[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
[quote]Schlenkatank wrote:
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O.K., so what is the product of this thought?
An eminent mind in this field such as yours must have volumes published.
I would like to see them.
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I will indulge you. Here’s a segment from a research paper I wrote in high school. If you don’t want to read it just skip to the end where I talk about what we can do about all this.
The biggest difference between the â??foodsâ?? we eat today and everything prior to the 1900â??s is that almost everything used to come from one very import man know as the traditional farmer. He grew crops, raised healthy animals, and made quality dairy products that fed and provided nutrients for a small part of the nation while also maintaining the health of the soil and animals. However the food of today is driven by commercialism and profit, not nutrition. Three of Americas largest food makers and distributors are also some of the largest and most powerful fortune 500 companies in the world including Walmart, Kroger, and Sysco (CNN). Because food industries are primarily invested in profit, they arenâ??t environmentally sustainable, and more importantly produce inferior and less healthy products for Americans to eat. Is it any wonder why Americanâ??s struggle with obesity/morbidity rates and child mortality as much as we do? The answer is in the food we eat, if America wants to solve nutritional problems in the western diet we must go back to environmentally sustainable and organic practices in the agriculture and meat.
There can be no doubt that America has had a loving relationship with meat for a very long time. â??Whereâ??s the beef?â?? was a popular advertising slogan by Wendyâ??s in the 80â??s and 90â??s. The first ad depicted a group of elderly women questioning the size of a certain fast food chains hamburger before an image of a massive Wendyâ??s burger slathered in oil was shown on the screen. This ad literally depicted our confessed love for meat, but is Americaâ??s obsession with beef such a healthy relationship? A study done in Japan in an effort to mimic the Western diet discovered that men who ate larger quantities of conventionally raised and processed meat had almost double the normal rates of colon cancer (Oba). In fact, the article describes colon cancer as a â??western diseaseâ??, suggesting that our high level of meat consumption is likely responsible for our high rates of colon cancer. Because of this striking evidence, if we can limit the amount of meat we eat to what is also environmentally sustainable we will likely see an improvement in colon cancer cases as well as a myriad of health issue related to meat consumption…
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This segment of my paper is important because it shows that health problems in America like Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer are directly tied to the food we eat. In fact, this pattern of disease in America can be tracked to anywhere in the world that has a western diet as shown in the japan study. This is unacceptable. We are not making, raising, and growing food the right way.
So what is the right way? Certainly the healthiest way is to localize the food industry as much as possible and increase the number of small farms in the U.S. Studies have shown that sustainable foods grown on farms like these are universally healthier as I’ve mentioned. However the main problem with relying on these farms for food is that the demand for complex products like beef and milk are incredibly high. Not to mention that despite grass fed beef tasting better, people like to eat lots of cheap meat. As push has mentioned, it would literally be impossible to switch to a local farming model overnight.
As a nation we have several options where we can go from this grain fed debacle. One way is to continue our reliance on cheap processed meat and other inferior food products from large corperations and enjoy the benefits of cheap food. If we continue to do this, our nations health will become so atrocious that eventually we will be forced to think about where our food comes from. We can continue to walk this way, or we can start thinking about our nations future health today. If we want to do this, we have to start by eating less meat in general. Once we’ve done that, we have to start subsidizing small farms instead of massive mega farms. Both of these steps are easily accomplished and would have an incredible effect. Where we go is up to us, I’ve already made my decision.