Sunday, April 2, 2017
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.
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My colleague made some very valid points in her article “The Government is Poisoning Us”. The government has continued to keep things from the public about what is going into the food that is grown-- and processed. It truly is unfortunate that we must face the decision of either spending our paychecks on overpriced fruits and veggies or consume unnatural pesticides and like you said, chlorpyrifos. However, I must add that the addition of chlorpyrifos to our produce is only scratching the surface of what we know and don’t know about our food. Now, I am not the type of herbivore to introduce myself and then tell people I cannot be their friend unless they stop eating meat. Nevertheless, since the topic of the government hiding the truth from us has come up I must put in my thoughts. This topic has made me change how I view the government because after all, they are here to better the public. Remarkably, the government has been hiding the true costs of the meat and dairy industry, and that will result in extreme consequences. Pardon my French, but it is utter bullshit that these industries are getting away with what they are. Very few speak out about it, and if they do odds are they are going to be ignored.
ReplyDeleteWhen you think about what is important to our country one major thing comes to my mind-- money. Similar to how farmers profits would decrease if they cut out the unnatural chemicals currently used, the country would lose a big chunk of their profits if the truth were to creep out. The meat and dairy industries bring in whopping loads of money, therefore, it is frowned upon when someone speaks out against it. I’m not just talking about the antibiotics that are actually widely discussed between nutrition nuts like me, I’m talking about how much water and land is needed to meet the public’s demand for these products. In addition to this, we have been fooled into thinking meat and dairy are necessary for our well being, but this is far from true.
While we think about challenging the government on telling us what is going into our produce, let us also challenge them to open up about these industries. I won’t go into too much detail, but all I can hope for is that the people that read this article will try to escape their filter bubbles and receive real information and understand the very real soon-to-be doomed planet we live on.