Turkey and Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has changed a lot over the years. From the first thanksgiving many years ago that consisted of bean soup to our elaborate feasts that we get to enjoy today. The tradition behind thanksgiving is lost, the only thing people seem to be grateful for on thanksgiving is a full stomach and a good game of football. Thanksgiving, like everything else, has been over commercialized and turned into an excuse to eat as much food as you can without feeling bad about it.

            The turkey, which is the crowning center peace of any respectable thanksgiving dinner, is a mutated bird that is pumped full of antibiotics since the day of it’s birth. “The turkeys we eat today have about as much in common with the turkeys pilgrims might have eaten as does the ever-punch-lined tofurkey.”(Eating animals p. 250) Even if the early settlers had eaten turkey, it would bare little to no resemblance to the turkey we eat today. These turkeys are so genetically modified that they can’t even reproduce sexually, they need to be created in a lab.

            The original thanksgiving was a celebration declaring the end of starvation for the early American pilgrims. Today, the last thing on our mind on thanksgiving is starvation. Now the tradition rattles along even though there is no importance in it anymore. It is not pertinent to have a lavish meal just to be in the company of your good family and friends.

Meet Meat, Mate

Our global meat industry is one that serves and produces meat that shamelessly has growth hormones that is corn fed rather then grass and is done on a mass, global scale. How do you feel about our unnatural meat industry, and what can we do to change and better our meat for future generations?

The meat that we are served on a daily basis is terrible. The truth is that most of us have no idea where it comes from. Who knows, for all we know your hotdog might actually have some dog in it. Probably not. The colossal that we call our meat industry is destroying our environment and feeding us with genetically engineered meat. The animals are subject to malnutrition and crowding with much less space then they need to be healthy, not to mention move.

            It is important that we change the way that we distribute our meat. It does not make sense to eat stake from Brazil when there are steaks from cows that used to live in California. The only reason to buy meat from far away places is because it is better meat, not genetically altered, and fed with grass rather then corn. Everyone eats too much meat. If everyone ate a little less meat, we would be able to produce enough locally to eliminate the need for long distance shipping of food.

            The conditions in our farms and slaughterhouses are gross. The farms give every animal just enough space to move. They are fed with chemicals and corn, rather then grass and weeds. When cows are in their growing phase they are fed high fructose corn syrup to fatten them more quickly. We need to raise our farm animals on green pastures rather then steel cages, even if that means cutting down on our meat consumption.

            We need to be able to feed our own country without relying on other nations to do so for as. In 2010 the amount of meat that the U.S. produced was worth 27 billion dollars, however the American meat industry is a 74 billion dollar market (http://www.ers.usda.gov/news/BSECoverage.htm). If we could even cut down our dependence on other countries a little, say in our food industry, it could help us tremendously in the long run.

            The way that we raise our meat is wrong. Animals need to be able to live their life how they were supposed to, rather then locked up and behind bars. The way we grow our food is unhealthy and will come back to haunt us eventually. People need to realize that the times are changing, and we need to change with them.

The Cost of Shipping Food

In todays world it has become normal to have any fruit available to you at any time of the year. These fruits are not locally grown. They come from around the world to the shelves of your local supermarket. The cost of shipping oranges from Florida, Cod from Norway and lemons from Argentina is horrendous. The amount of greenhouse gasses that are blasted into the atmosphere transporting food is unacceptable. We have to learn to eat our local food even if that means not all foods are always available to us.

            Sure it is convenient to always be able to eat what you want, but what is the cost? Until recently, it was cheaper to grow and sell food locally. Now, with globalization at its peak, it is cheaper to pay laborers in poor countries to grow food and then ship it half way around the world to sell it. If we grew and sold our food locally we could boost our economy and drastically cut back on our impact on the environment.

            However, this is not true in all cases. It may actually be less harmful to grow flowers in tropical locations and then shipping them, rather then growing them in power hungry greenhouses (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/business/worldbusiness/26food.html?pagewanted=all). But aside from these few exceptions the impact of shipping greatly outweighs the cost of growing locally. The amount of greenhouse gases that could be saved from going into the atmosphere by shipping is huge, and if it were less, our planet would greatly appreciate it.

            The European union recently raised their tax on imported food by twenty percent to encourage more domestic food production. I believe this is a step in the right direction, if imported food weren’t so cheap, people would be less inclined to buy it. Tesco, a Britain’s largest supermarket chain has started printing a chart on their products assessing the carbon footprint of an item. “This may be as radical for environmental consuming as putting a calorie count on the side of packages to help people who want to lose weight,” said Trevor Datson, spokesperson for Tesco (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/business/worldbusiness/26food.html?pagewanted=all).

            The cost of shipping food is too high, and there needs to be a change. We need to release less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. A great place to start would be to change how we go about food supply. People are already taking steps in the right direction, but we need to double up on our efforts or else, when we run out of gas, we’ll run out of food.

            

           

Who I am, what I like, and what I think

Hello world! I am John Krueger, a 19-year-old Biology major at SFSU. I am writing this blog to talk about food and food related topics, as well as because my English teacher told me to. I love food, food is delicious, and if I could, all I would do all day is eat. However there are huge problems in the way we grow, raise, and eat our food.

I was born in Germany and because of that have been introduced to two very different and diverse food cultures. On one side the German, with rich sauces, delicious sausages, and traditional dished who’s recipes are century’s old. On the other, American food with juicy burgers, steaks of every shape and size, and of course McDonalds. This exposure to so many different types of food at an early age has made me into a person that likes a lot of different foods.

Food is the fuel we need for our bodies and everyone needs it. If this is true, why does no one worry about what they put into their bodies? I believe that since input directly affects output it is especially important for college students, like myself, so be aware of what they eat and just how big the impact of that decision is. If you feed yourself with greasy burgers that clog your arteries how can you expect your brain to perform at it’s full potential? You cant.

Lately I have been noticing a trend towards vegetarianism and veganism. I don’t agree to the claim many people make that all meat is bad; in fact it is delicious and part of a full diet. I do however support the idea that the way animals are kept in our mass production facilities is inhumane and wrong. Animals that are meant to be grazing pastures are kept in cells just big enough for them to stand in, not to mention move. The only way to solve this is if people eat less meat. Rather then eating meat for dinner every night of the week, families should limit themselves to 2 or days a week. This would solve the need for the mass production farms that plague this country but still retain a full food spectrum.

Another big problem with the way we make our food is in the farming. Farmers produce one product all year and deplete the soil while doing nothing to replenish it. There are ways or farming that are much more natural because they rely on a natural cycle that is sustainable. You grow a plant, then after harvest, introduce some animals that re-fertilize the ground and dig it up. Then you feed some chicken the seeds you want to grow and they in turn they plant them for you, and then you can start over. This type of farming produces much less waste and much more food.

Food is important and not enough people pay attention to what they eat and where it comes from. Fast food companies are criminals for feeding people poison and farmers are heartless because of how they raise their animals. This is not how it should be, and we need to figure out how to change it.