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By
Temple Guardian 6, Temple Guardian 10 and Temple Guardian 14
 Introduction: Our
group started out with a big main question, which is, " Is the way food is
brought to the people in Graded the same as the way food is provided to people
all over Brazil?" We all wanted to know about crops,foods and geography.
Because we wanted to get as much information as possible on this question, we
divided ourselves into smaller groups or sub-groups. Our sub-group wanted to
find out about one area of this question and our main keyword was, and still is,
Agriculture. So, we broke the big question down into our small question.
That is, "Is the way food is brought to the people in Graded the same as the way
food is provided to people all over Brazil". Our small group was interested in
this because we were very curious to know if people all over Brazil go to the
supermarkets to get their food or if they go to the farms and buys the food they
need there. We also wanted to know what foods the farms in Brazil were growing
and what supermarkets they exported the food to so we could have an idea of the
main supermarkets that schools get their food from. We started looking at what
the farms in Brazil were growing mainly and what were the main supermarkets in
Brazil.
Foods:
Brazil leads many countries in agriculture and that is why it is the largest
food exporter in the world. Since we now know this, we are very interested in
what are the foods and crops that they have in their farms since they produce
and export so many. Going further into this, we researched and found out about
many of the varieties of their crops and fruits and other foods that Brazil
plants and grows. For example, one of Brazil’s most important crops is coffee
beans because it grows a fifth of the worlds coffee crop. They have many acres
of coffee beans since it is one of their main exportations. In addition, Brazil
also grows oranges, papayas, and sugar cane since it leads all countries in
growing them. Amazingly, Brazil is also a top producer and grows a big amount of
bananas, cacao beans, cashews, cassava, lemon, pineapple, rice, soybeans, and
tobacco. In conclusion, I can see that Brazil’s farms are packed with crops and
other foods, so I can make a statement that apparently it is obvious why they
are one of the top producers and exporter of foods in the world. I have eaten
many times from the Graded cafeteria and observed all the foods that they have.
Many of them I can see are grown in the Brazilian farms like rice or beans.
This is why I want to see how all the food in the cafeteria of Graded gets
there, what are the main supermarkets that export food to Graded.
Primary Sources:
My group interviewed a fascinating cook in Graded School called Dona Emilia who
is the president of our cafeteria and two other fascinating workers who also
work in the cafeteria. The reason that we interviewed her was because we were
studying how food is transported to Graded School, what they do with the food,
and what are the foods. We interviewed her November 6, 2006 at
10:40. Very fortunately, Dona Emilia gave us a variety of answers to our
question and we successfully got all the information we needed plus some extra
information. As we have said before, our sub-question is “Is the way food is
brought to the people in Graded the same as the way food is provided to people
all over Brazil?" so our most valuable information is how the food is brought to
Graded School. Dona Emilia told us that they got the food straight from the
company that makes them, not from the supermarket, and instead of buying the
food in small quantities they buy the food in BIG quantities since they are
serving 1450 people in Graded. We were also was asking if the food they ordered came
from Sao Paulo or if it came from outside of Sao Paulo, such as Rio de Janeiro,
or somewhere else. The question was answered and it came from Sao Paulo, so it
was obvious to me that the food comes in trucks and not in airplanes, which
after all we were right. Other information that they gave the group was that
sometimes they buy their food by month and sometimes by week. The food that they
buy every month are the ones stored in cupboards like rice and beans. The foods
that they buy every week are the refrigerated food like meat. While we were
doing this interview, there were some things that were surprising to me. One of
them is that I thought that it was obvious that Graded got their food from the
supermarket like everyone, but surprisingly, she said that she bought the
products straight from the big companies!!! Another surprising fact that I heard
from Dona Emilia, and her co-workers, is that they buy the cupboard foods like
rice and beans every month!!!! I understood that you would buy it less often
than the refrigerated food but I thought that they bought it every week since
they need to serve so many people. This thought was cleared when she told us
that they bought everything in big quantities. I am very glad that I got to talk
to this fascinating group of people because now I have all my doubts covered and I
know much more about how Graded gets their food. This information can also help
me in understanding how big companies such as restaurants get their food!! Also,
we have to give a special thanks to Dona Emilia and her workers for helping me so
much with giving me sooooo much information!!!
Farming: In Brazil, most of the food comes from farming. In Brazil, they grow many kinds
of things. Most of these things come from farming, as you might already know.
They grow, oranges sugar canes, cotton, corn, beans, rice, wheat, potatoes,
soybeans, bannans, cassava,tobbaco, pineaples,peppers, peanuts and many more.
Also in Brazil many of the crops grow well because of Brazil’s climate. Most of
things that people eat are grown in the farms, making farms really important to
live and grow more food, but that doesn’t give us the right to destroy so many
forests. For example, The Amazon is being more and more used to make large
farms, ranches, and lumber operations even though the soil isn’t that good and
all of these things will only last a few years. In conclusion that we shouldn’t
destroy so much it’s understandable that we need it but we don’t need so much.
Don’t forget how important farming is but remember that we don’t need to destroy
so many natural resources to get more of what we don’t need.
The main division we want to make first is food in rural areas and how food gets
into urban areas. In rural areas people get part of their food from agriculture
that is from their own fields, the other part comes from the smaller stores from
the towns near by. The food that they get from their own soil, are bananas,
mandioca, corn, and when they have domestic animals around their houses they get
eggs, milk, cheese, and meat from chickens and cows. From the stores in town
they get salt, rice, flour, and other condiments and all other fruits or
vegetables they do not produce on their own. In urban areas you buy everything
from the stores, supermarkets, or open markets. In those places you get all the
varieties of fruits, vegetables, meats you may want. This food is brought to the
cities in trucks, trains, boats or even airplanes. Since graded is located in
the city of Sao Paulo, all the food is bought in markets, either open markets or
supermarkets and brought in trucks into the graded cafeteria, were the food is
prepared and served to all graded community. The quality and variety of the food
at that is served in graded is very high, for almost 60% of the population in
Brazil this is not so, since they don’t have either access to the kind of stores
where we buy the food or the money needed to buy it.
The results of my class interview seemed very interesting. The question was,
“How many times do you get food from the supermarket?" 77.7% of the class said "a
lot" while the other 22.2% said "quite a bit". The way this question was related
to my sub-question was that we were trying to find out how the community of
Graded gets its food. Almost all the class gets food from the supermarket. All
of the Graded community (except for a few exceptions) live in urban areas and
cities. Thus, the only way that they are able to get their food is from the
supermarkets such as Pão de Açucar, Extra, and many others. Unless they have a
farm, and get their food from that farm supermarket, is the only way they can
get their food.
Conclusion: Our group has used two types of resources, the secondary source
and the primary source. For our secondary sources, we mostly used encyclopedias,
non-fiction books, and internet sites. The encyclopedias were the most helpful
and we got the most of our information on them. For the primary sources, we
interviewed adults and students. "Is the way food is brought to the people in
Graded the same as the way food is provided to people all over Brazil", based on
the information that we have, we got an answer to our sub-question. The answer
is that Graded School does not get the food the same way that people all over
Brazil get their food. One reason why they don’t get the food the same way, is
because Graded buys their food from the warehouse itself and not from the
supermarket. After that, they buy the food and the warehouse transports it to
them in trucks. However, people in Brazil get their food from the supermarkets,
farms, small markets on the street, and by hunting (Indians). The way they
transport it to their house is in a car or walking, they usually carry the food
in a plastic bag. Graded School buys their food in big quantities because they
are serving 1450 people, meanwhile people in Brazil get their food in small
quantities because they know that they are only going to feed only their family
or selves. They also know that they are going to go to the supermarket the next
week. The truth is we weren’t really interested in this question when we
started, but as we went deeper into the research we got really interested so we
got the most out of everything. Right now we are really happy that we chose to
do this question because it helped us learn a lot more about how our school gets
their delicious school and about how the society of Brazil gets their delicious
food. We even learned some extra information based on how Graded gets their
food, the information is that now we know how the owner of a restaurant probably
gets the food for it. Probably he gets the food in big quantities because he has
to serve the people who come to the restaurant, transports it in trucks, and
probably also gets the food directly from the warehouse.
Citations: Our information was done
using encyclopedias, non-fiction books, and websites.
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World Book Brasil.World Book.World
Book,Inc.Volume B-2.581.2003.
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Countries and their Cultures. Brasil.Countries and their Cultures.
Macmillan Reference USA.Volume 1.292.2001.
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Eat Smart in Brazil. Peterson, David and Peerson,
Joan. Eat Smart in Brazil. Madison, Wisconsin.Ginko Press Inc.1995.
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The Economist. The Harnessing of
Nature's Bounty. The Economist. 2005.2006.http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5107849
5. Other Web Resources:
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