PART A

Dean Foods Financial Reports

IFT

VuFind and EBSCO Databases 

Dean Foods spins off WhiteWave Foods

I saw a lot of common concepts and terms throughout all of the maps.  I noticed that the one I made in class based on the financial reports was the most wordy and included vocabulary associated with business. The map made through AdAge mostly describes the advertising and marketing aspects of Dean Foods. It includes words like agency, member, facebook, age, ad, and media. Instead of looking at the corporate side of Dean Foods, this map created from AdAge looks a lot at consumers and sales. The IFT, library databases, and the financial report maps had very similar words on them like food(s), costs, Dean, Whitewave, etc. AdAge, also featured the company name (Dean) as well. However, the IFT map did feature the words advertising and dairy that are common with AdAge. The last map was my favorite and contained words revolving around health benefits, vitamins and nutrients, age, and serving sizes of drinking milk. I used the library databases to direct me to some online journals released by the National Dairy Council. Most of their articles were about the relationship between age and dairy, dairy intake, and the vitamins/minerals in dairy. This map was less of a business model and contained more terms that a consumer would want to know. Even though the words throughout all four maps didn't exactly match up, I noticed words that were in the same categories. For example, types of dairy, consumer, and stock vocabulary were featured in all four maps. So, even though the words were not identical I saw common themes.

PART B

In our reading for the week, "The Omnivore's Dilemma," Michael Pollan traces the role of corn in contemporary food systems to a bunch of different things. One big thing he reminds us is that corn is used to feed livestock like cows, chicken, pigs, and even some fish. That makes it an extremely important resource for people who enjoy eating meat.  Corn is also used when making processed foods that are often frozen. Corn starch helps food items keep their shape and freshness. High-fructose corn syrup, which is often used as a form of sugar, is in almost every sugary beverage we consume. Sodas, juices, and sweetened teas all have high-fructose corn syrup in it. According to Pollan, even bitter beers contain corn. I found it appalling that corn is even in non-food items that we use. When I put makeup on everyday, I am putting a corn product on my face. The cover of magazines can have corn in them. The reading establishes that hundreds of thousands of food and non-food items contains corn that you may not suspect, and it really shocked me. 

PART C

Chapter One: Consumption- In this chapter I would analyze the average consumption of milk and dairy products. As we have discussed before, the consumption of liquid milk is declining. I would lay out the other types of dairy we consume and if those numbers are increasing annually.  

Chapter Two: Customers- It is important to discuss how the milk industry uses advertising and marketing in order to gain consumers. This may be a good chapter to also look at the dairy and milk related campaigns like "Got Milk?" and "Milk Life."

Chapter Three: Corporation- In this section I would look at the board members of Dean Foods as well as stockholders in the company. I also think it is important to identify the food scientists and their role in the company.

Chapter Four: Companies- I would like to look at the companies within Dean Foods in this chapter. For example, Land O' Lakes butter, TruMoo chocolate milk, and many other companies work under Dean Foods' umbrella, which many consumers may not be aware of. I will look at the different products made by each "sub-company" and their successes.