A quick look at the story of food,
from farm to plate to landfill
For most of
us, little to no thought goes into how our food got onto our plates.
Let’s start
with your typical chicken: we go to the grocery, buy the plumpest frozen
poultry we can find, then take it back to the kitchen to be fried, stewed, or
roasted for tonight’s dinner. Simple enough, right?
Food is a
source of nutrition, and therefore ingredients should be wholesome and
nourishing. Knowing the whole story of where your food comes from may make you
want to reconsider your choices.
Hidden dangers
Conventional
food production techniques are designed to boost yield so farms can deliver
more meat and more crops. ‘Quantity’, however, isn’t necessarily synonymous to
‘quality’.
In the case
of crops, a number of synthetic pesticides are applied to fields to eliminate
insects, fungi, and rodents so that farms can stock supermarkets with smooth,
almost flawless-looking fruits and vegetables.
Sadly,
these toxic substances are absorbed by the plants, which in turn introduce
harmful chemicals to the food that goes into our bodies. That doesn’t take into
account how pesticides poison harmless organisms living on farmlands, while
also spreading to nearby bodies of water, grazing fields, and human settlements
through wind and runoff.
Many farms
today also think little of their methods when it comes to raising chickens for their eggs and meat. Apart from
being confined in tiny, cramped cages throughout their lives, these animals are
fed with a diet they don’t normally eat like soy, and are given antibiotics to
keep them alive amidst unsanitary and inhumane living conditions.
Additionally,
egg-laying hens are constantly exposed to artificial lighting and are injected
with hormones so they produce as many eggs as they can instead of letting them
do so within the means of their natural cycle.
This
treatment is not only cruel and against animal welfare standards. Because of
all the drugs pumped into the chickens, their meat and eggs are saturated with
harmful substances that endanger consumers. Their waste also becomes
contaminated with hazardous toxins that threaten human health and the
environment when disposed.
Sustainable and healthy
Food is
critical not only to our health but also the welfare of our planet. If we truly
want us to live full, healthy lives, it’s vital that we change the narrative of
what we eat.
As
consumers, we can do this by supporting companies that practice sustainable and
humane farming. Healthy Options, for instance, ensures food quality by sourcing
ingredients from farms that only use natural growing methods.
Healthy
Options also ensures that all their chickens are able to roam freely in clean,
spacious, and weather-protected grounds so they can forage for bugs and
worms—organisms that chickens are designed to eat—on top of organic and natural
grain feed.
Unlike
factory-farmed chickens, these birds also get to enjoy the light of day while
living life as intended by nature. With living conditions maximized for good
health and proper egg production, they don’t have to be artificially stimulated
or given drugs.
The result
is healthy and happy chickens that people can eat without worry.
