The History of Peanut Butter

Skippy Peanut Butter Advertisement (1958)

Time Magazine's Brief History of Peanut Butter

"Huffington's Peanut Trivia:

• Peanuts are actually not nuts but legumes grown underground.


• The U.S. is the third largest producer of peanuts (Georgia and Texas are the two major peanut-producing states). China and India are the first and second largest producers, respectively.


• More than half of the American peanut crop goes into making peanut butter.


• U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter and Thomas Jefferson were peanut farmers.


• It takes about 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter.


• Americans eat around 700 million pounds of peanut butter per year (about 3 pounds per person).


• An average American child eats 1,500 PB&J sandwiches before graduating from high school."

 Huffington's article on Peanut Butter

New York Times

NY Times: Vik Muniz

In October of 2010, New York Times wrote an article on Vik Muniz's life and more specifically his well known documentary Waste Land. This article talks about the reasoning behind journeying back to his hometown and beginning a documentary such as this.

PB&J

This delicious piece made from peanut butter and jelly titled Double Mona Lisa was created in 1999 has become one of Vik's most popular and well-known pieces!

Sao Paulo

-Largest city in Latin America
-Became a city in 1711
-Richest part of Brazil
-First European found this area when he was shipwrecked
             and decided to explore the area
-A crucial part of Sao Paulo's economy is the coffee which
             was introduced in 1727
-Brazil became independent from Portugal in 1822
-Most important city in Brazil for industry and business -
             now becoming more artistic and cultural

Trash Artists!

HA Schult - a German conceptual artist known primarily for his works with garbage

See more of HA's art here

Tim Noble and Sue Webster - "internationally acclaimed" artists from Britain

 See more of Tim and Sue's work here

Robbie Rowlands - Australian artist not only known for his work in art, but in the music industry!

See more of Robbie's work here

Dr. Evermor - artist who build the largest scrap metal sculpture know! (below)

See more of Dr. Evermor's work here

(Above) Artists that work in a similar manner to Vik, by taking collections of what most people to be granted as trash and making them into beautiful and interesting art forms. However, these difference between these artists and Vik is that Mr. Muniz tends to be more 2-dimensional.

Self Portrait

Waste Land

Vik Muniz returns from New York to Brazil in order to start giving back. In this journey, he visits a recycling center in a poor part of town and begins to meet the workers. Taking the bubbly workers, Muniz creates pieces of art of these workers with the recyclables through the help of these workers in order to inform and to donate.

Throughout this documentary, the audience meets a diverse group of individuals through Vik and begins to attach to each individual in some manner. This is intriguing because in today's society, most people would judge a job of this type to be unimportant and meant for those who lack in passion. Also, one would expect the workers of this type of occupation would be quite unhappy, when in fact they're happier than most people who do hold a lot of money in their lives.

"This informal workforce — or catadores, as they are known — are the reason Brazil, with only a few municipal recycling programs, manages to reclaim a huge percentage of its trash, said Sonia Dias, the waste-picker specialist for Wiego, a global policy research group. This summer Brazil passed a law to eradicate open dumps and integrate the catadores into the recycling industry. Yet the catadores are still an underclass. The film tells the story of Mr. Muniz’s efforts to help those at Jardim Gramacho take charge of their lives, while giving them a new perspective on the world through art." (New York Times)

Personal Review: Four Stars! -A heartwarming perspective on those individuals that we take for granted in every day life. A more personal stance on the individuals that we find to harbor jobs that to ourselves are undesirable. An interesting turnaround of the happiness that I would have no expected before viewing this film. 
 
Reviews
Order here

Bio:

Name: Vicente José de Oliveira Muniz a.k.a. Vik Muniz

Birth location: Sao Paulo, Brazil

Birth year: 1961

Visit his website here!