Eye Opener: CSPI

For the second eye opener I chose to do the Tour of the Food Supply. The website had a simplified map of a community. The hospital showed facts about how much it costs to treat cholesterol and high blood pressure. I had no idea that it costs $30 billion a year to pay for these drugs! Also, 1,000 Americans die from food-borne illnesses which amounts to $7 billion in related medical costs.

 The main cause of this is usually related to manure which affects the fruits and vegetables. Manure emits methane which has the same amount of negetive impact as the carbon dioxide released from 33 million automobiles! Livestock has even more negative effects. The crops that we use to feed the animals ruins the soil and the ground that they live on is compacted and the soil erodes.

 Another important fact was that 181 million pesticides, which is only 1/3 of the pesticides used in farming , is used on grains, hay, and the pastures. I had no idea how many pesticides were used annually.

I think that we need to have stricter laws put out by the FDA. Currently I am not very familiar with the guidelines that are out there for farmers but I feel more needs to be down. I would also like to learn more about the animal rights and whether or not there is a requirement of amount of space per animal.