Nurses know much better than anybody that the American food market has contributed to an epidemic of obesity and hypertension unmatched in recent history through unconfined advertising, food additives and mono-crops. If we stop working to resolve the disastrous effects of 'Big Food' then this could likewise become a country whose population is likewise dealing with a wellness crisis.
According to The New York City Times, a big part of the cash invested in healthcare in this country treats persistent diseases connected to diet plan. But it's not simply the health of individuals at danger, the health of the world is likewise suffering. Even President Obama acknowledged that "our farming sector really is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector."
pierandsurf.com
Small household farms across America have actually mainly been changed by mega-agricultural corporations operating substantial livestock feeding lots and a concentrating of our food production in massive facilities and on huge farms.
Much at stake
The agricultural commercial complex is a $1.5 trillion-dollar market in America - that's trillion with a T - with big corporations from farms, to feeding lots, to supermarket controlling nearly the whole process from seed to table.
In a groundbreaking decision that supported genetically-modified foods, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of seed patents - fertile soil for mega-agribusiness Monsanto, which was already establishing many genetically-modified (GM) seeds. There is growing issue that presenting foreign genes into food plants may have an unforeseen and negative influence on human health. The British Journal Lancet examined the effects of GM potatoes on the digestion tract in rats and discovered "appreciable distinctions." Considerable study advances the important concern of the harm of GM foods.
This entire system has extremely little oversight. And we have actually seen the consequences - under-regulated fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide saturated mono-crops of soy and corn replacing little scale multi-crop farms, increases in greenhouse gases produced by large animals operations, and even current outbreaks of originating from large washing and product packaging plants.
President Obama did attempt to combat back and put in some much-needed control over the food industry - enough so that a group backed by pesticide and fertilizer manufacturers called the Obamas, "natural limousine liberals" and gotten in touch with Michelle Obama to utilize pesticides in the White House garden.
President-elect Trump now acquires a gorgeous garden filled with healthy organic foods. How will his garden grow?
It is particular that business agriculture will attempt to exert influence over the brand-new administration at the cost of the family farmer and at the expense of the health of our country.
There is an alternative model for feeding our country utilizing less chemicals, causing less damage to the environment and promoting healthier consuming habits. That option originates from a nation that could not be more various from ours - Cuba.
What Cuba can teach us
Because of the USA-led embargo and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the small island country was left in a precarious food circumstance, not able to import fertilizers, pesticides, or food products to feed its residents. It likewise meant that what food Cubans might grow, they mainly consumed themselves rather of cycling through livestock.
At the very same time, the Caribbean island had to fix the problem of farming in the age of severe weather condition occasions.
These aspects added to Cuba being much more prepared for circumstances now facing numerous countries throughout the world. Cubans mastered what is now called "agro-ecology" in contrast to our country's primarily commercial farming. Small scale farmers in Cuba are leading the nation's agricultural motion and promoting sustainable practices like planting flowers to attract practical insects and nitrogen producing beans to fertilize the soil. Cubans needed to find creative ways to till the soil and plant crops without fossil fuel-fed machinery.
Out of requirement
Cuba now produces nearly all of its own fruit and vegetables and much of its own meat. These farming advancements were not constructed of ideology. Rather, Cubans acted out of requirement, to satisfy the needs of a hungry people.
pierandsurf.com
Cuban agriculture can in some ways be seen as an example for the United States of a farming system that is sustainable for the health of our individuals and the health of our world.
Already, researchers fear that our world is on the edge of no return from global warming. If we don't downsize our farming use of fossil fuels we could tip the thermometer completely for our warming world, leading to the same sort of food insecurity around the world that Cubans faced.
1
Health Starts With Healthy Food
katian39979072 edited this page 2025-07-02 15:44:23 +08:00