DES and it's dangers

The book My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki is about the story of an American-Japanese woman that is hired to do a T.V. show for the American meat industry to introduce meat into the Japanese culture. The meat industry is hoping to introduce meat into the Asian culture and with that increase the size of their market. As she learns about the meat industry she starts to realize how many issues there are with it. One of the issues she discusses is the about the growth hormone DES that used to be in meats up through the 70’s.  The growth hormone was known to be harmful since 1938. The FDA and USDA suppressed many results proving the potential risks of DSA. Even after it was clear that DES was extremely harmful the FDA and USDA insisted it was safe and waited for years to finally ban it.

            The carcinogenicity of DES has been clear since 1938 however the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the FDA approved the hormone in 1947. After multiple congressional hearings on DSA the Delaney Law was passed in 1958, which banned the deliberate addition of carcinogens. However, the use of DSA continued on the alleged grounds that it did not leave any amount of detectable residue in the meat. The reality was that there were extremely cancerous levels of DES in much of the meat on the U.S. market. By 1971 twenty other countries banned the use of DES. Even then, the FDA and USDA continued to insist that DSA was not harmful until 1979 when it was finally banned in the U.S.

Questions:

1.     Since the topic is limited to a topic that is related to the book My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki I can’t choose a topic that I feel as strongly about as John Trimble suggests. Instead I chose to write about DES, which caused a lot of harm to pregnant women up until it was banned in 1979.

2.     What I chose to narrow the topic down to is why the FDA and the USDA suppressed the results of tests that proved the chemical was harmful. There were tests that proved the chemical was bad as early as 1971, it wasn’t banned until 1979.

3.     http://preventcancer.com/press/editorials/march10_92.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diethylstilbestrol

4.      

a.     Why did the FDA and the USDA take 8 years to ban the chemical?

b.     Why did the DES have to be added to the meat in the first place?

5.     Thesis: The fact that it took the FDA and the USDA 8 years to ban a chemical known to be extremely harmful is unacceptable and shows that our food industry needs to be watched much more.

#1.       Pre Write Procedure- 

1. Brainstorm

2. Establish argument

3. Find support for my arguments

4. Make an outline

5. Ask some tough questions

5. Begin writing

#3.  I will take all the steps I usually take as well as ask some questions about the weakest part of my essay in order to strengthen it.

#4.

Effective Procedures:

-Brainstorming is always extremely fruitful since it helps you develop your ideas more.

-The questions I asked also helped me come up with stronger arguments

Working Thesis: The fact that it took the FDA and the USDA 8 years to ban a chemical known to be extremely harmful is unacceptable and shows that our food industry needs to be watched much more.              

What's with the quotes?

In the book My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki she starts every chapter in the book with a poem or quote from Sei Shonagon's The Pillow Book. The Pillow book is a book that is filled with observations and musings that were recorded by Sei Shonagon when she served as court lady to Empress Consort Teishi during the 990’s and early 11^th century. She finished the book in 1002. In it she included lists of all kinds, personal thoughts, interesting events in court, poetry and some opinions on her contemporaries. Even though this is more of a journal then a formal piece of literature her literary and poetic skill make the book enjoyable.

The quotes at the beginning of each chapter are interesting and kind of set the mood for each chapter, either foreshadowing, or at least introducing the concept that Ozeki talks about in the chapter. Even though she organizes the book by months, these almost ancient quotes give it a more timeless feel. This results in chapters that are not only about the people in them but that also have a universal message that the reader can apply to his or her own life. Jane as well as Sei Shonagon were similar in a way that they both recorded what was happening to them at the time. This connects them in another way beyond the meanings of the quotes.