Full Circle Child Blog

I recently visited a facility where hundreds of pigs are contained.  It was a disgusting site and the smell was horrid.  They had virtually no room to move, no access to the outside, and poor ventilation.  This looked like the perfect breeding ground for viruses. If one of these pigs got sick, it appears the virus or bacteria would spread very quick.  The shift from animals being raised humanely and hygienically on small family farms to most of our pork coming from CAFOs and factory farms could be partly to blame for the swine flu pandemic.  Combine this with the fact that these pigs (as well as other animals raised for food) are routinely pumped full of antibiotics, decreasing their resistance to infections and the mutation of viruses, and you have a public health situation that has been coming and perhaps will only get worse.

 According to the media, our options in dealing with this information range from getting vaccinated, staying home, not eating pork; to doing absolutely nothing but washing our hands.  Propaganda is rampant with people selling kits to protect your family from the deadly swine flu and pharmaceutical corporations gearing up to inject millions of citizens with UNTESTED vaccines.  This is unbelievable considering the fact that the swine hasn’t killed nearly the amount of people worldwide as the seasonal flu kills each year in the U.S.!

Why aren’t people talking about the reason this is happening and how we must change our industrial food system?  We need to care about where our food comes from, not only our produce, but food animals.  We cannot support legislation and corporations that confine animals and pump them full of antibiotics, steroids, etc. and expect that our health will not suffer as well!  Think about it–you are what you eat.

If you want to protect yourself and your family from swine flu or any of the viruses and diseases that aren’t in the media spotlight right now, educate yourself about the food you eat.  Buy meat and dairy products from local farms, preferably grass-fed or organic.  Support current legislation to cut down on the use of antibiotics in animals. 

Dr. Mercola has a must-read special report about the pandemic at http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/29/Swine-Flu.aspx

Read my blog about the media before you believe everything they tell you.

As another McDonald’s goes up in my community, I find myself fantasizing about plowing my car through it (when no workers are present, of course).  Like Kathy Bates in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes when she repeatedly rams a younger woman’s car in a parking lot, I would surely feel satisfaction afterwards, imagining the countless number of children I had saved from a quick, greasy, “happy” meal.  Of course, reality sets in and I realize that McDonald’s wouldn’t suffer if one building was wrecked just as they aren’t doing any less business since I vowed never to eat at one again.  And those children’s parents wouldn’t go home and cook a nutritious dinner because that restaurant had been destroyed either. 

Why single out McDonald’s?  There are other fast food chains that are just as unhealthy, but when it comes to clever marketing directly to children, outright lies about nutrition, and setting the standard for oversized, highly processed, fat-laden products which can hardly pass for food, Mickey D’s is number one!  I made the decision long ago to never eat McDonald’s again and rarely eat fast food at all.  I have no problem driving by fast food places in search of a healthier alternative or giving my kids one of the many snacks usually stashed in the car to sustain them on the road.  I try to keep my opinions to myself when I see a toddler at the park eating french fries or mystery nuggets or apples drenched in high fructose corn syrup.  Parents are becoming wiser and people are realizing that our eating habits are one of the main reasons (probably number one) why our children have numerous health problems including obesity, allergies, even diabetes.  Less people will be getting dinner from a drive-up window soon, right?  Then McDonald’s did something that no company which sells food with ingredients that are detrimental to a child’s health should be allowed to do; marketing directly to children, they had a sticker put on my child’s shirt at school telling him to eat there for dinner to help benefit the school PTA.  Talk about clever marketing!  Now I am the mean mom who doesn’t support the PTA.  

Why is the fast food industry more prevelant today with our supposed vast knowledge of health and nutrition?  Why do more American children eat fast food meals than ever before, giving powerful corporations like McDonald’s an ever-expanding customer base?  Todays’ children generally have bigger homes, expensive electronics, and better educational opportunities.  Parents have the advantage of being able to provide more for their children financially, but we also have more collective knowledge at our disposal.  With the click of the mouse we can find nutritional information, and yet our children are more nutrient-deficient than past generations.  This is where we have failed as a society.  Not only are we leaving the next generation with the burden of dealing with climate change and the federal deficit, but we are destroying their health as well.

Am I alone in my hatred for this corporate giant?