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Braxten Price
John Kubler
English 114A
9 December 2014
Killing of a Nation
When we think of food, we usually think of fuel and nourishment for our body. However,
in the past 10 years food has become less nutritious and more fattening and dangerous. The new
motto for Americas food production is bigger, faster, and cheaper. Even with labels on most of
the food we consume it is still hard to establish what exactly we are eating. So many
preservatives and GMOs have been added to our food that it is making people sick. Heart
diseases is the leading cause of death in Americans. We should be able to trust the companies
that are trying to feed us, instead of being scared that they are slowly killing us. Writer for the
New York Times Mark Bittman described big food corporations attitude towards the rise in
food related diseases by writing,Food companies are well aware of the health crisis their
products cause, and recognize that the situation is unsustainable. But one theory has it that as
long as even one of the big food companies remains cynical and uncaring about its market, they
all must remain so,(Bittman 1). We as consumers need to demand organic non GMO foods
instead of highly processed foods. It is time that we as a nation stand up together against food
companies and demand proper care and development of the food they are trying to feed us. Food
companies are hiding ingredients, using cruel farming techniques, and making Americans sick
and obese.
With the growth of America there has also been a growth of food corporations. In a way
to get more food out to the growing population in a faster and cheaper way big food corporation

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were developed. At first they were seen as cool and innovative, but over the last 50 years food
corporations have become unconventional and hazardous. They have lost track of their main goal
which is to provide people with the best food possible. To make the cheapest food possible for a
greater profit food companies have gone to extremes to achieve this. Food companies have now
introduced GMOs into the food circulation. GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are plants
or animals whose DNA has been modified to prevent certain elements from ruining them, such
as insects and pesticides. Most GMOs are present in corn and soybeans. On the website
nongmoproject.org they state that GMOs are causing a lot of problems by writing, Growing
body of evidence connects GMOs with health problems, environmental damage and violation of
farmers and consumers rights.The U.S.,government has approved GMOs based on studies
conducted by the same corporations that created them and profit from their sale,(GMO
Facts1). With around 69% of Americans considered overweight or obese GMO foods can be
seen as one of the causes to this shocking number. The sad thing about GMOs is that most GMO
foods are not even labeled. The best way for people to demand better foods without GMOs is to
stop buying them. Companies will be forced to change their ways if their products are not selling
anymore.
When it comes to the meat and poultry industry they are the worst in letting the consumer
know what is exactly in the meat and poultry they are consuming. In the documentary Food Inc.
by Robert Kenner he discuss the problems we are facing when it comes to food processing
companies. He takes the audience on an inside view of what exactly happens inside of meat and
poultry farms and factories. In the documentary Kenner describes the meat factories by saying,
If we put glass walls on all the mega processing facilities,we would have a different food
system in this country. Kenner says this to describe how horrible the factories and their methods

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for producing products are. In their natural environment chickens can take up to 6 months to
become full grown, but in chicken farms from big companies such as Tyson they can have full
grown chickens in as little as 48 days. Also when companies realized that white meat sold more
they redesigned the chicken to have bigger breasts by using growth hormones and steroids. They
also gave steroids and hormones to cattle to fatten them up and reduce their maturing time. Cows
natural maturing time which can take up to years will only take 14 months in huge cattle farms.
This is do to the new feeding methods that were introduced during the World War II era. During
a huge surplus of corn during those times farmers had the idea to start feeding corn to their cows.
The farmers then noticed that the cows started to fatten up and become bigger quicker. This led
to the change of food that we see today in the huge cattle farms. Since corn is cheaper than grass
more cows are now being fed corn. This is a huge problem for the cows, because they are not
supposed to eat corn and grains. Cows are one of the only animals that are able to eat grass and
turn it into fuel and milk. The moment cows started getting fed less grass and more corn the
cows become almost lethal creatures to humans. With the increase in corn feeding there became
an increase in the harmful bacteria E.coli in cows. E.coli is a harmful bacteria that once caught
can cause diarrhea, abdominal cramping,vomiting, and in some cases death. In an interview with
PBS Michael Pollan, an American Journalist, talks about how we can reduce E. coli in cows by
saying, There is research that's been done that shows simply by putting cows on grass or hay for
the last several days of their life, the E. coli population in their gut plummets by as much as 80
percent because, again, they can't tolerate the change in the pH in the stomach, (question 13).
This shows that if cattle farms fed their cows grass or hay we could significantly reduce the
chances of people getting sick or dying from E.coli every year.
The best thing America can do to promote healthier and better quality food is to stop

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buying from companies that are not open with their food preparation. The one thing companies
and business love more than anything is money. That means if consumers were not liking the
products they were producing and refused to buy them the company would be left with only one
thing to do and that is changing their ways. Another way to protest or rebel against the meat
industry would be to go vegetarian or vegan. Going vegetarian can save many animals from
having to experience harmful farming techniques. This reduces the creation of more animals in
farms. Becoming a vegetarian can reduce a persons risk of of heart disease, which is the leading
cause of death in Americans. If going vegetarian sounds impossible there are many other ways to
demand better food. When going grocery shopping buy foods that are free of GMOs, steroids,
and are organic. If the stores notice an increase of sales on organic foods the stores will order
more organic options. If we want change we have to demand it from the major food corporations.
To summarize, I feel that it is up to us to demand better food from corporations. I have
had a lot of family members in my life who have been stricken with serious illnesses in the past,
and I would hate to think it was because of the food they were consuming. I want to show the
readers of my paper that the problem of food processing in our nation is a bigger problem than
most people think. We need to demand that the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) change
their ways and become more open with what they are allowing to be done to our foods. I propose
that the FDA allows for the population to vote on what they will allow happen to their food
before it hits the shelves. Telling people what is actually happening to their food is the moral and
ethical way of handling these situations.

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Works Cited
Bittman, Mark. "Parasites, Killing Their Host." The New York Times. The New York Times, 17
June 2014. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.
Food, Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. 2009. Film.
"GMO Facts." The NonGMO Project RSS. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.
Pollan, Michael. "Modern Meat Interview." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.