Middle School Editorial

If we aren’t responsible for knowing where our food comes from then who is? Sure, we have the FDA, but they cannot monitor everything. In this life, we get one body, and what we eat is crucial to taking care of it. How do you know when you pull up to a restaurant and buy a chicken sandwich that the chicken has not been given hormones or other chemicals? We as humans must ask what we are eating and what it will, long and short term, do to our health. Society is growing lackadaisical. Eating should not be a quick mindless action; it should be an experience to nourish your body. 

When you buy your food, it takes one simple action to understand what you’ll be putting into your body. Just look at the label, read the ingredients and further your knowledge of the food you eat. Is it local? Is it organic? Is it free of unnatural chemicals? Some people might say that these aspects don’t matter, but if you eat local, it reduces your carbon footprint by minimizing travel time. 

Eating organic is a great way to understand where your food is coming from. Frequently, people don’t know the real definition of organic, so I’ll start by narrowing it down. Many non-organic producers use chemicals to weed their crops, while some organic producers may do it by hand or with natural substances. On occasion, weed killers have been linked to some cancers. Do you really want to take that risk? Every so often, livestock coming from non-organic producers will accidently have growth hormones in them, even taking into account the regulations. What do you think eating something supposed to make animals fat will do to you? You only have one body. You are responsible for taking care of it. No one is going to do that for you.