The Industrial Food System.

This blog is a review of my ENG 101 class during a 12 week session. Its been a long an interesting journey and this is because I learned many facts about the American Food System. I learned about the rise of CAFO, the government involvement, the working facility, the labor, the slaughtering of the animals, the combination of fat sugar and salt, animal cruelty, impact of the planet etc. One of the most supprising factor to me is about the combination of fat, sugar and salt in the food. Before this class I knew that salt store water in the body, fat clog the arteries and sugar feed cancer but never have I stop to think about the effect of these elements when combined. As this class goes by I was told to read a book called the End of overeating by doctor David Kessler. In this book he states that the combinition of fat, sugar and salt triggers the brain to act instead of the digestive system, this combinition is similar to the result of cocaine and marihuana. Consumers become dependant on the food with this formula because they are now addictive to it. Can you imagine being addictive to food? All you do is eat and eat and this is exactly what the food companies want because they make the profit and you die early because of cancer, diabetes, stroke. After this class I cut down on the amount of sugar and fat that I use and I even stop eating McDonalds because a meal at this fast food restaurant is a good example of this kind of addictiveness. I have always been a person who dont take orders from anyone and I feel this method is an order for me to go and eat the food so that I can involve in the act of making these companies bigger and stronger. What we need to do is limit our crave for junk food and eat healthy organic food. My final thoughts about it is that if we eat food with high combination of fat, sugar and salt it is just like willingly killing ourselves. NOT EVERYTHING THAT TASTE GOOD DO GOOD or whatever is sweet for your mouth is bitter for your system and that's the way it was meant to be.

The Eleventh Hour.

            The purpose of this film, The Eleventh Hours is cry for help to save our planet earth.  A raise in the population and the misuse of the human mind is what isolate mankind from reality.  Due, to their intelligence and creativity, humans purposely feel superior to other form of life. This deed has led them to endanger the world by burning fossil fuels and abuse the use of nature’s resources. Burning of fossils fuels is the main reason for global disturbance. That is to interfere with the natural activity of the environment. The Fossil fuel produces carbon dioxide, a gas that traps heat within the ozone layer. Places such as oil factories and slaughterhouse are where most of this gas comes from. The numerous amount of manure from domestic animals are pumped into the ocean that eventually evaporate and pollute the environment. From the Eleventh Hours a speaker says, ‘humans have not figure out how to change their ways’. By this he meant that although they know what they are doing is wrong, they continue to do so because of their ego and pride and also the urge to improve their lifestyle. Similarly in the food industries the management system continues to abuse the values of the animals and even the environment. To put it another way their involvement in global warming could be an act to display their capability to control and yet survive. In the farm factories they display this strength by changing the lifestyle of the animals and dumping the waste into the ocean. Therefore, I believe that the link of global warming and farm factories is mainly pollution. I also believe that humans need to change their ways towards this situation globally in order to prevent their own self destruction.

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Fat, Sugar and Salt is considered to be a drug.

In my recent blogs I wrote about the CAFO system and the way the animals are being raised; now it is time to figure out what is in the meat or any other food product that is causing us to crave for it so much. In Dr. David Kessler’s The End of Overeating, he did research on the new American diet and what is causing them to eat even if they are not hungry. Research shows that excessive amount of fat, sugar and salt is being processed into food product to increase the profit and taste. The food that is now process to suit the taste of consumers is also causing them to suffer from various diseases such as cancer, diabetes, stroke and heart diseases. Obesity that was once rear in American during the 1800’s is now affecting more than half of the American population. According to Dr. Kessler research and other doctors across the country they believe that the excessive amount of fat, sugar and salt triggers the brain and causing the people to be addictive to the food. This is important because we should know that our stomach is not controlling what we eat anymore it is our brain and the main reason is that the combination of fat, sugar and salt creates a chemical reaction similar to cocaine and marijuana that make the food we eat addictive.

Behind the Curtains of Meat Production.

             The video From Farms to Fridge shows the inhumane act of the meat production industries in the United States. Slaughter houses are large factories that are equipped to rise at least couple billions of animals that we eat. Pigs, poultries, and cattle are tortured from birth till death or at the right time to be produced into food.

                In the slaughter house pregnant pigs are locked in separate cages until delivery. The piglet

tails are choped off and are monitored by growth. If the piglets are slow growers they are killed in

various ways such as electrocution or they are bang on the ground until death. The adult pigs are taken

 to the slaughter house and are slaughter by workers desperate for a job.

                 From the video poultries are raised by thousands in confined, filthy sheds and are denied

their natural behaviors to roam freely and exposed to fresh air. The beaks of females chicks are

trimmed by hot blades or razor while male chicks are killed because of slow growth and also because

they don’t lay eggs. Birds are usually killed and lined assembly on large machines while taken to the

meat production compartment.
           
              Besides pigs and poultries, cattle are also raised in so-called slaughter houses. Similar to

pigs, cows also get their tails cut out at birth. In the slaughter house cows are usually skinned alive

, their legs are pulled apart from the body, the remain of the body is then cut in half and are later

made into various types of food as shown in the video.               

              All animals in the slaughter house are raise in confined areas and are look upon as objects.

 They are all denied their natural rights and are forced to adapt to the new

environment where they are tortured daily. Is this what we want from our food? Questions are

being asked and what we need to do as consumers is to be considerate about ourselves and the

living things around us.

              

Introduction to the CAFO Reader.

In this blog I will discuss the introduction of The CAFO Reader by Daniel Imhoff. This book is his latest in which he talks and argues about CAFO. CAFO meaning Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation deals with large businesses that produce food for the people of the United States. Imhoff says “Our domestic livestock have never been as cruelly confined or slaughtered in such massive quantities in all of history”, meaning CAFO rear pigs, cows, chicken, not in farms but on a very large scale in factories and are killed by thousands. Due,to the lack of space and movement with the animals diseases are spread rapidly.Sprinklers on the roof are designed to sprinkle antibiotics on the animals to decrease the spread of diseases. Unhealthy animals are often shot and killed,the waste from the animals and the animal killed are dumped in football sized lagoon or ponds. Manures are pumped into the soil to stabilize odor and conserve nutrients. Animals in the factories are given hormone to grow and taste the same way and be the same size. Imhoff writes, "7000 calves, 130000 cattle, 360000 pigs and 24 million chickens are killed per day in the CAFO industries throughout the United States", whether its more or less it unbelievable. The workers in these operations are illegal immigrants who are being paid low wages. The environment is not only dangerous to the animals but also to the health of the workers. Business makes billions of dollars daily and animal cruelty are rising. The food is cheap because of tax payers who are unknowing forced to contribute tax to the CAFO industries. While many questions arose to this subject as to where our food comes from and why farms are transferred to factories,one thing for sure is that nothing last forever and as Daniel Imhoff says we once produce our food as culture and as human being.