Welcome to… “APPETIZERS”

Discovery & Empowerment

Dialogue© (Part D)

HOW IS OUR ‘OLD’ AGRICULTURE SYSTEM

CONTRIBUTING TO OUR ECO-DISINTEGRATION?

Let’s explore the answers, using the help of the Eco-Paradigms you

printed in PDF Format, titled:

THE ‘OLD’ COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE

& UNCONSCIOUS EATING PARADIGM

 THE ‘BOLD’

ORGANIC AGRICULTURE & CONSCIOUS EATING PARADIGM

Today’s INTENSIVE INDUSTRIAL

APPROACH to Agriculture

represents a historic departure from the ways farming has been practiced

throughout most of human history, and is a huge threat to human welfare and the

well-being of animals and the land

The DEMAND FOR FOOD is increasing, but food supplies are decreasing, due to exploitation of

land, water, and resources and inequitable distribution of food to

developing countries.

This threat affects human health, future availability of

food supplies, and conservation of natural resources and wildlife.

Chemicals, toxins, drugs, hormones, and genetically engineered

organisms PUT ECO-SYSTEMS AT RISK

Diets in wealthy countries are

molded largely by the economic interests of

industrial food corporations that don’t respect the ecology of living

things.

To complicate matters…

ADDITIVES in processed convenience

foods are making

people sick!

HEALTHY EATING RITUALS

and their civilizing effecton families

are being lost and forgotten

Let’s take a look under a microscope, to see how commercial agricultural

practices

are contributing to theeco-disintegration of our

earth’sliving ecology

INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE

raises and slaughters about 50 billion animals for food

worldwide each year, -about 80% are slaughtered in

the U.S. , including: 120 million hogs9 billion chickens

300 million turkeys

factory farming is depleting land, trees, water, and petroleum.

Because these animals are dependent upon natural resources such as water and topsoil to grow their

food, and heat for the giant warehouse-like barns they

live in…

Acreage the size of seven football fields is burned down every minute in the Amazon rainforest, much of it to make room for cattle to feed the

meat habit of the US and Europe.

Thousands of species in the web of life become extinct in

the rainforest when land-clearing destroys their homes.

FACTORY FARMS crowd animals

mercilessly, NEVER let them go

outdoors, and DENY them the chance to fulfill their normal instinctive lives!

Chickens spend their entire lives in cages, stacked four

high, with floor space of 86 square inches, just a little bit bigger than a

letter-sized piece of paper.

They are usually de-beaked in an

exceptionally cruel manner to prevent them from pecking themselves

to death.

The industrial production of beef cattle

generates TONS OF WASTE collected in

open-air cesspools called “manure lagoons” from

which concentrated pollutants including

bacteria, parasites and viruses seep into

groundwater as well as rivers, lakes and

streams.

The ODOR downwind from manure lagoons, including the odor of

concentrated ammonia,is sickening in the extreme and can

contain up to150 volatile chemical compounds.

The use of genetically modified

SEEDS can’t be confined to certain

fields, but winds and insects carry

the genetic pollution to non-GMO plants in nearby fields. MORE agricultural chemicals

(not fewer) are used on pesticide-tolerant

GMO plants, increasing harm to the soil and water from these

chemicals.

Eating GE corn, ALTERED to have a

pesticide within each cell of the plant, has killed

Monarch butterfly larvae in several

experiments. Other beneficial insects, including

ladybugs and lacewings, also

had higher mortality when feeding on and

around GE crops.

More than 1.2 billion pounds of pesticides

(or 6 million tons by weight of active chemicals, not “inert” ingredients) are applied to US crops every year Planting of so-

called pesticide-resistant GMO

crops has increased

pesticide use by 50 million

pounds per year!

Use of chemical fertilizers on the land strips topsoil. Crops are deficient in nutrients andtrace minerals as a result. People eating food

grown in this depleted soil can

become nutritionally

depleted, and may be sick more often and feel exhausted.

Because food that is grown in an

un-whole way does not support a healthy connection between humans, plants, animals, and

ecosystems, it cannot create or sustain a

healthy flow of energy within our planetary

biosphere. Sources for this information include: FARM and California Certified Organic

Growers

IT GOES WITOUT SAYING that plants, animals, and ecosystems burdened by

industrial and agricultural farming methods

have a reduced ability to detoxify and regenerate

Let’s Examine How the Practice of Industrial, Commercial

Agriculture Leads (through our Everyday Food

Choices) to the Eco-Disintegration of Our

Human Ecology

revealed that more than 90%

of us have a dozen or more

pesticides lodged in our body tissues,

most absorbed from our food

choices.

A NATIONWIDE STUDY By The Centers for Disease

Control

Toxic chemical fertilizers and pesticides used to grow

fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds and legumes are

difficult or impossible to wash off the food.

In the human body, these substances can (and do) INCREASE the risk of diseases such as cancer and

neurological defects.

have a higher rate of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, skin

melanomas, multiple myeloma and leukemia, as well as and birth

defects, than the rest of the population.

Numerous studies have shown that

rural families and farm workers routinely exposed to pesticides

Pesticides that are chlorine-based (most of them) bear a chemical resemblance to

ESTROGEN,a sex hormone that is a cause of reproductive cancers in humans,

including breast cancer.

In fact, a study of women working on farms where

these chemicals were in use found they were

2.8 times more likely to have

breast cancer than other women.

Of the 36 million pounds of antibiotics used annually in

the US, 70% are given to HEALTHY ANIMALS to prevent

the unnatural conditions in which they live from making

them sick.

And then, there’s VETERINARY ANTIBIOTICS

The Antibiotic DRUGS that animals consume end up

inthe meat we eat and the

milk we drink…

They are one of the causes of antibiotic-

resistant strains of bacteria in the human

body.

PEOPLE WHO WERE BORN BEFORE 1974

have dieldrin in their bodies -- a dangerous carcinogen that was banned

that year. Those who ate beef between 1947 and 1977 were exposed

to DES, a potent carcinogenic growth-promoting chemical

that was given to cattle to “beef them

up” until it wasalso banned.

may also have an undesirable effect on

HUMANS who eat meat containing these

hormones.

Synthetic and genetically engineered hormones USED TODAY, to make

animals grow faster and fatter …

are caused, and made worse, by hormones

injected into animals.

MANY HORMONE DEPENDENT DISEASES

including cancer and diseases of the

reproductive system…

people are eating foods that are essentially “un-whole” – depleted in nutrients and

laden withdangerous chemicals.

Because industrially farmed foods are used to produce everyday

PROCESSED FOODS that make up the mainstay of

the standard American diet,

We are overweight, but STARVED for the natural

food fibers, colors, enzymes and oxygen, as

well as vitamins and minerals that serve to

keep our human ecology in good working order.

Processed foods such as refined flour, sugar and

oils, are made “un-whole” by the refining process,

which destroys or discards most of the

nutrients.

MSG, for example -- present in many

processed foods -- has the potential to

cause brain cell death!

FOOD ADDITIVES, including

preservatives, dyes and colorings, have

been linked to a variety of health

problems.

including joint pain, headaches, hyperactivity, and

systemic conditions

resembling auto-immune

disorders.

Aspartame, the currently popular

artificial sweetener found inno-calorie soft drinks and

other foods… causes a variety of symptoms of

TOXICITY…

Drinking water in most urban areas contains

measurable amounts ofViagra, anti-depressants, and

chemotherapy toxicants…

and several hundred other

prescription and nonprescription drugs that are designed to be

biologically active!

Arsenic in drinking water has been

linked to lung and bladder cancer, and could be harmful at

lower levels of exposure than the current “allowable limits.” Children are at particular

risk from arsenic. Fluoridation of nearly all US public water supplies

results in everyone’s exposure to fluoride, which can depress thyroid activity.

MICROWAVES that many people depend

on to cook meals

HURT the vitamin, enzyme, and nutrient

content in the food and create unhealthy by-

products.

simply isn’t healthy if it doesn’t invite a

healthy connection to the ecology of the

earth, and if it doesn’t sustain a healthy flow of

energy within our body-mind system.

THE FOOD WE EAT, it might be summarized…

HOW CAN WE TURN AN UN-WHOLE AGRICULTURE

AND FOOD PRODUCTION SYSTEM INTO A WHOLE AND

THRIVING ONE?

To Answer This Vitally Important Question,

Print Out and Study the Reading Notes that

accompany this Power Point

(Notes are featured in Appetizers Section,

Part D, of Book. Or online PDF

doc)

“Reading Notes ” Covered in this Section

Include:  

Examining Our Factory-Style Animal Agriculture System

From Domestic Factory Farms to the Rainforest, Raising Animals for Food Is

Exacerbating Our Global Problems

Factory Farming Produces Contaminants

Factory Farming is an Atrocity that We Need Not Accept as Normal

We Consume the Products of Torture When we Eat Mass Produced Animals

Continued…

The Paradox of Our Existence, Is That, We Have to Eat Living Things

Examining Our Factory-Style Plant-Intensive Agriculture System

Terrorists Acts against the Environment Can Be Blamed on the Crop Dusters that Spray Poison

Chemicals on the Land

GE Food Has Not Been Evaluated for Long Term Effects on the health of Humans and the Earth

How Do You Feel About Companies that Are Altering the DNA of Our Food Supply?

GE Foods are Proven By Some, to Be Unsafe for the Environment

Continued…

The Production of GE Foods Leads to the Bio Accumulation of More Chemicals into the

Environment

The Production of GE Foods Leads to the Bio Accumulation of More Chemicals into the

Environment

In Our Schools Today (with the Exception of Some Colleges) There Is a Low Priority Attached to

Nutrition Education

Do We Need to Be Vegetarians, to Say that We Eat In an Eco-Friendly Way?

What One Chooses to Eat, Must Ultimately Be Based on Their Changing Needs

 

Continued…

Creativity and Flexibility Support Us in Feeding and Nourishing Ourselves

What Is the Alternative to Food and Nutrition Propaganda that Schools Promote in their

Nutrition Education Materials?

Do You Have a Picky Eater in Your Family?

The Eco-Intelligent Eating Model Helps People to Integrate Their Dietary Needs with

the ‘Dietary’ Needs of Our Planet

Can An Organic Method of Agriculture Save People and the Planet?

Eating Organically, Offers to Be an Adventure