Today American’s are getting fatter and fatter. The statistics are staggering. According to Michael Pollan in his book Omnivore’s Dilemma, “Three of every five Americans are overweight; one of every five is obese.”(Pollan, 108) These statistics are shocking. One need only look around at the local mall to get some sense of just how out of control our nation’s weight problem has become. Almost every day there is an article that reflects the problems associated with the rise in obesity. Obesity is costing our country millions of dollars every year in increased medical expenses caused by a higher incidence of preventable medical conditions, such as Type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease, not to mention the increased risk for complications associated with medical procedures performed on the obese patient. Looking further, there are accommodations that may need to be made for an obese customer on a plane or bus.
Who pays when an extra seat is required to accommodate an obese customer, the airline or the consumer? What role does the government play in all this? Shouldn’t they bear some responsibility in the increasing rate of obesity? After all, the over production of corn in this country has lead the government to look for some place to unload it. Where is it all going? It is going in our food and making American’s fat. Obesity in America is being driven by how our government has chosen to deal with an overabundance of corn.
America’s increase in the rate of obesity can be traced to the 1970’s. It is no coincidence that this is the same time period when Butz began to dismantle the policies that protected our farmers from overproduction. (Pollan, 102) In the past, loans were provided to keep too much corn from hitting the market. Without that control, farmers have few choices when it comes to trying to increase their economic return. Farmers try to increase their yield which means there is more corn on the market which leads to a drop in prices per bushel. As the price drops due to over production, the only way a farmer can increase their income from corn is to increase production. The vicious circle it creates leads to a need to find more ways to utilize corn. Thanks to good old American ingenuity and resourcefulness, big business has found multiple ways to use this excess corn, but it is at the expense of our people’s health. Sure, Americans don’t have to eat so much.
The Essay on The Increasing Childhood Obesity In America
The Increasing Childhood Obesity in America The pervasiveness of child obesity in America has become an epidemic that has been impacting the quality of life lead by the children in our nation. Currently, an estimated 15 percent of children and adolescents are overweight and of this number, 30.5 percent are obese or as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) prefers to refer to as ...
We could simply choose to eat less, but that’s not what is happening. People are consuming an average of 200 more calories per day according to Pollan (2006), and there has not been any increase in activity to help burn those calories. Through legislation, our government has created a surplus of corn and now it is complaining about the obesity epidemic it has created. Some might argue that this is simply letting free enterprise dictate the market but, it’s not that simple. Instead of creating ways to help the farmer control the amount of corn hitting the market each harvest as they did before the 1970s, they are subsidizing the farmers by paying them money to offset the low price of their over produced corn.
Calorie dense convenience foods pack a lot of calories into fast, easy foods that are unfortunately not nutritionally dense. This provides the farmer with a market for all that excess corn, but puts our lowest socioeconomic group at highest risk for the expanding waistline. Instead of sinking important monies into making healthy and nutritionally sound foods more affordable, our government continues to perpetuate a system of over production that only worsens the problem. This surplus of corn insures that the cheapest and most abundant food available will drive our obesity rate higher as time goes on. It’s true that corn is not the only cheap calorie source available in the grocery and fast food market, fat adds plenty to that equation as well, however; corn is by far the cheapest when you look at the energy yield per acre of land.(Pollan 108) When you factor in the string of bills that support the over production of corn and corn products and no such support for other foods, it’s easy to see how the presence of corn in its many forms has found its way into almost every food we consume.
The Dissertation on Corn Farm Farmers System Shariah
SHARIAH FINANCIAL SYSTEM: AN ALTERNATIVE LIFELINE FORTHE LESS-PRIVILEGED FARMERS? It is already indubitable that most farmers are trapped in the vicious labyrinth of perpetual poverty. Due to their depressed conditions, many of them consider farming as just a hand-to-mouth existence, or perhaps their decisions to stay on and take farming as a livelihood could also mean a number of things - ...
It used to be our excess could only go towards feeding pigs and making whiskey, but now we even found a way to feed it to our cattle, thus infusing our meat supply with corn. The cattle’s digestive system was not designed to handle this type of food but thanks to technology and antibiotics we force their systems to utilize this new diet so that we can use more corn. This process has definitely made our meat supply more affordable, but again, at what cost? The meat is laden with antibiotics that help to build a host of resistant bacteria which in time will lead not only to more overweight Americans but infections that no longer respond to antibiotics.
The Government’s backing of programs that support a surplus of corn is driving our national epidemic of obesity. That same ingenuity that gave us so many unhealthy uses for corn should be able to help us change direction and start finding healthier uses for corn surplus. Further, perhaps it’s time to look back at how we used to subsidize farmers. Controlling the surplus of corn was a better way to assist the farmer in earning a living as a food provider. Certainly we can find a way to return to a more controlled crop of corn, thus negating the need to find things to do with so much corn. Instead of putting so much money into finding ways to use the excess corn we could find ways to provide more affordable nutritious foods.
Perhaps it’s time to subsidize the fresh fruits and vegetable farmers of our nation. Finally, if there was less corn on the market, maybe we could return to a time where cattle ate a diet of natural grasses, thus eliminating the need for so many antibiotics. Certainly we don’t want to throw away all the advancements and uses for corn but, it would seem if we want to slow the course of obesity, we need to look at something that is more middle ground and not so corn infused.
The Essay on Survival Time Without Food
An average, but healthy, person is capable of surviving without food for forty or more days, however, that same person would not be able to survive for more than three to five days without water. It is very important to keep water going in the human body because of a couple of reasons. The body is primarily composed of water and the balance of the water in a human is critical. Once the water level ...
