Gullible
and Passive, yet Full America
Remember
a few weeks ago when we were editing essays and I asked Mr. Logsdon which essay
we were editing? He responded by saying we were on the next one. In my head, I
knew we were on the one I assumed but I still believed him. I can be gullible
that way. Gullible? Why does that matter? I am not the only gullible one. Most
of America is willing to passively believe whatever someone tells them to
believe about the food with which they fuel their one and only body. With the
long journey from the farm, factories, and/ or laboratories to our plates, are
the vegetables and fruits we eat even safe? The real question is do we care? As
long as we are no longer hungry, for however long, there is no problem; we are
all happy (oblivious) campers. Can we really blame any corporation or even Mr.
Logsdon for our own easy to fool nature? The way the economics of our food is
set up, it is easy to see where the habitual self-poisoning came from,
something has to change. Take accountability and pay attention to
what you consume.
I
have heard numerous stories about the ingredients in McDonald’s food, but I
still find the time to have an 85 cent hamburger from there at least twice a
month. If you have Twitter you probably see the popular Buzzfeed on your feed
(they typically receive a lot of retweets and favorites). They posted a video
in which they exposed 15 secrets of processed meats in less than two minutes. One
example, the FDA allows up to four rodent hairs for every 100grams of processed
food. My favorite is that hotdogs are “made with trimmings of fat and starch or
‘cereal filler’.” Delicious. Why are majority of the pigs in the United States
grown with ractonine while it is illegal in many European countries like
Russia. Evidently, we have passively been fed trash almost our entire lives.
Instead of settling, we should look for alternative snacks like locally grown
fruit, seeing as it is not likely we will all buy cows and treat our meat the
way we want. Yes, it’s an 85 cent hamburger; I have gas and clothes to pay for.
There’s a price to pay for choosing quantity over quality; that could be bigger
jeans today and then congestive heart failure later.
Organic
food, it has a mostly negative connotation. People always think of organic as
more expensive for the same product but in actuality consumers receive many
benefits from certain organic products that conventional products lack. “Organic
milk contains about 60 percent more heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids than
non-organic versions, a benefit that also extends to cheese and yogurt,”
according to Washington Post. Organic food such as organic meats, are foods
without hormones and toxins such as in meats in which the animal ingests
antibiotic-filled feed. As it becomes more known, the USDA has made more
regulations on organic food. Certified organic products have green and white
seals on them. Yes it is a little more expensive because it takes more labor to
make organic food. I would rather eat food that has been cared for and been
through safer processing than just rushed through to get a quick dollar. According
to Robin Parnes of ‘how stuff works’, “Production costs for organic foods are
typically higher because of greater labor input and because farmers don't
produce enough of a single product to lower the overall cost. Just because
processed food is cheaper, that does not make it any better for you. You get
what you pay for. I am not saying to never buy a juicy over processed burger
here and again and then go to your local Whole Foods. But why not try saying no
to a deep fried Oreo at the fair this summer for starters?
We
claim to be an individualistic nation but we fall in line behind big companies
that own monopolies over our food. In the documentary Food Inc. the idea of how
these big companies in charge of our food are overtaking small farms is
investigated. Wenhoah Hauter also comments on this change in our agriculture. Both
serve to illuminate the under the table scheme of processed food in our
nations. Everything is either covered up or embellished. In the documentary
certain companies refused to comment, evidently turned away by possible bad
press. Even worse, at a pig farm owned by Smithfield, a pink lagoon was found.
Sound strange? That is because it is; it is not normal to have a pink lagoon,
where pig waste is dumped. The culprit being the many antibiotics and “money
makers” the pigs were stuffed with. Pun intended?
You
may say, they have yet to prove that antibiotics are ultimately harmful, but
just because it is yet to proven, doesn’t mean it is not still an issue. We should
be aware of everything in our food. Back when everyone and their mother smoked
cigarettes, people thought they were either harmless or beneficial, now we know
that they are life suckers and “cancer sticks”. Do not be fooled into thinking
the processed foods are anything other than what they really are, products. According
to Smithfield, “A pink lagoon is a healthy lagoon.” Are you gullible enough to
fall for it?
If
someone were to ask me what my favorite thing that I cannot live without, I
would respond with my phone, and then quickly after I would reply with good
food also. Gullible, we have all wanted to believe something told us, simply
because we feel they have some authority in our life. When it comes to food,
however, we put it in the ONE body we have and will ever have, so why would we
take food so lightly? Overnight is impossible, but maybe a shift can occur over
generations. We are charged with the choice to make the future how we want it to
be like. We will be told this all the way up until we graduate college and become
the same adults we think we resent. One way we can change the meals in our
grocery stores, on our plates, is appeal to the organic/ whole foods. Help
change the prices. Hope off the fast food bandwagon and be different, try
something different. We can change the standards the FDA thinks are
appropriate, unless you prefer exactly four rat hairs in your steak. Have it
your way.
Works
Cited
Buzzfeed
Video
“15 Horrifying Facts about
Processed Meat” by: Video Producer Micaela Mielniczenko
Washington Post
Article: “Organic food costs more than conventional food. Is it worth the extra
money?”
Food
Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner.
Perf. Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser.
Magnolia Pictures, 2008. DVD.
Hauter, Wenonah. Foodopoly: the battle over
the future of food and farming in America. New York: The New Press, 2012.
Print.
http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/budgeting/how-much-more-does-organic-food-cost-and-why.htm
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