Dirty Meat

Frankly, I love meat - but like J.S. Foer, author of Eating Animals said, "When we eat factory-farmed meat we live, literally, on tortured flesh. Increasingly, that tortured flesh is becoming our own." Not only is factory-farmed meat damaging our bodies, but as well as our hydrosphere, biosphere, and our atmosphere. Since the federal government assists factory farmers by subsidizing animal products with our tax dollars, these giant corporations make it their goal to maximize profit while minimizing their costs. The twisted truth inside factory farms is monitored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This government controlled department made factory-farms the standard way of our food system, and decides what goes in the grocery store and is served in schools. I think having someone who wouldn't benefit from deciding what America eats to be in control of our nutritional guidelines, such as National Institutes of Health, would be best for our country.

The distorted truth of how factory-farmed meats effects our personal health is dangerous. Due to added hormones, and the abundant amount of antibiotics used on factory farms, it creates the risk for humans to end up with a chronic disease, obesity, and drug-resistant bacteria. There around about 76 million cases of food-borne illnesses, which were created during factory-farming from contamination. While simple solutions are available, it would increase time and would take profit away from them. Our environmental health is also at risk, in hog factory farms there is almost no waste-treatment infrastructure, which means massive amounts of toxins are released into the environment. The aftermath buried into fields, allow the toxins to run off into waterways, which end up killing off populations of fish.

Issues such as- disposing livestock excrement, health risks, and euthanasia regulations, need to be dealt in our government and should be closely monitored. To summarize, best said on the National Review's website, "...the dairy industry spends more on advertising in one week than the blueberry, mango, watermelon, and mushroom industries spend all together in a year. At a time when we’re being encouraged to enjoy more fruits and vegetables, why does animal-based agriculture get such a disproportionate amount of support from the USDA and Congress?"

RE: Who's afraid of the locker room?

In my colleague's article, Who's afraid of the locker room?, Molly asks the reader in the final paragraph, "Who is protecting the underrepresented transexual community?" I agree with her line of thinking and the data that backs it up. Out of concern, I searched and found that in 2017, more than 130 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced across the country according to the website for Human Rights Campaign. I'm disturbed to see the amount of bills being proposed - but it's somewhat reassuring that we do have advocacy groups out there intervening. What I've learned so far, in my short little life, is that change happens. It seems as though at times, we take one step forward, two steps back, but I'm confident and hopeful that our constitution will represent us all. I think it's just important that we all stick together and use our voice!

The Government is Poisoning Us

"KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN", a warning that needs to be added to the nutrition label of crops such as strawberries, apples, cherries, and oranges. Back in 2015, during the Obama administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommended banning the use of chlorpyrifos on crops. Chlorpyrifos is a chemical that was created during World War II, formerly as a nerve agent weapon. It stuck around and began being used as an insecticide. Recent studies by Centers for Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research found that young children exposed to chlorpyrifos are more likely to have a lower IQ, ADD, and nervous system development issues.
In 2000, chlorpyrifos was banned from household products, but removing it from our foods remains an unwon battle. On March 29th, Scott Pruitt, the new administrator of the EPA decided to reverse the recommendation that was made in 2015. Agricultural and chemical companies whined, and Pruitt gave in. Many argue that there isn't enough evidence to rule the chemical as unsafe, and banning it will hurt farmers profits. As the CDC has chlorpyrifos listed as a toxic substance, they and The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion need to speak up and fight this issue. It's unfair and ironic for the government to come out with dietary guidelines, when the food itself is hurting our children. Families with lower income should be able to purchase fruits and vegetables that aren't coated in poison, at a more affordable price rather than organic produce. It's not right to allow anyone to consume chlorpyrifos, the EPA should ban the chemical and move forward in a more natural direction.