open letter katarzyna harasim

20-07 Woodbine Str 3L

Ridgewood, NY 11-385

31 May 2011

Assistant Minority Leader Robert L. Hedlund

State House

Room 313-C

Boston, MA 02133

Dear Senator Robert L. Hedlund

This is Katarzyna Harasim from New York City. It’s time we had a talk.

I grew up in Poland a country that isn't one the wealthiest, but I grew up with healthy foods. There are

so many farmers there. In fact my grandma and grandpa had their own fields of carrots, potatoes,

tomatoes, strawberries, greens, fruits. They had their own cows and chickens and pigs that they fed with

healthy grass. They knew what went into the animals and the food. I grew up eating healthy, wholesome

foods. Right now I’m attend school at LaGuardia Community College in New York city and am taking

English 101 course in which we are watching Food Inc. movie and I cannot tell you how angry it made

me also sick to my stomach to see how workers at shutter house treat the animals. How there is no

respect. How the cows and chickens die because of fear, dirt also oversight. My point is that latter on

these same meat we are consuming on our dining tables. According to Stephanie Ernst author of article

” Animal Use and Abuse Statistics” says every year, 10 billion farm animals are slaughtered for food in the

United States , 27 million each day and 19,000 every minute also Animal agriculture uses 37 percent of

all pesticides and 50 percent of antibiotics and produce huge to water pollution, danger for human and

nonhuman animal health and life. I am writing with the hope of appealing to your heart, your

conscience, and your common sense. We need new regulations for slaughter houses right now animals

living out their lives in darkness and immobility without the sight of the sun, of a generation of men who

see in the animal they rear only its conversion to human food. We must change the way animals are

raised put new regulations and laws on slaughterhouses and made them naturally organic farms . Farm

animals have the right and deserve to live a good healthy life till it's time to be food.

USDA and FDA should more care how farm animals became our meat at the grocery store, make sure

that these animals are treated right and slaughterhouses clean and and not so horrifying.

Everyone loves chicken but when we take a closer look how they got from farm in to our chicken table

We would not be capable to take a bite. Paul Shapiro in his article “Time to crack down on chicken

abuse” is talking how chickens are terrified before they end packed . 300,000 of chickens are tightly

growing in a dark, dusty, dirty chicken house at once. They are eating from the machines above them or

stuff that end up on the ground .Employees every day are sent in to throw out dead and sick chickens

after that put them into compost, that will find direction to get back into food chin. Also in past

chickens use to grow in to the adults age in 3 months, right now it’s six weeks.Its just because Because

companies want to have chicken with bigger breasts. These birds are that grow in 6 weeks can not walk,

balance and support them selves , their bones are so easy to break, because of growing too fast and

making growing their big.And its not just chickens that are obuse pigs are eating trash or caws that are

ment to eat gras are feeteng corn witch is not cabyble for them to digest and growing deep in manure.

That frome our meat comes from, And im truly against these disgusting farming. We need changed that.

Farm should be full of love and respect for animals that we will eat. The USDA and FDA should make

sure by making new laws that all farming animals are raised in

natural way, grass feed, and free walking.

In United States legal system we don’t have any specific laws that specify describe at what condition

farm animals should be raised. Farm animals the one that are raised for meat, egg, milk are most

abused by industries in the United States, according to the author of article “farmed animal and the

law” numbers are phenomenal almost abstruse . Investigations and industry whistleblowers have

discovered abuses on farms and at slaughterhouses that are so awful. Normally people cannot abide to

see them. Contempt their huge amount, and the badness of abuses farm animals. Farmed animals

receive not enough protections by our legal system today.

We need changes, and we need them now. In our country we should develop creative legal plan that

allow us to progression also develop above current law, and farm animals get finally protections

under our law. Please fight for each animal that we will eat. I would love to see green, lovely

and not harmful farms. That respect and treat animals without putting in them antibiotics and making

them sick. That would allow all of as to eat healthy meat. Thank you for reading this and your precious

time.

Sincerely,

Katarzyna Harasim

Stephen's Open Letter

Secretary of Labor Gary Locke

200 Constitution Ave., NW

Washington, DC 20210

Dear Secretary Locke:

First and foremost, I wanted to thank you as head of the Department of Labor for promoting and developing the welfare for the workers of this country. Because of your efforts, average workers like myself enjoy rights that are protected in the workplace and the opportunity to make advancement for a more profitable employment through training. But what caught my attention is something tragic that has been happening in the workplace for the past several decades. The owners and managers of our country’s fast food restaurants have not been providing the proper training their workers need to be safe and productive. Instead, they are left on their own to figure out how to work and how to run a piece of machinery. As a result of their lack of training, fast food workers have suffered countless injuries and have unknowingly served unsanitary food to the public. I urge you to examine the fast food restaurants’ training policies and fight for the welfare of our workers.

The lack of training provided by the fast food chains has endangered the lives of their workers, sometimes even causing debilitating injuries. That is what happened to one man in Jefferson County, Texas named Richard Stubbs in a fast food chain called Sonics Drive-In. Although he wasn’t properly trained and didn’t receive assistance or proper safety equipment, Stubbs was told to clean the filter on a deep fryer. Because he didn’t know to how to properly clean a fryer, he injured and aggravated the disc and nerve root in his lower back. The injury caused permanent and debilitating damage (Holleran). Can you believe that? Imagine working in a dangerous environment without any adequate training. You are almost bound to end hurting yourself or others since you don’t know what you are doing or if it is safe. But many fast food workers find themselves in this very situation. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) found that “adolescents working in the restaurant industry in general were at six times greater risk of sustaining a work-related burn injury than teens working in any other industry. Nearly half of all burn injuries involved hot grease. Such injuries can be prevented by … training employees in safe work practices, among other precautions” (Blosser). I understand that training takes time and money. But the time and money used for training more than compensates the time and money lost because an employee can’t work or can’t be productive due to an injury (Daniels). But most important, fast food workers are more than just employees. They are our neighbors, relatives, friends, cousins, brothers or sisters who are trying to make a living. With all the work they are asked to perform, the least fast food companies could do is show their workers how to do it properly. After all, we are humans, not cogs in a working machine.

Proper training for fast food workers not only benefits the employees, but also the customers. Since they handle and serve our food, the quality of a fast food worker’s training can be directly related to the quality of our food. Unfortunately, we at times get the short end of the stick. How many times have you heard of hair or pieces of a rubber glove served with the food? I’ve heard enough horror stories regarding fast food to make even the strongest stomachs turn. In a Dateline NBC report, they surveyed thousands of fast food restaurants and compiled their inspection reports. They found that McDonald’s “averaged 126 critical violations for every 100 inspections, the highest average in our survey. McDonald's was the only chain where hand washing was the most commonly cited violation. Either inspectors witnessed employees not washing their hands or the restaurants had inadequate handwashing facilities” (Thompson). Can you imagine that? And these are the very people who serve the billions of people who eat at fast food restaurant. Yet we misplace our trust in them, thinking that they are trained to be conscious about food sanitation. That is why your help is so important. Our health and well being are in jeopardy without someone to intervene in our behalf.

To make matters worse, our government has provided fast food companies with subsidiaries for training. But instead of using the money for its intended purpose, fast food companies have provided minimal to no training while pocketing the rest of the money. In 1996, an investigation conducted by your department confirmed the restaurants’ treacherous dealings:

Through federal programs, the [fast food] chains have for years claimed tax credits of up to $2,000 for each new low-income worker they hired. [The] investigation concluded that 92 percent of these workers would have been hired by the companies anyway – and that their new jobs were part-time, provided little training, and came with no benefits. American taxpayers have in effect subsidized the industry’s high turnover rate, providing company tax breaks for workers who are employed for just a few months and receive no training (Schlosser 72).

I was shocked to learn how my taxes are being misused to support minimal training and or zero training. We face enough economic problems in this country. Police, teachers, and hospitals are cutting back due to a lack of funds. Yet, why are fast food companies receiving subsidies for something that they don’t provide? Are they more important than the services provided by policemen, teachers, and hospitals?

I exhort you to act on our behalf and cut programs that provide federal subsidies to fast food companies to “train” their workers. Create stronger policies on fast food owners and managers to ensure that they provide the proper training fast food workers need and stiff penalties for failing to do so. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

A concerned citizen

Stephen Sanidad

Works Cited

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The dark side of the All-American meal. New York:

Houghton Mifflin, 2004. print

Holleran, Kelly. “Fast food worker claims boss knew of previous injury when assigning task.”

setexasrecord.com. 14 May 2009. Web. 24 May 2011

Blosser, Fred. “Most teen worker injuries in restaurants occur in fast food.”

cdc.gov. NIOSH. 22 Dec 1999. Web. 23 May 2011

Thompson, Lea “Dirty Dining.” msnbc.msn.com. Microsoft National Broadcasting Company.

13 March 2005. Web 25 May 2011

Daniels, Stephanie. “Cost of Workplace Accidents and Injuries.” ehow.com. Web. 1 June 2011

Huining Chen's open letter

67-29 197st
Fresh Meadows, NY 11365

24 May 2011

Senator Patty Ritchie
Dulles State Office Building, Room 418
Watertown, NY 13601

Dear Senator Ritchie:
I am a college student in LaGuardia Community College, New York. I am writing you because of a very universal issue that happened on children has deeply touched my heart. In my childhood, the package of food is not as colorful as today’s. Yet back that time would also have cartoon characters in order to attract children. Nowadays almost every snack packages would covered by various of cartoon characters. I feel like it is quite a normal phenomenon, however, I recently noticed that there are some hidden problems for this issue. In David Orr’s report “Cartoon Characters Are Making Your Kids Fat” on the news web called “Change” he states that “The researchers found that an overwhelming majority of kids in the study — 85 percent — chose snacks with a cartoon character on the packaging over an identical snack with unadorned packaging”. The fact that these cute and attractive cartoon characters can in some way influent children’s choice toward food which might lead to unhealthy eating habits makes me pondering whether these lively appearance on package is good or not. Maybe neither you nor me cannot deeply understand this reality issue since we haven’t experienced by our own, but face to the more and more serious obesity rates of children, how can we not paying attention to it?
Once step into any grocery store, the most possible place where children would running to is snack shelf. And of course, since the biggest mart for snacks is always children, most snack companies like to corporate with cartoon companies then put their characters on the package to attract kids. However, the consequence for this could be negative towards children. In Arielle Levin Becker’s study “Kids Think Foods Labeled With Popular TV Cartoon Characters Taste Better” Christina Roberto, a graduate student at the Rudd Center and lead author of the study said that “To me, what this shows is that the influence of characters is really so powerful, they're powerful enough to actually have kids think that the food tastes better and that they want to choose it for snacks". Cartoon characters influent children’s choice which will encourage them to get more snacks since they like the characters, yet by doing this, they will also get more weight virtually. Adult can figure whether one food tastes better than another by “really” taste it, but from children’s aspects, all they think is that they like some certain cartoons, thus, what they most likely to figure the concept “better” is their preference appearance.
After buying some “pretty looking” snacks, what would you think kids would likely to do? Combining with my personal experiences, I can really understand how kids will get bad eating habits by having bunch of snacks before meals. If you have ever had a kid in your family, maybe you could possibly find out that kids can really having snacks instead of their formal meals. Proper amount of snack won’t bring bad effect, but, they are children, how would we expect them have enough ability to consider the consequence of eating excessive snacks? Once a bad eating habit has been developed, it’s hard to alter. Nevertheless, obesity is not the only consequence brought by bad eating habit, but also might lead to anorexia.
According to every articles or reports I have ever read, I found a “funny” similarity, that is, all the packages which have cartoon characters laying on would work out only if they advertised on junk food, but for those that contain healthy food would certainly not work out efficiency. “Using the power of cartoon characters for good--to market healthy foods--may be less effective than restrictions on junk-food marketing”, says Roberto in Sarah Klein’s study “Cartoon Characters Attract Kids to Junk Food” in “CNN Health”. The use of characters to brand healthy foods might not be and effective strategy because whatever on that package, there is always a concept inside children’s mind—healthy food won’t taste better than snacks, or, in other words, junk food. After knowing this matter of fact, would you feel sad about the reality? For me, definitely, yes.
In my opinion, set a limit for snack companies to get access putting cartoon characters on package would be feasible. The cartoon companies shouldn’t indulge junk food companies to label their characters on the package only for their business profit but ignore the serious outcome it would bring to children. Kids are innocent, they shouldn’t be the victim of companies’ revolution of profit ambition. What if the kids involved in this revolution are the persons you care about? Do you willing to see they are getting health problems just by eating the pretty covered “devil”? I think nobody want to see this sadly result.
I hearty hope you can pay attention to the issue I stated and take a deeper pondering of it. Please fight for our younger generations, do not let their favorite cartoon characters lead them to an unhealthy condition. I would love to see our children can grow up happily and healthily. Thank you for your time; I know how valuable it is.

Sincerely,

Huining Chen


Becker, Arielle Levin. “Study: Kids Think Foods Labeled With Popular TV Cartoon Characters Taste Better.” Courant.com.
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-cartoon-food-marketing-0621-20100621,0,2776506.story. [Web.] 21 June 2010

Klein, Sarah. “Study: Cartoon characters attract kids to junk food.” CNN.com.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/06/21/cartoon.characters.junk.food/index.html. [Web.] 21 June 2010

Orr, David. “Cartoon Characters Are Making Your Kids Fat.” News.change.org.
http://news.change.org/stories/cartoon-characters-are-making-your-kids-fat. [Web.] 23 June 2010

Sojie's Open Letter

1360 Broken Dreams Boulevard, Cryogenic Freezer 10

26th of May, 2011

Mayor Michael Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,
Greetings. I am a current student at Laguardia Community College, and I am writing to express my concern over a little touched upon but, in my opinion, important subject. Though it has been more than 5 years since I left middle school, and even longer since I attended elementaryschool and kindergarten, one aspect of those times in my life keep coming to mind as I study the food industry for English 101. Once a year, from kindergarten up until 8th Grade, my school would hold fundraisers, which were usually sponsored by a large company. The idea was simple; you would get a prize depending on how much money you raised selling candies, magazine subscriptions, and other stuff. The prizes would range from plastic bracelets to headphones to a radio or speaker system and onwards, with the highest prize I remember being a motorized scooter. All of the students gathered in the auditorium would scream and yell and gasp as the announcer for the fundraiser held up some of the prizes, demonstrating their uses and exciting a few hundred children by waving a tantalizing, potentially fun item in front of their faces. Afterwards, the children would be in a hurry to receive the large white envelopes containing the order forms and brochures. As a
further reminder of what they could be rewarded for their hard work, a poster showing
all the prizes in order of value was included in each packet. My sister, who is five years younger
than me, went to a school in Brooklyn that took the fundraising idea a step further. For three years straight, not only would she come home with a packet of order forms, but also a large box containing 5 different types of candy, fifty chocolate bars and twizzlers in all.

The reason why this concerns me so is not because this would encourage children to sell products door to door( the people who organize these fundraisers do not approve of door to door selling) but, the fact that prizes are being used to bribe children into selling chocolates, and a lot of the time, the candy never even leaves the house. My main concern is the health risks involved with this. Many of the children who bring home these boxes of candy wind up getting their parents to buy the entire box so they could give the money to the school. Then, they eat the candy themselves. I am sure you have heard of the recent policy in Santa Clara, California banning restaurants from using toys as an incentive to get kids to eat more of their meals. Passed in April of last year, this ban is meant to counter the rise of obesity in California. I am also aware of your role in fighting obesity in NYC. Your suggestion to tax soda and making it so that people can not use food stamps to buy it convinces me that you would not be against a proposal that would help promote healthier eating.. School fundraisers that manipulate kids into selling candy sends them a negative message; it will make them associate food with reward, and unhealthy food at that. I have read Eric Schlosser's acclaimed(and controversial) book Fast Food Nation , and he describes how the fast food industry attracts kids with toys(47), much in the same way these fundraisers operate.
Both the fast food industry and these school fundraisers are ideal for companies to promote their products- the more kids eager to acquire their products, the better for them.

Mister Bloomberg, I hope you will take my words seriously and do something about the way fundraising companies manipulate the children of New York. I think that changing their methods is a vital step towards a healthier city.

Sincerely,
Sojourner Hughes

Cited Work:
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2001
McKinley, Jessie, “Citing Obesity of Children, County Bans Fast-Food Toys”, NY Times, April 27 2010 ( http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/business/28mcdonalds.html )
(Will be edited and reposted)

Edgar's Open Letter

99-16 67road
Forest Hills, N.Y. 11375

24 May 2011

Safety Director Barry White
200 Constitution Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20210


Dear Safety Director White

Hello and good day. My name is Edgar Pal and I live in Forest Hills New York. I attend school at Laguardia Community College and am taking an English 101 course in which we are reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. I am writing this letter because this book has opened my eyes to the dangerous working conditions in our countries meat packing industries that are faced by workers everyday. This all ranges from the daily slaughterhouse employees to the over night cleaning crews that clean up the daily messes. Their are way too many workers getting seriously injured and killed while working in our countries top three largest Meatpacking Companies (ConAgra, IBP, and Excel) and not enough is being done to prevent these things from happening. I understand that the purpose of your company OSHA is to prevent work-related injuries, illnesses, and occupational fatality by issuing and enforcing standards for workplace safety and health. However you guys are doing a very poor job and many uneducated immigrant workers are paying the full price through pinching nerves, losing fingers, and limbs, as well as many losing their lives.

Barry, let me first begin with saying that these workers have very demanding and difficult jobs. Jobs that you would never want to have. Today, the rate of injury in the meat packing industry is three times that of private industry overall, and meat packing was noted by Human Rights Watch as being "the most dangerous factory job in America”. They work long hours that sometimes are inhuman. Their work is all physical and there pay is very low. Supervisors constantly force these workers to work as fast as possible like an assembly line while wielding and swinging knifes at meat and carcasses in crammed conditions in order to reach company earnings, profits, and goals. Most of these employees are immigrants, however they are human beings like you and my self. Now do you think that just because they are immigrants, it is all right to treat them in this manner?

Adding to all of this, Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows (from 2003-2007) the rate of illnesses and injuries for workers in "animal slaughtering and processing" was over twice as high as the national average, and the rate of illnesses alone was over ten times the national average. This shows that your company is not doing its job correctly and as good as it can when it comes to the safety of working conditions faced by slaughterhouse employees. What is the point of the presence of a company such as OSHA if the rate of illnesses and injuries in these slaughterhouses are constantly on the rise. Conditions should actually be getting better, and so many of these workers should not be getting injured. To top this all off, “a cleaning crew member by the name Henry Wolfe had been overcome by hydrogen sulfide fumes while cleaning the very same tank that had caused the death of three men, eight years earlier. Another worker, Gary Sanders had tried to rescue him resulting in the death of both men. Then OSHA later fined National Beef for its negligence that was $480 for each mans death”. Now these two men have names that sound to be American which means that they were legal workers in this country. Do you think that a human beings life is worth such a low sum? That not only is it not fair to the death of that individual, but embarrassing and selfish that you guys would put such a low cost on the life of a human being especially when your suppose to be looking out for us.

I believe that the solution for the safety and the well being of these meatpacking factory workers is very possible, however will take some time. I believe that the change starts with the company you work for, and you because these meatpacking slaughterhouse don’t care much about there workers and your the only ones that can help them. There are no strict rules that they have to go by as well as no one that they have to fear. You as well as the rest of the OSHA company need to reinforce better safety rules and regulations at these plants as well as remember that every human has to look out for one another. This is because I promise you, that if it were you who had no choice but to work in theses slaughterhouses under these dangerous and life threatening conditions, you would also want someone to do something about it.

Sincerely,
Edgar Pal

Work Cited


http://www.osha.gov/html/Feed_Back.html. May 28, 2011


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat_packing_industry. May 28, 2011


http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/processing. May 28, 2011


Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation the dark side of the all-american meal. New York, N.Y. 10022: First Harper Perennial edition, 2005.

The Fast Food Dilema

Aleksandar Markovic
English 101
Essay 3 First Draft:

Aleksandar Markovic
70-19 65th PL, 3L, Glendale
Queens , NY , 11385

5/20/2011

McDonald’s Corporation
2111 McDonald's
Dr Oak Brook ,IL, 60523



Dear Jim Skinner, I am writing to you and all of the executive's of the McDonalds
corporation in a desperate plea to help fix all the wrongs with the way McDonalds
conducts all there meat purchasing through dirty and dilapidated slaughterhouses.
McDonalds is supporting dirty slaughterhouses who mistreat not only the poor animals
who they slaughter inhumanely but the individuals who work there. Not only are a great
amount of those workers immigrants with no papers and no way to complain to proper
authority without risking deportation but more importantly they are human beings with
rights. Just as they have rights the animals that are being slaughtered inhumanely have
rights as well. Not as many rights as we have granted but they should at least have the
right to live there short life in better conditions.


For example in the movie Food Inc written by Kim Roberts , Elise Pearlstein and Robert
Kenner and directed by Robert Kenner "The chickens that are engineered to have bigger
breasts because of our appeal for breast meat are so much heavier that they can’t even
support their weight beneath their feet. What we end up seeing is chickens that can
stand for a moment and then plop back down". It’s sad to see that these chickens are living
there short and miserable lives not only in a dark and stuffy chicken house but they cant
even walk around and end up spending their short miserable lives sitting in their own
feces. Now that’s only the chickens what about the pigs and the cows? While I was
researching this I came across an interesting article of pig slaughterhouses. "Did you know
that 76% of local slaughterhouses kill pigs inhumanely?" In the article three quarters of the
slaughterhouses were killing pigs in a merciless fashion. Rather than stunning the pig
with electroshock so they would feel no pain a simple procedure these slaughterhouses
are suspending the pig in mid air by hanging them upside down by one of their legs and
then beaten unconscious with a stick before being slaughtered. "Several of the woman
lawmakers were even brought to tears after watching the cruel treatment of animals in the
slaughterhouses". The same could be said for all those poor cows that are killed
improperly. Just try to compare the situation to that of the blood diamond if it makes
it easier for the top tier executives from the McDonalds corporation. Does
McDonalds really want to be supporting such cruel practices?


This brings me to the next issue at hand diseases. We all know about E.coli. In Food Inc
Michael Pollan begins to explain about how we feed our cows corn instead of grass
because its cheaper. That struck a chord with me because he stated "If we fed our
cows grass instead of corn they could remove 80% of that E.coli virus from there
stomachs." I understand it’s a lot cheaper to feed cows corn but McDonalds is the largest
Fast Food chain in the world. I mean if anyone can start their own clean and humane
slaughterhouses its McDonalds. In terms of profit it wouldn’t pay itself off for at least a
decade or so but think of all the good the McDonalds corporation could do. Not only that
but the fact that you can police your own slaughterhouses and make sure everything is up
to McDonalds standards is beyond doing good in the public’s eye. I took an article from
Business world that provides us with the information that "more than 80% of our
slaughterhouses are dirty". "83% to be exact do not comply with government sanitary
standards." "The problems range from unsafe working conditions to , inhumane killing of
pigs and cattle to unsanitary working conditions and lack of cleanliness on the bloody
killing floor." It’s just a shock to me with such a high rate of problems in slaughterhouses
how they manage to stay up. Mind you if McDonalds is purchasing from these dirty
slaughterhouses not only can it effect the McDonalds corporation in case of someone
getting sick but McDonalds is supporting these cruel slaughterhouses by purchasing meat
from them just as people were supporting the blood diamonds in Africa by purchasing
them. Not only that but McDonalds is supporting the cruel treatment of these workers that
get injured every day in these assembly line food factories. These poor workers get
injured and killed every day while trying to keep up with the pace of the production line.
"The old meatpacking plants in Chicago slaughtered about 50 cattle an hour. Twenty
years ago , new plants in the High Plains slaughtered about 175 cattle an hour. Today
some plants slaughter up to 400 cattle an hour"(173). As you can see these plants try to
work at their own pace and have the workers follow which is extremely dangerous. These
poor workers try to keep up with the production line and often proves to be disastrous for
the worker. Ranging from serious injury to death it’s pretty common to find that in a
slaughterhouse. Most of these injuries also go unreported because the supervisors and
nurses get bonuses for the less amount of injuries reported. It’s just a sad and vicious cycle
for worker and animal alike.



I urge you Jim Skinner and any executives who may have also read my letter to consider
opening up a chain of McDonalds slaughterhouses with emphasis on having the cleanest
and safest working conditions for the worker. Also of course take care of the animals with
great care and respect in terms of living conditions starting from birth all the way down to
their killing which should be done in the most humane way possible. Thank you for
taking the time to read my letter.



Sincerly , Aleksandar Markovic

Aleksandar Markovic
English 101
Essay 3 Citations:
Food , Inc . Director Robert Kenner , Writers Robert Kenner , Elise Pearlstein and Kim Roberts .
Schlosser Eric "Fast Food Nation" , 2005 , Pg 173
"Most Slaughterhouses Are Dirty." Business World. 28 August. 1998.LexisNexis.Web.20 May 2011


http://140.234.0.9:8080/EPSessionID=15545fec152be75bcbff99db5e1b325/EPHost=www.lexisnexis.com/EPPath/lnacui2api/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T12007489068&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T12007489071&cisb=22_T12007489070&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=173384&docNo=3


"76% Of Slaughterhouses Kill Pigs Inhumanely". China post. 20 April. 2007.LexisNexis.Web.20 May 2011
http://140.234.0.9:8080/EPSessionID=6a7b0c1c43e4e634b22ebd8b4ba8450/EPHost=www.lexisnexis.com/EPPath/lnacui2api/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T12006902382&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T12006902385&cisb=22_T12006902384&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=227171&docNo=16

first darft open letter

35- 46 74st Jackson Heights
Queens, NY 11372

24 May 2010

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President Obama;


I am writing you because of an issue that has been bothering me ever since I was in high school. Ever since I was in the ninth grade I have become terrified of eating school lunch. Everyday at school during lunchtime I would line up in front of the cafeteria of my school lunch ready to eat this food I use to call “trustworthy”. I did not think there could ever be anything wrong with this food, I mean how could they be anything possibly wrong if it is prepared by people who are certified by the health department to prepare meals for public schools. But I was mistaken when one day I was sitting in the cafeteria ready to eat a pizza along with French fries and a chocolate milk, when I noticed the pizza wasn’t really cooked well it didn’t even have any sauce in it, besides chess and crust. I think that if I had eaten this pizza it would have gotten me sick. And as I opened the milk and began to drink it, it began to taste like it was already experienced. When I went to reach for my French fries they were very hard and cold. After a couple of days of going back to the cafeteria I began to noticed that the same meals were being served over and over again; cold pizza, fries, Chile, and mozzarellas sticks.


School lunches have a lot of fat and cholesterol. According to a nutritionists Kathy strong “ most schools lunch are packed with hot dogs, pepperoni pizza, and beef burritos”. Each of these food products are extremely high on cholesterol and I think is very unfair to be given a child these types of food. By schools serving kids these foods are basically lie they are contributing to the obesity rates and diabetes rates among young children’s. I need your help to try to put a stop to schools serving meals that are not well cooked and foods that may cause children to develop horrible disease later on in life. These foods are getting our children to come home feeling sick with a stomachache or a several headache.


The National School lunch program was created in 1946 according to Beth this program was created to “safeguard the health and well being of American children”. However in the couple of years since its inception this program has began to do less and less to provide healthy meals for kids. Today schools get $1 per every child in order to buy ingredients. But One dollar is not simply enough for cafeteria managers to provide healthy fresh foods for kids if the congress keeps deducting schools budget.


On Dec 13, 2010 you introduced a bill The Healthy- Free Kids Act that would “reauthorize the child nutrition Act”. I see this bill would bring positive results since its policy help schools send messages about healthy eating throughout the school by providing healthier vending machines, and snacks. I thank you for being concerned for your citizens. I have no doubt that you wouldn’t let kids health be in danger.


I would like for you to take a liitle bit closer look to the frozen foods that are giving to kids everyday for high cholesterol, make sure that these lunchrooms are cooking its foods right and not leaving it raw. Today every frozen food products contains “natural flavors or “artificial flavors”. According to Eric Schlosser in “Fast Food Nation”, natural flavor are flavors distills from a natural source while artificial flavor is completely chemicals. “The ingredient helps too explain not only why these foods taste so good but why most fast foods taste the way they do”(120). “But freezing and canning and dehydrating techniques used to process food destroy most of its flavors”(120). This could be dangerous to a child’s health these kids are just eating a bunch of chemicals which are extremely unhealthy for them. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter, it really means a lot to me.

Sincerely,
Mabel Arias

Angel's OPEN LETTER

angel.lopez1@live.lagcc.cuny.edu

Mayor Bloomberg
253 Broadway #9
New York, NY 10007

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

I am a part time student majoring in Liberal Arts at LaGuardia Community College. I originally wrote this letter for the FDA but after seeing the movie Food Inc. I just can’t expect them to take it seriously. Though I am addressing this to you Mr. Mayor I just would like for you to know that I’m pointing my finger at them. Please read this letter with an understanding that they should hear it from you and then they’ll listen. I don’t know everything but as far as I know I believe in what I have discovered from my cited sources. Please forward the letter below to the FDA if you feel that it is sound.

“What they don’t know won’t hurt them?” If what we’re unaware of won’t hurt us couldn’t that be based on the placebo effect, where when you tell someone that a water pill actually contains acetaminophen and two out of three people, believing it’s real, will feel better. This placebo effect is what I see to be the logic behind the fact that foods that are dosed with flavors are not labeled with even a website that explains the effects of these extracted flavors. Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) is the technique flavor chemists will apply as they produce food flavors; aromas to be more precise. In Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation he states that “”The invention of chromatographs and mass spectrometers-machines capable of detecting volatile gases at low levels- vastly increases the number of flavors that could be synthesized.”(128) Describing the chromatography of aroma compounds Schlosser states that “With almond flavor (Benz-aldehyde) is derived from natural sources, such as peach and apricot pits, it contains traces of hydrogen cyanide, a deadly poison.”(130) Benz-aldehyde lethal dosage is 890 mg/kg (oral dose for rats) wolframalpha.com The reason for all the risk involved in the chromatography of aroma compounds is because taste is associated with smell so that if one can’t smell the food it lacks flavor. You can compare this to some type of sophisticated parlor trick.Scientific reductionism is used to speed things up for profit. I’ll give you two examples. The first issue is regarding what I call “soil in a hurry”. Sir Albert Howard’s findings of the three major components of soil are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium; and so farmers use these elements to make corn crops grow faster. Michael Pollan, in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, points out that “plants grown in synthetically fertilized soils are less nourishing than one grown in composted soils; such plants are more vulnerable to diseases and insect pests; polycultures are more productiveare more productive and less prone to disease than monocultures; and that in fact the health of the soil, plant animal, human, and even nation are, as Howard claimed, connected along lines we can now begin to draw with empirical confidence. We may not be prepared to act on this knowledge, but we know that civilizations that abuse their soil eventually collapse.” (150). My reason for this quote is to demonstrate the negative outcomes wrought from the hurrying of nature. Because we are in such a hurry this has had an effect on how we make bread. Potassium bromate is used to bake bread faster but it is a suspected carcinogen. Before the Delaney clause of 1958 banned carcinogenic substances from food the FDA authorized potassium bromate yet after the Delaney clause it still is used in our bread or rather in the bread of those of us who would gladly take the chances of whether or not it might cause cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer says it possibly is a carcinogen. Let us all eat it as part of our diets and find out. The European Union and China can’t afford to take those chances. I don’t assume you and the folks at the FDA knew potassium bromate was a carcinogen all this time or rather that it’s a suspected carcinogen. I don’t believe you would allow potassium bromate would be used to bake bread faster if you weren’t sure about this. I refuse to believe that you would practice a philosophy that states “let’s wait and see” when it involves millions of sandwich lovers across our great nation developing cancer because of profits. If this is the case than as with cigarettes why aren’t warning labels placed on the boxes and wrappers of fast food sandwiches? Now that you are made aware of this I hope you let your loved ones know. Do they affect your conscience? Do you know that excitotoxins can cause insomnia? Can you sleep at night knowing that?

Taken from naturalnews.com in a four part article by Laura Weldon she states and I’m echoing that “Butylated hydroxyanisole is used by food processors to preserve meat products, baked goods cereals, snack foods, nuts, dehydrated foods and mixes, flavorings, desserts, beer, beverages, chewing gum and more. The National Toxicology Program (funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) says BHA is ‘reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.’ Their report also states that ‘a potential for consumer exposure to BHA by ingestion and dermal contact is widespread.’” Other mentionable food additives are trans fats because they raise LDL cholesterol, Acesulfame-K an artificial sweetener that is 200 times sweeter than sugar and it’s not possible to break it down during digestion since it was “found in the same concentrations in untreated and treated water…..” also according to
organic farmer and writer Laura Weldon in her four part article in naturalnews.com titled Common Additives in Your Food Contain Shocking Dangers. High fructose corn syrup inhibits white blood cell activity. In the second part of Weldon’s report she states that “Aspartame is known to cause mental retardation in one out of 15,000 babies who are unable to metabolize phenylalanine, one of the two amino acids found in aspartame.” I see it fit to quote Dr. Russell Blaylock from his book Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills (1996) and he states that “It needs to be emphasized that all excitotoxins–glutamate, aspartate, and L-cysteine–stimulate large amounts of free radicals within exposed neurons. In fact, in a recent paper, Catherine Bergeron stated that the best theory for excitotoxity in ALS was that it initiated oxidative stress and the arachidonic cascade (by phospholipase A2), thereby generating enormous and overwhelming concentrations of free radicals in the anterior horn cells of the spinal cord. [24] This, in time, results in the progressive death of these motor neurons “(Kindle Locations 4480-4485) Added flavors are called excitotoxins by neurologists for their effects. When we indulge our taste buds we experience bliss and then we crash. To shed light on what exactly happens inside our brains when we ingest flavor enhanced food I must quote from Dr. Russell Blaylock in his book titled Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills (1996) regarding the neurological effects in acute doses and in milder doses of MSG and he explains the two separate effects when he states that “Within fifteen to thirty minutes after being exposed to high doses of MSG, neurons suspended in tissue culture are seen to swell like balloons. (FIG 3-3) Under the microscope you can see degeneration of the small structures within the cell, called organelles, and also clumping of the chromatin of the nucleus. Within three hours these neurons are not only dead, but the body’s defense mechanisms begin to haul away the debris. Under experimental conditions using animals, this degenerative reaction is seen when MSG is either ingested in the diet, injected into the abdominal cavity, or applied directly to the neurons in tissue culture or into the brain by way of cannula or tube. But when lower doses of MSG were used, scientists discovered something very strange and different. Most of the neurons after thirty minutes appeared to be not only unharmed, but perfectly normal in every way. Then, suddenly, two hours following the exposure, long after the MSG had been removed, the neurons began to die. It was as if a clock had been set so that the neurons would all commit suicide at the same time. Within eighteen to twenty four hours after exposure to MSG, all of the neurons were dead. But during that initial two hour period the cells appeared to be perfectly healthy.” When Dr. Russell mentions FIG 3-3 he’s referring to a three step set of diagrams where a gelatinous MSG chain of molecules latches onto the neuron which then shrivels and disintegrates. The detritus is removed from the body. MSG causes the brain’s neurons to disintegrate. If disintegrating our neurons was not big business we’d have clear enough minds to study and understand its harmful effects. MSG remains hidden if it’s not close to 100%. If it’s below 90% it doesn’t end up on the label. Despite the fact that the molecules are so tiny and seem irrelevant in terms of mass they are most effective regarding their effects on taste buds and due to their brain damaging effects they merit a warning label.

I propose that every supermarket provides Food Science Aisles where they can scan the item and it will get a grade based on health concerns. Accredited healthy findings on every ingredient could be available on a touch screen and there should be an animation to demonstrate the effects of the unfamiliar ingredients. Posters running through the aisle should be in steps illustrating the receptors of the brain and they should explain how brain receptors react to the foods and the possible long term effects of these foods. Free internet is not the same thing as this. What I’m proposing is educational and the acceptable alternative would be a free food science educational website in bold letters on the front of every food containing the following ingredients: Potassium bromate, Aspartame, Butyla Monosodium, Acesulfame-K, Trans fats, MSG-even if it’s as low as 1% though it’s usually above 90% in Glutamate, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, Hydrolyzed Protein, Hydrolyzed Plant Protein, Plant Protein Extract,Sodium caseinate, Calcium caseinate, Yeast Extract, Textured Protein, Autolyzed Yeast, Hydrolyzed Oat Flour, Malt extract, Malt Flavoring, Bouillon Broth, Stock Flavoring, Natural Flavoring, Natural Beef or Chicken Flavoring, Seasoning Spices, Carrageenan, Enzymes, Soy Protein Concentrate, Soy Protein Isolate, and Whey Protein Concentrate.

There should be penalties for not including ingredients on food labels. Just because those ingredients were used in a miniscule amount, even by microscopic standards, they should be on the food label. If they’re sprayed on for a millisecond, just to preserve the food, we should know. If it’s not worth mentioning then don’t do it. If it’s a secret formula; that’s one thing but please it’s sinister to keep the side effects a secret. The side effects are not undetermined. I’ve given you suggestions. I hope they seem feasible or at least they’ll inspire you to invent something that fixes these problems.

Sincerely,
Angel J. Lopez




Citations:
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (2001)
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (2006)
Chromatography of Aroma Compounds and Fragrances by Tibor Cserhati
Blaylock, Russell L. (1996). Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, Health Press NA Inc. Kindle Edition.

open letter

395 Fountain Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11208

June 1, 2011

Donnie Smith
President and Chief Executive Officer
2545 E OZARK AVE
GASTONIA, NC 28054-1423

Dear CEO Donnie Smith,
Hey there, I’m a 19 year old teen born and raised New York but also grew up on a farm as a kid in Honduras a little country in Central America. I am writing to you because I recently discovered how all your meat products are made and packaged and I was complete repulsed by the idea. I personally believe that the way your company has run for all these years is completely appalling with all the drugs that your workers put into the animals its inhuman and cruelty towards animals and the mistreatment of the farmers that are used in order for your companies process to work. I grew up on a farm raising chickens, cows, pigs, with my family and it was a smooth process on a 30 by 300 feet farm. All organized and treated are animals right growing them naturally until they were a good size to be eaten by everyone. No injections or antibiotics or anything else that they say is put into your company’s meat. Everyone would work on a specific animal for the day and they would always be treated with respect just like everyone else who worked on the farm. ““They are bred and drugged to grow so large so quickly that their legs and organs can’t keep up, making heart attacks, organ failure, and crippling leg deformities common. Many become crippled under their own weight and eventually die because they can’t reach the water nozzles.” If this were to happen to a dog or a cat people would be outraged about this statement, but since it’s just a chicken some people don’t care about what happens to them. The bottom line is, despite what animal it is, this is a form of animal cruelty”. (Brittney Pulce 1) In an article by Brittany Pulce she herself talks about the idea of animal cruelty and even though your company says they do not drug their animals it is everywhere that your company still does in order to rapid the growth of the animals but also due to all of those animals death at the same time it’s also doing a very large amount of damage to the environment and yet the company refuses to step up and take responsibility for their company’s main issues. Even if I grew up eating all of those processed meat sold by your company I still can’t get over the fact of it being drugs in the food and the cruelty done to your animals.
All the workers disserve to be like that animals and taken care of. But the way your farmers are treated and workers is complete cruelty, I believe it should stop and lot of changes should be made in the method used in your company. Your workers are over worked stressed and have no health insurance yet they suffer and mistreated worst then anything other job out there. Your company’s “employee’s” all disserve to be treated fairly and paid an equal rate instead of under minimum wage just because they are not citizens it still isn’t right on the pressure and amount of work put on one employee. They health issue is an even bigger problem because your works medical issues are mostly unreported and suffer serious illnesses, injuries even death and yet they aren’t even insured enough. No matter who it is that works for any company the health issues done to a human life is really serious that just proves the greed and insecurity a company lies on now a day. No one disserves that kind of cruelty in Kentucky OSHA Widens Tyson Probe. (Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigates Tyson’s Foods)(Brief Article) by Nash, James L, he talks about worker is and the horrors of the slaughter houses and what happens to an employee can easily be killed at work and yet the company doesn’t really do much to even help. It seriously sickens me to know that the life of another person can mean nothing to a large cooperation. Its seriously just not right for anyone even their family aren’t support at all even if the workers worked over 40 hours also its just insane in cruelty.
What also bothers me is that due to all the drugs injected to all the animals hasn’t started a large epidemic in society yet. Why does the company refuse to see or accept the fact that due to all the consumption of all your customers eating the meat with all those antibiotics can have a negative effect on everyone? “Crowding allows animals to easily share diseases, many of them able to spread to people. The factory owners use antibiotics to try to suppress the disease outbreaks in the facilities but many of the bacteria that cause the infections are able to adapt to these drugs forcing the animal industry to add ever more and different antibiotics to the feed of the cattle, pigs and chickens in these facilities. Some diseases like “mad cow disease” are spread by viruses, not bacteria and antibiotics do not affect viruses.” In an article in Great Health Connections they explain how the epidemic years ago started and how it spreads around. Yet I don’t see why doesn’t the company finally stand up and take charge and become responsible for all these problems which causes society to worry and not trust any food company for example like your Tyson’s.

I don’t like the idea on a company’s cruelty just because they have all their money and can. With all the money a company like Tyson makes they should be more responsible and change the methods used. All change doesn’t hurt anyone besides what would change if a company finally decided to get up and make a change their customers and everyone in society would believe that its finally time for a change and to know if a company as big as Tyson decided to change and help, What does the company have to lose anyways is what I’m asking you? I’m just being honest on my opinion and I know something needs to be done soon before something serious and epidemic start. Help all your workers yourself and do the country a favor and finally do the right thing.
Sincerely,
Fredy Alvarez

MR. SMITH

3428 33rd Street
Astoria, NY 11106

24 May 2001

William C. Smith, Assistant Administrator
Office of Field Operations
Food Safety Inspection Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave. S.W.
Whitten Building, Rm. 344E
Washington, DC 20250

Dear Mr. Smith:

I am writing this letter to you because I am very concern about the treatment of animals especially of that animal that are grown for our consumption. I am a twenty five year old man from the state of New York but I am a decedent from a third world country name El Salvador. I grew up spending a lot of time in El Salvador and I grew up to appreciate animals that are grown for consumption because my family owns many animals like chicken, cows, and pigs. Many people own animals in El Salvador. My family grows animals and slaughtered them in special occasion like birthdays and holidays like Christmas. I comprehend that the reason why people eat meat and I am not against it but what I am appose to is certain agricultural practices surrounding the production of meat in this country.

I was surfing the web for an assignment when I came across a website where PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) conducted an undercover investigation at a Heflin, Alabama, Tyson slaughterhouse, on nine separate day, Peta’s undercover investigator saw workers urinating in the live-hang area where the hangs are kept, including on the conveyor belt that moves birds to be slaughter they also break the chickens wigs and legs when handling them. One worker admitted that he broke a chicken's back by beating the bird against a rail, a back-up killer stabbed birds in the neck area with knives, and several birds were hung from shackles by their necks instead of by their legs. Do you believe that this is a right practice? What kind of respect are we showing this poor creature? This animal are for our consumption we owe them a lot more respect than that. These workers are not the only problem many meat suppliers they shove hundreds of chickens in to a huge waste-filled space where the chickens are cram with no space to move and are surrounded with their own feces. I wonder if you know this? Do you also know that they use drugs on the chicken? Drugs like growth hormones to make the chicken grow bigger breast. Do you think that using drugs on the food we consume is a good Idea? Do you know if the hormones use on poultry effect the consumer?

Cornell University program on breast cancer and environmental risk factor stated on their report two cases on with Early puberty in girls has been found to be associated with a higher risk for breast cancer. They also point out that steroid hormones in food were suspected to cause early puberty in girls. However, epidemiological studies have not been conducted to see whether or not growth hormone treated food are responsible for this but one laboratory found a chicken sample from a local market to have a higher than normal level of estrogen (estrogens is used to increase breast tissue growth) and residues of zeranol (Zeranol is approved for use as a growth promoter in livestock, including beef cattle, in the United States) were reported in the blood of some of the girls who had reached puberty early. In the other case it was suspected that school meals were responsible for breast enlargement in very young girls and boys but no samples were “available” for testing. It is mind boggling that these cases are still un answer to the public as consumer we need to be better inform and you Mr. Smith with the position of representing the well being of the public should think of yourself as a reformer. What side of history do you want to be part of the side of corporate America or the side of the people? I admire you Mr. Smith for your work and many achievements. You have played a critical role in the implementation of the Pathogen Reduction “Pathogen: a bacterium, virus, or other microorganism that can cause disease.” and the HACCP “Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point System is a management system in which food safety is addressed through the analysis and control of biological, chemical, and physical hazards from raw material production, procurement and handling, to manufacturing, distribution and consumption of the finished product.” Rule that led to the reduction of Salmonella and food borne illnesses associated with meat and poultry products. I am sure that you understand my concerns.

To conclude Mr. Smith it is very important that you take a good look at the monopoly system in the meat suppliers are heading to. There are few meat suppliers for a nation of over 310 million people. To start solving our problems we should encourage more farmers to raise livestock’s with regulations that should be followed. Farmers like Smithfield Hog Processing Plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina who were shown on a documentary FOOD INC. seeing how they slaughter their chickens is very different then how Tyson slaughterhouse dose it because u can notice that the chickens have energy to fight back in the contrary of Tyson Slaughterhouse where the chickens are too weak to even move. Put your support on farmers like the Smithfield it will be a small step to a better future for this great nation.





Sincerely

Hector Melendez

Katarzyna Harasim Open Letter

I'll post mine tomorrow .. ;)

Xiao Chen's First Draft Open Letter

144-46 38 Avenue

Flushing, NY 11354

May 24, 2011

Margaret A. Hamburg, MD

Commissioner

Food and Drug Administration

10903 New Hampshire Avenue

Silver Spring, MD 20903

Dear Commissioner Hamburg:

I am a twenty-year-old college student in New York City, and I have lived in this city for five years. I am writing this letter to you because of the hormone injections into caw and cattle have become to the cause of many serious disorders on Americans. We are all eating the foods that contain the overdoses of hormones that can cause water, salt, sugar, protein and fat metabolism disorders; even though the off-season fruits and milks from the cows that we always see in the supermarket are foods that contain the growing hormone. I am a girl who grew up in a small village in China. My grandmother used to raise chickens and ducks in the backyard of our house. I understood how long it is to raise chickens from little chicks; it usually takes half-year started from the egg. I recently have been reading Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation, it is telling me that the baby chicks can become full-grown in just one week, and is ready for slaughter! This information has amazed my mind by how fast is it for a cattle industry takes to make the chicks become full-grown; at the same time, I feel so scared that how many hormones I had injected in past five years. However, it seems like no one knows the serious behind those growing hormones because all of the Americans are feeding themselves the products within excessive amount of hormones, and growing to have diabetes, hypokalemia, edema, and hypertension. In case of children, the excessive amount of hormones that they intake from milks or meats can become the cause of sexual precocity. I thank you for your concerns on every American’s health, and your belief in the public health protection is important. Your firmly speeches is encouraging me at writing this important letter to you.

As a resident in New York City, I think it is my responsible to present to you my research on the price of foods from two different food supermarkets. In the organic food supermarket, the foods they sell are hormone and antibiotic free, which is priced higher than the foods in another supermarket that sells variety of inorganic foods. For example, the non-organic broccoli costs about $1.99 per pound and the organic one costs about $2.49 per pound which is priced 20% higher than the non-organic broccolis. For organic meats, the price is even higher than those vegetables and fruits; organic meats usually cost over a hundred dollars for no more than five pounds. Due to the abundance of the non-organic foods that provide by cattle and agricultural industries, the organic foods have become a rarity and expensive to buy and produce. This is another issue that relates to the hormone injections. Because of the growing hormone is working to increase the production by shortening the period of growth, the cost of these foods can be lower, and their outputs have met the need of many suppliers. Since the comparison is created, Americans are force to buy unhealthy food that contains higher amount of hormones, and become unhealthy as the result of eating these foods.

I have been living in this country for five years, i feel full of stressed every time I go to the supermarket. There is variety of foods that I need for daily, but also make me gain weights inexpertly. I still remember my first month of life in the United State; I eat in the same way as I did in my home country but gained ten pounds by eating the way I was. This reminds me that I had injected myself the growing hormones by eating daily foods. I want to know, how big I would become if I had continue eating the way I was? In my point of views, warning the harms of the excessive hormones through education is important for all Americans, and I think you are the only person can help to prove the harms of the excessive hormones. However, it is more important to give a limitation on the content of hormones, which says the percentage of hormones for inorganic foods should be lower than 30 percent.

I invite you to take a closer look at these issues. I hope to see more organic foods with lower price that everyone else can afford; also the decreased of hormones in our foods especially the meats and milks that closely relate to everyone’s health. Thank you for your time and patients.

Sincerely,

Xiao Chen

Open Letter

23 Division Ave. Westbury, NY 11590
26 May 2011
Dr. Mehmet Oz New York-Presbyterian Hospital Milstein Hospital Bldg Room 7 GN 435 177 Fort Washington Ave. New York, NY 10032
Dear Dr. Mehmet Oz,
Hello. I am a 23 year old woman from Long Island. I am writing you because of an issue that has caught my attention. People could be killing themselves slowly and not even know it because of MSG a white, crystalline, water-soluble powder, used to intensify taste in processed foods. In 2005 the House of Representatives passed the “Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act” to protect the food and beverage industry from civil lawsuits: Under the measure, known as the “Cheeseburger Bill” people who buy food or drinks couldn’t sue the companies that made them if they got fat from eating the food. But who’s protecting the people? The FDA and DPA both have also been working with the Corporation with Ajinomoto Company Incorporated to prevent full and clear disclosure of MSG in processed foods. They also hire scientist to turn up research to demonstrate MSG as safe and public relations firms are hired to fabricate stories about the safety of MSG. Since no one in the government wants to take responsibility for the effects of MSG in our food. I would like to know if you could do a show on it to make the public more aware of MSG and its side effects.


Many Americans have been eating foods with MSG and don’t even know it. I didn’t either before I did this research. But there have been so many studies done to show how bad it is for humans and all the aliments it causes, for instance a study was done on mice who were given MSG threw a feeding tube these mice compare to the others became blind and obese. MSG is a neurotoxin substance that causes a wide range of health reactions from a temporary headache to permanent brain damage. There has been a huge increase in Alzheimer’s, brain cancer, seizers, multiple sclerosis and diseases of the nervous system since MSG was added to processed food fifty years ago. Ninety-five percent of processed foods contain MSG and if MSG passes thru the blood brain barrier the nerve cells disintegrate or shrivel up which causes the health problems.


MSG is found in many different kinds of foods like dehydrated soup mixes, sauce mixes, TV dinners, low-fat milk, imitation garlic and onions and condiments with a meaty base. Most vegetarian foods are loaded with MSG because they need the flavoring of food to tasty meaty for example vegetarian hamburgers, hotdogs, and bacon. I was shocked when I went into the kitchen and started looking in the cabinets and refrigerator. MSG is in everything. Campbell’s soup, Doritos, Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Lean Cuisines, low-fat milk, salad dressing especially the low fat ones. The items that didn’t have MSG had something called Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, which is just another name for Monosodium Glumate. It’s shocking to see how many foods we eat contain MSG but we could not have all these processed foods without the fake flavoring and the fast food industry couldn’t exist without MSG and artificial meat flavors to make secret sauces and spices. We are all getting tricked into believed we’re getting something nutritious when we’re getting nothing at all except very toxic substances. MSG is one of the most toxic additives in our food supply and anything you buy that says spices or natural flavoring contains MSG. The FDA get around putting it in the labels if there’s less than fifty percent of it in your food. If they weren’t hiding anything they wouldn’t have to go through so much trouble to hide the truth. The FDA also deemed MSG safe at one time but there after it was not found to be safe and was added to the generally regarded as safe list.


I would be so grateful if you could do a show on MSG just to educate the public on what their eating, how dangerous it is and how this toxic additive could also be causing them to become obese. It’s a huge concern to me because the average American has no idea that there is this toxic additive in their food that could be killing them slowly. And I believe if you do a show on MSG it will open the eyes of many Americans who have no idea that the food processing industry adds toxic chemicals to their processed foods to add flavoring and give the food its edible appeal.
Concerned Citizen,
Maria Montero

Work Sited
Fallon, Sally, MA. “Dirty Secrets of the Food Processing Industry.” Consumer Health. Volume 24 Issue 8. August 2001. Web. 19 May 2011.
“Your Government in Action: the system that promotes the unregulated use of MSG.” TruthinLabeling.org. The politics of MSG. updated 14 May 2011. Web. 25 May 2011.
Erb, John. “MSG Causes Most Obesity but Congress Grants Immunity o Food Producers.” Chris Gupta Share the Wealth. 13 May 2005. Web. 25 May 2011.

Andrew Quijano's First draft open letter

5-24-11


54-29 69th Lane
Maspeth NY 11378

Food Safety and Inspection Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave. S.W.
Washington D.C. 20250-3700

Dear Thomas J. Vilsac secretary of the USDA,
I write this letter to address the issue of animal cruelty in factory farms all across the United States. I am currently an aspiring Veterinarian Technician at LaGuardia Community College and an old dog owner. Animals are living breathing creatures just like us and that means they deserve to have some respect because they are living beings. Our current agriculture has lost that integrity, the connection we humans had with nature. Since the days of the Native Americans, they revered how buffalo should be free and knew buffalo was also needed for meat along other purposes. The natives went through a lot of measures to kill only the buffalo needed and not to waste even a hair of the buffalo sacrificed for their needs. As humans, we are chosen to be the rulers of this planet with our intelligence and animals being meant serve us. But because animals are here for mankind is why we should cherish them because we need them as much as cows, pigs, dogs, cats, etc. need us to survive. We are entitled to protect animals so they can still be around for our needs such as meat, pets, services or resources.


At current times animals are raised in terrible conditions as most of them don’t see daylight. Aside from living in the dark, most farm animals are forced to live in their own waste and forced to eat food they are not by evolution supposed to eat. Cows are forced to eat corn among other scraps such as dead animals. Most cows and other farm animals are also in cramped area which is unsanitary because if one gets sick from let’s say E. Coli it is likely it will spread to every creature stuck in the animal factory. (Fast Food Nation 194) On top of all the unsanitary conditions farm animals are forced to take growth hormones to make them bigger so they can have more meat when slaughtered. Some chickens and other farm animals die since their body can’t handle their overgrowing bodies. It’s unnatural to see a chicken grow in a month instead of 3 months without growth hormones. Plus it is possible that some of the cleaning agents and growth hormones on the meat we eat pass on to children which might cause some health problems to the consumers of this factory made meat. With this industrial system food borne illnesses are far more likely because of the pollution in the animal factories and the food and water they drink is unsafe for them much less humans. With so much antibiotics and chemicals on the farm animals their waste can’t be absorbed fast enough by the soil and there is also unnaturally toxic to the air, soil and water ways.


Not only animals suffer from this system but workers who have to slaughter and butcher the animal meat also suffer. Who are we to use not only animals but our fellow human brethren who are also treated like garbage and make their only purpose for working and profit? 4 Meat companies such as Tyson control more than 80% of the meat market and to keep their outrageously high profits, they hire mostly illegal immigrant workers who will accept terrible working conditions and low pay. The slaughter house is now the most dangerous factory job in America (qtd.).
Business is mostly to blame for this system along with fast foods hording billions of dollars to keep their food at lowest prices and stop anyone from challenging their system. It is still possible to have a food economy that not only is profitable but also environmentally friendly and allow farm animals to live healthier thereby, healthier meat. An example of such a convergence of business and nature happens in Poly Face farms in Virginia (This farm was referenced in Food INC. a documentary behind the food industry). This farm has their farm animals live life in a open field. Most importantly this farm is all natural cycle of life, starting with cows eating grass, fertilizing the grass then chickens eating the animal and vegetable wastes are used for compost to repeat the cycle. Not only is it natural but Poly Face farms claims to be just as efficient as industrial farms without any of the nasty side effects of the industrial food chain.
I thank you for reading this letter and I appreciate your concern for not only the animal kingdom but also the people who work on the fields and work to feed our country. I promise you my continued support for a healthier cleaner farm and slaughter houses for all Americans to enjoy.

Sincerely,
Andrew Quijano

Open Letter

9224 218st
Queens Village, NY 11428

26 May 2011
Secretary of Agriculture
Tom Vilsack
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250

Dear Tom Vilsack,

I am writing to urge you to embark a policy review/change. I’ve come to learn that most of the USDA budget is focused on food and nutrition programs. I would like to propose a change in your policy. Less than 25% of your budget goes to farmers. I feel as if your priorities are conflicted. There are two areas that I think needs more money so they will be able to perform efficiently. If the majority of the budget would go towards farmers and slaughter house, I think it would have a great impact on our health. If you allocate the funds into these areas there wouldn’t be any need to come up with programs to rid bacteria or toxins from our food. You wouldn’t have to spend most the money on nutrition and food.


I think you should start gradually and allocate 50% of the funds towards the farmers and slaughterhouses. Farmers would use the money to purchase product that are organic to grow their crops. They wouldn’t use soil that contains ammonia or use chemicals to grow their crops. These farmers can’t depend on their farm to support their families; they have to find jobs that are off the farm to keep afloat. Farmers who graze cattle would use the money to be able to have a much cleaner environment for the cows. I’m not sure if you’ve seen this documentary Food Inc., if you haven’t, it’s something worth watching. I was horrified of how the cows sit in their own feces and they end up all covered in it. When the cattle is all covered in their own feces this has a huge factor on the consumers’ health. In Fast Food Nation (another great book you should read if you have not as yet), I read about many children and adults getting the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria.


There was this one story in particular that really touch my heart. There was a young girl just about six years old, who “Suffered terrible pain, had three heart attacks, and died in her mother’s arm” (199). All of this can be avoided if we allocate the fund to the right places. If these cattle we fed grass instead of corn some of the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria would die, Did you know that? It would have not spread as fast as it did, but we all know why cattle are fed corn. It’s because it so cheap and farmers don’t have the money to feed the cattle grass. So with all this said, I think giving the farmers more money would benefit loyal consumers’ health if we rid the bacteria before it enters the slaughter houses.


The slaughter house should use the money to make the environment safer to work in. They need to set more regulations and the USDA needs to appoint more workers to inspect the slaughter houses more often to see if they are up to par with the standards.

Sincerely,
A highly concerned consumer
Saudia Khan

watch this

Openn Letter

Woodside, NY 11377

26 May 2011

Kenneth Clayton
Associate Administrator
Agricultural Marketing Service
United States Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Room 3069-S,
Washington, DC 20250

Dear Mr. Clayton:

My name is Kathleen Shannon and I am a first year Veterinary Technology student at LaGuardia Community College. I am writing this letter to you in the hopes that you can help make some changes to the 7th Edition of The Dietary Guidelines for Americans released by the USDA in 2010. The guidelines state that low-fat milk and dairy products are a healthy food source. In their press release, the FDA says that this document is an evidence-based guideline. In my Vet Tech program we discussed The China Study, a New York Times best-selling book by Colin T. Campbell. In his research, performed various times in various labs throughout the world, Campbell’s research showed that consumption of dairy protein and dairy products has caused cancer in laboratory animals at a rate of 100%. 100% results do not often occur in scientific experiments. That is the reason why the study was replicated in many different labs in many different countries. However, the results were the same. Why has the American public not been made aware of these findings? Why has our governments continued to issue guidelines that encourage the use of milk and other dairy products? Could it be the pressure from the National Dairy Council?

I am writing to you in the hopes that your department can start a nation-wide marketing campaign to advise the American public about the dangers of dairy consumption. We need to change people’s perception and emotional connection to milk. Most of the “benefits” from drinking milk can be better obtained from different sources such as leafy green vegetable and actual sunlight. As a child I remember hearing over and over again, “you need to drink milk so that you can grow up to be big and strong” and “drinking milk makes your bones stronger”. Calcium is what your bones need. There are a variety of other source of calcium such as leafy green vegetable, beans and figs. How many times has a mother prepared a soothing hot glass at milk to help a child fall asleep? Is there anything better than an ice cold glass of milk to share with a plate of cookies or wash down a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Americans have been marketed into believing they need milk. We need to change this perception. How about a marketing campaign slogan such as “Does Milk Really do the Body Good?. The USDA does not have to look any further than nature itself. No other species drinks the milk for another species. Why should humans be any different? Another marketing strategy could be to show a baby goat drinking the milk from a mother gorilla. Seems absurd, no? Then show a human drinking cow’s milk. Milk is nature’s way of helping newborns flourish after birth and pass antibodies from the mother to the newborn. As I studied in my Vet Tech classes, all animals are weaned off of their mother’s milk. As we all know, so are humans. So why is it that adult humans still continue to drink milk – MILK from a COW? I’m sure Charles Darwin would be turning over in his grave.

Research in The China Study has shown that people from counties with the highest dairy consumption have the highest rate of osteoporosis, a disease in which the density and quality of bone is reduced. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has sued the USDA to change their food pyramid. They contend that the USDA is trying to protect the meat and dairy interests. Nowhere in the USDA Guidelines does it say eat less are eat no dairy. What is more important, our health or the agriculture industry’s profits? Milk has been cited as liquid food with the same health risks as red meat. How is it that the American public is unaware of this? There is a great movement of American physicians to get the word out, such as Dr. Kradjian‘s The Milk Letter: An Message to My Patients. In this letter he states that most of the WORLD lives healthy lives without drinking milk. Why should Americans be any different? Mr. Clayton, I urge you, as the Associate Administrator of Agriculutre Markeing Services at the United States Department of Agriculture, please start a marketing campaign to educate the American Public that milks is not “the perfect food”, milk does not “do the body good” and nobody should “get milk”.

Sincerely,
Kathleen F. Shannon

Open Letter

1313 Cemetery Lane
New York, NY, 90210

1 June 2011

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007

Dear Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg:

Hello, I am a 22 year old female student in LaGuardia Community College; born and raised in New York City. I am writing to you because I believe your ban on trans fats is unnecessary. I don’t believe it’s the governments place to keep people from putting garbage in them. I think it’s the responsibility of each person to decide what they should or should not do. Warnings like commercials that are constantly shown about smoking and warning labels should be the extent the government has on whether people partake in a product. The government banning such things would be like the government banning driving because someone might get hit by a car. As awful as it is to watch someone destroy their health with a substance, in the end it is not anyone’s place to make that person stop. Warn the public that trans fats is bad for them, then allow Darwinism to take place. It is only natural (even if the substance in question is not). Now I know it sounds horribly cold and evil of me to say this but frankly if someone is going to continue doing something knowing that doing it is harming them, I don’t see the point of making them stop. For example, I have yet to meet someone who upon hearing of a smoker being diagnosed with lung cancer say, “wow if it wasn’t for those cigarettes being forced into his/her lungs”, from my experience they usually think, “it’s their own fault for smoking”. I don’t believe that just because trans fats is considered a “food” product that it should be treated any differently. What’s next? Banning the use of sugar because diabetics won’t stop eating sweets that they very well know will harm their health? As a diabetic if I were to ever lose my foot to diabetes I will not blame the food, or the disease, I will blame myself for not taking care of myself better knowing full and well that certain foods are harmful to me. I do not claim to be better than any consumer, I certainly take my part in purchasing food items that can be harmful but at the same time I am completely aware of how and why it is harmful to me and I am aware of the consequences of ignoring these “food rules” I must follow. And I am fully aware there are people out there that do take the steps to be an informed consumer. Like the people who own and run Brooklyn Grange Farms, they did not like the product being supplied to them so they leased a rooftop and grew their own. I believe more people should do what they have done and take responsibility for what they eat.

The government should not protect people from things that they won’t bother to protect their selves from. If someone chooses to eat nothing but fast food for the rest of their life they should not be surprised when their heart explodes (not literally). People these days are lacking will power and the ability to make a decision and I partially blame the government for this they have made it so that people don’t even read the labels on what they buy anymore. They expect everything to be presorted and predetermined to be something harmful but this should not be the case. People should be willing to learn about the products they are going to eat, would you go into a forest and eat a mushroom without knowing whether it was edible or not? There was one article I read called “Is Vitaminwater Really a Healthy Drink?” where the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) lead a class action lawsuit claiming that the Coca-Cola Company were violating consumer-protection laws with their Vitaminwater brand by advertizing their product as a “vitamin-enhanced” making it seem like their product was “healthy” when Vitaminwater has 150 calories and 30 grams of sugar which completely cancels out the effect of the vitamins. As said in the article “Vitaminwater is great tasting, hydrating beverage with essential vitamins and water – and labels clearly showing ingredients and calorie content”(Coca-Cola-Rep) I believe the CSPI had no case against the Coco-Cola Company because although Vitamin water did not advertize the calories and sugar they did put it in the nutritional facts on the bottle and it is the consumers responsibility to do something as simple as turn the bottle and read the nutritional facts. The government has babied the people and making people too lazy make a decision of their own. I am a diabetic, and being such I understand how food can be misleading and cause more damage than good but I would never blame the products for being bad for me. I do not expect someone to keep track of everything I eat and forcefully take away anything that will harm me. I think it would optimal if people would do what I and many other people in this world have done and take responsibility for their own lives and not blame anything else but their selves when they eat something knowing that ingredients are probably not the best thing for them. People should not expect food companies to openly tell that their food may not be healthy, there are many laws in place that keep companies from lying about their products but not many that insist they advertize every little detail of their product; that’s the consumers job and I sincerely believe that it should stay that way.

On December 5, 2006 the New York City Board of Health made the use of trans fats banned from all restaurant. I propose the ban on trans fats be lifted and for the government to allow people to make their own educated decisions on whether or not they eat the substance. Although I do not like the use of trans fats in fast food restaurants I do not think anyone should force a restaurant to change their cooking methods. Restaurants should be able to make the decision their selves whether they care enough about the health of the people they are serving. If people choose to continue using these products, then the government should warn them just like people are warned against cigarettes, with commercials and warning labels. And then if people choose to ignore the warnings then I believe it’s their own fault for whatever health complications that may result. It is time to end the laziness of people in their own decision making, and end the governments control on what we can and cannot eat. Is the driving of cars going to be banned because people are constantly getting into accidents? I doubt it. Allow the people to use their own brains to do what is best for them because if the government continues to intervene too much I believe the people will suffer even more in years to come.
Sincerely,
Lynn-Mari Rodriguez


Work Cited:
Gregory, Sean, “Is Vitaminwater Really a Healthy Drink”, Time Magazine, July 30, 2010. www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2007103,00.html Web.