The Daily News – November 29, 2024

Welcome back to our continued coverage of the American Health and Nutrition round table where leaders and advocates are digging up the dirt on our food and healthcare systems. Now we can hear the perspectives of two more speakers who passionately address the impacts of the current food industry in America and the changes they believe are critical to protect public health. First, Courtney Swan, a fierce advocate for real Whole foods, discuss the dangers of unsustainable farming practices and misleading food labels. She started by talking about the disturbing origins of the chemical companies involved in our food production. What I found was alarming. Our current agriculture system origin story involves large chemical companies, not farmers, chemists.
85% of the food that you’re consuming started from a patented seed sold by a chemical corporation that was responsible for creating Agent Orange in the Vietnam War. Why are chemical companies feeding America corn? Soy and wheat are not only the most common allergens, but are among the most heavily pest pesticides sprayed crops. Today. In 1974, the US started spraying our crops with an herbicide called glyphosate, and in the early 1990s, we began to see the release of genetically modified foods into our food supply. It all seems to begin with a chemical company by the name IG Farbin. The later parent company of Bayer Farman provided the chemicals used in Nazi nerve agents and gas chambers. Years later, a second chemical company. Monsanto joined the war industry with a production of Agent Orange, a toxin used during the Vietnam War. When the wars ended, these companies needed a market for their chemicals, so they pivoted to killing bugs and pests on American farmlands. Monsanto began marketing glyphosate with catchy name Roundup. They claimed that these chemicals were harmless and that they safeguarded our crops from pests. So farmers started spraying these supposedly safe chemicals on our farmland. They solved the bug problem, but they also killed the crops. She went on to emphasize that industrial farming not only degrades our soil, but also leads to food lacking essential nutrients and contributes to chronic illnesses nationwide. Swan also highlighted the issue of misleading food labels, which can make it tough for consumers to know what’s in their food. Until January of 2022, many companies made efforts to obscure the presence of GMOs and pesticides in food products from from American consumers. It was only then that legislation came into effect mandating that these companies disclose such ingredients with a straightforward label stating made with bioengineered ingredients, but it’s very small on the package. Meanwhile, glyphosate still isn’t labeled on our food. Parents in America are unknowingly feeding their children these toxic foods. Dr. Don Huber, a glyphosate researcher, warns that glyphosate will make the outlawed 1970s insecticide. DDT look harmless in comparison to glyphosate. The next speaker, Alex Clark, is the host of the Health and Wellness podcast culture Apothecary. She spoke about the harmful effects of the food and pharmaceutical industries, particularly on millennials. By virtually every measure, millennials are more health conscious than any generation before us, but at the same time, we are also the sickest that is until our children end up surpassing us, the next generation of children is predicted to not outlive their parents. If we continue on the trajectory that we are currently on, when in human history has that ever been the case? We are fatter than any prior generation. At this age, we’re having more fertility issues. New cancer diagnoses in the US are projected to top 2 million for the first time this year, and these new cases are almost all driven by young people. This is according to American Cancer Society data. What happened Growing up, millennials were handed health advice that was inaccurate, mistaken or downright fabricated. Almost everything that we were taught about food and health was made up. The only guidance that re the only guidance that we received on what to Eat came in 1992 via the food pyramid. A completely manipulated work of fake public health crafted by the Department of Agriculture. The food pyramid told us that all fat was bad, a lie. It told us to make complex carbs like pasta bread and processed breakfast cereal, the bedrock of our diet, not because it was healthy, but because it was the most profitable recommendation for big Ag and big food. We became the first generation subjected to sugary, fattening inflammatory foods, deliberately engineered to be as addictive as heroin. Thanks to the food companies buying these, the scientists from the cigarette companies for that exact purpose. Clark Passionately the urgency of holding these industries accountable and shifting toward healthier food options that don’t rely on ultra processed ingredients. Thanks for joining us for this week of special coverage of the American Health and Nutrition Roundtable before the US Senate. We hope that you found the insights helpful, and look forward to seeing you for our regular daily news program next week.