The Story of the Seed

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Food, Inc. Looking at Both Sides

Ryann Smith
Mr.Bursch
Honors Biology period 4
20 November 2012

Healthy Foods

Many Americans nowadays eat unhealthy foods like candy, chips, and fast food. This unhealthy food causes many problems for children and adults alike. An example of this problem is type 2 diabetes. Many people ask the question should access to healthy food be a right for everyone? The answer is yes, healthy food should be a right for everyone. The rationales for this are: it will help lower the rate of obesity in the United States (US) and since healthy food is much more expensive than unhealthy food.
Today in America 35.7 percent (%) of adults and 16.9% of children between the ages of 2 and 19 are obese (news.yahoo.com). Obesity raises the risk of many diseases from Diabetes type 2 to endometrial cancer (news.yahoo.com). If having access to healthy food was a right then not as many people would become obese and acquire these diseases. By 2030 every state in the US will reach at least 44% and some will even reach 60% (news.yahoo.com). The new generation of children will be taught bad eating habits and become obese unless someone steps in the help solve the problem. As people can see by this rationale access to healthy food should be a right for everyone.
The cost of organic healthy food is a problem for some people who want to eat healthier. If people had access to organic products then the cost of these products will go down because of how many people buying them. Most people do not know that if the start buying more organic products then the price will start to dwindle and eventually become around the same price of genetically enhanced/engineered products. When these organic products reach the same price as genetically enhanced/engineered products the price will eventually stop dropping because of all of the human labor required to harvest the organic products.
Although the right to access healthy food would help decrease the rate obesity in the US’s population others may argue that they may not like the healthy foods. For example, many people in the United States do not like brussel sprouts and would not buy them if they had a chance to. Having this right does not mean that everyone will buy organic foods if it is instituted. However, decreasing the rate of obese will help create a healthier society for the next generation of children to live in. it is more important to have a the rate of obesity decrease than not eating organic products because people do not like them. Therefore, people should have a right to access healthy foods.
Access to healthy foods should be a right for everyone in the United States because it will help lower the rate of obesity in the country and healthy food is much more expensive than unhealthy foods.

Bibliography
Begley, Sharon. "Fat and Getting Fatter: U.S. Obesity Rates to Soar by 2030." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 18 Sept. 2012. Web. 21 Nov. 2012. <http://news.yahoo.com/fat-getting-fatter-u-obesity-rates-soar-2030-140534331.html>.

Show Your Food Some Gratitude

Emily Solano
Bursch
Honors Biology 1- Period 4
21 November 2012

Dear Turkey,

Thank you so much for being there for me at Thanksgiving. The feast would not be complete-just like my life- without you. Thank you for the calcium that makes my bones strong. I may be short my bones will not break thanks to you and the milk I drink to wash you down. I will ever be in debt to the service you pay me. Thank you so much. I can not say that enough. OMG. Thank you for providing potassium for my body! Without it, what would my heart, brain, kidneys, the tissue of my muscles, and other organs do to maintain themselves?? How would my metabolism increase? Oh, what would I do? Thank you so much for giving me the mineral that helps those functions. Thank you for providing protein so I am able to build and repair body tissues. I love my muscles very much and without protein I would not be able to maintain them. The horror to live without them is unimaginable. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Turkey. I love you and the wonders you do for my body.

Sincerely ,

Emily Solano

Food Inc Essay

Henry Tran
Honors Biology 1 Period 4
Bursch
November 21, 2012
Should Access to Healthy Food be a Right for Everyone?
To anyone in the right mind with a heart and soul, the answer to whether healthy food being a right for everyone or not would be a hands-down yes. Obviously, to them, it makes complete sense to do so. However, there are some who would have a different answer, especially food companies and restaurant chains.
To these major business companies, it would be that much harder to provide food at a lower price, where everyone can afford it. Everyone has a different budget, some less than others. If the companies are forced to keep some foods to an extremely low price where everyone can afford it, it will be severely difficult to maintain a profit. If they don’t make a profit, then they will eventually be forced to shut down, and therefore many companies will not last very long.
In contrast, the major effect of this proposition would be the change in eating habits. Many people would resort to the healthy food instead of the cheap junk food. They will do this because if they eat too much junk food, they will get sick and have to buy expensive medicine. This is why people would eat healthy food over junk food. Overall, having healthy food at a price where everyone can afford it is more cost-efficient in the long run.
Also, eating healthy foods will increase one’s health. If healthy foods are accessible to everyone, then everyone can live healthier. Living healthier is a good thing because an individual who is healthy will have a higher life expectancy, and they will live longer.
The positive effects of making healthy foods accessible to everyone is much greater than the negative effects. People will be able to eat healthier and not spend any extra money.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Looking at Both Sides of an Issue

Emily Solano
Bursch
Honors Biology 1-Period 4
19 November 2012

     Animals have every right to a good living quality. The animals that feed us need a higher standard than the one they have now. Imagine hundreds of animals dying each day and the cause is solely their living conditions. Now think how we eat their neighbors who survived but just barely. We need to help change the way these animals are raised.

   The quality in which animals live now is disgusting. Hundreds of chickens are stuffed into one house, cattle live in one corral ankle deep in their own waste. Cows deserve to be in an open pasture with massive space to graze. When cooped up together it makes it difficult to move or get away from each other. If one has a disease in a matter of time everyone in that space will have it too. This is all because of the closeness of the animals. The disease is caused by this unsanitary living environment and then spread by it too.

   Chickens are given a steroid to speed up their process of growth. It takes half the time for them to mature and become fatter than a chicken without this chemical. However, the steroids have no affect on the chickens bones. The skeletal structure grows at the rate it was naturally supposed to and therefore is not able to sustain the hefty weight of the chicken. Because of this they can not take more than a few steps before falling to the ground. For some this means death. Not every chicken lands with their feet tucked under their stomach. Dozens of chickens fall dead each day because they fell on their necks and they broke.
They lie there knowing it is the end and they can do nothing about it.

   The costs to keep these animals in acceptable living conditions is expensive. Some people might say too expensive. But the diseases these animals can develop and pass on will be devastating to humans if continue to let animals become ill. The diseases are caused by their living environment and the diet they eat. Cattle are meant to graze, not to eat the corn they are fed. The corn causes digestive problems and leads to a sickness called E Coli. This illness is deadly to the human body. With it being spread through our food industry, many different meat products will have to be recalled because of the disease.

  Animals have the right to a higher living standard because of the service they give to us. They live to sustain humans but half of them hold diseases because we are too lazy to fix the problem at the root. We are the cause of the diseases we blame on the animals. We must fix this before it is too late.