Monday, December 13, 2010

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Reflection Essay


                After learning about food production, my views on what I eat and where my food comes from have changed dramatically. Many food production companies, such as: the meat industry, farming crops, and fast food companies; are cruel and extremely unsanitary. I truly do not understand why the United States is allowing these products to be made in the country or brought into the country. It amazes me that people are allowed to handle or make our food the way they do.
                If everyone in the United States saw how cheeseburger or chicken tenders were treated before they were made into a cheeseburger or a chicken tender, many meat production companies would be out of business. But, no one, besides the people in the meat industry, will ever know the entire truth about the meat process because of their strict and unfair policies. The meat industry has to keep everything top secret because they know that if people find out how their meat is being processed, almost everyone would probably become a vegetarian. Before being made into a meal, the animals are injected with several different drugs and are given corn to eat (makes them fatter) to speed up their growing process, and then thrown into a field or a coop full of nothing but disease and feces. Just think, all those drugs, disease, and feces eventually end up in our bodies after we eat meat from those animals. Don’t you feel as if you’ve been lied to about the meat you eat all these years?
                After reading about the meat industry in the last paragraph, you might want to become a vegetarian, right? Wrong. The farming industry is just as bad. The fruits and vegetables that we eat are also injected with drugs to speed up the growing process. Believe it or not, the seeds that grow the crops are even tampered with. Some food industries pay scientists to genetically alter the seeds to make sure that all the seeds are exactly the same, grow exactly the same, and taste exactly the same. Many of our crops do not even come from the United States. They come from countries all over the world. Why import crops from other parts of the world when we can grow them in our own backyard? Because the United States receives crops at a cheaper price rather than paying farmers in the United States, who make twice as much of a salary then workers in other countries, to grow crops for the citizens of the U.S.  Also, the fertilizers used to help U.S. crops grow kill many people every year. The fertilizers used are the wastes from the meat industries’ animals. They kill people because the meat industry gives their animals corn, which makes these animals sick. Then, the waste from the sick animals is used for the crops which then makes the crops “sick.” Then, people the eat crops, become sick, and die. This happens all year around.
                Over the past few years, people are realizing and learning about the dangers associated with fast food meals. Fast food is practically the definition of unhealthy. I personally think that after learning about what goes into fast food meals and how they are processed; I’ll never eat a Happy Meal from McDonald’s ever again. Meat fillers, pesticides, steroids, chemicals, you name it; it’s most likely in your food from a fast food restaurant. I can’t even begin to explain how disgusting the food process is when it comes to fast food. People think that just because everyone eats fast food and the United States allows it, that it’s okay. Well, they’re wrong. The fast food process is not okay, and we need to put a stop to it. They’re must be healthier ways to make fast food and make it taste just as good, if not better.
                 My mom as always made my family eat organic meals and healthy snacks. There was usually no other options for me. Before learning about this food process, I thought she was being over-dramatic about non-organic foods so I would eat what she bought for us without complaining. Now, I see her point of view from another perspective. This entire time, she was helping me make the right eating choices and keeping me from becoming oblivious to the things I eat or where they come from. Changing my diet won’t be extremely hard for me because I barely have anything to change considering all of the meals my mom makes are all organic. Also, after learning about these food processes, I don’t think I’ll ever want to eat an Apple from Guatemala, or a Happy Meal from McDonald’s, or even a regular cheeseburger. Learning about what goes in your body and where it was before it was in your body is a life changing experience. But, I don’t regret learning about it at all. It will help me make not only good choices for me, but also try to help the people around me make good choices for themselves too.
                I hope this information has changed your mind about what you eat and where it comes from. The way the food industry has, and continues to, hide the truth about the food process isn’t fair to everyone eating the food. I believe people deserve to know the truth about what they’re eating and how they can prevent themselves from getting sick by eating organic foods. I never realized the difference between non-organic and organic foods, but now I do and I hope you do too. If we all work together to stop the food industry from giving us unhealthy, disease infested, risky foods, we can make a huge change across America. No one should be uninformed about the dangers of non-organic food, so tell everyone you know and even people you don’t know these cautions and risks. You’ll not only help lives, but you might even be saving lives too. We actually have control over this problem, so let’s do something about it.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Food Journal

Monday:
Chicken nachos -Gunpowder Lodge
Raspberry tea- Gunpowder Lodge
Strawberry, chocolate, vanilla ice cream –Breyers, Englewood Cliffs, N.J
Water -nestle
Quaker’s smores bar- Ohio

Tuesday:
Mountain Dew- New York
Cheeseburger- School
Fries- School
Tea- AriZona, New York
Gum– Stride, New Jersey
Garlic Bread- Frank’s Pizza
Skittles- Nj
Special K bar-
Water- Nestle

Wednesday:
Tortellini- giant brand
Bread- giant bakery
Oil-
Chicken Tenders- School
Curly fries-school
Goldfish-
steak- bj’s brand
Pineapple-
Cheesecake- bj’s brand.
Onion rings- bjs brand

Thursday:
tea- chickfila
water- nestle
chai tea- england
oldbay- mccormick spices md
chicken noodle soup- bjs brand
bread- giant bakery

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Podcast summaries

Part 1:
During a speech, Iran's leader said some inappropriate statements and was immediately criticized  and corrected for his language at that time. The speech was then posted on many different websites and people from all over the world saw the leader's mistake. But, some people feel as if he was just people a politician relating to the people.

Part 2:
Stephen Leonard is taking a year of his time to study the language, Inuktun, spoken by the Inughuit people. But, the Inughuit's life style might be in danger. Global warming has caused a glacier to break and a block of ice might ruin most the way of life the Inughuit people.

Part 3:
More foreign-made films have been discovered recently in movie rentals. Why? Some people believe this will increase the American people's desire to want to learn a foreign language. But, the plan didn't work out as it was supposed to. Many Americans still have no interest in learning a foreign language.

Monday, September 13, 2010

9/11 paper

https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1s8uGuVb33KImsp4q6DCknMbGHc_yeagVHyHAlzALZVA&hl=en&pli=1#

Definiton, example, sources.

Globalization -Worldwide movement toward economic, financial, trade, and communications integration. Globalization implies opening out beyond local and nationalistic perspectives to a broader outlook of an interconnected and inter-dependent world with free transfer of capital, goods, and services across national frontiers. However, it does not include unhindered movement of labor and, as suggested by some economists, may hurt smaller or fragile economies if applied indiscriminately.






Source: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/globalization.html





Example of globalization: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/opinion/12iht-edwatkins.html









Humanity- the quality or state of being human





Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/humanity





Example of humanity: http://allafrica.com/stories/200906291686.html







Culture- A shared, learned, symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes that shapes and influences perception and behavior -- an abstract "mental blueprint" or "mental code."





Source: http://www2.eou.edu/~kdahl/cultdef.html





Example of culture: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=culture-speeds-up-human-evolution









Civilization- An advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has been reached.





Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/civilization





Example of civilization: http://memo.fr/en/article.aspx?ID=ANT_CRE_002









History- A usually chronological record of events, as of the life or development of a people or institution, often including an explanation of or commentary on those events





Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/history





Example of history: http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/CookieHistory.htm