The Real Cost of Cheap Food

Hidden Behind your Tax Dollar

 

Cheap food has lots of calories and taste. But it  comes at a high price. The real cost of cheap food lies hidden behind your tax dollar, environmental damage and rising healthcare costs.

The Government and Cheap Food

 

The government gives your money to farmers to grow crops like gmo corn and soy (genetically modified with other plant, animal or virus organisms).

 

Unsustainable farming practices pollute the land and water with toxic chemicals, while patented genetic engineering technology distorts the very fabric of nature’s existence, its DNA, creating a worldwide explosion of agricultural mayhem and destruction.

 

Many are still unaware that conventional farming and the animal meat industry is taking a terrible toll on the planet.

 

Millions continue to eat cheap, chemical-laden fast food, with a fantasy of farm animals happily frolicking across a pasture or heading for the coop to roost.

 

Old McDonald’s farm exists only on the organic farm,

 

where farmers grow food that sustains the land without the use of toxic pesticides, hormones, gmo’s and excessive fossil fuels.

Contaminated and Unnatural

 

Animals grown conventionally live in prison-like conditions that are contaminated and unnatural, making excessive antibiotic use mandatory, even for healthy animals.

 

Over 70% of antibiotics are used in meat production which is passed on to the unsuspecting consumer.

 

This has created a frightening scenario for the human population: antibiotic resistance to deadly strains of bacteria.

 

CAFO manure waste contributes to air pollution and workers and neighboring residents have higher incidences of asthma, nausea and headaches.

Dead Zones

 

Due to nearby pig farms, my neighbors back in the Midwest were unable to hang dry their laundry when southern winds blew each summer. Agricultural run-off has produced toxic runoff to such extent many lakes and streams in the Midwest are unfit for fishing or swimming.

 

This run-off has produced dead zones around the world. These areas cannot support adequate oxygen due to decomposing algae blooms created by industrial fertilizer. All animal life must leave the area, those who can’t escape like snails, starfish and crabs die. As of 2014, the existing dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is twice the size of the state of Delaware.

Meat Packing Protection by the Government

 

In the US, the meat packing industry is shrouded by the protection of the government where it has become a crime to

 

“blow the whistle”

 

on inhumane animal practices. Cruelty to animals in confined area feeding operations (CAFOS) is appalling.

 

For instance, pigs subjected to overcrowded enclosures have their tails removed to prevent other pigs from biting them off. Chickens packed in crates so small they are unable to lift their wings. Cattle are shipped to feedlots to live out their last months of life, packed in such a manner they are forced to stand in their own manure, often seen as hills from a distance.

 

(I experienced this shocking vision after waking one evening from a stench that could only be described as,

“The smell of death.”

I had to see it for myself. I couldn’t believe what my senses were attempting to communicate to my brain.)

From the crippling healthcare crisis to the devastation of natural resources, our rapacious drive to eat meat and “save money” on cheap food is bankrupting the earth.

 

When you defend your desire to eat cheap meat or cheap produce, consider these facts:

 

• Tax payer subsidies fund cheap agriculture and unhealthy meat

• Ecological damage

• Healthcare bills

 

The cost of cheap food once you factor in the real costs looks a lot pricier.

 

If you don’t change your eating habits, reality in the end forces that change on you.

 

Rethink Your Shopping Habits to Protect Your Family's Health

 

• Buy organic as much as your circumstances allow 

• Shop around for the best deals- See Eden’s 5 Secrets to Shopping Smart on Healthy Food  

• Eat lower on the food chain (beans, rice, nuts, seeds, produce, etc.)

• Go vegetarian several days or more a week- Check out Eden’s Bean Wraps & Minnestrone Soup Recipes

• Grow your own food

• Eat less meat and more fresh vegetables at each meal

• Shop your local farmer’s market & co-op

• Join a community garden or CSA (community supported agriculture)

• Peruse the food resources below if available in your area

 

 

Change your eating habits, change your life, save your world.

Safe Local Food Sources

Find local farms in the US, Canada & some International Countries

by Eat Wild

 

Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals - 25,000 hand-picked restaurants

by Eat Well Guide

 

Sources

Organic vs. Conventional

by Eden's Corner

 

CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories

by CAFOtheBook.org

 

True Cost of So-Called Cheap Food

by Ellen Gustafson

 

5 Secrets to Shopping Smart on Food

by Eden's Corner

 

CAFO Collapse – How Factory Farms Are Failing Fast

by Dr. Mercola

 

Antibiotic Resistance: Implications for Global Health

by The National Academies of Sciences Engineering Medicine

 

Happening Now: Dead Zone in the Gulf 2014

by Ocean Today (NOAA)

 

The Jungle

by Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair’s vivid depiction of the meat packing industry (written in 1906) is even more relevant today as it urges the reader to consider the moral and ethical impact of the meat packing industry not only for the animals, but for the workers as well.