Are You Contributing To a Healthy or Unhealthy World?

Nicole Wojnowski

Professor Melissa Santos

ENG102-037

30 March 2018

                                      Are You Contributing To a Healthy or Unhealthy World?

In Charleston Newspapers article “EARTH TALK; Eating Less Meat Good for Environment?”, the article discusses the decisions that we make by consuming meat. The sad statistics in these articles really open the readers’ mind to thinking about how our food decisions can impact more than just ourselves. As said in the article, too much consumption of meat is “linked to increasing rates of heart disease, cancer, and obesity.” Due to the constant demand of meats, the livestock is often crammed in small areas, causing around the same amount of sewage as a small city. Special antibiotics are used to keep the animals “healthy”. “Healthy” meaning, that’s what people believe it does because it can bulk them up and keep them alive until they are ready to be processed for slaughter. People don’t realize that what these animals are consuming also affects us too.

Like in Braiding Sweetgrass and Eating the Landscape, the article “Healthy Futures Farm’s Core Mission: Making Healthy, Local Produce Affordable and Accessible makes similar connections between the stories. The owners of Healthy Futures Farm’s, Averyl and Nathan Andrade discuss their various ways in which they use their crops to assist others. For example, they enjoy going to Buttonwood Park Zoo, which they are able to donate their fresh produce to the animals to enjoy. Taking from the article, “…all just working together, trading products, bringing people back together…Knowing who your neighbors are.” is a great connection between the stories because they discuss how people wouldn’t even need to use money if we all chipped in and did our part to support each other.

“…farming out of season is becoming more and more popular all the time.” (Fukuoka 86) A quote from Masanobu Fukuoka's novel The One-Straw Revolution goes along with our discussion on Monday about how the demand for all of these fruits and veggies that we want don’t actually grow in the season and we demand them because we like them and want them, not because that is what comes natural to nature. Just like how the meat is taking a toll on nature, so is the production and selling of fruits off-season.

I feel that what I have discussed in my blogpost can open peoples’ eyes to the decisions that they make and may make them think twice the next time they go to the grocery store or get food. Are you contributing to a negative environment unknowingly? What choices could you make to create a healthy environment?