All posts by Harrison Hope

MW 2:15 CLASS

Unit 4 Final Reflection

Leave a comment

Harrison Hope

Unit 4 Reflection

5/2/2016

Have you ever had a subject that you could cover in your sleep and still get an A? I have, and that subject was not and is still not writing. In high school, my 9th grade English teacher, Ms. Scoggins, was the most supportive teacher to walk the halls of Chamblee High School. Even though I struggle with articulating my thoughts and attempting to put them down on paper, you could do no wrong in the eyes of Ms. Scoggins. Ever since then I have been able to keep my head up through shitty teacher after shitty teacher until I took writing 105 last year, my first semester of my freshmen year. I barely passed the class due to earning a C minus on multiple papers. Even after visits to the writing center I could not end up on the same page as my teacher in terms of understanding the expectations I needed to meet in order to be more successful in the class. Did this leave me excited to take another writing class my sophomore year? Absolutely not. However, through successful teaching methods, fantastic workshops, and strong support this year, I have begun to look forward to doing research and putting my thoughts and work into words again.

From the get go with Unit 1, I was enthusiastic about researching food politics and watching food Inc. Although I had a strong start and participated in the workshops, the latter end of the unit was a struggle for me; not because of the class but because of poor allocation of time and resources on my end. My favorite portion of unit 1 was watching Food Inc., naturally, but not because we just got to watch TV in class but due to the fact that we had to write down expert quotes and statistics. I am an avid fan of fun facts and random knowledge so having the opportunity to expand my understanding of farming and the food industry’s effect on my everyday life was intriguing. I highly suggest doing that again from a teaching standpoint in the future if given the chance. When it came to the final paper, I rushed to get it done at the last minute which was not only a waste of my time and education but an insult to the teacher as well. In the end though I was able to both identify and apply the art of Pathos, Kairos, Logos, and Ethos along with being able to properly research and cite outside sources.

I consider myself to be a fairly sociable and outgoing so after just squeezing by in Unit 1, Unit 2 was more my piece of cake– Ted Talk Presentations. Contrary to Unit 1, I started off shaky for this unit. When we worked on the Post-It Easel Pads jotting down our topic for discussion I was clueless on what I wanted to research. Although I appreciated the workshop, it was much more helpful for me to just sit at my laptop and start researching on my own, scrolling through pages and pages of potential topics. With categories ranging from domestic violence in the NFL to political campaigns, I was finally able to settle on the topic of Bill H.R. 1013, the bill that decriminalizes marijuana. Once my issue was decided I was able to make a killer PowerPoint presentation to compliment my rehearsed Ted Talk. By mixing in some jokes with factual information, I was able to get back on track in the class by hitting the project out of the park.

Coming off of a hot streak in unit 2, I feel confident that I was able to complete unit 3 to the best of my abilities. For me, the best workshop in this unit was the Scramble draft activity. By having an unbiased proofreader put my paper in order based on how she felt it would flow best, I was able to consider different ways to piece my paragraphs together. In the end I chose to switch up the course that portions of my paper followed making it better than ever.

I have never been too confident in my writing but by the end of this class I am now much more open to constructive criticism and the perspectives of others. I enjoy the challenges brought on by this course and I hope to continue bettering my writing techniques during writing 307 next fall.

MW 2:15 CLASS, Uncategorized

Unit 3 final

Leave a comment

 

american pot flag

If you google “dumb quarterbacks today”, you will find young ex-Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel on that list. That led me to the partying, Alcoholic Johnny Manziel. Which subsequently brought me to his trouble-stricken teammate, Josh Gordon. Josh Gordon was suspended without pay for all of last season and onto next season due to violating the NFL Policy and Program for Substances of Abuse. After researching more about the banning of athletes for marijuana issues, a recurring theme was the hashtag, #FeelTheBern. So after a good weeks’ worth of research on the topic of marijuana legalization, I stumbled upon bill H.R. 1013.

Bill H.R. 1013 is the bill that decriminalized cannabis. Also known as the bill to “Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol Act”, H.R. 1013 was implemented to decriminalize marijuana at the Federal level, to leave to the states a power to regulate marijuana that is similar to the power they have to regulate alcohol, and for other purposes. It directs the Attorney General to issue a final order that removes marijuana in any form from all schedules of controlled substances under the Controlled Substances Act.

Here’s the Federal Timeline of cannabis laws over the years. In 1937 the Marijuana Tax Act was passed, effectively prohibiting all use of cannabis on a federal level. In 1970 the Controlled Substances Act is passed, prohibiting cannabis federally along with several other drugs and replacing the 1937 act. Bill H.R. 1013 was passed during the 114th Congress in 2014. The United States House of Representatives pass a bill prohibiting the DEA from using funds to arrest medical cannabis patients in states with medical cannabis laws.

federal timeline 2

Here’s the State Timeline of cannabis laws over the years. From 1973 to 1978 10 states decriminalized Cannabis. In 1996, California legalized Medical Cannabis. From 1998 to 2012 11 additional states legalized the use of Medical Cannabis. In 2012 Washington and Colorado legalized recreational marijuana for adults 21 years of age or older. From 2014 to 2015 7 more states legalized/decriminalized Medical Cannabis. In total, 23 states legalized/decriminalized the use of Medical Marijuana.

state timeline 1

state timeline 2

After doing extensive research, here is a list of some of the positives for the legalization of Cannabis: Boost in Revenue, More effective criminal justice and law enforcement, Medical Benefits, Personal freedom, and loss of business for Drug Dealers, i.e. Cartels. According to the nytimes.com “U.S. Border patrol has been seizing steadily smaller quantities of the drug, from 2.5 million pounds in 2011 to 1.9 million pounds in 2014. Mexico’s army has noted an even steeper decline, confiscating 664 tons of cannabis in 2014, a drop of 32% compared to year before.”

One of the biggest examples of how the legalization would impact a culture is Colorado. As I mentioned in the State timeline, Colorado legalized recreational marijuana for adults 21 years of age or older. According to Uniform Crime Reporting data for Denver, there has been a 10.1% decrease in overall crime and a 5.2% drop in violent crime. The state is estimated to potentially save $12-40 million over the span of a year simply by ending arrests for marijuana possession. The state has collected over 10 million in taxes from retail sales in the first 4 months. The first 40 million of this tax revenue is earmarked for public schools and infrastructure. Governor of Colorado John Hickenlooper said, “While the rest of the country’s economy is slowly picking back up, we’re thriving here in Colorado.”

To play devil’s advocate, here is a list of concerns for the legalization of Cannabis: Addictive Nature, Altered perception, “Gateway” Drug Status, Increase of DUI in being stoned, Increased chance of Children usage, and damage to the brain. According to nyln.org, “One study has shown that blood vessels in the brain of a marijuana smoker experience restricted flow, which can continue even after a month of abstinence.

“In the discussion of legalizing marijuana, a useful analogy can be made to gambling. MacCoun & Reuter (2001) conclude that making the government a beneficiary of legal gambling has encouraged the government to promote gambling, overlooking it as a problem behavior. They point out that “the moral debasement of state government is a phenomenon that only a few academics and preachers bemoan.” Legalized gambling has not reduced illegal gambling in the United States; rather, it has increased it. This is particularly evident in sports gambling, most of which is illegal. Legal gambling is taxed and regulated and illegal gambling is not. Legal gambling sets the stage for illegal gambling just the way legal marijuana would set the stage for illegal marijuana trafficking. The gambling precedent suggests strongly that illegal drug suppliers would thrive by selling more potent marijuana products outside of the legal channels that would be taxed and otherwise restricted. If marijuana were legalized, the only way to eliminate its illegal trade, which is modest in comparison to that of cocaine, would be to sell marijuana untaxed and unregulated to any willing buyer.“ (cnbc.com/id/36267223)

Screenshot (6)

So Back to Bernie Sanders and how my topic relates to the election. With 4 candidates left in the presidential race, let me show you where each representative stands on the issue.

First off is Ted Cruz.  According to mpp.org, Ted Cruz said he is opposed to the legalization of marijuana for adult use, but he believes states should be able to have the right to establish their own policies. In April 2016, he said he would not attempt to roll back the laws approved in states like Colorado and Washington. “Drug addiction shouldn’t be criminalized. We need to treat it appropriately.” The Washington Post, May 4, 2015

Democrat Hillary Clinton says she supports the legal access to medical marijuana and more research into the medical benefits of marijuana. In 2014, when asked about the legalization laws approved in Colorado and Washington, she said “states are the laboratories of democracy” and that she wants to see what happens in those states prior to taking a position in support or opposition to such laws. “I think what the states are doing right now needs to be supported, and I absolutely support all the states that are moving toward medical marijuana, moving toward — absolutely — legalizing it for recreational use. …What I’ve said is let’s take it off the what’s called Schedule I and put it on a lower schedule so that we can actually do research about it. There’s some great evidence about what marijuana can do for people who are in cancer treatment, who have other kind of chronic diseases, who are suffering from intense pain. There’s great, great anecdotal evidence but I want us to start doing the research.” Jimmy Kimmel Live, March 24, 2016

Republican candidate Donald Trump says he supports legal access to medical marijuana, and he believes states should be able to set their own marijuana policies with regard to adult use. “We’re losing badly the war on drugs, you have to legalize drugs to win that war. You have to take the profit away from these drug czars.”-Miami Herald “In terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state. … Marijuana is such a big thing. I think medical should happen — right? Don’t we agree? I think so. And then I really believe we should leave it up to the states.” Washington Post, October 29, 2015

Democrat Bernie Sanders has proposed legislation that would remove marijuana from the federal drug schedule and ensure states are allowed to regulate it similarly to how they are allowed to regulate alcohol; i.e. Bill H.R. 1013. “Someone in the United States is arrested every minute on marijuana charges. Too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because they have criminal records as a result of marijuana use. That’s wrong. That has got to change.”

 

Here are some Drug War statistics, brought to you by http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics.

  • Number of Americans incarcerated in 2014 in federal, state and local prisons and jails: 2,224,400 or 1 in every 111 adults, the highest incarceration rate in the world.
  • Number of arrests in 2014 in the U.S. for drug law violations: 1,561,231
  • Number of these arrests that were for possession only: 1,297,384 (83 percent)
  • Number of arrests in 2014 in the U.S. for marijuana law violations: 700,993
  • Number of these arrests that were for possession only: 619,809 (88 percent)
  • Proportion of people incarcerated for a drug offense in state prison who are black or Latino, although these groups use and sell drugs at similar rates as whites: 57 percent
  • Number of states that have decriminalized marijuana by eliminating criminal penalties for simple possession of small amounts for personal use: 20

The most necessary step in the debate over the legalization of marijuana is to completely decriminalize the use of marijuana. As Bernie Sanders pointed out, way too many lives are being ruined or brought to a standstill because of legal actions against them due to the violations of marijuana laws. There is more than enough evidence to support the good effects that legalizing cannabis would have both on the judicial system but also on the US economy. Although the cons are relevant enough to raise apprehension, the Pros are so strong that it’s worth risking the concerns to have the potential payout (both figuratively and literally). By passing bill h.r. 1013 making marijuana regulated like alcohol, you are able to regulate the trafficking of drugs in the US and you already have set guidelines on how to do it. End the prohibition. Save lives.

 

 

[1]  How well does the title provocatively focus the reader’s attention, as well as the lede? Is it thoughtful, creative, clever? Does it lead the reader into the text and provide some insight into the issue?

I added the title to my opening photo to try and “flare” it up. I feel like it is thoughtful, creative and clever but I suppose that’s a biased opinion.

[2]  How well does the introductory section of the article invite the reader into the paper, as well as offer up exigency?  How does it locate a problem or controversy within a context that provides background and rationale?

The opening paragraph was a Segway on how I stumbled upon the topic I chose. It adds some insight into the background of the legalization of cannabis.

[3] How well does the writer offer up a strong ‘idea’ that requires analysis to support and evolve it, as well as offers some point about the significance of evidence that would not have been immediately obvious to readers.?

The writer does a good job initially bringing about an idea that has to be supported. Both sides of the argument are covered but in the end its clear where the writer stands on the argument and has enough evidence to back up the position.

[4] How well does the writer show clarity of thought; uniqueness of presentation; evidence of style; and historicized topics?

Even though there are arguments for both sides of the topic, the writer does a good job making a final conclusion to clarify his stance. The writer added some of his own touch by creating timelines for both the federal and state levels of cannabis Laws.

[5]  How well does the writer recognize that a NYTs Magazine audience will challenge ideas that are overgeneralized or underdeveloped or poorly explained? (that is, did the writer avoid cliché and vagueness or address points/issues readers are likely to have?)  How well did the writer decide about how to develop, sequence, and organize material?

The writer did a good job touching on multiple issues that surround the subject while still holding a strong and clear position.

[6]  How well does the writer research a controversy, develop a persuasive stance, utilize research about the topic,  and join the ‘debate’ by making an argument of importance?

Again, both sides of the topic were covered and through extensive research made clear throughout the paper, a persuasive stance was developed.

[7]  How well does the writer meet or exceed research expectations of assignment requirements (6 appropriate secondary sources, 1 visual source, (or more) and primary research? ).

The writer exceeded the research expectation by putting mutlitple visual sources from the secondary sources into the paper. Primary research is evident throughout the paper.

[8]  How well does the writer integrate secondary and primary sources (that support and complicate the topic) effectively into the text, introducing and contextualizing them, and “conversing” (i.e. no drop-quoting) in ways that deepen and complicate the analysis?

Especially during the presidential campaign portion of the article you can see signs of well integrated secondary and primary sources. No matter the stance of the candidate opinions were both quoted and analyzed.

[9 How well does the writer persuade an audience to consider claims made from a particular position of authority on which you have built your research?  How strong and effective is the writer’s use of rhetorical tools (ethos, logos, pathos)?

The writer does a good job showing statistics and facts to support the claim made. Even though this wasn’t necessarily written as a persuasive piece, it still has enough backbone to persuade the reader into following the intended target.

[10] How well does the writer select appropriate, interesting, revealing visual?  Has the writer placed a visual strategically in the essay and provided relevant commentary on and/or analysis of them?  Do the visuals contribute to the essay in meaningful ways (i.e. would the essay be affected if the writer took the visual away)?

               When I wrote about the timelines of the federal and state legalization of cannabis, I built a visual timeline making it easier to both follow and understand how critical changes in the government were. I broke down each presidential candidates stance on the topic but in order to simplify it even further I constructed a chart diagramming exactly which side the candidate supported.  

[11] How well does the writer show development of final article using various drafts, in-class peer editing and workshops, and/or teacher comments?

The most helpful workshop for me was the Scramble workshop. After my partner put my paper back in order based on the flow she felt worked best I was able to recognize a different order than I initially had in my earlier drafts.

[12]  How well does the writer use hyperlinks—are they effective/appropriate?

The writer used two hyperlinks rather effectively. Whenever information was directly brought from an outside source the source could be found by using a hyperlink.

[13]  How well did the writer edit for grammar, style, and usage effectively? Does the writer’s attention to sentence level issues help him/her establish authority or credibility on the issue?

With a lack of poor grammar there is an apparent proofreading portion to the process. It is credible.

 

MW 2:15 CLASS

Final Draft

Leave a comment

The key to winning an argument is persuasion. When an argument starts, persuasion stops and winning doesn’t become the priority because without persuasion, arguments are now merely just fights. Throughout the five sources I used, Consumer Reports’ “You Are What They Eat”, Food Inc., “Organic Illusions,” “Frontline, PBS.org” and “Resisting Food Safety,” each writer intentionally uses both statistics and facts in order to persuade the readers’ opinion of either agreeing with or disapproving the customs of the food industry. Even though these articles have different stances and opinions, the writers each are affiliated with a similar theme, how food safety is related to issues of power. Whether it be for/against big businesses, or for/against organic substances relative to conventional foods, the writer’s purposes are all comparative.

In the documentary Food Inc., experts argue for the transparency of the industrial food system, both questioning the efficiency of the system as a whole and the governments’ relation to big businesses involved. Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation”, said “They don’t want you to know what you’re eating because if you knew then you may not want to eat it.” With recent outbreaks of E. coli across the nation one can only question how the FDA is handling the cleanliness and preparedness of our foods and the states at which the facilities are being maintained. Tyson, the biggest meat packer in the world controlling 28% of the worlds beef, 18% of the worlds pork, and 25% of the worlds chicken, declined to speak in the documentary when approached by Food Inc.. Food inspections across the nation have dropped from 50,000 to 9,674 from 1974 to 2006. In the decade of 1996-2006, there were a reported 20 E. Coli outbreaks, most of which due to poor facility maintenance for livestock. Carole Moreson, a chicken farmer for Perdue says that now-a-days it isn’t even farming anymore, but inhumane mass production as most chickens never even see sunlight. Due to the decline of tobacco, most farmers turned to the chicken industry but have to borrow nearly $500,000 from big businesses in order to run roughly 2 chicken coupes. This causes farmers to become in debt and have to do whatever the companies ask of them or else they will go bankrupt and lose everything. This causes a shift of power from the farmer to the company. Corruption at its finest.

In Consumer Reports’ “You Are What They Eat,” the writer argues that what our animals are being fed directly affects us as the consumer. With corn being the main ingredient in animal feed, there has been a large increase of Food Borne Illnesses in the last decade. According to Food Inc., 30% of the United States land base is used for corn and 90% of supermarket products would contain either corn or soybean. With an average of 47,000 products in the commonplace supermarket, that means roughly 42,300 of the products would contain Corn or Soy Bean. Larry Johnson, an expert from the Center for Corn Research, says that “so much of our corn is just a clever manipulation of corn, no matter how you write it.” “There is considerable potential for contaminated animal feed or animal-feed ingredients to move between and within countries.” (You are What They Eat) “Cows can take this grass which we can’t digest, very few creatures can digest, and turn it into fuel.” (Michael Pollan, Frontline) Experts suggest that if you cut down the highly concentrated amounts of corn and add in grass-feeding, the risk for food borne illnesses would decrease remarkably. We feed them corn because it’s the cheapest, most convenient thing we can give them. Corn is incredibly cheap; it costs about $2.25 for a bushel of corn, which is about 50 pounds. It actually costs less to buy than it costs to grow (Frontline, PBS.org). The average farmer could process 200 bushels of corn a day.

In the Nestle article, the writer states that there are large amounts of government oversight within the food industry. As cleverly represented in the Food Inc. documentary through the use of flashcards, we see that high end food industry employees of the big businesses have found a home in government with positions that make, enforce, and legislate different laws pertaining to the rules and regulations of the FDA. Some may call this strategy but most would call it corrupt. FDA stands for Food and Drug Administration but after reading these articles and watching videos and documentaries it seems more likely that the FDA is more focused on the Drug portion than the Food section. For example, there used to be over 1,000 slaughterhouses in America; however, today there are 13. One may look at this and say good, now they can regulate the facilities better because there are a lesser amount to check. But the sad reality is that because they don’t properly regulate these 13 slaughterhouses then some acts become more careless and if some sort of illness or disease falls upon the slaughterhouse, 1/13th of the nation’s meats are put at risk of becoming sickly. Change begins with the oversight of the FDA’s slaughterhouse protocol and to maintain a strong code of ethics in the higher office. Humans are vulnerable to pathogens, drugs, and contaminants consumed by the animals we eat so why would we allow some things to skate by when it could put not only others but yourself at risk.

My call to action after reading this unit is that the change needs to begin in government. Put people in power that are rightfully deserving and can uphold the strong code of ethics and morals designed by this nation’s leaders. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, you just need to simply learn how to steer what’s already shaped for you. Make it so carrots are better priced than a bag of chips or a box of candy. The only thing that should be processed is what’s occurring in our government. It’s not that there is not enough food, it’s that the scales of nutritional value are unbalanced.

 

Works Cited:

“You Are What They Eat.” Consumer Reports, January 2005.

 

Hurst, Blake. “Organic Illusions.” The American, October 1, 2012.

 

Nestle, Marion. Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.

 

Pollan, Michael. “Modern Meat”. Frontline, September 24, 2013.

 

 

  • Describe your understanding of the “writer’s project”? How were you able to identify the texts’ “project”? Discuss your own “project” as it pertains to this particular blog article.
    1. Finding the “writer’s project” is vital when it comes to understanding the Point of View of a source. From the examples we went over in class I was able to derive the writers’ project from studying the points presented and by trying to analyze the given arguments to find what side they were trying to argue. In the Kanye West music video we watched in class, by studying the imagery used in the video and breaking down the lyrics I was able to figure out what points Kanye was trying to convey. My personal “project” with this blog article was to bring to light the issues within the food industry today presented by the 5 sources I used in my paper.
  • Describe your completion of the “Sorting it Out” workshop? What sections were most beneficial to the development of your ideas—and why? Discuss how this workshop assisted in development of draft and/or assignment organization?
    1. I did this workshop on my own outside of class due to missing class for personal reasons. Doing it on my own was definitely far more difficult because I didn’t really understand from the get-go what I was supposed to be synthesizing. I had to “Sort it out” on how to do a Sorting it out workshop. Along with this blog article I turned in, these were possibly two of the worst pieces I’ve put my name on when it comes to writing so all I can do for the deration of this class is prioritize better and prepare. I imagine that these workshops would have made it much easier to do the paper as the point was to break down what we were researching and organizing our thoughts.
  • Describe your understanding of synthesis. What is its importance? How did it manifest within your drafts and/or final blog article? Provide examples.
    1. The definition from Meriam-Webster for the term synthesis is a complex whole formed by combining. Synthesizing takes a grouping of sources and meshes them into one. By synthesizing, my paper would be more reliable and add both my thoughts and opinions along with those of the outside sources that I referenced.
  • Describe your own accomplishment (ofsomething) during this unit.
    1. I’d like to admit that I accomplished something but this paper represented the worst side of my academia as I did everything last minute. I suppose that something I accomplished was turning in each draft. The highest grade I feel that I deserve is a C.
  • Discuss the evolution of the main idea. Where did you begin (include the example) and show its progress (again, include example) throughout the drafting/revision process. To what do you attribute its evolution?
    1. When I first began this project I was deep into the documentary Food Inc., and wanted to base my project merely off of that. However, we needed to add 4 other sources, three of which were given, as we dove deeper into this unit. If I rewrote this paper I would lay out each source and go through and physically highlight the main arguments from each so I could have a better understanding of what the Writers Project for each source. When I was done my main idea surrounded the food borne illnesses surrounding corn fed animals.
  • Discuss what organizational strategies you implemented in order to structure this blog article. Provide examples from a section(s) of an earlier draft and other excerpts in later drafts to support your response.
    1. The main organizational strategies I used were simply going article to article and adding synthesis for their arguments and my thoughts. There was no direct strategies other than making sure I covered all of the bases.
  • Provide an example of the final draft where you successfully synthesize 3 texts in a concise and direct manner. Discuss how this evolved throughout the drafting process for you.
  • Discuss the evolution of the ‘lede’ in earlier drafts and its final version (provide examples of each): where did you begin, what feedback did you receive, and how did it end up in final blog article?
    1. My lede didn’t change from my earlier drafts to the final version. I didn’t receive any feedback from the teacher but I also didn’t reach out to the writing center like I usually would.
  • Name a specific writing/researching/revision goal you’d like to work on during the next Unit projects.
    1. I would like to give my actual all for the next units. This unit is a terrible representation of my work ethic and my work attitude. However, it still happened so I need to step up and take responsibility for my lack of trying on this section. My goals for the next three units is to fully take all the necessary steps provided by Professor Barone so that I can be successful in my writing and to gain an understanding and further my knowledge on the topics discussed.
Uncategorized

1000 word rough draft

Leave a comment

The key to winning an argument is persuasion. When an argument starts, persuasion stops and winning doesn’t become the priority because without persuasion, arguments are now merely just fights. Throughout the five sources I used, Consumer Reports’ “You Are What They Eat”, Food Inc., “Organic Illusions,” “Frontline, PBS.org” and “Resisting Food Safety,” each writer intentionally uses both statistics and facts in order to persuade the readers’ opinion of either agreeing with or disapproving the customs of the food industry. Even though these articles have different stances and opinions, the writers each are affiliated with a similar theme, how food safety is related to issues of power. Whether it be for/against big businesses, or for/against organic substances relative to conventional foods, the writer’s purposes are all comparative.

In the documentary Food Inc., experts argue for the transparency of the industrial food system, both questioning the efficiency of the system as a whole and the governments’ relation to big businesses involved. Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation”, said “They don’t want you to know what you’re eating because if you knew then you may not want to eat it.” With recent outbreaks of E. coli across the nation one can only question how the FDA is handling the cleanliness and preparedness of our foods and the states at which the facilities are being maintained. Tyson, the biggest meat packer in the world controlling 28% of the worlds beef, 18% of the worlds pork, and 25% of the worlds chicken, declined to speak in the documentary when approached by Food Inc.. Food inspections across the nation have dropped from 50,000 to 9,674 from 1974 to 2006. In the decade of 1996-2006, there were a reported 20 E. Coli outbreaks, most of which due to poor facility maintenance for livestock. Carole Moreson, a chicken farmer for Perdue says that now-a-days it isn’t even farming anymore, but inhumane mass production as most chickens never even see sunlight. Due to the decline of tobacco, most farmers turned to the chicken industry but have to borrow nearly $500,000 from big businesses in order to run roughly 2 chicken coupes. This causes farmers to become in debt and have to do whatever the companies ask of them or else they will go bankrupt and lose everything. This causes a shift of power from the farmer to the company. Corruption at its finest.

In Consumer Reports’ “You Are What They Eat,” the writer argues that what our animals are being fed directly affects us as the consumer. With corn being the main ingredient in animal feed, there has been a large increase of Food Borne Illnesses in the last decade. According to Food Inc., 30% of the United States land base is used for corn and 90% of supermarket products would contain either corn or soybean. With an average of 47,000 products in the commonplace supermarket, that means roughly 42,300 of the products would contain Corn or Soy Bean. Larry Johnson, an expert from the Center for Corn Research, says that “so much of our corn is just a clever manipulation of corn, no matter how you write it.” “There is considerable potential for contaminated animal feed or animal-feed ingredients to move between and within countries.” (You are What They Eat) “Cows can take this grass which we can’t digest, very few creatures can digest, and turn it into fuel.” (Michael Pollan, Frontline) Experts suggest that if you cut down the highly concentrated amounts of corn and add in grass-feeding, the risk for food borne illnesses would decrease remarkably. We feed them corn because it’s the cheapest, most convenient thing we can give them. Corn is incredibly cheap; it costs about $2.25 for a bushel of corn, which is about 50 pounds. It actually costs less to buy than it costs to grow (Frontline, PBS.org). The average farmer could process 200 bushels of corn a day.

In the Nestle article, the writer states that there are large amounts of government oversight within the food industry. As cleverly represented in the Food Inc. documentary through the use of flashcards, we see that high end food industry employees of the big businesses have found a home in government with positions that make, enforce, and legislate different laws pertaining to the rules and regulations of the FDA. Some may call this strategy but most would call it corrupt. FDA stands for Food and Drug Administration but after reading these articles and watching videos and documentaries it seems more likely that the FDA is more focused on the Drug portion than the Food section. For example, there used to be over 1,000 slaughterhouses in America; however, today there are 13. One may look at this and say good, now they can regulate the facilities better because there are a lesser amount to check. But the sad reality is that because they don’t properly regulate these 13 slaughterhouses then some acts become more careless and if some sort of illness or disease falls upon the slaughterhouse, 1/13th of the nation’s meats are put at risk of becoming sickly. Change begins with the oversight of the FDA’s slaughterhouse protocol and to maintain a strong code of ethics in the higher office. Humans are vulnerable to pathogens, drugs, and contaminants consumed by the animals we eat so why would we allow some things to skate by when it could put not only others but yourself at risk.

My call to action after reading this unit is that the change needs to begin in government. Put people in power that are rightfully deserving and can uphold the strong code of ethics and morals designed by this nation’s leaders. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, you just need to simply learn how to steer what’s already shaped for you. Make it so carrots are better priced than a bag of chips or a box of candy. The only thing that should be processed is what’s occurring in our government. It’s not that there is not enough food, it’s that the scales of nutritional value are unbalanced. Again, the key isn’t to argue, its to persuade the necessary parties involved.