Did you know that 80% of the food in the U.S. is supplied by massive factory farms? I would like to think that by using the word farm, that it is safely grown for the health and welfare of the consumer. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. More than 6,000 additives and chemicals are used by food manufacturers to process and produce the foods we eat today. Our food system is heavily dependent on toxic chemicals and synthetic additives which can threaten our health, especially the health of children. Almost 900 million tons of toxic chemicals are used by farms every year and millions of tons of potentially toxic sewage sludge have been used as fertilizer.
Some of the foods animals at these factories are given to eat are same species meat, diseased animals, drugs and chemicals, candy and cookies, just to name a few. These “foods” will then be passed on to the consumer when eating the meat from these animals.
Chemicals are used liberally. For example, to make white flour, the wheat flour is bleached using chemicals such as oxide of nitrogen, chlorine, chloride and nitrosyl. Soy beans are drenched in hexane, which is a byproduct of gasoline refining, to separate their oil from protein for processed foods. Those are just a couple of examples.
More than 70% of all processed foods are made with some genetically modified ingredients, but do not have to be labeled as such on the package. Also, 70% of the calories the average American eats comes from processed foods. Today, the average child in American consumes 5 “servings” of pesticides every day in the food and water he/she consumes. That same child also consumes 150 mg of artificial food coloring per day. Most food coloring is made from petroleum or synthetic materials and some are even used as pesticides.
I have written other articles previously on the dangers of food colorings, GMOs, and pesticides. If you missed them and want more information on those, check them out. This article just puts them all together to show what America’s food system is like and just how much we are surrounded by what I call “non-foods.” I am scared by the high percentages of the dirtiness of our foods and the continued health decline of our citizens.
The link below shows a diagram that is easy to read and understand and at the bottom, it shows what health risks are associated with some of the foods we eat.
Click here for more information
- Farm Factory