Yesterday
I decided to take a look at all the food in my home and determine how much of
it – or how little- was organic, non-G.M.O, and fresh. I found four kinds of food in my fridge, plus
an array of in season fruits and vegetables, one type in my freezer, and zero
in my pantry. After watching the
documentary Food, Inc., I became
disturbed by my own eating habits as well as the eating habits of the rest of
the world. I had thought I ate fairly well and after seeing this documentary,
apparently by comparison to a large majority of Americans, I do. I eat a low calorie diet consisting of mainly
fresh foods, but apparently some of the things within my meals are where my
diet is considered poor. Who has set
this example for Americans telling them that it is okay to eat badly? When did we decide it is okay to put
convenience over our values? It is not okay to poison our bodies while filling the wallets or corporate big shots.
In
late 2003, I stopped eating fast food, more specifically McDonald's. I had
learned some of the horrors within the company are particularly when it came to
their food and how in time it literally poisons the human body. In 2010 I started eating only organic meats
as a result of my eight-year old daughter becoming pubescent. When majority of the third grade class is
wearing bras, it is time to look at where we have taken a wrong turn. This is
when I first learned of hormones and antibiotics (among other things) being
given to the animals we are eating. As a result we are putting those hormones
and antibiotics into our own bodies. I knew I had to make some changes for myself
and for my growing daughter, but I suppose just those changes aren't
enough. I never would have imagined that
the foods I was eating (other than meat) were unhealthy or that there even was
such a thing as a G.M.O. I guess I never
would have thought that something as simple as food, particularly fresh food,
could be bad for me. The industry pulled the wool over my eyes just the way
they intended to.
Society
has been engineered to eat foods that are not necessarily good in any way,
shape, or form, but more or less convenient for the working parents and those
on a strict budget. Fresh asparagus can
cost upwards of $3 at a grocery store, while a bag of potato chips can be just
$2. In Food, Inc., it is expressed that
a person can buy an entire cheeseburger at a fast-food restaurant for under a
dollar, but a head of broccoli will cost at least $1.50 or if you buy organic
it will cost upwards of $2.50. As a
buyer of some organic foods, it is tough sometimes to decide between that which
harms your wallet over that which harms your physical being. When I switched to organic eggs, I found
myself thinking "A carton of organic cage-free eggs is $4, while you can
get the store brand kind for $.99. Is it really going to hurt me to eat the
cheap ones?" We seem have put our
"convenience" on the dollar menu and our "values" in the
organic aisle.
Chickens,
for example, have been "redesigned" just like our values have. Chickens now grow to twice the average size
in half the time. Instead of the normal
five months it takes a chick to become a fully grown chicken, they can now
reach twice that size in just forty-nine days.
People also prefer the boneless, white, breast meat of a chicken so they
have been designed to grow larger in the breasts, because a big, fat chicken
will feed more people and give Mr. Meat Man more money. We have redesigned life to appeal to our
desire for convenience. In most cases,
chickens are harvested indoors, in the dark, in cages, twenty-four hours a day,
until they die on their own or are sent for slaughter. When did we take the value off of the lives
of chickens? When did it become okay to
let any creature live this way even if it is to satiate our bellies?
Perhaps
next we can begin redesigning human life to rid genetic flaws. If the chickens can have bigger breasts,
then maybe we can tweak our genetic makeups and let humans have bigger breasts
too… or smaller feet… or smaller waists.
Plastic surgery could be a thing of the past if we could just alter our
D.N.A. to give us that blond hair or green eyes we always wanted. Despite the human need for constant
self-improvement, I personally think human value on life is too high to go
altering our genetic makeups, but on the life of a chicken, it wouldn't matter
to most people. Not if there is more
breast meat to go around. So where does
the line get drawn? When do we decide
whose lives are more important than the next?
A living creature is a living creature and life was not meant for humans
to come along and start altering genetic codes as easily as it is to get
dressed in the morning. Our values have
gone out with yesterday's trash.
In
Food, Inc., it is said "If you
send something by the scanner, you are voting for it." This past week I
went through the organic section in the supermarket and found that the cooler
that sells the organic milk and yogurts was almost completely barren. I hadn't switched my milk to organic yet and
wanted to start that day, but I couldn't.
Was I angry that the shelves weren't stocked to meet the demand? No. It made me happy to know the cooler was
empty even though it had inconvenienced me from buying the one thing I needed
most. It means people are voting for organic milks and yogurts, but why not
everything else? Maybe because spending
all your money in the organic aisles will leave you penniless. We seem to forget that while buying organic
does destroy our piggy banks; it does not destroy our bodies. We are supposed to value our bodies over our
wallets; then again we are not supposed to consider eating well an
inconvenience.
We
have lost sight of the important things in this life: the values on
wholesomeness over material conveniences in a world where our children are the
ones who suffer with their too-soon pubescent bodies and their poor eating habits
instilled since birth. Maybe one day we
will pull that shroud out from in front of our eyes and put value keeping this body
happy and healthy - seeing as this is the only body we get.
