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