And the Corruption Keeps Coming.. and Coming.. and Coming..

If you have time to spare and have an interest in our recent economic meltdown here's an amazing series of investigations by CBS' 60 Minutes.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7390540n&tag=segementExtraScroller%3Bhousing

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7390542n&tag=segementExtraScroller%3Bhousing

What gives me a lot of hope is that this kind of investigating and exposing or undercover information is being done by a mainstream media outlet. Some truly shocking revelations in here and also I'd like to make a point of part 2 where our Department of Justice is lying through their teeth about going after these guys.. if they were going to go after them it would have happened long ago.

Food inc end credits

The end credits of the movie put out a call to action and i agree with John, it seemed kind of dumb they way they said it. They were telling people to only eat organic foods and thats just unrealistic because organic food is twice or three times as expensive and there is no way enough people will be willing to switch to organic only. Also, comparing taking down big food corporations to the tobacco industry is just absurd. Tobacco is actually dangerous to your health while organic foods are just less processed than regular food.

Food and Corprations

Corporations do not care about the food and how healthy they are made or if they are genetically enhanced or not. Monsanto the soy bean company only wanted every farmer to pay for their crops and use their soy beans only. When one or two farmers said no they made it their duty to ruin their lives and get them to use their crops. They make their soy beans the best then make everyone but them, but if someone disagrees they go all out and try to get these farmers to finally buy them. This is more disgusting than watching the pigs and cows being slaughtered. Corporations aonly care about money and they do not care about the lives of others.

What is the American Dream?

I believe that the American Dream is the idea that anyone in
this country, no matter how rich or poor, has a chance to achieve greatness and
success. It is the idea that every race, religion, or social status has equal
chance in climbing the social ladder. Unfortunately, it seems that the American
Dream has become less and less of a reality for the vast majority of Americans.
Now, the American Dream seems like a fantasy to most people who are stuck in
poverty or unable to gain more success due to problems beyond their control. At
one point in this country, the American Dream was a real thing that made people
hope for a better day, and many people were actually able to achieve it. But in
the past couple decades, it has become harder and harder to achieve, and less
and less people seem to believe in it.

Everyone Please Watch This

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TdkNn3Ei-Lg

This goes along with the last post on bullying. So many teenagers take their life every year due to being victims of bullying. I personally think schools need to take more action to prevent bullying and they should have very harsh consequences for those who are caught bullying. To relate this to class it can be related to the media and the pressure on teenagers to be cool and popular. Kids can be so mean and will do anything to be perceived as popular by others. This boy in the video has been bullies since FIRST GRADE and starting cutting himself in second. That is not okay on so many levels. Also, some of the comments I read under the video were still making fun of him. There are so many horrible people in this world and it makes me sick.

Bullying

This is kind of random and doesnt have that much to do with class but I just heard about a freshman high school girl in rochester that killed herself last week because she was being bullied by other girls at school. Things like this sicken me and this is a problem at all high schools. Just because a person acts or dresses differently doesnt mean that other people should make fun of them and doing it to the point of making her kill herself may be saddest thing ive ever heard. Its amazing that there are people in the world that would do that to someone else.

why we should care

On Thursday the question, why should we care that only six or so corporations control the food industry in the United States? At the time I knew I disagreed with the practice but couldn’t quite explain what it was that I disagreed with. Now that I’ve had some time to reflect I think the main reason I am so against the consolidation of the food industry isn’t the questionable food being produced, but the power that these corporations have been given over so many farmers and workers. These corporations have created a monopoly and monopolies always lead to abuse. The documentary we watched showed just how in control of farmers, corporations like Monsanto are. Controlling how they farm, what they farm and who they sell to. There’s no freedom in this industry no room for growth or profits for farmers, just more and more money and control for Monsanto. Any farmer who refuses to do business with Monsanto is left with no other alternative other than finding a different line of work. This monopoly of the market has led to an extortion of American farmers the very people who feed this nation are being pushed around and kept in debt. We have already seen this scenario play out during the industrial revolution of the early 20^th century, where companies gained a complete monopoly of an industry and abused its workers forcing them to work in deplorable conditions knowing they had absolutely no other alternative to make a living. As a nation we insisted on change and demanded some form of regulation to prevent extreme consolidations of power . So why have we allowed it to happen again despite anti trust laws?. I like capitalism; I really believe that the hardest working should be rewarded. However that’s not what going on here at all. Big business and the government are so intertwined that I no longer have any faith in our government to interject when necessary. This country could use another president Teddy Roosevelt, a leader who represents the interests of all Americans and not just corporations. Secondly these corporations have become so powerful that they have become immune to scrutiny or criticism. Any person who dares to question their practices or products is financially destroyed by these corporation’s lawyers who have no qualms about spending millions in legal fees to ensure that they never have to see a courtroom. Who can stand up to them, what farmer has the resources to fight against an injustice when it means millions in legal fees? The mass consolidation of the food industry is wrong for the simple reason that it has centralized too much power and money into too few people’s hands.

Food Inc

I never knew how industrialized farming has become. The only way to have a hope of surviving as a farmer is to take hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. Anyone who tries to stick to the old way of farming animals is much cheaper, but produces animals that stand no chance compared to industrialized animals. These genetically modified animals are so much larger that other farmers must switch to that method if they want any chance of making a living. This is horrible and has to change in the future

More food response

I dont think that we can change the way food companies think by buying more organic projects. Its more expensive for organic foods and even a percent of those are owned by the huge corporations and are not even organic. Not enough people could participate because of the price to make a difference. The one thing the big companies could do that would not be any trouble would be to put all the product information they can on products so people know what their eating.
The easiest solution would be for everyone to be like ghandi and not eat, ever. That would solve all the food problems created by the big companies.

Want to learn more???

i found this website that is an absolute goldmine if your looking for an informational speech that is about any sort of topic that you want. This link in particular i found quite interesting because the lady in it is speaking exactly like the people that she said that she recorded.

http://www.ted.com/talks/anna_deavere_smith_s_american_character.html

There are many other videos that are interesting to watch as well. i am by no means endorsing this i just got bored at 4am while writing a paper, took a break and thought i would share my findings.

I think the state of this nation’s health is deplorable. There is absolutely no excuse for so many children to be so obese so young. A child’s development is the primary job of a parent. They are at complete fault for exposing their children to so many lifelong health issues like diabetes. Ignoring a child’s nutrition during the developing years is neglect, and should be criminal. Our diets matter so much to our health yet the system we have now ignores nutrition completely. Most Americans are walking around dehydrated, vitamin deficient and likely overweight. If we continue to eat this way, society is going to experience a massive health crisis that has already started. Obesity and the resulting heart disease is second biggest killer in this nation. It’s amazing that the two top killers smoking and heart disease are both the result of a person lacking the will power to maintain their bodies, both are easily preventable. It is pathetic, our genes haven’t changed significantly in thousands of years so stop sayings its not your fault. Kids aren’t fat because it’s in their genes their fat because no one’s is giving a shit about their health. If this was an issue of genetics than where are all the obese children prior to the 1990’s? It’s our lifestyle even if some aren’t willing to admit it. If you have a slower metabolism it means you eat less and exercise more than a person with a fast one, you don't consign yourself to a life of poor health and an early death. Anyone who also is interested in the relationship between diet and health should check out the movie FOOD MATTERS on Netflix. It’s definitely biased but a lot can be learned from watching it. Another great documentary available on Netflix is THE FUTURE OF FOOD. It deals more with the issue of genetically modified food, and does a similar to the inclass, exposé on Monsanto Corporation and their treatment of farmers.

Obesity

I think that this country is outrageously fat. The majority
of us are obese and it should change. It is obvious that a really big reason
for this is because fatter food and unhealthier food is much cheaper than
healthy food. I work in a supermarket and I see that the fruits and the
vegetables are much more expensive than chips, pop, and frozen dinners. Organic
foods are the healthiest foods in a supermarket and they also are one of the
most expensive foods. People on a budget will go to Burger King and get
something off the dollar menu and get some fat unhealthy crap and they will not
go to their market to get a fresh apple. There needs to be a change though.
People are too lazy to lose wait and if they exercised a little bit then there
is a chance that they can lower the obesity rate in this country.

Food Inc.

I was disgusted that they showed the ways that they kill
cows, slaughter pigs, and kill chickens. They show the nasty ways that they
make the food that we all eat and they expect us to continue to eat it. People
will eat this food for the rest of their life and I also will continue to eat
this because it is hard to steer away from something that you have eaten your
entire life. The way food is made should be changed to a healthier way and a
less disgusting way. If people knew that their food was made safer and
healthier they probably would not have any problems with eating the meat. It is
just sad and disturbing that they treat animals poorly and without caution and
it does not matter to these companies because they only care about making money.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma looks into the food in America much like Food, Inc. does. My sister has tried to get me to read it before, and after watching the film I think I'll take the bait. Pollan looks into different ways of obtaining food from industrial food, to organic food, to foraged food. I think this book has made a lot of people reconsider eating meat, as it looks into all the corruption in the meet industry. I'll probably read the book over break... who knows, I might come back to school a vegetarian.

More B.S. for the Farm Industry

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/georgia-immigration-law-economy_n_995889.html

A new Georgia immigration law cracks down hard on illegals and those who "knowingly harbor" them making it incredibly more risky to even possibly have an illegal as a worker.

Georgia ranks 6th in the country with 480,000 illegal immigrants estimated to be living there and the vast majority of them work in the farm industry.

What does this mean for the small farmer?

The report estimates that if Georgia farms were forced to install mechanized labor to replace that migrant labor scared away by the law, it would cost the average small farm $1.2 million per year -- a sum that could put most farms out of business -- or $800 million total.

Just stack this right on top of all the other things that small farms have to deal with of which we learned of a few from Food, Inc. This was a Republican pushed bill and how they can say that they're for the small business is beyond me. These costs go directly to the small business farmer.