprons. In Starbucks, the coffee is often made after customers ordered and the coffee beans, milk, and creams in Starbucks are always fresh. The cakes sold in Starbucks are every day value and looks tempting and fresh. There are so many places and pieces of evidence that show the importance of the freshness of the food, so I can draw a conclusion that the freshness of the food is the first factor for American people to consider about when they choose the food.

         If the freshness of the food is the first factor that American people concern about when they choose the food, then the second factor should be the healthiness of the food. Nowadays, more and more people become vegetarians because they care about their health. They thought the meat is not as health as the meat in the past, so they prefer eating vegetables than eating meat. Consider about the healthy factor, the advertisement made some changes to show the healthiness of their products. In Ben & Jerry’s advertisement, there is a sentence in the bottom of the advertisement “Phish food frozen yogurt, 60% less fat than Phish food ice cream”. The meaning of this sentence is very clear, the frozen yogurt served in Ben & Jerry is healthy because it contains almost no calories. When tasting Ben & Jerry’s frozen yogurt, the customers do not have to worry about the fat or calories. Same thing happened in Starbucks café as well. Some milk and sugar served in Starbucks are fat free. Starbucks do concern about the customers health so that they prepare some fat free milk and sugar for their customers to choose.

         For the people who like to eat outside, the restaurants or cafeterias that obey the “Eating green” rules is a smart choice. But for the people who like to cook at home, the choice of the supermarket is obviously very important. Wholefood supermarket is a nice place and it follows the “Eating green” rules very well. First, the color of the logo of the Wholefood is green. Second, the food sold in Wholefood is every day value. The biggest difference between Wholefood and other supermarkets is that the Wholefood only sold the organic food. Such as: organic vegetables, organic fruits, and organic milk. Apparently, the organic food is healthier, so most American people would choose the Wholefood supermarket. From American people’s perspective, maybe the healthiness of the food is not as important as the freshness of the food, but the fresh food should another kind of healthy food.

         However, the organic food sold in Wholefood is not only the representation of the healthy food, but also the representation of the natural food. “Organic foods are the foods that are produced using the methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers” (Allen, Gary J & Albala, Ken, page 288). This sentence means the organic food is the food that grows in a natural way, no pesticides and no chemical fertilizers. So it is not too hard to understand why most American people prefer buy the staffs in Wholefood supermarket, because the food sold there is healthy and natural. The naturalness of the food is a basic requirement of the healthy food and fresh food.

         After considered about the freshness, healthiness, and naturalness of the food, the fourth factor is the environmental consciousness. Maybe this is the least important factor for American people to consider when they choose the food in the past. However, nowadays, more and more people consider about this factor when they choose the food. In this part, both Starbucks and Ben & Jerry did really well. The napkins used in Starbucks are all recycled and the cups in Starbucks are all made of papers or plastics. Same as Starbucks, Ben & Jerry also used the paper cups to contain their ice-cream and frozen yogurt. The reason why these two shops only used the paper or plastic cups is that both paper and plastic cups are not so harmful to the environment. Nowadays, the pollution of our environment is more and more serious, so we have to do whatever we can to protect our one and only living place, earth.

         The advertisement of Subway and Ben & Jerry, the Starbucks café and Wholefood supermarket are great examples that represent American food value and culture. Eating in a fresh, healthy, natural, and environmental conscious way is a symbol of the American food value and culture, or what we called “Eating green” rules. However, totally different from the American food value and culture, there are no “Eating green” rules in Chinese. The main reason for Chinese people to consider about when they choose the food is the price of the food. Most of the Chinese people do not care whether the food is healthy or the food is natural, they just care about the price of the food. The cheaper the better. I do think that “Eating green” is a perfect method because it will lead people to a correct and healthy way to eat. The fresh, healthy, and natural food is better for our body health, and the environmental conscious is better for us to protect our environment. Without the pollution, the food we eat can be fresher, healthier, and more natural. So the relationships between these four factors can be treated as a circle, each one can affect other three. Nowadays, more and more American people choose to eating green because they realize the importance of the rules “Eating green” and they just want to follow the most famous American food value and culture.

         Since “Eating green” is such an important rule, it is time to create a recipe based on the principle of “Eating green”. In order to consider about the freshness, healthiness, naturalness, and the environmental consciousness, the best choice for out tables is the vegetables and fruits. “Leafy green vegetables and fruits are loaded with antioxidants, minerals, folate, and flavonoids. These all work to prevent unstable molecules called free redicals from damaging cells” (Star Lawrence, Eating green is easier and tastier than you may think).