When reading over the Bittman article, I was surprised at what I found. Bittman explains the idea behind taxing unhealthy food and making the healthy food cheap and easily accessible, the opposite of what it is now. This seems like such a logical and intelligent plan to lower the amount of diabetes and heart disease patients in the country, yet, this plan is hardly being used anywhere in the country. Just because it's cheaper to produce processed foods, they get marketed more and appeal to those who can’t afford organic food. This shows where the government’s priorities lie. It isn’t the people they are concerned about, its money. This is further explored in the article by Alice Waters, only here the focus is school lunches. Schools have similar priorities as they hardly have any money to begin with. When there is so little money to work with, you start having to cut corners and make sacrifices. In this case, the sacrifice is the good health of the students. The health of the students should be one of the most prioritized aspects of the school. What good are top grades if the person behind them is slowly killing themselves with the food they consume?
https://www.epa.gov/safepestcontrol/food-and-pesticides
The topic I am writing about has to do with pesticides in food. This website above talks all about the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and what they do to ensure that consumers are not in any danger from the food they eat.
I'm glad you you provided this link to a federal government agency because it will help me with my article dealing with whether or not the government is doing their part to make consumers safe and protect the food system.
ReplyDeleteThe government should really step in and make some moves and create some taxes on unhealthy food. Taxing junk foods and subsidizing healthy food would allow for the government to save so much money on healthcare costs and bring in money from the taxes and allow for many people to eat healthier because fruits and vegetables would be more affordable.
ReplyDeleteThe government is standing idly by watching the weight of its citizens increase and the health of them decrease while doing nothing. They need to take a larger part in the food we eat. But the government only cares about making more money and not about our health.
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