Response #6: Steak – With a Slice of Disease, Animal Cruelty, and a Side Dish of Environmental Destruction

The article “Getting Real about the High Price of Cheap Food” by Bryan Walsh describes the excessively high meat consumption in the US, the concentrated and horrible environment animals are produced in, and the negative aspects this has on the environment, animals, and our personal health. Although we do not see how our meat is produced, we have to take a moment and face the horrible to truth about factory-like farming, because it affects our health, it increases animal cruelty, and it harms our environment.

The article was an eye opener to every person reading it. We purchase food due to its reduced price and we never think about any other aspects: The fact that animals are treated with brutality, and are in horrible living conditions, the fact that the animals are treated with antibiotics to fight diseases due to those conditions, the fact that this causes them to carry antibiotic resistant bacteria that we eat, the fact that animal waste contaminates our waters, kills fish, and destructs our land, and the fact that it increases the problems associated with global warming.  Furthermore it asks each one of us to make a change in our lifestyles. It was a very well-rounded article that covered many different views of the problem, statistics supporting those views, and solutions that encourages each one f us to make a difference. The article included counterarguments, which reinforced the message further, but was able to point out that those counterarguments are not strong.

We need to realize that we are creating an epidemic in which we consume more meat than is justified, we ignore to look at the consequences it has, and we do not follow through with solutions. New local farming methods have to be created, for the environment, ethically, and for our own health.

What I would like to get out of this class

I hope to increase my writing skills and practice with good feedback. Since this is a enivornmental english class, I hope to connect writing and enivornment into one that is a good body of work. There’s a good amount of article reading so that information is nice to read because it informative that might have not been read otherwise.

Article #7 Scary Unknown and Unresolved

Alexandra Gross’ article Eating Mercury explains the mercury amounts in foods which contain high fructose corn syrup, people don’t realize there is mercury being consumed from the ingredient including the product itself. In January 2009, a study revealed that seventeen of fifty-five brand-name foods contain high fructose corn syrup also include levels of mercury. Big brand-name products such as Smucker’s Strawberry Jelly, Hunt’s Tomato Ketchup, and Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup are among these products in which HFCS is a common ingredient with mercury presence. Gross explains dietary exposures to mercury are a life-threatening hazard to people which attacks the nervous system. HFCS is a mixture of fructose and glucose, corn is milled to make most of the glucose, then enzymes are added to change glucose to fructose. Four production plants in the U.S. use a process of mercury-cell technology, which is a source of mercury in HFCS.

These products that have presence of mercury are still in production because of the insufficient information of the study results. The industry groups and manufacturers are stating that the study was outdated and old in which nine of twenty products had contained mercury levels. The main concern is that so many children food products contain tremendous levels of HFCS. Another reason to question manufacturers is that these products contain mercury and nothing was being done to put an end to contaminating food. Gross’ article raises an important topic of what is happening in the food industry that consumers don’t know about?

Research Proposal Hormone Injected Animals

Hormone Injected Animals

Although hormone injected animals produce more product faster, because there are negative effects associated with this the environment and consumers suffer from the cheap abundant products.

I. Introduction

1. Production before hormones

2. Discovery of hormones

3. Why hormones are used

II. Different animals being enriched

1. Cattle

2. Poultry

3. Pigs

III. Benefits of Hormone Injections

1. Faster growth of the animals

2. Cheaper products

3. More meats, eggs, milk, cheese

IV. Negative Environment Affects

1. Excessive sold waste

2. Gassing affect

3. Water usage

4. Land Properties

V. Negative Effects on consumer

1. Female puberty at younger ages – causes breast and other cancers

2. Infertility in males whose mother consumed hormone enriched products

VI. Alternatives to hormone fed animals

1. Organic products

2. Vegetarianism

3. nutrient replacements

VII. Conclusion