What I had wanted to do, involved obtaining an answer from a large food corporation on why there are amounts of ingredients, like sugar or fat, in individual servings of certain products which exceed the daily value of that specific ingredient. I couldn't understand how this is allowed and just how those amounts of the specifics ingredients are decided. Ultimately I was left destitute on any answers from actual employees or proponents of my chosen company, Coca-Cola, and really left to analyze the web-site in order to answer my questions. I certainly have figured out answers to my question, and I'm left a bit disappointed afterwards.
During my first ever-contact with the Coca-Cola corporation I chickened out miserably. Then i called back and asked a version of my initial question. "How are the ingredient amounts determined?" Somewhat patronizingly the representative remarked at the high quality of my question. She put me on hold then returned a minute or so later, "Sir the answer to your question is on our web-site. Have a nice day." I was disappointed and then for the first time i checked out the web-site. To my dismay the web-site did indeed have the answers. Coca-Cola extensively tests their products to ensure that their consumers are purchasing products which consist of high quality ingredients composed in a manner which formulates tastes that the consumers have come to know and love. I called after with miscellaneous health questions, but every attempt ended only with the response that the answers to my questions were on the web-site. After awhile I came to realize that almost any question I could ask regarding health and nutrition information was on the web-site if I really wanted to look for it. Initially I thought that this was probably a result of the fact that so many food producers, especially those that produce foods whose over-consumption are most often linked to obesity, have been under fire lately. But then I began to consider the possibility that Coca-Cola almost seeks to gently dissuade consumers from pursuing direct contact with the company in an attempt to ultimately contact those in management positions. If you can have all of the questions answered before they're asked, then you've done quite an effective job of protecting yourself from exposure.
Of course if you analyze the web-site for answers, especially those regarding nutrition you'll be quite impressed and surprised. I was. The company effectively focuses more on what it would take to maintain a healthy diet and habits such as exercise rather than focusing on the fact that many of their products are unhealthy. In fact they never address the high amounts of sugar in their products, but merely what one should due to maintain a healthy lifestyle should they consume high-sugar foods within reasonable amounts. There are guidelines on exercising and brushing your teeth. What I perhaps enjoyed most was the assertion at the end of one section: Coca-Cola can be a part of a healthy lifestyle. I was upset at first because I felt that this was untrue but in actuality it's completely true. Coca-Cola doesn't make people drink soda five times a day. They don't make people drink gallons of soda. All of that is unhealthy. They make a product which many enjoy, and they have written guidelines on how the consumer should consume their products. What the consumer does after that, well, that's their prerogative.
What I mainly think Mr. Currin intended for us to draw from this project was, the fact that attempting to ask questions higher up in management is difficult and ultimately to think about the idea of, "Who do we shoot?" In the Grapes of Wrath the men and women being displaced from their land want to find who's responsible, kill them, and then be let alone. The problem is, and perhaps very few people realize this, there isn't one group or group of people to blame. Everyone is to blame. For example in the novel, the bank displaces the farmers. But the bank must do so because of the poor economic times and failure in business. I actually think this is what's being referred to when Steinbeck mentions the abstract, "East." The big businesses in cities like New York that were failing at the time. Of course this leads the farmers to search for work which is rare, and the big landholders that own the land are only concerned with profit. The part about burning crops because doing so would lose less money than selling cheaply really brought home this concept. Of course the lack of jobs leads to competition amongst the farmers and each one offering to work for a lower wage than the next man, until you have an intense hatred brewing amongst the displaced men. But in the end everyone has contributed to the problem. This is the same with Coca-Cola experience. So much sugar is put in the products because of the people and what the consumers enjoy. Because the soda is so enjoyed some consume too much and become unhealthy. They want to blame Coca-Cola but the company never made them drink those exorbitant amounts of soda, and can you really blame the company for making a delicious product? Can you blame them for doing what the have to so that they can survive? Absolutely not. And this exact situation is at play in the Grapes of Wrath. Everyone, the bank, the farmers, the East, are all vying to survive the depression that is sweeping the country. But unfortunately for one to survive another must suffer, and that, I think, is a major theme in the novel, and one that this project has really helped to illustrate.
