School Lunch and Organic Foods

Organic Consumers Association has introduced a campaign to reduce children’s exposure to pesticides, toxins, and junk foods. The campaign includes four “Appetite For A Change” goals: stop spraying pesticides on school property; kick junk foods out of school; start converting school lunches to healthier options using local grown, organic foods; and, teach kids about healthy food choices and sustainable agriculture. Find out more information about the campaign on their website by clicking here.

The Organic Consumers Association has a leaflet for the Appetite For A Change program and encourage people to circulate their leaflet which can be found by clicking here.


The association aims to draw attention to the problems that face children “a literal epidemic of food allergies, obesity, asthma, premature onset of puberty, childhood cancer, and diet-related behavioral and learning problems(Organic Consumers Association).”

This topic has become more interesting to me since reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma for another class. The book fits in with this class and article because it is an example of one form of media trying to heighten awareness of the social and environmental issues that result from the changing ways in which meat is produced in mass quantities and the effect that it has on our health, especially the health of children as the “Appetite For A Change” campaign addresses. It is another form of an informational campaign to change behaviors and promote eating organic and practicing environmentally friendly practices.

I never realized the need for organic and locally grown food until reading this book. After reading it, I have decided to try and eat more organic and locally grown food myself, I therefore think it is only fair that we try and protect the health of our children by doing the same and introducing organic food into school lunches.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma addresses the issue of the mass amounts of commodity corn that the government has to find uses for; it is now fed to animals, such as the cow, which are traditionally grass-fed animals and are not able to process the grain. We need to ask the question, “What’s really going on?”  These animals are fed corn which their bodies can’t handle processing and they get sick. They are then given antibiotics to fight the illnesses. Now, we are eating corn and antibiotics. Furthermore, the cows just don’t grow fast enough on their own, so they are given growth hormones to increase their weight to get them to slaughter faster. So now we are eating corn, antibiotics, and growth hormones.


Michael Pollan describes the CAFO's (concentrated animal feeding operations) where cows are fattened up and prepared for slaughter. The cows have no room and stand around all day in their own filth. They do not clean the cows before they slaughter them, so there is a mixture of feces in the meat, which they attempt to clean with bleach, but some particles get through. It was an unsettling description to read and an even more unsettling picture.



Paying attention to the way food is grown and processed needs to be a priority of every person in this country. In the book, the author Michael Pollan states that “three of every five Americans are overweight; one in every five is obese (102)”. But the reason why this is so important to children and introducing organic foods to school lunch menus is because the Journal of the American Medical Association predicts that a child born in 2000 has a one in three chance of developing diabetes (Pollan, 102).

This commodity corn is not edible in its current state by humans so the government has to feed it to animals or process it into other forms. The government has helped turn these mass amounts of commodity corn into high fructose corn syrup, which is found in the majority of foods that children (and adults) eat.  It really is a money-making scheme for the government. The more ways they can use the corn, the more money they make. It is all profit for the government, and all loss for the health of Americans, especially our children.

If school systems start to use locally grown (or raised) animals, they will not only be providing healthier, cleaner meat to the children but supporting the local economy as well. Organic foods will make sure that the steroids, antibiotics, growth hormones, and other unnatural substances that are found in mass produced cattle will not affect the health of the children.

Reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma has changed the way I eat, and I am positive it will change the way you think about the foods you eat as well. It is a book that's worth your time reading. It will help us all answer the question, “What’s really going on?”

　

Source:

Organic Consumers Association. Appetite For A Change. Retrieved from http://www.organicconsumers.org/afc.cfm

Pollan, Michael. (2006). The Omnivore's Dilemma. London, England: Penguin Books.