The Health of Americans: Organic Farming

1384 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Comparison between organic food and processed food

The health of Americans has been on a gradual decline, and without any new changes to our food and habits, our health may continue to slowly become worse. With the introduction of processed foods and chemical additives, Americans and people alike have developed diseases associated with the consumption of these foods. In order to escape the gradual death of these diseases, people need to eat organic foods with far greater nutritional quality, than that of highly processed foods. To start the massive overhaul, society needs to adapt to new ways they obtain their food. Organic farming produces foods without the use of any pesticides or any processed feed for the animal's consumption. It also helps to sustain our environment, along with it's biodiversity and agriculture. With a steady rise of organic farms, organic produce, and positive changes to the foods we eat, our health will see progressive improvements.

The benefit of organic farming is that organic food typically contains a lot more nutrients, minerals, and vitamins than processed products and animals that are force-fed hormones and antibiotics. Nowadays, Americans lack certain nutrients that should typically come from the food they eat, but instead, they receive their vital supply of nutrients and vitamins from supplements. To avoid starting any supplement regiment, Americans should start eating organic food. Not only does organic produce provide more nutrients, it also tastes better than ordinary produce. Organic produce does tastes exceptionally better than ordinary supermarket produce because of the remarkable amounts of nutrients they contain. From personal experience, I can safely say that organic produce tastes better than regular produce. I was given an assignment t...

... middle of paper ...

...tate of Science Review. The Organic Center.

“Food and Nutrition.” United States Department of Agriculture. USDA, 07032011. Web. 7 March 2011.

Food Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Perf. Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan. Magnolia, 2009. Film.

Huang, William. Personal Food Journal. February 2011.

Maeder, Paul, Andreas Fliessbach, David Dubois, Lucie Gunst, Padruot Fried, and Urs Niggli. "Soil Fertility and Biodiversity in Organic Farming."Science 296 (2002): 1694-1697 . Print.

Pollan, Michael. In Defense of Food. New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2008. 205. Print.

Vasilikiotis, Christos. “Can organic farming feed the world?.” Web. 7 March 2011.

Show More
Related

  • Food As Thought: Resisting The Moralization Of Eating By Mary Maxfield

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Food as thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating,” is an article written by Mary Maxfield in response or reaction to Michael Pollan’s “Escape from the Western Diet”. Michael Pollan tried to enlighten the readers about what they should eat or not in order to stay healthy by offering and proposing a simple theory: “the elimination of processed foods” (443).

    Read More

  • Summary of the Chapter "Nutritionism Defined"

    548 Words  | 2 Pages

    Michael Pollan, an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism (Michael Pollan), writes in his book In Defense of Food, the dangers of nutritionism and how to escape the Western diet and subsequently most of the chronic diseases the diet imparts. In the chapter “Nutritionism Defined” Pollan defines the term nutritionism. Pollan’s main assertion being how the ideology of nutritionism defines food as the sum of its nutrients, and from this viewpoint Pollan goes on to write how nutritionism divides food into two categories, with each macronutrient divided against each other as either bad or good nutrients, in a bid for focus of our food fears and enthusiasms. Finally, Pollan concludes that with the relentless focus nutritionism places on nutrients and their interplay distinctions between foods become irrelevant and abandoned.

    Read More

  • The Omnivore's Dilemma Sparknotes

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan challenges his readers to examine their food and question themselves about the things they consume. Have we ever considered where our food comes from or stopped to think about the process that goes into the food that we purchase to eat every day? Do we know whether our meat and vegetables picked out were raised in our local farms or transported from another country? Michael pollen addresses the reality of what really goes beyond the food we intake and how our lives are affected. He does not just compel us to question the food we consume, but also the food our “food” consumes.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Michael Pollan's Escape From The Western Diet

    1159 Words  | 3 Pages

    He claims that a better diet requires spending more time and resources on food, just like the people of the past did. Pollan attributes their surpassing health to this practice, but in his article “How Junk Food Can End Obesity”, David Freedman paints a different story. Freedman describes how examinations of ancient non-Western remains revealed “hardened arteries, suggesting that pre-industrial diets…may not have been the epitome of healthy eating” (514). This discovery seriously undermines Pollan’s assumption that we should follow the lead of our ancestors because even though they spent a greater amount of resources on food and ate absolutely no processed foods, they still suffered from some of the same diseases which Pollan claims his eating habits will curb. As an opponent of processed foods, or “foodlike products” (Pollan 426), Pollan advocates eating whole foods. As many people have a similar opinion, he is not alone in this, but he is misinformed. Freedman reveals that after examining the nutrition labels on various unprocessed, whole foods, he found that many contained more fat, sugar, and sodium than processed foods (512). If unprocessed foods underwent the same scrutiny as processed foods, perhaps this common misconception could be prevented. The basic premise of Pollan’s essay is that a better diet will lead to better health. While we could all benefit from a better diet, “findings linking food type and health are considered highly unreliable (Freedman 518). Freedman discusses the multitude of nondietary factors such as air quality and exercise that render such studies untrustworthy. Pollan might be a well-respected author of nutrition books, but this does not mean that his theories are free of

    Read More

  • How Junk Food Can End Obesity?

    963 Words  | 2 Pages

    The problematic aspect of processed food is all the added hormones, preservatives, and antibiotics that are injected into the food. Organic foods have none of these additives, and the pure characteristic of organic food is a valuable thing. Pollan (2008) agrees with this when he writes, “instead of worrying about nutrients, we should simply avoid any food that has been processed to such an extent that it is more the product of industry than of nature” (p. 424). I have a medical condition in which I am not supposed to eat any foods that have added preservatives, hormones, or antibiotics. This is because my body is hypersensitive to chemicals and, especially, added hormones. It can easily cause serious health problems. Pollan (2008) also added an opinion made by a food politics and policy lecturer, Gyorgy Scrinis, who believes that, “the most important fact about any food is not its nutrient content but its degree of processing” (p. 423). If everyone would stop their constant consideration in nutrient content and turn their attention to additives; America could become a much healthier

    Read More

  • Nutritionism Essay

    1615 Words  | 4 Pages

    Michael Pollan discusses two categories of food: one is real food (the kind our great-grandmother would recognize), while the other is “edible food-like substances”. The category that needs defending according to Pollan is the real food. This category of food is minimally processed, fresh (will eventually rot), and includes mostly things that are taken straight from the source (the ground, tree, etc.). When one walks into a store, they should look for and pick the foods that are more “quiet”such as fresh produce than the ones that have more labels that say they are more healthy, or better for you.

    Read More

  • The Omnivore's Dilemmas By Michael Pollan

    1015 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since Michael Pollan received his Master’s Degree in English (“Michael Pollan: Biography”), he has written top shelf extraordinary books, some of which are New York Times Best Sellers: Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A History of Four Meals, and many others (“About Michael Pollan”). Michael’s writing has won awards such as the World Conservation Union Global Award and the Genesis Award from the American Humane Association for his writing on animal agriculture (“About Michael Pollan”); therefor is credible enough to be writing about food and animals because he has been awarded in this subject. Moreover, Pollan is named one of Time’...

    Read More

  • In Vitro Meat

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    American Journal of Food Technology 6.6 (2011): 441-59. Print. The. Gonzalez, Julina. A. Roel. " "The Philosophy of Food," Edited by David M. Kaplan.

    Read More

  • Difference Between Organic and Conventional Foods and Farming

    1462 Words  | 3 Pages

    Organic foods have become more and more popular over the years, and consumers may or may not be knowledgeable when shopping for organic and/or conventional foods. This report will help define the difference between organic and conventional foods and farming, including the health benefits and risks. The demand for organic foods will also be discussed briefly. The purpose of this research is to describe and identify the advantages and issues that are involved with organic and inorganic foods.

    Read More

  • Organic vs. Conventional Foods

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    With the world’s population continuing to increase, the demand for food is higher than ever. This increase in food demand also calls for more efficient ways of growing and providing the food. Two methods that are very controversial are the organic and conventional method. While many people support the organic method because of its known benefits, others feel that it is an over inflated industry that cheats consumers out of their money. But recently many studies have disproved those critics. These studies prove that Organic food is a better choice than conventional because it is better for the environment, avoids the use of chemicals, and is generally more beneficial.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Organic Food

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    The term “organic” is almost everywhere in modern society, whether it’s used to promote a product or it’s debated on whether it really benefits the human diet. Organic food is heavily debated on as it appears more and more in local grocery stores and farmers markets begin to populate, it raises questions such as “Is organic food better than food grown with pesticides and biologically engineered genes?” and “Are there benefits to eating organically over foods grown in any other way?” In terms of what data and results show in research may help lead to answers to most of the heavily debated issues throughout discussions on organic food.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Persuasive Speech On Organic Food

    821 Words  | 2 Pages

    Thesis: Organic food is full of nutrients and when compared to conventional food is a much better choice

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Eating Healthy

    1177 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the book, In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan explores the relationship between nutrition and the Western diet, claiming that the answer to healthy eating is simply to “eat food”.

    Read More

  • Organic Foods vs. Non-organic Foods

    1255 Words  | 3 Pages

    Organic food is food that is grown without any pesticide or fertilizers. In recent years, sales for organic foods are increasing every year. A lot of people go to supermarkets in order to buy some organic foods, because they think that organic foods are healthier than conventional foods. People purchase organic foods for different reasons such as personal health, the quality of organic foods, and taste, but the most important reason is personal health. The topic that whether organic foods have more benefits or not is very controversial for a long time. Maybe some people believe that organic foods are beneficial to human health, but some other people disagree with the viewpoint, so buying organic foods depend on people’s choices. People believe organic foods are healthier because they generally think organic foods have less pesticide and fertilizer residue, more nutritional values, and are beneficial to environment.

    Read More

  • Organic Farming Essay

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    “ Know your farmer, know your food” goes the slogan by organic farmers to promote the consumption of locally grown food through organic farming. Subsequent to the clear distinction between organic and conventional food, there is an increase in focus towards organic farming. The “silent spring” that represents the seemingly solitary voice of the science writer Rachel Carson, 1962 ushered in the organic farming movement to counter the green revolution industrial-scale use of pesticides and fertilizers back in the 1960s. However the use of the term “organic farming” started with Lord Northbourne (aka Walter James, 4th Baron Northbourne) (Pogash, 2008), which he derived from the concept of “the farm as organism” as, explained in his book titled

    Read More

More about The Health of Americans: Organic Farming

Open Document