Is Our Food Truly Healthier?
Written by Christian Rutten, Former Student on Thursday, January 15, 2015
When the 2014 school year started, some changes in our government caused changes behind the scenes at SHS. One large change was in the food sold here on campus. All schools must meet the new regulations created by the USDA’s program called Smart Snacks in Schools.
The program is fuelled by Michelle Obama’s passion for healthy eating and living, but is she truly doing it the right way? The program's goals are to illuminate “empty calories;" calories that are in the food we eat, but are not needed. Empty calories can be in junk foods like soda and chips.
My problem with this new program is that it eliminates the natural foods and opens the door to processed and chemically made foods that are made with splenda instead of sugar.
As a society we talk about spikes in diseases we have never seen, or the all-time high of cancer rates, yet we don’t realize that at the same time the amount of processed/chemically made foods along with GMOs are also rising. Coincidence? I think not.
Betty Ford, director of the Panther Pause says, “the only thing we really carry that is truly healthy is the Naked Juice and water after these new regulations took place.” Although the foods meet strict requirements, the government is giving the impression that every food product sold at school is now healthy. Wrong.
The food industry suffers from massive recalls year in and year out, but if things were grown organically or even with the modified systems from what we currently have, we wouldn’t have most of these issues. Food such as Slim-Jims or the pepperoni on the school pizza all are a part of the issue. We are telling young kids that foods must meet strict requirements in order to enter our food system, so when they are at school and buy lunch they purchase certain products.
These changes are bad, not only for our future, but for the future of the industry. America produces 32 percent of the world’s corn. Yes, we have brought it upon ourselves to “feed the world.” Many things are made from corn, such as diapers and coke. The problem is most of these crops are GMOs planted with a non-till method. Now I understand this probably means nothing to you, but let me tell you how this is important; these crops are usually grown with “Round-up Ready seeds.” What this means is that the crop has a modified DNA sequence that allows them to be sprayed with a common pesticide. “Round-Up” kills insects, weeds and allows the crop to continue growing, but us eating pesticides that kill on a regular basis is only part of the problem .
The other problem with these seeds is that they are planted using a non-till method, on the same pastures growing the same crop year after year. Tilling meaning that the ground is not stirred up before the seeds are planted, an important part to agriculture, but its more work to the farmer, so to minimize farmer work times they use non-till seeds.
Most small and organic farmers rotate crops to replenish the soil and control the pests. Without tilling the soil, you are not mixing up the land, and without crop rotation, you are taking vital nutrients out of the ground. With the mixture of both, the most fertile ground in America will be stripped of important nutrients in order to grow crops. We will go into a national crisis and will become a nation can not generate enough food to feed it's people.
My point is that we don’t realize as students what we truly eat. I think if more young people knew what they were eating, then they would think twice about what products they buy, not just the ones that are labeled healthy by the government. The government works hand-in-hand with the top food companies in order to benefit off of each other’s riches. We spend so much time a year buying pesticides for our lawns, mowing and manicuring. If we as a society stripped up our grass and put the same amount of time into a self-sustainable garden, we wouldn't have to rely on a un-sustainable agriculture run by people who don’t truly understand the way things grow.
Next time you're in the store, don’t just reach for the cheapest item. If we start buying organic and truly healthy foods, the large food industry will also invest in it, yet consumers still reach for the chips and chicken nuggets over organic chicken and fruit.
