Wednesday, January 12, 2011

You Are What You Eat

Ever thought that you would see the day that farm animals would become extinct? I didn’t. Just the ideas of seeing my fridge being empty, somewhat makes me think that I would suffer from starvation. The human race will be affected by animal extinction because we rely on them for food to survive.

        We are what we eat but do we know what’s hiding in our food? Generally, farmers all over the world have cared and raised all types of plants and animals. But, now days, manufacturing farms depend on only some dedicated types of livestock and crops, plenty of non-commercial animal breeds and crop varieties have vanished, along with the priceless and vital genetic diversity they have.

There are two significant types of agricultures that made an impact on humanity and the food we consume:
        Industrial agriculture is a form of “new” farming that refers to the mechanized production of farm animals, crops, etc. The way industrial agriculture function is having livestock be forcedly fed with growth hormones to have them develop unusually large or having crops be fertilized with pesticide. We’ll then go to purchase these foods to eat and basically ingesting the chemicals. These situations cause many innocent people to die from deadly diseases. I don’t feel it’s worth purchasing an incredibly, delicious-looking food that may possibly harm us instead of improving our health.

       The good news, Sustainable agriculture is the total opposite of industrial agriculture; from methods to goals. It‘s a way of producing food that’s healthy for consumers. They don’t inject growth hormones, use pesticides on crops, or use unnatural resources.

        A method of farming that is not only humanitarian, but can continue itself. Animals have the chance to be free and be themselves instead of being cramped up in packed industrial farm houses. This type of agriculture makes me feel reassured, knowing that not only do we can still consume natural “organic” foods, animals are able to live their life before they get sold to the consumer.

        “Mature quicker, die sooner” is industrial farmers’ only answer. The most vital problems in the world are having large food corporations inject their animals with growth hormones to have their bodies increase in only a few days. Not only do they get injected with such chemicals, but they are also trapped in an inhumane, unhealthy and unsanitary industrial farm houses. Our feathered friends are also force-fed anti-biotics to reduce infections and disease. Most chickens would reach over the ideal weight level that they are too heavy for them to walk that their legs fail and so they wait to expire. Being raised then slaughtered is life to these helpless animals.

I think there’s enough food for everyone to go around. Yet, there are still plenty of people suffering from hunger because it‘s not being
shared evenly. We all have to admit, we waste tons of food not knowing that there are 925 million people starving. Protecting plants and animals life is important; we have too much extinctions.


Word count: 500 words

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References:
"Industrial Agriculture"
"Sustainable Agriculture"
"Farm Animals Face Extinction"
"World Hunger and Poverty Facts"
"Food Inc."
"Growth Hormones In Chickens - Not For Me!"
"Animal Byproducts..."

Blogs I Commented On:
"nicoleluvsbio"
"Claudia's BIO BLOG"

2 comments:

  1. I found this blog interesting. I found it cool how industrial methods include injecting their animals with growth hormones. Like steroids in chickens. Protecting plants and animals is important especially when we need it for food.

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  2. The only thing I'm concerned with based on this topic is the idea that this may become a necessity in the future. We all agree that society is very economic based, meaning, we are all money hungry. It is human nature to be selfish and greedy. So why spend more money on organic foods made by sustainable farmers while you can get the ideal crop (although factory made) for cheap? While their definitely is enough food to go around the growing need to save money is also a factor as to why industrial farming arose and it's just something to keep in mind.

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