The Poisoning of Americans
A Tale of Congress, the FDA, the Agricultural Department, and Chemical and Pharmaceutical Companies and How They Work Together to Reduce the Health and Life Span of Americans
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That arsenic has been added to chicken feed in chicken factory farms, and ammonia is added to ground beef of factory farms demonstrates the aptness of the title of this book. And it is not just arsenic. Factory farm chickens are also fed caffeine, the active ingredients of Tylenol and Benadryl, and some banned antibiotics. If this sounds strange to the reader, and it should, one must understand the circumstances behind such administrations. First of all, chickens are fairly self-contained animals. In my youth, we raised chickens, for eggs, but we also ate some of them. These chickens roamed around on our little farm, scratching the dirt, and pecking what they found. They were up a dawn. They did not need caffeine. They did get nervous sometimes. Dogs got too close. A hawk might have flown overhead. But these incidents passed. It would never have occurred to us to administer drugs or caffeine to these chickens. But these were free range chickens, even before that phrase became current. The chickens referred to in the first paragraph are not free range chickens, they are factory farm chickens. And that gets to the basis of it. We will discuss chicken factory farms in Chapter 4.
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About the Book
From the early days of humankind to today, steady technological advances have greatly changed the landscape of farming. In the United States in particular, these changes have in turn impacted the scope of food production—and often not in a positive way. In The Poisoning of Americans, author Jacob Silver presents an in-depth, investigative exposé into the production of Americans’ food and how it is responsible for the failing health of US citizens.
The Poisoning of Americans gives an overview of the fundamentals of humans and the food they consume, as well as the essential nutrients they need and how those relate to health. It discusses the production of beef, poultry, and pork and the effects of the use of antibiotics and hormones. It addresses the consequences of the ubiquitous presence of corn in many areas of food and food production and the harmful results of this practice.
Though the essays address the flaws in the food production system, they also provide recommendations and ideas to help restore the natural state of American agriculture and help to produce healthier citizens.
About the Author
Jacob Silver, PhD, earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in political science from Rutgers University and a doctorate in political science from the Ohio State University. He taught at the University of Memphis, Haifa University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana. Retired, Silver and his wife live in Michigan.