Friday, October 11, 2019

The Effects of Meat Consumptions and the Meat Industry on the Environment, Society, and the Human Body

By: Corinne Hill

Imagine, you are born out of forced insemination, taken from your mother at ten weeks old, put in a cage, pumped full of steroids to fatten you up and will be killed because your ass tastes good. Not only that, but your death contributes to health problems, global hunger, climate change, deforestation, and is the leading factor of the death of a habitat for over 100 million species. Yes, the meat industry is what we are talking about.  So, whether you choose to contribute to the meat industry or not, you are affected by it every day.
What Does Meat Do to Our Bodies?
You might think that meat is healthy for you because it gives you protein, but do you know what meat can do to your body? As a society, the United States consumes the highest diet of meat in the world, a condition that is contributing to the high rates of obesity in the United States with an estimated 160 million Americans categorized as such.  Along with obesity, the meat you so desperately desire at your dinner table with a side of mashed potatoes has been labeled a carcinogen. What is a carcinogen? A carcinogen is defined as a substance capable of causing cancer in healthy living tissue. So, the same harmful chemicals found in cigarettes and gamma radiation is found right on your dinner table. The deli meats you get for your kids’ lunches and the processed meats you eat daily can increase the risk of cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and diabetes. 



How Does Deforestation from the Meat Industry Affect Society?
You might be thinking, how does the meat industry that gives us something to eat lead to world hunger?  Well, deforestation is caused by four main contributors, but the meat industry is responsible for twice as much deforestation than the other three combined.  In a span of 26 years, we have lost 502,000 square miles of forest, an area larger than South Africa. In the Republic of Congo, families like your own who have a mother, a father, sisters, and brothers have been forced to skip meals, eat leaves, and be taken out of school to work because school fees are too high, due to the fact they can no longer farm because of deforestation. Could we now end world hunger? We currently produce enough food to feed almost 11 billion people, but most of that food goes back to livestock and not the 805 million people suffering from hunger. About 70 percent of our freshwater is given up to livestock instead of the 805 million malnutrition suffering people. What if the USA simply gives up meat?  If just the USA alone gives up meat, we could feed 1.4 billion hungry people across the world, almost ending world hunger.

How Does the Meat Industry Contribute to Climate Change?
The world’s livestock produces more greenhouse emissions that contribute to climate change than cars, planes, trains, and ships combined into one. Yet, a survey revealed most people believe transportation, rather than the meat industry, is the main contributor to climate change. If human beings were slaughtered at the same rate as animals, the entire human race would be gone in 17 days. 17 days to slaughter over 7 BILLION people. Is there a domino effect from climate change?  Since the ozone is growing due to the greenhouse emissions, it will raise the temperatures in the ocean, which leads to coral bleaching and the death of coral reefs, which are habitats for millions of species. Those species will and are dying out right now, leading to deaths of other species, because fish contribute to a food chain. In the past 100 years, we have lost 90% of our fish population. Baby polar bears are being victims of cannibalism because fish, the main food for polar bears, are running scarce.

How is Tyson Food Company Affecting the Ocean?
What is a dead zone?  A dead zone is caused by manure and fertilizer toxins being pumped into the ocean, invoking harmful algal blooms which produce oxygen despoiled stretches.  This causes marine life to either die or flee. In the 1950s, less than 5 dead zones were on record, but now 500 dead zones are on record. Tyson is being identified as the main cause of what is expected to be the worst dead zone on record, which is estimated to be the size of New Jersey. Because of this, migration of marine life that can tip the balance of the food chain, which could lead to species migrating,  leading to invasive species. Foul-smelling, green slime could also to wash up onto the shore, and if these contaminants get into our drinking water, it will lead to humans and animals getting sick.

So no matter whether you slap that carcass with spices and feed that big hunk of carsinage to you family or not, it still affects you.  It affects the air you breathe, water your drink, and yard your kids play in. The only way to stop is to stop eating meat or merely cut down your meat consumption. Cutting meat right out of your diet or merely swapping out another food in place of meat could help the earth and yourself.

Research:
Zucker, Arye. ‘Is Red Meat Bad For You?” Roman Health, 6 March 2018
“Why meat, fish & dairy harm” Viva!, 2019
Murry, Marie Ng, Mokdad. “The vast majority of American adults are overweight or obese, and weight is a growing problem among US children” IHME, 28 May 2014
Smith, Rob “These are the countries that eat the most meat” World Economic Forum, 29 August 2018
Most Obese Countries 2019” World Population Review
“Beef Cattle” Union of Concerned Scientists, 
Nunez, Christina “Deforestation Explained” National Geographic Society, 7 February 2019
“Can We Solve World Hunger and Feed 9 Billion People Just By Eating Less Meat?” One Green Planet, 2017
Carrington, Damian “Oceans suffocating as huge dead zones quadruple since 1950, scientists warn” Guardian News & Media Limited, 4 January 2018
The Effects: Dead Zones and Harmful Algal Blooms” United States Environmental Protection Agency, 10 March 2017
Carrington, Damian “Eating Less Meat Essential to Curb Climate Change, Says Report” The Guardian, 5 January 2014
Campanella, Anthony “The dirt on beef, global hunger & climate change” Planet Forward, 25 September 2017
Milman Oliver “Meat industry blamed for largest-ever 'dead zone' in Gulf of Mexico” © 2019 Guardian News & Media Limited , 1 August 2017


NWR Girl’s Cross Country Divisional Win

By Mary Reduzzi 

It is an ordinary Tuesday night and while most North Warren sports teams are just finishing up their practices or games, the girl’s cross country team is running a ten-minute warmup before one of the most important races of the season. Each girl is repeating what Coach Loughlin had instructed them the day prior in their heads: weather the storm. Five minutes left. 

The top seven girls become increasingly nervous about which girls they need to beat from which teams, what times they have to hit, and whether or not they’ll be able to steal back the division championship title taken from them last year by High Point. The ten minutes are over, and the girls lace up their spikes and head to the line. Strategic spots on the starting line are chosen, wishes of luck are offered, and the gun goes off.

All the girls need to do is displace the top seven runners on the other teams. All the girls need to do is maintain a solid pack behind the top three. All the girls need to do is work off of one another. All the girls need to do is weather the storm. 
And weathered it was. 20:38 and junior Sophia Knerr blows through the finish line. 21:38 and sophomore Ellie Pagano follows to take second place. 22:14 and Sophia Civitella is NW’s third runner, followed by seven course personal records. With a 1-2-4 place punch, the girl’s team secured the divisional win by beating out High Point, the team’s biggest rival, and remains undefeated (9-0). To celebrate, the NW team was invited to dance with the Morris County Vocational Technical School, of which became the first (hopefully annual) North-Warren-Hackettstown-Morris-Tech-Cotton-Eyed-Joe-flash-mob. 

As the team is composed of nine seniors, one of the largest loss of runners will take place next year, but the girls hope to leave behind Coach’s inspiring message and impactful promise to those following in their shoes: take a deep breath and you will weather the storm.

The Family Friendly America

By: Gio Moz

Youtube: the video sharing service that started in an office garage in 2005, began as a website you could find funny videos on, learn a thing or two, listen to music, and much more. There were limits as to what was posted, which is understandable as the same goes for the rest of the surface web, but as an American citizen, you have your rights. Freedom of speech and Freedom of expression are some of the liberties we have that make America a free country, yet today, it seems as though these rights are being stripped from us without us even realizing it, and youtube is a culprit for taking part in the Family Friendly America that is no longer supportive of the founding rights that make this country.
“The right to express any opinions without censorship or restraint,” is the definition of freedom of speech from google, which is ironic because google owns youtube, which is currently censoring the creators of youtube. It seems the media is doing what it can to censor our rights, and one way it is happening is by removing “offensive content” on youtube. Also according to google, the definition of offensive is “something that causes someone to feel deeply hurt, upset, or angry.” If according to google, that is the definition of offensive, then what is so offensive about the word “Chritian”?
A Christian speaker named Chad Robichaux was the owner of a youtube channel, a veteran, and an MMA fighter. He created an ad for a veterans outreach ministry for people in need, and it was denied for having the word “Christian.” Chad responded to youtube on twitter where he showed a screenshot of youtube’s message to Chad claining “The following keywords violate google ads advertising policies. Please remove unacceptable content to continue. Unacceptable content as keyword: Christian.” Youtube’s official twitter account replied with a tweet explaining “We know that religious beliefs are personal, so we don't allow advertisers to target users on the basis of religion. Beyond that, we don't have policies against advertising religious terms like christian.” After seeing this, people may believe that youtube is trying to keep words like Christian out of ads to keep their site to an audience as open as possible, and keep a wide target group, without offending anyone, which is somewhat understandable. Do not let this fool you, as I can personally share from my experience on youtube that i have had a certain ad that I don't like seeing on youtube, but instead of getting offended, I skip the ad, because that's how people should handle things they don't like. Ignore what you don't like and it will go away. That ad is by Tom Steyer, and it is about impeaching President Donald Trump, which is Ironic because I personally like Trump, so it seems that the ads aren't even as personalized youtube claims they are.
What I get out of this is that youtube is trying to make viewers more Liberal, and yet family friendly. It seems this way because it is anti-trump and doesnt want an ad using the word “Christian.” Google is also making youtube Corporate media unofficially. It used to be about independent content, but their updated algorithm is showing less recommendations for independent channels , and more CNN and MSNBC. “Our channel has been getting fewer and fewer views from youtube’s recommended video algorithm. WHen you watch videos on youtube, it suggests other things to watch alongside or below the video. The idea is to keep you watching as long as possible,” says David from the David Pakman Show, an independent youtube channel. “We used to get a lot of recommended video views from youtube’s algorithms. We estimated that we had lost about 2 million views per month from this algorithm, recommending our videos more and more infrequently.”

At the end of it all, I don’t think a lot of people will be affected by this change in algorithm. I personally see what is going on here, and a lot of other people do too, but I am more worried for the generations to come, that grow up watching youtube and what they show on the front page as they will grow up watching what the media wants them to watch, and believing what the media wants them to believe. I hope they can see through this, and develop their own opinions aside from what they are told to believe, rebel what they are told to do, and be their own person, instead of a figure that they are told is ideal, or what they should be like.

Thursday, October 3, 2019

NWR's New Fall Multicultural Fair


By: Leandra Castillo

Welcome back to another great year at North Warren! As some of you have already been able to tell there’s a major change to this year’s Multi-cultural Fair. Rather than have it in the normal month of May, this year it will be held tomorrow, October 3rd.

For those who are new at North Warren, the Multi-cultural Fair is a festival where students pick a country and make a presentation based upon that country. Typically there is a great deal of fun facts and, of course, food from each country. If the forecast allows it, the Fair will be held outside like in previous years, but if it should rain the Fair will be moved to the Gym.

This year, we expect an exceptional variety of countries to participate, as well as a few live performances. Like always the Fair will go from 7:30 to 12:30, so the best time to go will be during lunch. Hope to see you there!!