Organic vs. Non-organic Food Essay Example for Free

Organic vs. Non-organic Food Essay Bottom line, going green can cultivate envy. The public is constantly bombarded with the idea that organic products are better. Perhaps this is true, but maybe it is brilliant marketing simply selling a status symbol. Envy can come from a neighbor’s luscious, organically grown front yard to the hybrid vehicle a co-worker drives, to the organic foods that consumers in a higher financial echelon seem to be able to only afford. Is this envy justifiable or is the notion of organics and its superiority a tactic of propaganda to boost the already $30-plus billion industry even higher, according to Farm and Dairy’s April, 2012 article â€Å"Organic Food Sales†? Although proponents of organic food insist it is healthier than conventional food, non-organic foods are extremely comparable to its organic counterpart, possibly even more necessary. The United States has evolved into a powerful nation; one that boasts of freedoms, luxuries and an overabundance of practically everything. The United States is also a country which has a population that grows greater and greater each year. Reasons including the number of births outnumbering the number of deaths, as well as the number of immigrants coming to live the â€Å"American Dream. † According to the Census Bureau End-of-2011 estimate, â€Å"the United States will enter 2012 with a population of roughly 312. 8 million people† (Schlesinger, 2011, para, 1). This statistic takes into account one birth approximately every 8 seconds, one death every 12 seconds as well as one new migrant entering the country approximately every 46 seconds. As cited by Schlesinger (2011), this ends up with a population increase of over two million in 2012. This is a staggering number and would only increase over time. In his article â€Å"Point: Industrial Agriculture has Improved Farming for Hundreds of Years,† George Wright (2011) explains how the use of biotechnology and techniques such as caging animals used to increase the profits of agricultural industry is not a contemporary idea. Wright (2011, para. 7) states how â€Å"the use of biotechnology to produce food has been around for over 8000 years. † He gives examples such as enzymes being used to make foods like baked goods and dairy products. Wright also asserts that â€Å"biotechnology is expected to help agriculture by improving quality, nutrition, safety and the processing of raw crops,† (Wright, 2011, para. 7). Biotechnology is not a process that is new to the agriculture industry. Finally, Wright’s article (2011, para. 12) concludes that â€Å"with the world’s population at six billion and heading higher, there is no practical alternative to ‘industrial agriculture’. † He also points out that â€Å"agricultural innovations from industries such as biotechnology are advancing agricultural production,† (Wright, 2011, para. 13). In addition, Avery’s article â€Å"‘Frontline’ Perpetuates Pesticide Myths† (1993), Avert adds that â€Å"it is believed that if the world converts to organic systems of farming, by 2050 this system of farming will not be able to supply enough food for the population and will be responsible for massive amounts of deaths due to starvation. Another organic misnomer claims that organic livestock and plants are free from chemicals and unnecessary medications, unlike their non-organic counterparts. According to Nancy Sprague’s 2011 article, â€Å"Counterpoint: Organic Food is Unnecessary the Current Food Supply is Safe†, there are a myths about organic food that are debunked. She discusses how organic foods are actually prepared and while comparing and contrasting it to the process non-organic foods go through prior to arriving at the grocery shelves. When discussing about the use (or lack thereof) of pesticides, Sprague (2011, para. 4) notes that â€Å"organic farmers can use pesticides from an approved list,† which contradicts the consumer’s belief that organic foods have not come into contact with any pesticides. Sprague goes further to state the toxins that the organic industry supposedly takes pride into avoiding are contaminants that actually cannot be avoided. Nitrates, chemicals and antibiotics are now found naturally within the environment due to â€Å"broad contamination of the earth’s natural resources† (Sprague, 2011, para. 4). The organic industry also asserts that the levels of hormones in non-organic meats are extremely high and in-turn dangerous to the consumers’ health. In fact, in Lester Aldrich’s (2006) article, â€Å"Consumers Eat Up Organic Beef Despite Costs, Unproven Benefits†, he finds quite the opposite conclusion. Aldrich discusses the results of a study by Gary Smith, professor of meat sciences at the Center for Red Meat Safety. This study analyzed and compared the levels of hormones found in two-3 ounce steaks, one each from an organic animal and one from a non-organic animal. The results were shocking. Smith’s compare/contrast analysis showed that there was an almost incomprehensible difference (on a nanogram scale) between the hormone levels from both the organic and non-organic samples,† (Aldrich, 2006, para. 29). Aldrich (2006) then compared these results to the levels of these same hormones to a typical birth control pill that is voluntarily consumed. The results showed â€Å"the average birth-control pill provides 35,000 nanograms of estrogen daily† whereas â€Å"a non-pregnant woman produces about 480,000 nanograms of estrogen, 240,000 nanograms of testosterone and 10. 1 million nanograms of progesterone daily,† (Aldrich, 2006, para. 30). The comparison is astounding and should put any worries about added hormones in our food to rest. Prior to pasteurization of food, people would die young due to food-borne illnesses. Avery (2002) opens his article â€Å"The Hidden Dangers In Organic Food† with â€Å"Products most people think are purer than other foods are making people seriously ill. † Avery’s (2002) article mentions how the invention of the refrigerator as well as simple procedures such as food refrigeration and washing ones hands before eating or making food would eventually keep food-borne illness to a minimum in the United States, although those individuals who were quite ill or weak would die if exposed to food-borne bacteria. Unfortunately, with all the claims of health, organic food is becoming more notorious for being served on a plate with food-borne illnesses such as salmonella, and now more recently, E. coli. Avery (2002, para. 1) cites the U. S. Centers for Disease Control stating â€Å"people who eat organic and natural foods are eight times likely as the rest of the population to be attacked by a deadly new strain of E. coli bacteria,† salmonella or fungus. According to Avery (2002), USDA offered organic famers a method that did not require either pesticides or pasteurization to protect the crops; irradiation. This process used low levels of gamma radiation to kill bacteria while maintaining the freshness of the food. Unfortunately, organic farmers were outraged and more than 200,000 protesters opposed the idea therefore the USDA removed this process from the final organic food standard (Avery, 2002). This has not been beneficial for public safety, as cited in Sprague’s (2011) where she points out that there have been several infections caused by E. coli in the United States during 2009 alone. Organic farming does have one huge positive aspect: it strives for self-sustainability and leaves a small carbon footprint in the environment. With that said, organic farms, regardless of whether or not its food can be proven to be healthier than conventional food, requires a much larger area of land mass to produce the same amount of food than that of a conventional farm. According to Avery (2002), â€Å"agriculture already takes up 36 percent of the world’s land surface. † Avery (2002) translates this to mean that by year 2050, short of a worldwide cataclysm, the world will need 2. 5 times more food output than what is needed today. Wilcox (2011, para. 26) states in her article â€Å"Mythbusting 101: Organic Farming Conventional Agriculture† that until organic farming can contend with the output of conventional farming due to space needed without the ecological costs involved, the need for more space will be severely detrimental to the environment. † Organic farms help the environment on small, local levels. Unfortunately they do not produce the same amount of food that a conventional farm can; between 20%-50% below what a conventional farm of the same size will produce (Wilcox, 2011). Wilcox (2011) also emphasizes that with more advanced technology, organic farming may eventually be able to keep up with conventional food production, however, if more areas of the planet become transformed into organic farmland in the meantime, the planet’s natural habitats will begin to quickly deplete. Conventionally farmed foods and organic foods both have positive and negative aspects to their individual philosophies. Organic farming does not necessarily produce healthier food. Hormone levels in organic and non-organic foods are extremely similar and the lack of pesticides in organic food contributes to a higher frequency of food-borne illnesses. As much as this is true, the organic farm leaves a smaller carbon footprint than a conventional farm, which, in the long run will allow for the environment to sustain itself and be able to continue producing more food. With that being said, when going to the store to buy food, the consumer should make the conscious choice to purchase organic foods when it is affordable, in order to support and promote self-sustainable/organic farming. If the choice is made to buy conventional foods, the consumer should not feel guilty or worried the food is substandard to organic. There should be confidence knowing that USDA regulations are being followed by conventional farms to produce the highest quality food possible. ? References Aldrich, L. (2006, July 12). Consumers eat up organic beef despite costs, unproven benefits. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from htttp://search. proquest. com. proxy. devry. edu/business/docprintview/398944062/abstract/137 Avery, D. T. (1993, Apr 01). Frontline perpetuates pesticide myths. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com. proxy. devry. edu/business/docprintview/398370529/Record/1371 Avery, D. T. (2002, June 25). The hidden dangers in organic food. Retrieved from http://www. cgfi. org/2002/06/the-hidden-dangers-in-organic-food/ Sprague, N. (2011). Counterpoint: Organic food is unnecessary the current food supply is safe. Points Of View: Organic Food, 3. Retrieved from http://search. ebscohost. com/login. aspx? direct=tryedb=pwhAN=43286301site=pov-line Schlesinger, R. (2011, Dec 30). U. S.population 2012: nearly 313 million people. U. S. News and World Report, Retrieved from http://www. usnews. com/opinion/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2011/12/30/us-population-2012-nearly-313-million-people Wilcox, C. (2011, July 18). Mythbusting 101: organic farming conventional agriculture. Scientific American, Retrieved from http://blogs. scientificamerican. com/science-sushi/2011/07/18/mythbusting-101-organic-farming-conventional-agriculture/ Wright, G. (2011). Point: Industrial agriculture has improved farming for hundreds of years. Points Of View: Factory Farming, 2.

Comparing the Daily Lives of African American Women in the 1940s and To

Comparing the Daily Lives of African American Women in the 1940s and Today For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in America, Black women were an after-thought in our nation's history. They were the mammies and maids, the cooks and caregivers, the universal shoulder to cry on in times of trouble. Often overlooked and undervalued, Black women were just ... there. African American women have come a long way. In the 1940s, women were treated as second-class citizens and Blacks faced discrimination everywhere they looked. They were not taught to be proud of being Black (Dressier, 1985). They had a hard time going to school. Black children were not taught Black history. African Americans were not able to have a sense of pride about themselves or their culture (Farley & Allen, 1987). In this paper, I will try to describe and compare the lives of African American women around the time of World War II, a period of great change in the U.S., with their lives today. Due to the enormity of this subject, I am limiting my scope to the discrimination and the resulting economic hardships African American women in particular have endured. Discrimination in Daily Life In 1940, it was very difficult for Blacks to get a job due to discrimination. Naomi Craig, an African American and former World War II defense plant worker, describes that when she graduated from high school, she could not get a job. ?I went to the offices of the different insurance companies. I was a crackerjack stenographer, and I was smart, but I was colored. When I would go down for a job, the girl in the office would look at me and then call for the employer. He?d come out; he?d say, ?Uh, uh Miss Jennings, um, yes, well the job is filled.? I?d go hom... ...own.edu/projects/WWII_Women/ McLoyd, V. C., & Wilson, L. (1992). Telling them like it is: The role of economic and environmental factors in single mothers? discussions with their children. American Journal of Community Psychology, 20, 419-444. Mitchell, L., (November 5, 2000). Personal interview via telephone. Schaefer, R.T. (2000). Racial and ethnic groups, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Sokoloff, N. J. (1999). Black women and white women in the professions. New York: Routledge. Taylor, R. D., & Roberts, D. (1995). Kinship support and maternal adolescent well being in economically disadvantaged African American Families. Child Development, 66, 15851597. Ulbrich, P. M., Warheit, G. J., & Zimmerman, R. S. (1989). Race, socioeconomic status, and psychological distress: An examination of differential vulnerability. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 30, 131-146.

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (born 15 October 1931) usually referred to as Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, is an Indianscientist and administrator who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. Kalam was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, studied physics at the St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli, and aerospace engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT), Chennai. Before his term as President, he worked as an aerospace engineer with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). [1] Kalam is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology. [2] He played a pivotal organizational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since theoriginal nuclear test by India in 1974. Some scientific experts have however called Kalam a man with no authority over nuclear physics but who just carried on the works of Homi J. Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai. [3] Kalam was elected the President of India in 2002, defeating Lakshmi Sahgal and was supported by both the Indian National Congress and theBharatiya Janata Party, the major political parties of India. He is currently a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Management Shillong, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Management Indore, honorary fellow of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore,[4] Chancellorof the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology Thiruvananthapuram, a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Anna University (Chennai), JSS University (Mysore) and an adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research institutions across India. Kalam advocated plans to develop India into a developed nation by 2020 in his book India 2020. Books authored by him have received considerable demands in South Korea for the translated versions. [5] He has received several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. Kalam is known for his motivational speeches and interaction with the student community in India. [6] He launched his mission for the youth of the nation in 2011 called the What Can I Give Movement with a central theme to defeat corruption in India.

Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe - 1543 Words

In order to justify the slave trade, Europeans made Africans look like primitive people who needed to be trained like animals. One way they did this was through literature. Chinua Achebe, the author of Things Fall Apart, said in an interview that the main reason for writing this novel was to encourage other African writers to write about their past in order to refute the stories of the Europeans, claiming that Africans are uncivilized animals, but also shows that the Ibo were not a perfect society, highlighting the parts of Ibo culture that are considered heinous crimes today, in order to prove that there were no truly civilized societies. In his novel Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe effectively educates his readers about the culture†¦show more content†¦This shows that the clansmen fear their gods and do not wish to offend them for fear of their lives. Moreover the Ibo followed strict rules set to not upset the gods and if they were broken, harsh and quick punishments were imminent, even if they were a respected leader, similar to the conviction of heresy of a Christian noble and their punishment, commonly death. Similarly to the â€Å"civilized† British who are Christian, the Ibo have a main deity. When conversing with Mr. Brown, a Christian missionary, Akkuna, a prosperous villager said â€Å"We also believe in Him and call Him Chukwu. He made all the world and the other gods† (Achebe, 179). By saying this Akkuna shows that the Ibo religion is similar to Christianity since they both have a supreme god who created everything. This, in turn, means that they are similar to civilized nations, making them more civilized. Achebe also acknowledges the Ibo’s Feast of the New Yam a festival carried out before every harvest and is very similar to holidays celebrated by Christians honoring saints and other religious figures. It is significant to their religion because it is meant to â€Å"honor the earth goddess and the ancestral spirit s of the clan. New yams couldn’t be eaten until some had first been offered to these powers first† (Achebe, 36). This festival shows us that the Ibo offered food to their deities,