Food Choices Chapter Summaries

Give a summary of the book/documentary. The documentary Diet for a New America explores and exposes all of the negative health and environmental consequences of the meat production-and-consumption cycle, as well as the cruel treatment and suffering of animals. (Robbins, Diet For A New America) The beginning point that was made in the documentary is that we should learn to be true to ourselves and our inner voice and be conscious of the food we eat. If we would listen to our inner voice we have the power to heal ourselves, to heal the environment and our planet.

Most Americans are aware of global warming, cancer, heart disease and the fact that the earth’s supply of good water is diminishing. In an effort to conserve our planet people drive hybrid cars, recycle, and use low energy light bulbs and appliances, which is great. However, most Americans are unaware and uninformed about how meat effects global warming, our health, and how much of our planet’s water and resources meat production consumes. Meat contributes to global warming, increases risk for cancer, causes heart disease and uses a tremendous amount of resources to produce, therefore people need to be informed about what they are eating through food labeling and Surgeon General warnings, as well as

Chapter six talks about the influences of northern and southern ethnic groups on American foods and foods habits. The introduction of these foods and its contact with other culture’s food is what is considered to be the characteristics of the American diet. The author also shed light on where certain immigrants were coming from providing evidence that most of the northern Europe countries were countries of the Great Britain, Ireland, and France. The southern European countries, on the other hand, included Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Kittler et al. Provide compelling evidence to support their argument though food preparation may differ in the countries, the ingredients and influences tend to be the same. For instances in Great Britain and Ireland

In the article published on The New York Times, "The Myth of Sustainable Meat," by James E. McWilliams, a history professor who specializes in environmental history at Texas State University--San Marcos, tries to prove the alternatives to factory farms that practice natural ways of raising animals for food production isn’t such a satisfying alternative than what we perceive it to be (par. 2). McWilliams presents excellent examples and reasons to support his thesis. He appropriately used important societal issues in regards to animal production to broaden his audience and provide strong support towards his claim. Even though McWilliams provides strong reasons to establish his claim, the use of expert opinions and dishonest statistics and facts

You may not know this, but what you choose to eat has a huge impact on the environment. There are many stances for these view points, but two people have very different opinions from one another. Jonathon Safron Foer is a strong advocate to not eat factory farmed meat in his essay “Against Meat”. On the other hand, Christina Serbenz flips a 180 on her view about food in her essay “7 Reasons Why I Refuse to Stop Eating Meat”, she argues that meat is vital for nutrition and adds a huge social benefit. There are many pros and cons according to each author.

There shouldn’t have to be any more deaths from tainted meat. After watching this documentary and now knowing what goes into my food, I said I would never eat meat again and become a vegan, which is exactly what I plan to do. Over 35% of Americans are obese from fast food restaurants, 40% of Americans die from e-coli. It’s plain and simple; if you question it, don’t eat it. For every American who is staring at their cheeseburger or fries right now, ask yourself, is it

“The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000. You willingly feed yourself, your children, your husband/wife every day, food that’s high in cholesterol and saturated fat, it causes heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Food that contains carnitine which converts itself to a heart-damaging compound, hardening the artery and clogging your blood that could deliver a slow and painful death. Not to mention the brutality and abuse on animals, just so their suffered meat can get to your plate. We are not only killing ourselves, we’re also killing the planet.” K, Gunners (2012)

We need to alter the current farming methods to benefits the environment, making eating meat ethical. Industrial farming is the most prevailing way to produce animal products and is where massive animals’ flesh we eat comes from. Prince Charles of Wales in his essay “On the Future of Food” talks about the environmental problems we are facing (222). The pesticides and chemicals involved in the production process polluted the water supply and the nitrogen fertilizer used produced greenhouse gases such as nitrogen and methane, which enhance the global warming. The environmental problem is severe especially in the animal production process: 2,000 gallons water are needed to produce only 1 pound of beef (Prince Charles 225).

The video shows animal agriculture is the most reason of climate change. It is more pollution than industrial fields. However, I suspect some information in the video. For example, Americans consume average 209 pound of meat per year, so it is unbelievable because they count both meat-eaters and no meat-eaters. They calculate that it need 3.7 million acres to plant grass for raising cow, but it is around 20% total land area in the U.S for agriculture. It shows that animal agriculture waste too much water. I do not think they divide exactly climate, environment, and technology for raising animal. If we raise animal outdoor at hot climate, it would be use a lot of water. If we raise animal on mountain with

I have read and seen a lot of things in the past about how food production and more specifically cattle production affects climate change so this did not come as a shock. However the one thing that did shock me in the video is that to lead a healthy lifestyle we should be eating half a pound of meat per week. Once I heard that I spent time thinking about how much meat I really eat on a weekly basis and it is sure more then that.

Diets that focus on animal products, like meat, dairy, and eggs, require disproportionate high amounts of resources like water and land. Additionally, animals produce huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions that are responsible for climate change. Such diets are not great for the environment that surrounds us, but more and more studies also link them to chronic diseases and early deaths. If the way we eat is bad for us and for the environment, we should inform ourselves about the potential impact of changing our diets.

Consumption of meat by humans creates several problems. First and foremost, raising animals for food compromises the environment. For example, it takes a large amount of natural resources to sustain the meat industry. The use of water, land, and food to raise animals for human consumption is not an efficient use of our limited resources. In contrast, it is more efficient to feed humans directly than to use land, food, and water to feed animals to be used as food. There are shortages of fertile land, clean water, and food in several third world countries. Many of these countries’ resources are allocated to produce feed for animals in developed countries around the world. As a result, the citizens of these countries are stricken with water and food shortages, while their crops are feeding cattle from across the globe. However, this problem can be solved by adopting a vegan diet. The vegan diet will allow a more efficient use of resources that in turn can be used to feed starving men, women, and children throughout the world. Consequently, more people in the world could be fed if the land used to grow feed for animals was used to grow food for humans.

Since the beginning of time, man has been defined as a carnivore devouring all meets for their cultural, religious and everyday lifestyles. But now, people are starting to realize that eating meat is also harmful to the environment and our health. It has been said that becoming a vegetarian would help prevent cruelty to animals and reduce the impact on the environment. An environmental scientist named Thomas Robbins said “we can eliminate world hunger out of society if people were to maintain a vegetarian diet.” Producing and manufacturing beef tend to leave our environment to suffer from air and water pollution. Animals tend to take up a lot of resources from farms and countryside’s such as water, top soil, and fossil fuels. As our

Global warming is one of the biggest problems the world faces today. The production of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases is affecting our atmosphere and human life. Society has been told that fossil fuels and auto emission needs to stop but there is one industry that “makes a 40% greater contribution to global warming than all transportation in the world combined; it is the number one cause of climate change” (Foer 43) and that is Animal agriculture. Over the years the meat industry has been unconcerned about the deterioration of our environment and has taken upon corrupt practices. The industry only focuses on their profits instead of the unhygienic condition animals live in and the effect diseases can have on human health and our environment.

It is now two years after I graduated high school and I am questioning the world more now than ever. I have heard of new studies showing that eating meat is not just harming innocent animals. It 's harming humans and the environment as a whole. Over the past year, I have been trying to reduce my footprint on this earth. After hearing a few shocking facts, it was enough to push me to the next step to becoming a vegetarian. Since at the moment I am going off a few facts, I wanted to dig further and find the truth. I want to know is the meat industry harming our environment? I am ready to uncover the hidden negativities of this industry and find out if the good outweighs the bad.