Food Inc. How is our food produced?

Stay safe, think before you eat.

Although this looks delicious, it can be deadly.

When I was a kid Mc Donald's was the best place to eat, food was cheap, delicious, and the food was in my hands really fast. I have recently watched a documentary called Food Inc. This documentary was about the food industries in the U.S. and how these industries produce products that are not very safe for us. These fast food restaurants got so powerful and rich because they found faster and better ways to prepare their food.

McDonalds was the first fast food company to implement the assembling line in to their restaurants, by doing this they were able to maximize profit and at the same time reduce cost.As McDonalds grew larger it demanded the beef producers to produce more meat, eventually these beef corporation grew so large that only four of such corporation now control over 80% of the beef production in this country.nalthough these companies make millions of dollars each year, they still find the need to find the need to do fake advertising.

Many people argue that the names of brands and their labels are misleading because most of the times the labels show the image of beutiful farms with the sunset in the background with the animals playing in the fields, this however is not true because all of these animals are raised in factories and never get to see the daylight. In the 1950's chickens were raised in farms, and grew naturally however now chikens are genetically changed to make their breast bigger, their overall weight is also much higher and they grow quicker.

The power of these corporations has grown so much that now the farmers growing the food are not allow to talk about the process of how their animals grow. These farmers have contracts with the large meat corporations and are restricted from showing their farms to any media. This contracts are so powerful that farmers can't tell people the truth, for sample like farmers having to feed their cows corn instead of  grass.

In the U.S. 30% of the land is used to grow corn, this is due because the government pays farmers to grow as much corn as they can. Beef suppliers are very happy about farmers growing a lot of corn because they can used it to feed their animals for a cheap price. Corn is a very powerful crop in our country, some products that are made of corn are Ketchup, Cheese, and Twinkies. Many of these products are not made of corn but they do use some sort of corn product.Cattle has evolved to eat grass but now farmers are feeding them corn, this makes them grow faster and also they get E. Coli. E. Coli is a very dangerous virus that can kill you. Is it a good idea to eat contaminated meat.

In 2001 Kevin Kowalcyk ate a ground beef contaminated with E.Coli, many say that the government is responsible for Kevin's death because it took the inspector 26 days to do anything about this problem. Away to solve this E.Coli problem is to use ammonia, this chemical is capable of killing bacteria and E.Coli being one of those bacteria.

Why is fast food so cheap in the U.S. Compared to healthy organic food. This is because farmers grow corn for cheap, big beef companies buy this corn for low prices, the corn they buy is use to feed animals, these animals grow faster and bigger, they get killed and the meat is sold to fast food chain restaurants for cheap prizes. In the other hand, organic vegetables take longer to produce and there fore they cost much more to the consumer. This is the main reason for obesity in this country, families don't have time or money to make healthy food, because of this they make the decision to go to fast food places where the food is cheaper but also unhealthy.

According to the USDA, farms that produce organic products are insanitary, but these farms are not unsanitary because they don't add any supplements to their products. Many of the farms get their workers from unducomanted workers because they can paid these workers lower amount of money. Industrial food can be consider dishonest or fake because the companies do not tell about the environmental, societal and health damages food corporation are protected by laws. These laws are not in the best interest of you and your family because they only care about their profit and these laws are only restricting you from telling anything that can damage the profit of a company. The only ones that benefit from this laws are big companies like McDonalds.

McDonalds can be a very unhealthy place to eat. They control the food industry, and the government is not only allowing it but they are helping them by paying farmers to grow cheap corn. These corn is then used to feed the cattle that McDonalds uses for their patties. People and farmers can do the difference because if we as people demand companies to stop the production of patties with contaminated meat, if we do so the companies will stop because they only care about the profit. From now on you may want to think about what you eat, how is made and the problems it can bring to you on the future.

ABUSING CHICKENS WE EAT

This is one of the most powerful chicken farm corporations.

     Perdue is an agribusiness in Salisburg, Maryland. With annual sales of over $6 billion this company stands at the 3rd largest chicken producer in the U.S. This company produces 59,320,000 pounds of ready to cook chicken. In the article Abusing Chickens We Eat, by Nicholas Kristof, published by the New York Times he author states that aperture is abusing the chickens, and it is also using fake advertising to sell their products.

     Through out the article the author used many examples to support his argument. One example was how he explIn why companies lie in their labels. For example the labels always show beutiful chicken shower in real life these chickens are nothing like the ones in the label.
In the movie Food Inc. they interviewed many farmers however only one was willing to show how the chickens actually grow. Chickens are being genetically inhance to grow larger chest, grow bigger and grow faster.

This is how chickens look in chicken farms.

     In the 1900's a book named The Jungle by Upton Siclair, a novel about the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in the U.S. Sinclair spent 7 weeks working undercover in a meat plant to see how the daily days of workers where. President Theodore Roosevelt read this book and choose to take actions about it. He sent investigators to these slaughter houses to and when the report came back it said the same things like Sinclair. The Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906.
    

 By reading the article titled, "Abusing Chickens We Eat" by Nicholas Kristof, it opened my eyes to the reality or food corporations and how they treat their products and employees. In reality, it's not only chickens being abused it's also other animals like cattle. Also, many of the "farmers" say its not really farming anymore. It's just mass production. I learned that the corporations make the farmers upgrade their chicken stockyards all the time making the farmers go into debt. And if the farmers wouldn't upgrade, they would run the enormous risk of losing their contract with the corporation. By learning all this new information on food corporations, I have decided I would cut down on my meat and poultry consumption.

What Happened to The 43?

The Ayotzinapa school is a public school located in Inguala Guerrero, where only sons of poor citizens or farmers are allowed to attend. The goal of this school is to train future teachers. In this school are also thought several values that many poor children are lack the opportunity to learn.

Many believe that these students were abducted because they were protesting against the mayor's (Jose Luis  Abarca) wife (Maria De Los Angeles Pineda), and because the students were protesting the mayor decided to take such actions. Another idea going around is that of the cartels tuning these cities gave the order to make a point. This idea could be more then likely the problem because many of the government officials get to their positions with drug cartel money and there for to repay they must obey the orders from the drug leaders.

The Mexican citizens demand for answer as well as the parents. They argue that their protest around the country will not stop until their sons and appear alive

Has The U.S. Moved On From Racism?

I believe the U.S. Is not colorblind due to the fact that in airports people are racially categorized

• Jocelyn: Republicans congress are against undocumented immigrants, people often times are incarcerated for minor offenses (vagrancy or homelessness).
• Lauryn: Very few families discuss racism. Only 37% of families talk openly about race, which makes racial discrimination unaccountable to millenniums 
• Ruben: Only 44% of African American families own homes versus 73% of white families. If the U.S. was truly colorblind society those percentages would be more equal.
• African American die four years earlier than whites. White people live in safer environments as  for African people they live in dangerous communities.
• Mariela: African American how low paying jobs, they live in dangerous neighborhoods where gangs play a big role in their lives.

How Tycoons Became Rich

Thought out history the world has seen many tycoons. Some of his tycoons are J. P. Morgan, Bill Gates, John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carneige. What allowed tycoons to succeed in their business was that they tried to control business by getting rid of their competition.

Tycoons are persistent they never give up. Source

Tycoons had a mind for business. Tycoons attracted talented workers by offering great pay and benefits, searched for new ideas, and how to make products cheaper. Also they would try to control business by using vertical integration. For example Carneige bought all the coal fields. Because of this tycoons were able to establish their prices which most of the times those prices go up.

This is the game monopoly which is based on tycoons. Source

For these tycoons being rich was a sign from good, for them it was like if god like them better, they believed in social Darwin. Darwism is survival of he fittest. Rich people are good, poor people are bad.

Passive House Poem

Carbon dioxide, my plants can't keep up
The heat in my house is going up,
Passive houses the solution are,
Rich people don't cry because your property value aint going down.

With these new designs we will survive
The heat will go down
Like "frozen" my house will feel
Please LET IT GO!!! It's all about the passive houses.

During the summer the light hits the roof. During the winters the
Light hits the windows which cool down the house. Source

This is a passive house. Source

The Industrial Revoulution

The Erie Canal during the Industrial Revolution was
used to transport goods and people across the country. Source

The Erie Canal was a man-made waterway, which helped to transport products and people from one place to another. The Erie Cana originally ran about 363 miles from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie. This way of transportation allowed people to get to other parts of the country faster and also the goods for marchets were fresh because it arrived at the destination faster.

Although there were many factor that contributed to the U.S. becoming the number one economy of the world, it was the free enterprise and entrepreneurs that contributed the most to the success of the country. Free Enterprise is the Fredom of Private business to operate completively for profit. Thanks to this many people were more interested in creating their own companies. For people who did not want to go throught the hassle of starting a company they chose to become entrepeneurs. Entrepeneurs are risk takers who invest their money in new indstries. Due to the entrepeneurs and free enterprise it was easier for people to start their own industries and also more profitabl for theme. Entrepeneurs were also more interested in investing money on new ideas.   

This picture shows how an entrepeneur has to be prepare to
take risk that can affect the rest of their life. Source

The single most important resource the U.S. had to help it become the a work-wide industrial power was natural resources. The U.S. had an extensive amount of natural resources like Oil, Iron, Wood, Rivers Gold, etc. Because the U.S. had all these resources we started to export many of these resources to other countries.

                                              
                   

Summary of Tech Reading

     In the informative article title new Science and Life Interacted During the American Industrial Revolution compiled by Danny Blas, he explains how technology changed the way we live because of the inventions like elevators and steel. 

 Technology changed the way people moved around because trains, cars, and subways were invented. Steel allowed the production of these inventios.

     Technology changed the way we read and learned because news paper were more affordable therefor more people were able to read about the things going on in the world.

A passive house is a house that is specially design to maximaze the heat gain during winter and minimize the heat loss during the winter. Also it is specially design to maintain a cool temperature in the house.

     To certify a house as a green passive house, first it most meet 3 bench marks. First it has to achieve a certain level of airtightness. Second it has to passed two test which are to show that the house is energy efficient. Engineers use fog machines and infrared rays to locate air leaks in the house.

     Some residents living in older, more expensive houses would disagree with this new house style because they believe that these new houses don't go or complement their houses, there for their propertie values could decrease.

Levi Kinsel, A Navy Sailor

Jesus Nava
Mr. Blas
Honors U.S. History
10/17/14
Levy Kinsel's Letters

During World War II American troops had different ways of communicating with their love one back home. By reading the letters that Levi D. Kinsel wrote to his wife, I was able to determine three qualities of Levi Kinsel. The three qualities that I chose for Levi were Observant, Honest and Loving. By reading the letters from Levi I believe that these three qualities that I chose represent Levi the most.

Through out the letters that Levi wrote to Rose I was able to see that Levi pays attention to small details. In the first letter Levi wrote on January 23, 193 " We landed here yesterday at 4:15, that would be 12:15 in S.D. the time has change another hr. we are about 100 miles east of Miami and Florida." This quote shows how Levi pays attention to time and what the time would in S.D. Another letter that shows how Levi is very observant is the letter #36 from April 13,1944 Levi wrote " I was just over to the barber  for a hair cut and I guess I got hair down my back by the way it itches... They are dirty cold as well as full of drunks and crying kids." This quote shows how Levi pays attention to small detail like the hairs down his back and the train full of drunks and crying kids. After reading the quotes we can see that Levi is the type of person who pays close attention to small details.

During the time Levi was in the Navy he wrote multiple letters to Rose Kinsel, that show how he is a loving person.  In the first letter that Levi send Rose he said "How about sending me a small picture of yourself. I got me a free fold and it has a place for one in it. Love Levi" This sentence shows how Levi cares about his wife and he misses her. Another quote that shows how Levi is caring is in the third letter "... goodnight and lots of love from me to you." This quote shows how Levi misses Rose and he trully loves and cares for her. The quotes show how Levi is loving because he misses his wife and hopes that they can reunite soon.

The last characteristic that I chose was Honest. This a a characteristic that represents Levi because in every letter he always tell Rose the truth. For example in the letter #14 Levi says " Well I don't know much to write about. Everyday here is the same, nothing much happens. The chow is so bad I can hardly eat it... it takes an hour to get a milk shake.'' This quote shows how Levi is honest with Rose, he doesn't try to make his stories more interesting. Another quote that shows that Levy is honest  is ''I drew $347 today regular pay and $29.90 claim on transportation.'' This quote shows how Levi is honest to his wife because he tells her how much money he took of the account and how much he spent. These last two quotes show that Levi is honest to his wife and other people.
 
After reading all the letters that Levi sent to his wife Rose we can see that he is an Observant, Honest and Loving person. He always paid attention to small details. Levi also was very honest, he would always tell Rose everything he did. Lastly Levi always told Rose that he misses her and loves her.