What am I really eating?

Watching Food Inc. directed by Robert Kenner really opened my eyes to what goes in the secret behind the scenes of the food industry in America. It is truly scary to how corrupt these corporations that are running major beef and poultry farms really are. The farmers are no longer actually farming, they are running a factory in which their product (chicken, cows, etc.) are being mass produced and are growing at much faster rates  than a normal cow or chicken would grow. For example, each chicken has to be exactly the same size to satisfy the needs for these corporations. So the chicken farmers have to introduce chemicals to enlarge the chicken breast to make more meat on the bones. Some of these chickens actually die because their breast gets so big compared to the rest of their body that the rest of their undeveloped bones cannot carry the weight. My idea of a chicken farm before watching this film was that each chicken had their own little stall in which they lay eggs. When the filmed the inside of a modern day chicken farm it was eye opening. Thousands of chickens just standing in a large room with barely enough room to breathe. This leaves the door open for diseases to strike.

The meat industry actually had an outbreak of E. coli in their meat because of how badly they treated their cows. Each cow stands in their own feces everyday so when they are brought into the slaughter house they are matted in feces. Then when they get slaughtered some of the feces actually got into the meat. In the result of this a young boy was killed by a strand of E. coli, which could have been completely prevented. These corporations were so corrupt that they knew of this outbreak of E. coli before it went out to the market, but they ignored it so they would not have to make a recall and lose profits. Knowing that these are the type of money hungry people that are controlling what the public eat is terrifying. The normal food industry has become so smelly and nasty that the corporations do not even want the public to know what is going on behind their big factory doors. Not only are the animals being mistreated but the workers are also being extremely mistreated. The workers have to work with feces, blood, dirt, and sharp objects all day and today most of the factory jobs in the meat industry are illegal immigrants. If we do not know how the food we eat is being made than how can we make an accurate decision to eat it or not.

Food Inc. really makes me think that next time I go to a fast food restaurant if I should really be eating this mass produced factory food. Next time i go to work at my local Stop and Shop and look at the chickens i cut behind the deli counter everyday I am going to wonder: How healthy can this mass produced fake chicken really be?

Rage-Filled Little Children

As I was reading "Violent Media is Good for Kids" by Gerard Jones I started to remember my own childhood experiences with violent media. After playing Grand Theft Auto I never felt urges to go steal my parents car and cause havoc across my town, but that's just me. Although I do agree with Gerard and his theory that violent media can be good for kids, it can also be bad for some children under certain circumstances. I also think that the program he started called Power Play is a very good and helpful program. I only wish that when I was a kid there was a program that I could go to and listen to some violent stories of heroes and villains to better myself. I think the concept to master a young child's rage is a good one, because when I was growing up I had a friend who enjoyed killing squirrels and birds with his pellet gun. He could have used this program to help control his rage. After i finished reading this article it reminded me of this video:                            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcqOgnQyXp4

As entertaining as this video may be this is also an example of how violent media could affect children in a negative way. So what Gerard is doing in his program to help kids master their rage is very good for the future.Violence in media is inescapable because violence is one of the main forms of entertainment that people enjoy to watch. Children are bound to see violent images, so introducing violent stories to them and teaching them how to control their inner rage to copy these media images is completely the way to go about it.

Another article that grabbed my attention was "Media violence may be real culprit behind Virginia Tech Tragedy" by Tim Miley because I completely disagree with this idea. We can not blame the media for violent tragedies that occur because without it we would all lose character. The shootings at Virginia Tech was probably just one individual who was not completely sane and decided to act upon the rage that filled his veins. Any other adult at that age could easily control their rage if life seems to be putting them down. So blaming the media for violent tragedies because of one individual seems a little out of whack to me.

In conclusion, through my readings in this chapter I have found that violent media is not only good for kids but it can also be helpful to them. Every child needs a little inner courage by relating to a superhero that might perform some violent acts in his crime fighting. Shielding kids from violent media will only make them soft and by the time they become mature people will be waltzing all over their pride in the real world. Although encouraging violent media may not be the greatest of ideas but to just let a child watch what interests them is only going to benefit his character. The End. ( I did that because there was only 498 words)

Get in Zee Choppa!

What struck me most throughout the readings was an essay "An Immigrant Writes" by Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was nice to see a different side of Arnold other than his juiced up action packed self, and honestly i didn't he had it in him. He writes about how the current Immigration Policy is very weak and a new policy needs to be put in place. I agree with Arnold's point of view that we need to not only strengthen our border patrol, but also show compassion for the immigrant. Everyone travels to America or "the land of opportunity" to better their family and lead a successful life. Our past ancestors did it to better the lives of all the current American citizens and it is very Un-American to deny that to any immigrant currently living in the United States. Arnold's piece struck me because he composed a very impressive way to reform the current immigration policy in my opinion. His idea for strengthening the border to prevent possible terrorist disasters but also showing compassion for the immigrant is a very reasonable way to approach such a controversial issue. This article was a very impressive argumentative essay that really helped me understand the formatting that goes into an argumentative essay.

Another piece that really grabbed my attention was the article "In Praise of Tap Water" that was published in the New York Times newspaper. I just never stopped to really understand the difference between tap water and bottled water and honestly after reading this article I praise tap water. This article brought to my attention how much money my family is spending on bottled water every week. The article states "if you choose to get your recommended eight glasses a day from bottled water, you could spend up to $1,400 annually. The same amount of tap water would cost about 49 cents." This blows my mind because not only does my family probably spend more than this amount annually on bottled water, but we have a perfectly good working water filtering dispenser in our refridgerator. Also, I was unaware of the enviromental effects that the plastic bottles had on our beloved planet. That we use 1.5 million barrels of oil annually to make these bottles is a large amount that could be immensly reduced just by drinking tap water. This article also brought up a good point that was a new idea to me "The more the wealthy opt out of drinking tap water, the less political support there will be for investing in maintaining America's public water supply." This could be a very damaging result to avoiding tap water which is why I am fully supporting the tap movement. This essay was such a powerful argumentative one that it completely changed my mind on bottled vs. tap water until further notice.