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d on page 6
| Wednesday, August I, 2001
Opinion
THE BATTALION
Expired food not
just in our home
I stopped
to get
lunch at
the Bus
Stop Snack
Bar after
my 10 a.m.
class yester
day — yo
gurt and a half pint of choco
late milk. I was ready to take
my first bite as I licked the yo
gurt off the underside of the
lid and noticed it was a little
wann. Even “cool” would have
been a generous term, so at a
whim, I glanced at the expira
tion date on the lid — which,
it turned out, had passed nine
days ago. The sell-by date on
my milk also had passed four
days ago. This was not just bad
luck on my part — I went
back, checked and found more
outdated yogurt in the cooler.
At this point, one is forced
to wonder what procedures
the Texas A&M Department
of Food Services uses to
make sure it supplies stu
dents with safe, non-spoiled
food products. Although
generalized guidelines for
food disposal do exist, they
have not been followed as
strictly as they should.
Summer temperatures in
this area make the matter even
more pressing, as food spoils
much more quickly when ex
posed to extreme tempera
tures. Since Food Services em
ployees have neglected to
show concern for student
health, it would be wise for
students themselves to be very
careful when purchasing per
ishable items on campus.
Products are supposed to be
removed once they pass their
sell-by date, said Cynthia Zaw-
ieja, associate director of Food
Services. According to Margo
Reese, the facilities manager of
North Campus Food Services,
there are three checkpoints at
which the freshness of the
products is supposed to be
checked. She said delivery peo
ple are expected to check expi
ration dates and remove out
dated items from the shelves at
delivery times. She also said
Food Services employees are
supposed to check for freshness
on the days that deliveries do
not arrive and when they do
inventory. Reese said they tend
to rely on vendors* because it is
their policy to pick up expired
products and credit the estab
lishment in question.
Zawieja stated otherwise,
saying that employees should
not rely on delivery persons to
remove expired products, al
though she said there was no
formal policy. Perhaps one
should be implemented. Obvi
ously, with all these “check
points” at which various work
ers are supposed to be
checking our food quality, they
have become very adept at
blaming other people involved.
Even corporate grocery
stores have the decency to no
tify customers when they are
about to buy an outdated
product, usually by grouping
the aging products together
and offering them at a re
duced price.
Unfortunately, there is no
legal basis for forcing Food
Services to show more con
cern for student health. "The
sell-by and expiration dates
on perishable products are
suggestions, not mandatory
dates at which marketers
must remove the food from
the shelves, according to Julie
Anderson, the environmental
health director for the Brazos
County Health Department.
However, she added that
summer heat does call for ex
tra concern, because higher
temperatures result in a
shorter shelf life.
Although this is what cool
ers are meant to prevent, the
number of times these coolers
are opened per day on a col
lege campus also must be tak
en into account. Needless to
say, the storage temperatures
will not be nearly as low as
they would be, for example, in
one’s home refrigerator.
Whether through apathy or
simple human error, A&M
Food Services cannot be
counted on to keep close track
on tire age of its food. A formal
policy is needed to ensure food
quality, but since this is not
legally required, it is safe to bet
A&M will not develop one in
the near future. In the mean
time, students looking for a
quick bite to eat should re
member to check their own
expiration dates and adopt die
motto “buyer beware.”
Jessica Crutcher is a junior
journalism major.
Open market needed
Globalization, trade helps poorer countries
T he fight against free
trade is nothing
new. But the
hypocrisy of the argu
ment against expanding
of jfree trade recently
has been richly demon
strated at Harvard Uni
versity. Beside the usual
havens of the economic isolationists, in
cluding many unions and their allies in
Gettigress, the effort to discredit the free-
tnftle policies of many world leaders has
spread to some college campuses. Such
groups, often led and organized by stu
dents, identify such economic policy as low
tariffs and lesser barriers to trade with in
creased globalization.
Js. common claim is that this exploits the
poor in Third World countries. As the ri
ots in Genoa at the G8 summit recently
have demonstrated, when countries get to
gether to discuss global economic trends
and strategy, common sense can be thrown
right out of the window in favor of vio
lence and arguments as thin as a super
model on a hunger strike. Contrary to
protesters’ claims, pnore open trade helps
the poor, betters the environment, raises
workplace standards and promotes demo
cratic ideas.
Last spring, a group of students known
as the Progressive Student Labor Move
ment (PSLM) took over Harvard’s Massa
chusetts Hall, demanding among other
things that the university monitor the
working conditions of the developing
world more closely.
Harvard, like many other institutions,
manufactures their athletic apparel abroad.
The sit-ins were filled with anti-globaliza-
tion rhetoric.
The student newspaper’s editors at the
Harvard Crimson supported the PSLM,
stating that “Harvard must shoulder the
responsibility to monitor workplace stan
dards for those outside U.S. borders who
work on its behalf.” Their anti-globaliza
tion allegiance has hardly wavered — until
recently. Last week, the newspaper made
known that it will be hiring teams of Cam
bodian typists to complete the online data
base of its articles. The typists will earn 40
cents per hour, and there are no promises
to oversee the work place environment.
This decision is the right one, as the work
ers themselves were happy to explain.
The Associated Press quoted Khive
Rotha as saying, “I’ve always wanted to use
English and computers to earn a living, so
this is a big success for my family.” Eng
Naleak, who can type 30 words per minute
despite being born with only three fingers
on each hand, said, “My life was hopeless
before this opportunity.” Disabled people
have a difficult time finding work in Cam
bodia, but not necessarily with foreigners
looking to invest in a developing nation.
Free trade benefits the poor in Third
World countries because they are able to
sell goods to a world market of consumers
with the resources to pay. The protesters
complain of American exploitation of the
Third World. The wages, while extremely
low by American standards, usually are well
above the average income in a developing
country. The typists for the Hai-vard Crim
son, for example, will earn more the average
hourly wage in Cambodia’s often haz
ardous main industry of garment manufac
turing. English lessons and medical care
are also offered to the Cambodian workers.
Foreign companies participating in
globalization are much more likely to
provide such benefits than any job to be
found in the developing country. In addi
tion, lower-income consumers in the
United States benefit from the reduced
costs to make a product or service.
PSLM arguments that globalization and
free trade harm the environment are like
wise misleading. A very quick and effec
tive method to improving environmental
standards comes not from loud protesters
or unenforceable treaties but from the
creation of wealth. As growing middle
class demands improved surroundings,
the institutions will arise that can create
that in a more efficient way than any gov
ernment. President George W. Bush re
peatedly has stated that trade is a force
for democracy.
As wealth and stability increases from
foreign investment, Third World coun
tries will naturally demand more democra
cy to protect their freedoms, civil rights
and material accumulation from the
overextended reach of government. Now
publications such as the Harvard Crimson
are choosing to participate in the global
markets, in contrast to providing the same
tired arguments of opposition, perhaps
some of the many appeals to free trade are
beginning to take hold. Unfortunately,
there is much opposition to overcome. In
the meantime, some of the world’s poorest
countries are waiting.
Jonathan Jones is a senior
political science major.
RUBEN DELUNA/rwc Battalion
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Hook-up culture destructive
(U-WIRE) AMES, Iowa — My
generation grew up in the age of
feminism. Our mothers were the
ones who led the campaigns in the
1960s and ‘70s. They started the
first woman-centered organiza
tions. They celebrated the FDA’s
approval of the pill. They cheered
when Billie Jean King defeated
Bobby Riggs in 1973’s “Battle of the
Sexes.” They burned their bras. Ok,
maybe some techniques were more
symbolic than others.
But they changed -this world to
make it a person’s world, instead of
a man’s world. I was lucky enough
to grow up in the generation that
followed, so I could feel the effects
of the feminist movement. I am
proud to be a woman. I can do
anything I want. I cariTSe anything
I want. I am woman, hear me roar.
But I think my generation is tak
ing feminism a step in the wrong
direction.
A nationwide survey conducted
by Independent Women’s Forum
released its results of a survey of
1,000 college women. According to
the survey, 40 percent of college
women prefer “hooking up” to tra
ditional dating. In this survey, hook
ing up is defined as any sexual en
counter ranging from kissing to
sexual intercourse where both par
ticipants expect nothing further af
terward. Ten percent of college
women responded to the poll say
ing they had hooked up more than
six times. (So did they have sex with
six different men or kiss six random
guys? That seems like a big differ
ence). In this survey, women said
they were rarefy asked on dates, but
rather hung out with their dates in
informal settings.
The poll also said 91 percent of
college women reported what was
described as “rampant hook-up cul
ture” on their campuses. So why are
countless college women partici
pating in this self-destructive sexu
al behavior? Why are they having
sex and then not expecting the man
to call them the next day? It all
stems back to the feminist move
ment. In order to prove to the world
that women are in control of their
ibodies, they have sex without
strings attached. And what does that
prove? In today’s world of hooking
up, women end up hurting them
selves emotionally and sexually,
while men live the easy life of mean
ingless sex in the cheap comfort of
their own apartment.
And women take the problem ly
ing down. My female friends and I
complain all the time about how we
never go on dates. “What hap
pened to dating?” we ask each oth
er. Just once we want our men to
plan a date with dinner and a
movie, instead of inviting us to
hang out and hook up in their
apartments. Call me a dating
prude, but I like traditional dating.
I haven’t been on many because I
let my feminist beliefs get in the
way of having a good time.
As a feminist, I feel like I’m ob
ligated to argue with every man
who has offered to pay for a date. I
can’t let him pay because then I
would be going against all my fem
inist values. So I’m asking all the
women of Iowa State to re-evalu
ate their relationships. I want
women to think about the long
term heartache hooking up can
cause and remember that women
can be feminists without hooking
up. College women, let a man pay
every once in a while.
It doesn’t mean you’re not a fem
inist. It just means you have control
of your life. And that’s what femi
nism is all about.
Michelle Kahn
Iowa State Daily
Iowa State University