HW#11

            Over the course of the past week I decided to take on the task of actually putting my knowledge about our food industries and the remaining food companies that are still natural to the test. To accomplish this I decided to become a vegetarian for the week. In doing this, I had to stop eating meat any products with meat inside of it. To make it a little lighter on myself I was able to eat eggs and fish as well as dairy products.

           During this week, I began to feel the difference in my energy and the way I felt physically. When I noticed this nice change, I began to wonder how our society might be different if everyone ate in a healthier way. The effects of this change would undoubtedly be positive for our health as a community, but would greatly affect the money that our government makes because of how dependant it is on the approximately 134 billion dollars that the public spends on fast food annually.

           Having an opportunity to experience the difference first hand, greatly affected the way I believe we should approach the changes in the food industry if they ever happen. At first I felt as if a drastic change was necessary to show the public the correct path. After this short week, I realize that being a vegetarian or a vegan is very difficult because of the money that it calls for. These expenses, in my case, ended up being around 150 dollars for an entire weeks worth of food for one person. Other people in our community such as low income families may not have as much money to spend on expensive food and they may have more mouths to feed. A situation such as this makes it difficult to spend more money than they really feel is necessary. This mind set and financial situation practically pushes them towards fast food and other foods that are inexpensive to purchase.

           Understanding the difficulties in changing the way we eat is the first step in making a difference. Although the natural foods are more expensive we need to find a way to make it more accessible to all of the socioeconomic classes.