Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Rise against ag

Why We Need to Rise up Against Industrial Agriculture (Again)
By Will Allen, AlterNet

Upton Sinclair's The Jungle described the most disgusting practices in the preparation, preservation, and canning of rotten meat. His expos helped create the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which came into being to watch over food safety issues. That was a hundred years ago. Our food supply is now worse than ever, filled with pesticides and pharmaceuticals that are both unnecessary and which are radically harming our ability to survive in an increasingly fragile planet.

As many people know-or at least suspect-the FDA does not do much to protect us from hidden dangers in our food supply. It exists to protect large businesses, large-scale farmers, and corporations that produce various chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plays a similar role, as recent reports document.

When Sinclair wrote the above description, most cows, pigs, and chickens were raised on pastures. Consequently, most animals arrived at the meat packers in a healthy state. That is definitely not the case today. Read More

This article claims that our food supply is poisoned in the United States and it is because producers have been tricked into thinking they should make their operations efficient. If someone wants to raise organic food, I think that is just fine, however, to insult the rest of agriculture by saying we poison food and torture animals is ridiculous. Our life span has never been longer and our food supply has never been safer.

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