The food we eat today is processed faster than ever; however, some may say this is a bad thing. A quote by Michael Pollan says “Don’t eat anything that your great-grandmother would not recognize as food.” This quote’s underlying meaning is that the food of our great-grandparents’ time is more nutritious and healthier than the food of today. Even with today’s processed foods, the food is still healthier than the food of the past. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) helps keep the health of food in place and checks for any abnormalities in our foods (“Safety Inspections.”). Any food that is processed outside of the United States is sent to a certain port through which the USDA can inspect and clear these imports to make sure they are safe for consumer consumption. The Agricultural Quarantine Inspection (AQI) program is a program within the USDA that helps find and dispose of any inflected plants or animals (“Agriculture Quarantine Inspection.”). The AQI will analyze the risk this disease and possibly find a way to treat it. The trucks or aircraft used in the transportation of the infected product are also inspected to stop the spread of the disease. Governmental programs and services of this …show more content…
Besides being able to produce food at a faster rate, technology has helped improve the health of multiple foods. As has been said previously, soybeans are currently used to create oil; however, this was only possible with improvements to technology to help extract this oil from the beans. Besides beans, leafy greens also have improvements in health. A new process known as aeroponics, a newer form of hydroponics, uses mist to provide nutrients to the plants (Gilpin, “10 Foods That Technology Has Transformed.”). This reduces water consumption. Since aeroponics occurs indoors, pesticides are not used and since the plants are grown in water rather than soil, contaminated manure is no longer a
He claims that a better diet requires spending more time and resources on food, just like the people of the past did. Pollan attributes their surpassing health to this practice, but in his article “How Junk Food Can End Obesity”, David Freedman paints a different story. Freedman describes how examinations of ancient non-Western remains revealed “hardened arteries, suggesting that pre-industrial diets…may not have been the epitome of healthy eating” (514). This discovery seriously undermines Pollan’s assumption that we should follow the lead of our ancestors because even though they spent a greater amount of resources on food and ate absolutely no processed foods, they still suffered from some of the same diseases which Pollan claims his eating habits will curb. As an opponent of processed foods, or “foodlike products” (Pollan 426), Pollan advocates eating whole foods. As many people have a similar opinion, he is not alone in this, but he is misinformed. Freedman reveals that after examining the nutrition labels on various unprocessed, whole foods, he found that many contained more fat, sugar, and sodium than processed foods (512). If unprocessed foods underwent the same scrutiny as processed foods, perhaps this common misconception could be prevented. The basic premise of Pollan’s essay is that a better diet will lead to better health. While we could all benefit from a better diet, “findings linking food type and health are considered highly unreliable (Freedman 518). Freedman discusses the multitude of nondietary factors such as air quality and exercise that render such studies untrustworthy. Pollan might be a well-respected author of nutrition books, but this does not mean that his theories are free of
The problematic aspect of processed food is all the added hormones, preservatives, and antibiotics that are injected into the food. Organic foods have none of these additives, and the pure characteristic of organic food is a valuable thing. Pollan (2008) agrees with this when he writes, “instead of worrying about nutrients, we should simply avoid any food that has been processed to such an extent that it is more the product of industry than of nature” (p. 424). I have a medical condition in which I am not supposed to eat any foods that have added preservatives, hormones, or antibiotics. This is because my body is hypersensitive to chemicals and, especially, added hormones. It can easily cause serious health problems. Pollan (2008) also added an opinion made by a food politics and policy lecturer, Gyorgy Scrinis, who believes that, “the most important fact about any food is not its nutrient content but its degree of processing” (p. 423). If everyone would stop their constant consideration in nutrient content and turn their attention to additives; America could become a much healthier
The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was an attempt to regulate the meatpacking industry and to assure consumers that the meat they were eating was safe. In brief, this act made compulsory the careful inspection of meat before its consummation, established sanitary standards for slaughterhouses and processing plants, and required continuous U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection of meat processing and packaging. Yet, the most important objectives set by the law are the prevention of adulterated or misbranded livestock and products from being commercialized and sold as food, and the making sure that meat and all its products are processed and prepared in the adequate sanitary and hygienic conditions (Reeves 35). Imported meat and its various products are no exception to these conditions; they must be inspected under equivalent foreign standards.
Western diet causes many diseases; increases people’s medical need for supplements and vitamins. However one writer disagrees with him and suggests “Eat foods that are less processed” (Denis Burkitt) which is easy to say but hard to apply on. Future more Pollen’s purpose of writing this article was to show how bad the effects of eating Western dieting can be, and to introduce a way to escape and in order to create a healthier country. Pollan also mentions the fact that livestock is being raised on a Western diet too, which means they are raised genetically too which means nothing is healthy like it used to be. In order to strengthen his statement he shows the percent of income spent on food in countries where the diseases percent is smaller to prove indeed “Western diet” is unhealthy, this matters a lot because currently most of the people living in this country are suffering from chronic diseases caused by wrong diet. Michael
On January 4, 2011 President Obama signed into law The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). This law has shed new light on the safety and security of our food supply. The last update to the food safety laws in the United States was in 1938. The food safety modernization act pays special attention at trying to modernize the food safety policies in the United States in hopes to prevent problems and concerns before they happen. As we all know, most of our food comes from overseas or sometimes from your neighboring state. The food products travel by car, truck, airplane, boat, or even train. We are all very happy to be receiving our bananas from Costa Rica and all of our other fresh fruits and vegetables that are imported into the United States, but we never stop to think about what pathogens are contaminating our produce and other foods on the way over and if they are safe for us to eat. In an article by Neal Fortin, he states that the law also gives the FDA new standards to hold imported foods to the domestic food standards and it also encourages the FDA to establish and develo...
Michael Pollan discusses two categories of food: one is real food (the kind our great-grandmother would recognize), while the other is “edible food-like substances”. The category that needs defending according to Pollan is the real food. This category of food is minimally processed, fresh (will eventually rot), and includes mostly things that are taken straight from the source (the ground, tree, etc.). When one walks into a store, they should look for and pick the foods that are more “quiet”such as fresh produce than the ones that have more labels that say they are more healthy, or better for you.
American society has grown so accustomed to receiving their food right away and in large quantities. Only in the past few decades has factory farming come into existence that has made consuming food a non guilt-free action. What originally was a hamburger with slaughtered cow meat is now slaughtered cow meat that’s filled with harmful chemicals. Not only that, the corn that that cow was fed with is also filled with chemicals to make them grow at a faster rate to get that hamburger on a dinner plate as quickly as possible. Bryan Walsh, a staff writer for Time Magazine specializing in environmental issues discusses in his article “America’s Food Crisis” how our food is not only bad for us but dangerous as well. The word dangerous could apply to many different things though. Our food is dangerous to the consumer, the workers and farmers, the animals and the environment. Walsh gives examples of each of these in his article that leads back to the main point of how dangerous the food we are consuming every day really is. He goes into detail on each of them but focuses his information on the consumer.
When we think of our national health we wonder why Americans end up obese, heart disease filled, and diabetic. Michael Pollan’s “ Escape from the Western Diet” suggest that everything we eat has been processed some food to the point where most of could not tell what went into what we ate. Pollan thinks that if America thought more about our “Western diets” of constantly modified foods and begin to shift away from it to a more home grown of mostly plant based diet it could create a more pleasing eating culture. He calls for us to “Eat food, Not too much, Mostly plants.” However, Mary Maxfield’s “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating”, argues differently she has the point of view that people simply eat in the wrong amounts. She recommends for others to “Trust yourself. Trust your body. Meet your needs.” The skewed perception of eating will cause you all kinds of health issues, while not eating at all and going skinny will mean that you will remain healthy rather than be anorexic. Then, as Maxfield points out, “We hear go out and Cram your face with Twinkies!”(Maxfield 446) when all that was said was eating as much as you need.
Conduct, for the U.S. Customs Service, the primary inspection and examination of arriving persons, baggage, merchandise, and other items and, the conveyances in which any or all of these are being transported to the United States. This includes determining the dutiability of merchandise and verifying the merchandise in a carrier's possession against invoices, bills of lading, or other documents. In addition,conduct inspections for the Public Health Service, Plant Quarantine Division of the Department of Agriculture and U.S. Fish & Wildlife. Admit eligible persons, merchandise, etc. not requiring additional processing,
...alds. This thought is alarming when just a century ago, one personally knew the local butcher and probably passed the farm where their beef and vegetables came from everyday without an inkling of the fast food dynasties to arise in the near future. The amount of store bought, factory made, hormone enhanced food is taking a toll physical and health aspects of the population, the rate of obesity is at an all-time high. All of these processed foods are not healthy for our bodies, convenient and quick, but not at all healthy. Our ancestors ate fresh meat, fruit, and berries, we eat…..pig hoofs, bones, and preservatives! YUCK! Just try to pronounce all of the ingredients in your diet just on a daily basis, not easily done what with the copious amounts of unnatural chemicals in our food.
Although there may be various disadvantages such as diseases, time consummation and many more, with the proper care the results of hydroponic farming may be propitious. For example, in a report from “Fresh Plaza” entitled “New report on Hydroponic Crop Farming in the U.S” states, “During the five years to 2013, revenue for the Hydroponic Crop Farming industry has maintained positive growth, indicating that the recession had a minimal effect on industry operators. Over the five-year period, a growing number of individuals shifted to healthy eating and consuming organic produce, resulting in high demand. In addition, extreme weather conditions damaged many crops for fresh field farmers, so grocery stores and farmers markets quickly turned to hydroponic farmers to meet their demand.” (IBIS). How can hydroponics revolutionize the future of the world? Hydroponics has been a lifestyle for many, it has changed the way people have farmed. For example, Hydroponic farming has already started booming in Japan in an article of NewsWeek “TO FEED HUMANKIND, WE NEED THE FARMS OF THE FUTURE TODAY” it states, “Aeroponics, a companion technology to hydroponics, has taken off in Japan and is helping high-tech greenhouses produce
Growing food with Aquaponics is more efficient than growing food the traditional soil garden way. In a typical soil garden, growers end up spending hours of their time doing back breaking work on their garden, but not anymore, with Aquaponics the need for any tilling, digging, or weeding is eliminated. Aquaponics combines Aquaculture (Raising fish in tanks), and Hydroponics (Growing plants without soil). The outcome is a working system that provides plants with all the nutrients they need, while using a minimum of space, effort, water, fertilizers, and pesticides. Aquaponics allows farmers to use up to 90% less water than normal farming would use, so instead of watering your soil and having the majority of your water either lost by run off or evaporated by the sun, the water is recycled repeatedly through the system saving farmers hundreds of dollars on their monthly water bills. Also when growing with Aquaponics, much more food can be produced in a smaller space, in some cases growers have produced around twenty times the amount of produce in the same area a soil garden would. In addition, with the closed, controlled environment of the system, the need for the use of any pesticides a basically eliminated. Finally, Aquaponics enables growers to grow bigger, better and more quality produce.
How is the quality of the food today affected by the methods of Hydroponics of today?
Food has been a common source of necessity in our everyday lives as humans. It helps gives us nutrition and energy to live throughout our life. Over several decades, the development of making foods has evolved. They have changed from natural to processed foods in recent years. Nowadays natural ingredients are barely used in the making of foods like bread, cheese, or yogurt. The food industry today has replaced natural food making with inorganic ingredients. The cause of this switch is due to processed foods being easier, cheaper and faster to make. Artificial nutrition and processed foods have been proven to last longer in market shelves then natural foods. Also, due to artificial additives in processed foods they help satisfy consumers taste more than natural ingredients. The method of producing processed foods is common in today's food industry and helps make money faster and efficiently for companies. Examples of this can be found in all markets that distribute food. Even though processed foods may be easier and faster to make, they are nowhere near as healthy for consumers compared to natural foods. Natural foods are healthier, wholesome, and beneficial to the human body and planet then processed foods.
Food safety is an increasingly important public health issue. Governments all over the world are intensifying their efforts to improve food safety. Food borne illnesses are diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by agents that enter the body through the ingestion of food. “In industrialized countries, the percentage of people suffering from food borne diseases each year has been reported to be up to 30%. In the United States of America, for example, around 76 million cases of food borne diseases, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths, are estimated to occur each year.” (Geneva 2)