“At least once in your life you’ll need a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman and a preacher, but every day, three times a day, you need a farmer.” American consumers do not appreciate the work that farmers do to feed our nation, but we have many reasons to be thankful. People spread untruthful information to try to alienate them for making us sick, treating animals inhumanely, and injecting everything we eat with harmful chemicals just to make a buck. All of this information is taken out of context and used against the agricultural industry, but for what? The people making these accusations are not producing solutions to the problems, and instead encourage the continuation of the same “harmful practices” by demanding perfect foods all year round. …show more content…
Agriculture’s main responsibility is to produce food and other products to sustain and enhance human life. Our farmers are doing just that, and they are the best at it. According to the Global Food Security Index, the United States is ranked number one in the world for overall affordability, availability, and quality and safety of our food supply. This means that what we are eating has been evaluated, despite what some people believe, and is much safer to eat than food from other countries. The reason our nation is ranked so highly is because of the regulations the USDA and the FDA have in place and the integrity of our farmers to provide safe products to their consumers. The producers of the documentary Food Inc., Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, would disagree …show more content…
Agriculture connects to our lives in more ways than you think. The pajamas you wear to bed are probably made of cotton produced by a farmer, and the wood floor you step down on in the morning was cut from a tree a logger fell. The toothpaste in the bathroom has animal fats called glycerin in it, and the book you decide to read that day will be bound with glue from cattle and printed with ink made out of soybean oil. Agriculture is not only responsible for feeding the world, but also clothing, sheltering, and helping us travel from place to place. Food Inc. card stacked against the ag industry by not depicting the effects these companies have on the economy as a whole. They did not present any ways that the food industry tries to utilize all parts of the animals they process, and in doing so they have an impact on more than just the food industry. Companies can now produce 2.8 gallons of ethanol per bushel of corn, and produced 13.3 billion gallons in 2012. If the corporations selling the corn to them did not exist, the market for biofuel wouldn’t either. Despite the fact that some might argue farmers only produce food, (like that is not a big enough reason to support them), the extent of the agriculture industry goes far beyond just cows, sows, and
Moreover, this system of mass farming leads to single crop farms, which are ecologically unsafe, and the unnatural treatment of animals (Kingsolver 14). These facts are presented to force the reader to consider their own actions when purchasing their own food because of the huge economic impact that their purchases can have. Kingsolver demonstrates this impact by stating that “every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we
In “Omnivore’s Delusion,” Blake Hurst, a veteran famer, calls attention to the “agri-intellectuals” who are critiquing farming when having no experience. First of all, the author wants “Agri-intellectuals” to take a walk in a farmer’s shoes. Throughout the article, Hurst throws jabs at the people criticizing choices a farmer makes, for example, he says, “It is important, though, that even people riding in airplanes know that there are environmental and food safety costs to whatever kind of farming we choose” (4). The author says this to show his anger and suggest to these critics they should know what they are talking about before they talk about it. Secondly, Hurst points out the food animal endangerment. The author tells his readers
Imagine living a life without eating anything with an animal product in it. No meat, fish, milk, eggs, honey, not even gelatin. Vegans are people who adapt a lifestyle where they live without any animal based goods; some do this for the health benefits that come with eliminating meats and dairy. Many become vegan as a way to protest and eliminate animal cruelty which is extremely apparent in the meat industry. A vegan diet is based largely on fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and soy. Many people would say this is unhealthy, that a person cannot live like this. Much of this skepticism comes from being misinformed, and under informed about veganism. It is safe to live a vegan lifestyle. On a vegan diet a person can get all the vitamins
This then brings up the issue of how our food is much worse than we had originally believed. Bryan Walsh, writer for TIME, wrote the article, The Real Cost of Cheap Food, “To stay and grow in such conditions, farm animals need pharmaceutical help, which can further damaging consequences for humans” (Walsh 34). From the chickens to the cows, animals are kept in “prison-like conditions” that causes them to become very sick (Walsh 34). To prevent animals from getting extremely sick to the point where they die before it’s their time, farmers feed them antibiotics. Not only are the animals eating corn and antibiotics, but so are we. We are eating so much more than we ever asked for. I’ve never asked to have antibiotics in my hamburger, and I’m sure many others haven’t either, however, that is the price we ought to pay for our cheap food. Not only must we ask ourselves if we are healthy, but now we must ask ourselves if what we are eating is also eating
Most of us do not think twice about the foods we pick up from the supermarket. Many Americans have a preconceived belief that the food being sold to us is safe, and withholds the highest standard of quality. Certainly, compared to many places in the world, this is true. But is the United States sincerely trying to carry out these standards, or have we begun to see a reverse in the health and safety of our food- and more explicitly in our meat? Jonathan Foer, author of “Eating Animals” argues for reform within the food industry- not only for the humane treatment of animals but moreover for our own health. Although Foer exposes the ills within the food industries in order to persuade readers to change their diets for the better, his “vegetarianism or die” assessment may be too extreme for most Americans. The true ills do not start with the meat, but with industrialized production of it through methods practiced by factory farming.
“We take care of animals, and the animals take care of us.” (Rollin 212). The preceding phrase is a policy that American farmers in the old west lived their lives by. Modern farmers live do not live their lives anywhere near to this phrase because they own factory farms, and the whole reason for having a factory farm is to fit as many animals in a small space as possible in order to maximize profit. Factory Farms, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) first appeared in the 1920s, right after Vitamins A and D, because if animals are given these vitamins in their diets, exercise and sunlight are not necessities for the animals to grow anymore (In Defense of Animals 1). The growing number of factory farms is coupled with the decreasing population of rural areas, which means that many people are beginning to factory farm because it yields a higher profit (“Agricultural Sciences” 170). In the 1950s, the average number of chickens on a given egg farm in the United States was 100, but now the average number is a shocking 10,000 chickens (“Factory Farms” 4). The reason for the increase of chickens has to do with new and cheaper technology developed just after World War II. The new technology increased the number of chickens, while it had the opposite effect on dairy and meat cows, their numbers went in the other direction. The number of cows used for milk was cut by more than half between 1950 and 2000, because farmers discovered new and more efficient methods for milking cows (Weeks 4). Many activists for animals’ rights are concerned about the methods used by factory farmers because they confine their animals into tight spaces and since there are so many of them in a small ...
Americans, as a whole, are fat, over-indulged, lazy, entitled humans. As a whole, yes, yes Americans are all of these things. In 2004, Alison Motluk, a freelance journalist who writes for numerous magazines including the New Scientist, The Walrus, and The Economist, pens an article called “Supersize Me: It’s Time to Stop Blaming Fat People for Their Size.” Motluk blames the food industry for increased portions. She blames the food industry for unhealthy, addictive additives dumped into our food. She blames the food industry for easy access to fast food. She blames city growth for making it near impossible to walk to get food therefore, people have to drive to get sustenance. Motluk blames schools for fat children because physical education
Alice Waters, in her 2007 article “Farmer Bill Should Focus on Healthful Foods”, instead of focusing on the farming techniques themselves, makes a more pointed inspection over the products and produce
Food is an essential part of everyday life without it one could not survive. Every day we make choices on what we put in to our bodies. There are countless varieties of food to choose from to meet the diverse tastes of the increasing population. Almost all food requires a label explaining the ingredients and the nutritional value allowing consumers to make informed decisions on what they are consuming. However, many may not be considering where that food is coming from or how it has been produced. Unfortunately, there is more to food than meets the eye. Since 1992, “ the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled, based on woefully limited data, that genetically modified foods were ‘substantially equivalent’ to their non-GM counterparts” (Why to Support Labeling). GM food advocates have promised to create more nutritious food that will be able to grow in harsh climate conditions and eventually put an end to world hunger in anticipation of the growing population. There is very little evidence to support these claims and study after study has proven just the opposite. GM crops are not only unsafe to consume, but their growing practices are harmful to the environment, and multinational corporations are putting farmers out of business.
Current public concern is the result of a wide-ranging, well-financed propaganda campaign of negatives – negatives intended to strike fear in the hearts of countless consumers "over there" and now, over here. Government agricultural agencies of var...
...struggling to earn any income at all and sometimes do not even get the opportunity to eat. Another issue that Raj Patel did not touch on is the lack of care consumers have for the farmers. It seems that consumers care about farmers about as much as the corporations do, which, in my opinion, is not a lot. When consumers only care about low prices and large corporations only care about making a profit, the farmers are left out to dry. Many consumers believe “food should be available at a bargain price, a belief that relies on labor exploitation and environmental exhaustion at multiple points along the commodity chain.” (Wright, 95) Corporations as well as consumers generally tend to be selfish and I think Raj Patel is afraid to mention this. If only these people cared a little bit more about each other I believe the hourglass of the food system will begin to even out.
A bowl of mix greens with fresh cut cucumber and grape tomatoes. Dressed with a fire roasted red pepper vinaigrette. It make a nice basic salad, but it stands on it one as a nice mean starter or lite lunch. What goes in to the growing of all the produce? We start in this world as hunter and gatherers. We did that for hundreds of thousands years. Then we learn how to grow and harvest our own food. Letting us work less to get more food and beginning one of humanities first huge population growth. That was not the last time we change the way we got our food. In the Second World War we discovered from weapon research how to make more effective fertilizers leading to more boatful harvest. Without that discovered the world could have not gotten to its huge population of over seven billion people. Now what is the next advancement in the agriculture going to be?
of miles in space, looking like a dot. He said to a crowd “Look again at that dot. That 's here.
Farmers are essentially the back-bone of the entire food system. Large-scale family farms account for 10% of all farms, but 75% of overall food production, (CSS statistics). Without farmers, there would be no food for us to consume. Big business picked up on this right away and began to control the farmers profits and products. When farmers buy their land, they take out a loan in order to pay for their land and farm house and for the livestock, crops, and machinery that are involved in the farming process. Today, the loans are paid off through contracts with big business corporations. Since big business has such a hold over the farmers, they take advantage of this and capitalize on their crops, commodities, and profits. Farmers are life-long slaves to these b...
Our world is growing! Growing in population that is, but the resources are staying the same. To help with the growing of the population that will be happening in the 21st century, science and agriculture need to work hand-in-hand. They need to stand together to make a break through together, to insure that everyone will have food on their plate. We need to work to have larger yields with the land we have. Some people say that humans need to change their diet, and others say that we should destroy hundreds of acres of wild land.