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This presentation tackles the lack of sustainability focus in the food industry, covering health, culture, and environmental aspects. Exploring issues like convenience over quality, high fructose corn syrup, and excessive meat consumption, it sheds light on the negative impacts on health, environment, and culture. The speaker shares personal experiences leading to involvement in this topic and highlights the imbalance in the current food system. Engage with insights on the detrimental effects of certain food practices and the urgent need for a more sustainable approach in the industry.
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Lindsey Hoover presents
Food Industry and Concerns of ……..Sustainability………….
What is my presentation specifically addressing? The shortage of concern for the sustainability of…
Clarification and Answering Questions • Q: What is included in the term food industry? • A: The food industry is a worldwide collective of various businesses that combined supply much of the food energy consumed by the world population. " Food market structures: Overview", Economic Research Service (USDA) • Q: So, the food industry is responsible for feeding hungry people, what is the problem? • A: Current emphasis is not on providing the best quality of food to individuals, it is focused on providing convenience to a population that is ever moving. • Q: What about GMO’s? Aren’t genetically modified organisms going to resolve world hunger? • A: The unfortunate truth is that we already make three times as much food as needed to feed every living soul on the planet…and America is responsible for consuming and wasting the most. It is not about feeding the hungry, it is about producing the most lucrative financial gains. Source: Slow Food Nation, Carlos Petrini
Why did I get involved? • Poor health most of my life • Renewed sense of enthusiasm for living after making lifestyle changes • Elimination of primarily gluten and casein, however other foods as well, through elimination diet improved my health drastically • Realized that our interactions with our environment contribute to determining our health • Restoring balancing into my lifestyle restored my health • Aware of how important balance is to all systems • Recognize that the food industry is in the business of excess and is not focusing on the outcomes of it’s business practices. The partial end results are demilioration of culture, individual health and the environment
Convenience over Quality • Trend that is evident in our generation. • (Fast food mentality) • Production of unhealthy but convenient, quick foods are highest sellers. • The focus is on short term gains such as money conservation. Also, since we crave these unhealthy foods for the grease, fat, sodium and sweeteners, consequently, we are looking for the short term fix.
Cont. • However, the long term effects of these processed, packaged, wasteful food products derived from factory farms negatively impact our health, the environment and culture. • There is an imbalance in this system of producing and consuming food. When positive energy is not invested into long term goals such as sustaining the prosperity of these three categories, they will inevitably deteriorate.
Broad topic • Much to possibly discuss. • I will focus on a few major concerns. • I will also analyze what I believe is the negative cycle responsible for the imbalance.
High Fructose Corn Syrup • Some Facts • Health: • Induces blood sugar spikes • Is chemically altered to have more fructose than sucrose. • “Large quantities of fructose stimulate the liver to produce triglycerides, promotes glycation of proteins and induces insulin resistance.” Faeh D, Minehira K, Schwarz JM, Periasamy R, Park S, Tappy L (July 2005). "Effect of fructose overfeeding and fish oil administration on hepatic de novo lipogenesis and insulin sensitivity in healthy men” • HFCS is used in an immeasurable amount of processed foods. • Example: It is listed as an ingredient in some deli meats.
HFCS Cont. • Culture: • Good Mexican food is from local indigenous corn varieties, filled with nutrients and flavor. Also, it incorporate generations of knowledge and tradition for the preparation of the meal. • It has taken only two generations of American infiltration with new hybrid strains, to take the tradition out of these foods. Many local populations have lost the cultural knowledge that once allowed them to live in these environments without having to sell their farms and move to Mexico City to work at a factory producing American products. • Environment: • Producing HFCS emits more carbon dioxide than ANY other food product
Excessive Meat Intake • Culture: • Production over culture • Environment: • Eating one Kg of beef is the CO2 equivalent of driving 155 miles in an energy efficient car!
Excess. Meat Intake Cont. (Health) • Recommended 3ozTypical Restaurant portion 12 oz.
Negative cycle • From the ground up • Non organic practices deplete soil and ruin landscapes displacing inhabitants and destroying ecosystems. • Fact:“During the last hundred years, the coefficient of species extinction has increased a thousand fold compared with the average over the whole history of our planet.” The Situation is mainly due to a massive conversion of land to agricultural use.” Petrini, Carlos. Slow Food Nation. New York: Rizzoli Ex Libres, 2007. 16. Print. • Food miles from factory farms mean CO2 emissions and more time for nutrient depletion • While food is being processed the nutrient content is so low that flavor is gone. Manufacturers add chemical flavor enhancers such as MSG and Aspertame, preservatives, food coloring because the food is now unrecognizable, lots of sodium.
The negative cycle • Craving foods which are unhealthy • Getting fix by eating these foods • Unhealthy choices are hard to digest and discourage proper digestion • Undigested food lies in gut and is food for bad bacteria • Disruption of balance of bacterial flora leads to gas and discomfort. • We feel sick and gross, but remember feeling happy while eating. • So, when we start getting hungry again we reach for the same things all over again. (Hotpockets?) • Overtime if overgrowth of bad bacteria ensues, inflammation caused by the bacteria can damage the intestines. Health issues from intestinal damage can effect every other region of the body. Ailments which can have roots in the gut range from depression to nerve damage to cancer. • WHO announced in 2006 that the number one killer in the world was chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. The organization went on to discuss how the western diet is much to blame.
What we can do • Food journal (becoming conscious of the effects food has on our body and mental capability) • Diet changes (elimination diet) • Probiotics and digestive enzymes • Recycling • Conscious consuming (looking at ingredients, buying local, organic, eating whole, real, fresh foods, being aware of restaurant foods that are bloated with calories, eat slowly and focus on your food, take time to digest, don’t eat when your stressed)
What PSU is doing • CO2 wells
Final Thoughts • A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of society, and further, will enable a change in the destiny of humankind. – • “The power of one voice: If one voice can change a room, then it can change a city; if it can change a city, then it can change a state; if it can change a state, then it can change a nation; if it can change a nation, then it can change the world." – Barack Obama
Bibliography • Food market structures: Overview", Economic Research Service (USDA) • Petrini, Carlos. Slow Food Nation. New York: Rizzoli Ex Libres, 2007. 16. Print. • Faeh D, Minehira K, Schwarz JM, Periasamy R, Park S, Tappy L (July 2005). "Effect of fructose overfeeding and fish oil administration on hepatic de novo lipogenesis and insulin sensitivity in healthy men” • World Health Organization. World Health Organization N.p., 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2009. <http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/index2.html>.