Megan Thurber

America's Meat Supply 

               America’s meat supply is said to be the safest in the world. But every year an average of seventy-six million Americans get sick from a food borne illness. Out of those seventy-six million three hundred and twenty-five thousand are hospitalized. But the worst part is that five thousand people die a year from food borne illnesses. To prevent this from happening the animals are given antibiotics. Seventy-seven percent of America’s antibiotics go to the animals on the farms. But the antibiotics might be doing more harm than good.

                When I first began my research I was expecting to read about how unsanitary our meat supply is. I was surprised to learn that America’s meat was one of the safest in the world. But that was not completely true. The more I researched the more I realized that our meat supply is not safe. All of the antibiotics are creating resistant disease that could wipe out a country. I learned that they feed the animals things like corn with hormones added to them that make them grow to unnatural sizes. This is causing the meat to have saturated fat causing more problems for people in the long run. I also learned that other countries like Russia will not allow America's meat supply in to their country because of the antibiotics and dangerous hormones in our meat. If our meat supply is the safest, than it does not make sense that other countries will not let our meat into them.

                The Antibiotic put into our meat supply are harmful in many different ways not only to humans, but to the animals as well. It is a well known fact that doctor have stopped giving antibiotics to patience unless they really need it. This is because the viruses being treated by antibiotics are becoming resistant. Many humans are hospitalized every year because of antibiotic resistant bacteria. This can become a real problem. Swine flu was thought to be created by a pig farm. With all of the pigs living so close together in their own waste, it is very likely to be where the virus came from.

                The antibiotics affect the animals even more than the people eating them. Many of the animals are being fed hormones as well as antibiotics which are making them gain more muscle. Some animals are growing so much muscle that they can no longer support their own body weight. This is where Mad Cow Disease came from. The abnormal proteins in the cows called prions are attacking the tissues in the cows. This protein is found in the cow’s brain and spinal cord, so to keep the humans from getting this terrible disease the cow’s brain and spinal cord are no longer allowed in human or pet food.

                In 1950 there were about 44 million tons of meat produced a year. Today there is close to three-hundred- million tons produced a year. This is possible because of the hormones fed to the animals which make them grow so much fast and so much larger. This is also possible because so little animals die now because of the antibiotics keeping them from getting bacteria. The short term effect of this is good, but not for the animals. Getting this large causes them pain because they were not made to be so large. Also there is a possibly of a disease that could kill many people. The Animals have no choice on if they are given hormones and antibiotics, but the humans have a choice of if they eat these animals and support the companies giving them the drugs.

                Many of the drugs given to the animals have been known to increase the ricks of serious cancers. I learned on www.farmsancuary.org that six major hormones given to animals to increase their muscle mass can increase the risk of getting breast, prostate, and colon cancer. Also, the animals on the farms are fed corn and rice to make them larger than grass alone could ever. This increase the amount of saturated fat in the meat of the animals. So when we eat them we are eating more saturated fat which causes obesity and heard disease. If people where to stop buying and consuming these animals than the farms would have to stop giving their animals hormones and antibiotics in order for people to buy from them. Yes, this would make the cost go up and there be less meat, but Americans eat more meat than they need to already. People would be healthier, the animals would be healthier, and this would help create a brighter future.  

                While researching I learned that just because the label of the meat says something is natural does not mean that it is natural. It actually means that there are the least amount of hormones and antibiotics in them. This is also true for ground beef. It is labeled meat this is not meat. Ground beef is the trimming of the fat after the real meat has been taken from the cow. The meat is put through tubes full of ammonia gas to kill the bacteria and then packaged and sent to the store. It is known for being called “pink slime” But what is even worse than ground meat is fast food burgers. Fast food burgers are only twelve percent meet. The rest is water, preserved skeletal muscle, connective tissues, blood vessels, peripheral nerves, plant material, cartilage, and bones.

                I learned through my research the good and bad of America’s meat supply. I learned that since nineteen fifty our meat supply is almost eight times the size it use to be. The animals have become bigger and the amount of animals has grown. There are more chickens on earth than humans. I learned that there can be too much of a good thing and like antibiotics preventing disease and the number of animals being forced to live so close together causing disease. I believe that it would be in everyone’s best interest to stop feeding the animals hormones and also to stop producing so much meat. If we let the animals be grass fed that would create space because it is no longer needed to grow corn. The animals would be healthier there for the people eating them would be healthier and it would prevent disease.

How safe is our meat supply? – Primary source

This site had a lot of info on how healthy the food we eat is. It was full of interviews from different people she told me that our meat today is the safest and healthiest that it has ever been.

The Trouble with antibiotics video- primary source

This video showed me how antibiotics made the chickens healthier and grow bigger with less feed. It also told me that the antibiotics were causing new bacteria to be resistant to antibiotics making them incurable and causing deaths in America due to food borne illnesses.

Drugs found in meat

This site told me about the different kinds of drugs used in animals and their purposes. For instance ractopamine is used to increase muscle mass. This drug has been banned from one-hundred and sixty countries and causes muscle disability in animals and some die from it. Also, I learned that Russia no longer allows American meat supply into their country because of the drugs the animals have in them.

What is really in ground meat

This website told me that ground beef is really just pink slime. The left over parts of meat that have simmered on low heat and been sprayed with ammonia to kill the bacteria.

What is an a fast food hamburger

This site told me what can really be found in a fast food hamburger. I learned that only twelve percent of the burger is meat and the rest are tissues, cartilage, and bones and water is added for wait. This is without counting the addatives used for texture, color, and flavor.

Mad Cow Disease

This site told me what mad cow disease is. It is a disease that affects the central nervous system. There is an abnormal protein called prion that attacks the tissue. To prevent mad cow disease from being passed on to humans the spinal cord and brain of cows will not be served in the US because that is where the Prion protein can be found.

Meat production and the pollution it causes

This site told me how much more meat is produced each year since 1950. It also told me that the animals contribute to pollution and climate change. The pollution is caused by all of the manure. Methane gas and over grazing cause climate change.

What hormones in animals can do to humans

This site told me more about the dangers of hormones and antibiotic uses on farms. It said that the six hormones commonly used on factory farms have shown an increase in breast, prostate, and colon cancer. It also said the unnatural feed cause there to be more saturated fat in mean which causes heard disease and obesity. 

This image shows what hormones are doing to animals. Some chickens get so big they are not able to walk. It is not healthy for the chickens to be this big and it is not healthy for humans to consume meat that is so full of hormones.

This image shows how poorly the animals on these factory farms are treated. Not only are they too heavy to support their own body weight they do not have enough room to even stand up. How healthy can the meet of an animal be if they have been shoved in a cage their whole lives with no exercise. 

This is an image that represents what else we are getting when we buy our meat. So many hormones are put into our meat. Some is to prevent the animals from getting sick and some is to make the animal grow to unnatural sizes.

 This is an image of cows eating food that they should not have to eat. At the bottom it says mad cows not only to say that it is not right but also because what we have feed them is bad for them and has caused mad cow disease. It affects the nervous system and is caused because we give them hormones that make their muscles grow to abnormal sizes for more meat.

 This image shows how even though Americans are aware of what these hormones are doing to animals and people some of them still do not care. They still buy the meat and eat it. These hormones make more meat for a cheaper price and as long as the short term effects are good, the people are not thinking about the possible detrimental long term effects. Also, the man who does not care that he is eating unhealthy me is the largest man in the picture which I think shows that it is having n affect on him while the other people are aware and refuse to eat something like that. 

This is another image that shows how humans are being ignorant. America could use less hormones but as long as they are not directly affected by the hormones, or do not notice the effect, they do not care. 

This image shows that some people are starting to realize the effect hormones and antibiotics are having on our meat supply. They are causing resistant diseases that cannot be treated with antibiotics and they are cause animals to be in pain, like the chickens that are so heavy they cannot walk.

This is an image of ground meat. It looks nothing like meat, and I feel that the name "pink slime" is a very appropriate name. Ground meat is actually just the trimmings of meat or the left over parts after the good slabs of meat have already been removed. 

Megan Thurber

                                          The American Dream, not the American Life.

The movie Cinderella Man was not a good representation of the American life. Through out the movie, a middle age man was living through the Great Depression with his children and wife. He had lost everything like many other people. He was poor and could barely afford to pay for his milk like many other people, but Braddock got everything that he had lost, back. It also made Baer, Braddock's opponent, seem like a bad guy and Braddock seem like he could do no wrong. In real life Baer was not a bad guy. He was fighting for the Jewish people in concentration camps. What happened to Braddock was one in a million. Actually it was more like one in two million if you were to count the two million homeless people during the Great Depression who never caught a break like Braddock.

During the Great Depression there were approximately two million homeless people, thirteen million lost their jobs, and one million families lost their farms. The stock market went down a huge eighty-nine percent compared to its all time high. In the movie Cinderella man, Braddock gains everything back. It would be incorrect to say that this movie was not an American life because it was a true story. But it would be correct to say that this movie was not the American life because it only happened to one man. 

Braddock's friend Jim worked with him on the docks sometimes. Jim's and Braddock's situations were similar at the beginning of the movie. They both had families to support, and both of them had lost everything. Jim did not handle it like Braddock and ended up did in a hooverville. In this part of the movie I think it did a very good job of showing how bad off some people were and it showed how different people handled situations differently. Most people during the Great Depression did not get a steady job with a good pay check until 1939 when World War two began. James J. Braddock did not live the American life, he lived the American dream. 

James J. Braddock lived an American life in the beginning of the movie. He wanted what the rest of the Americans wanted, to be able to buy some milk for his family and himself, as well as to be able to control something in his life. In the movie, when he was going to fight Baer, a man who had killed two people in the ring, his wife begged him not to go. As she was pleading with him he said "Let me take them in the ring, at least I know who's hitting me" . Everyone during the great depression was suffering, even the people who seemed to be doing okay. When May, Braddock's wife when to see Joe, Braddock's boss she went into his nice apartment to find that were was nothing in there but a foldaway table and some chairs. When she looked at him he said "don't let folks see you down". Everyone suffered during the Great Depression.

In the first few scenes of the movie, you see Braddock standing in a big crowd outside of a port. He and thirty other men with families and wives are all trying to get jobs. The man in charge comes out and picks six guys to work for the day. There are no jobs available during this time period. And the few jobs people were lucky enough to get had very low pay. This scene in the movie showed just how desperate people were during this time. It showed how nothing was available. In another scene during this movie Braddock's seen steels a salami from a butcher. He gets caught and when he father asked why he did it he said it was because he was scared that he would get sent away like his friend because there was not enough to eat. This was a very good representation of life during the great depression because it shows the emotional trials people faced when there was nothing. 

The movie Cinderella man is a good example of how different people were effected in different ways by the Great Depression. Some hid the fact that they were suffering, some went to seek help. Some lost everything and died in a hooverville. Most did not find a way out like Braddock. Braddock was only one American life. A remarkable one that he worked hard for and deserved, but many people deserved to catch a break and never got one during the Great Depression, and that is why Braddock lived the American dream, not the American life. 

The economy during the great depression

Shmoops- great depression

Max Baer

Great depression time line

What I learned on my field trip trip to Birmingham
1) On this field trip I learned many things about segregation. Most of it had to do with the children that went to the church on 16th street.  I learned that the children were the ones that achieved civil rights and ended segregation for everyone.  I also did not realize that Pink wrote a song called Mr. President.
2) Going to the museum was very interesting. I got to see the tank that Bull Conner  drove. I also go to see what the class rooms of the white people looked like compared the the class rooms of the black people. It was much more memorable and emotional than just learning about it.
3) This experience did not change the way that I thought of the Civil Rights issue. I knew that it was a terrible and violent time in history.
4) The value of going to this sight is to show people who were not there what that time period is really like. I believe that people who think the civil rights issue is a waste of time do not fully understand what it was really like. Everyone should learn what happened in the 50's and 60's. This strip was worth taking because I was an experience I will never forget and it helped me see what it was like more so than I could from just watching a video, doing a project, or reading a textbook.

Questions about World War 1.

1. July 28, 1914 is the date that World War 1 began. World War one started from a chain reaction of events. On June 28 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was killed while attending a military review. He was called by a nationalist, Gavrilo Princip. War was declared and there were so many alliances that one on country was attacked another was their to defend it. Before World War 1 began Russia was in  alliance with Serbia, Germany was in alliance with Austria- Hungary, France was in alliance with Russia, while Britain was in alliance with France, Russia, and Belgium. The sides were Germany, Austria- Hungary,  and the Ottoman Empire know as the central powers against Great Britain, Russia, Japan, Italy, and France known as the allied powers.
2. On April 6, 1917 the U.S. joined World War 1. The Senate voted 82 to 6 to join and the House Representatives voted 373 to 50. The reason for this was that America was trading with Great Britain and Germany keeping sinking American ships and killing Americans on other unarmed ships.
3. The Central powers began to collapse. Turkey and Austria- Hungary signed armistices while Great Britain, American, and France pushed further into Germany.  On November 11, 1918 all fighting on the Western Front stopped.
4. There were two major Armistices that ended the war. They ended the war on the Western front and the Italian front. The Armistice of Compiegne- allied forces declared victory over Germany. It was signed November 11, 1918.  Armistice of Villa Guili- Austria- Hungary negotiated peace with Italy. It was signed November 3, 1918.There were also peace treaties that ended World War 1. The Treaty of Versailles was signed between allied powers and Germany and signed on June 28, 1919. Wilson's demands were no secret treaties,  countries must seek to reduce their number of weapons and armed forces, all countries should be apart of the League of Nations, and national self-determination should allow people of the same nationality to govern themselves and one nationality should not have the power to govern another. Treaty of Sainte-Germai-in-Laye was a peace treaty between the allied powers and the Republic of  Australia. Treaty of Neuilly was a peace treaty between Bulgaria and the allied powers.
5. Could World War 1 have been prevented or ended sooner?

Megan Thurber

February 24, 2015

Hunger strikes

Hunger strikes were used by women and men all over the world to protest in a non-violent way. They were usually used as a last resort, when you are in prison and there is nothing left to do. They were used for gaining sympathy and to get more people to join their cause. They were used to fight the government the only way they could in jail. And the people who did them were practically killing themselves for what they believed in, not the mention the force feedings they had to endure that many considered to be torture.  

                Hunger strikes may be the most effective none violent way of protesting. When you are locked in a prison there is not much you can do. The reason hunger strikes are so effective is because they mess with people’s emotions. The first emotion is self control this evolves the person performing the hunger strike. The reason why people could endure the pain of starving themselves was because of two reasons. The first is the shame of surrender. Once you eat then a hunger strike means nothing. The guards in the jail will know that you will eat again and they have one. The other fact is that they wanted something so badly that they were willing to kill themselves to get it. The second emotion is sympathy. Word will get around that a hunger strike is going on which means that so are force feedings. People will see it in the papers and join the cause because they feel sorry.  Women and men all over the world used hunger strikes to achieve their goals one of the most famous is Alice Paul.

                Alice Paul was a Quaker. She was one of the biggest proponents for women’s rights to vote. She led a parade called the Parade for publicity. She also protested outside the white house. This is why she and many others were sent to jail. They were sent to jail for “blocking traffic”. Alice and the other women said that they were political prisoners and wanted to be treated as such. The guards treated them worse than people in the prison who had committed murder. The women were given unwashed clothing and sheets. They were also served bad food. The reason they went on the hunger strike was not only for women’s right to vote, it was also to be treated fairly in a prison. Alice Paul was not the only one who went on hunger strikes but hers was the one who got the most publicity, there for causing the greatest effect.

                Publicity is one of the main reasons why hunger strikes worked. The people reading the news felt bad for the women and joined their cause. When a report of how Alice was being treated in the prison was released, it greatly helped her case. Alice explained what it was like to be forcibly fed. She said that they would force a tube threw her mouth or her nostril and down her throat into her stomach. She said that this would happen two or three times a day, while other nurses held her down. Alice said that she would throw up many times during this process and that it made her throat and stomach very sore.  She said that there was only one day because she was too sick. Alice Paul was not the only one who went on hunger strikes, but hers was the one that had the biggest impact. After this report came out it shocked everyone. President Wilson was forced to free Alice and her followers. He also gave a speech supporting women. In this speech Wilson asked if the people needed further proof for why women should have the right to vote.

                Alice was not alone in these hunger strikes. They were also going on in Ireland during the revolution. Seven Irish prisoners went on a hunger strike for fifty seven days. It also went on in England. Marion Wallace Dunlop a member of the women’s social and political union went on a hunger strike. Her reason for this was that it was, “a matter of principle, not only for my own sake, but for the sake of others who may come after me.” Marion was released after three and a half days. Many others began following this. The government saw this as an embarrassing power play and created the Cat and Mouse Act. This stated that the women who were on hunger strikes would be released when they became too week or ill. They would regain there strength and return to jail to finish their sentence. They were not all successful but the government would not let people die in jail because it looked bad. This was the Irish way of thinking. They said that “if a man felt wronged by you and starved himself on your doorstep, you had to bear the burden of his debts.”

                Hunger strikes were used by many people, for many reasons. Many had results that helped their cause. Some had results that only made things worse, like the Cat and Mouse Act. I believe people who perform hunger strikes are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve what they want. If they are willing to starve themselves for what they believe in, than it must be very important. Alice Paul said “In jail or out, women are not free” and she was willing to do whatever she had to in order to be free.

 Megan Thurber

Hyperlinks for hunger strike paper

Archives.gove- 19^th amendment

This document showed me what the 19^th amendment was about the women’s right to vote and had a picture of what the actual amendment looked like.

Education portal.com- Women suffrage

This site gave me a good back ground of women suffrage, what their reasons were, and how they planned to succeed in their plan.

New York Times- Alice Paul hunger strike

This document was a real newspaper article from 1917 about Alice Paul and what the public saw and knew about her hunger strikes. It was very interesting to read and the news paper wanted the public to feel bad for Alice.

Feminist.org- Alice and rose hunger strike

Alice is not the only one refusing to eat and to be force fed.  

The Guardian- hunger strikes in 1909

This article is about Marion Wallace Dunlop, Grace Roe, and Kitty Marion and how they were brutally force fed in 1909.

From the archives- suffragettes on hunger strikes

This article was about the force feedings in the prisons and the unfair treatment of political prisoners.

News paper article about Mrs. Pankhurst

This letter was written in 1912 to the editor of Manchester Guardian about how hunger strikes are a last resort to equal treatment of prisoners in the prison. These people had no part in the suffragettes work but also did hunger strikes and were force fed.

Alice Paul’s description of force feedings

In this document Alice is out of jail and staying at a friend’s house. She tells her friends about what happened to her when being force fed and how they did it.

Woodrow Wilson’s speech

This article told me why Wilson decided to help the suffragettes and some of the thing she said in his speech about women.

The first hunger strike- wikipedia

This article was abroad over view about the first hunger strike. It helped me understand where it came from and why it happened. 

Hunger strikes by suffragettes and Irish republicans

This site helped me with the logic behind hunger strikes. Did they help? How? How did they keep from eating?

Cat and Mouse Act 1913

This site told me what the cat and mouse act was and how it impacted the suffragettes

“You bear the burden of his debts”

This article explains why the hunger strike works, how effective it is and how it does not directly affect the target.

This is a picture of Inez Milholland riding a horse during the parade held for women’s rights. She was an example of a strong independants woman with her own job.

This is the parade for womens rights to vote.

 

This is Alice Paul.

This is a sign stating the reason Alice Paul and her followers went on a hunger strike.

This is a picture of a real news article written about the hunger strikes going on in the prisons.

This is a letter written to the editor of Manchester Guardian about other hunger strikes going on in prisons with no affiliation to the suffragettes.

This document is how Alice Paul descried being force fed in prison.

This picture represents what the force feedings in jail were like. It even says votes for women.

How do you analyze a political cartoon?


Decide if it is making fun of something or supporting something
Read the caption
See who/ what it is about
Who drew it
What are they known for drawing about
What is the point of it
What is going on in the world today that it would be about if it is new


What do you notice first is not something I wrote along with letting your eyes "float" across the page so that you don't analyze everything and miss the point
Look for details and symbols.

I will look at cartoons like I was before but now I will not analyze everything.


This cartoon is about america helping the islands in the Caribbean.

Uncle Sam feels like he must take car of all of these small islands and they do not want it.
America thinks they are making a mess and they have to clean it up. The Philippines and Porto Rico are not as hard to control as Cuba and Hawaii because they are not as big. The cartoon makes it look like America is doing these islands a favor because with out us there is no way they could survive.



This cartoon is about America taking over the islands in the Caribbean.

America "Uncle Sam" is trying to "fish" the islands in. America wants their sugar and a place to take their ships when they are crossing the ocean. The islands are out in the ocean waiting to be taken over. The cartoon even makes the islands look like fish on hooks.



This cartoon is about America helping Porto Rico.

This image is about what america can offer to Porto Rico. Uncle Sam is offering him cloths, Porto Rico does not realize the catches that come with the clothes. The cartoon also makes Porto Rico look like a small naive boy with nothing, and it makes America look like a wise old man nicely dressed offering a helping hand.