INTRODUCTION (AG) Imagine your normal day You wake up, go to work, find some time to study and manage to fit in a meal somewhere in your hectic day Maybe you are too busy, but do you ever think of...

INTRODUCTION
(AG) Imagine your normal day You wake up, go to work, find some time to study and manage to fit in a
meal somewhere in your hectic day Maybe you are too busy, but do you ever think of where or how your
food came from? We may like to believe our nice steak sirloin from the local grocery store came from a
nice free-range organic farm But that is quite the contrary, as a majority of our meat has been produced
desolate, disease propagating, factories for almost a century
(Spec Purpose) Today I am going to persuade you to take action to change our food systems, and our
health, through personal action and policy change
(Preview) First I will discuss the problem, scope, and effects of food borne illness as a result of
Industrialized Agriculture Secondly I will address the causes that propagate and support industrialized
agriculture Lastly, I will express potential solutions to make our agricultural a safer and healthier system
First off, what is exactly the problem with our factory farming system and what about it makes us want to lose
our lunch?
I) Main Point 1: Concentrated Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, are the culprit for food borne illness in
America We may think that America being one of the most developed countries internationally would be
able to provide a safe system for livestock production
A) Key Feature: The issue with Industrialized Farming is the large risk for food poisoning
Furthermore, the food borne illness can actually be fatal for children and the elderly
1) Citation: For instance, in Victoria Sherrow’s 2008 Journal on Food Safety: Dr Robert Tauxe,
head of the food-borne illness division at the CDC asserts, “ Industrialization of our meat supply
opened up a conduit for salmonella, for campylobacter, for E coli 0157:H7 infections
2) Commentary: The government supports Dr Tauxe assertion and he has barely scratched the
surface of deadly toxic producing bacteria that find there way into your meat The CDC lists over
30 bacterial strains that are known to cause food borne illness
3) Commentary: There is also a wide array of fungal, parasitic, and viral infections recorded in
food borne illness
B) Scope: Food Borne illness is a national issue because of the condensed factory farms that serve
to the whole country
1) Statistics: In Robert Paalberg’s 2010 Journal, Food Politics What Everyone Needs to Know,
President Barack Obama was quoted stating that “95% of all food production is putting national
health at risk”
2) Facts: Furthermore food borne illness does not only effect the health of Americans but the
economy of America Again, in Paalberg’s article Food Politics What Everyone Needs to Know, he
states that the contamination of factory made meat does not only effect our economy but
neighboring Latin American economies as well
C) Harms (effects): The major effect of Factory Farming is the unexpected illnesses for adults and
mortality of children & elderly and adverse effect on economy for tainted meat
1) Effect 1 Health: Contaminated Meat is not always withdrawn swiftly from the market
(a) In David Hosanky’s 2002 Journal on Foody safety “A 68-year-old Ohio woman…46 others
became sick, including 5 children who suffered permanent kidney damage”
(b) The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection could not accurately or efficiently locate and
terminate all tainted food, because the private corporately owned Factory Farm’s clientele was
wide spread
2) Effect 2 Environment: The centralized farming operations often cause a surplus of pollution
to the air and water, mainly from extensive fecal waste (a) In Jennifer Weeks’ 2007 journal Factory Farms: Are they the Best way to Feed America
states: “residents living near massive livestock operations say they suffer from a variety of airand water-borne illnesses resulting from CAFO-related pollution”
(b) Just imagine if a Farm that was built to serve over 20 states was just down the road Can
you even fathom how much methane gas would be released into the air? The effects are
devastating to the environment and sometimes irreparable
3) Effect 3 Economical: The potential loss of meat product is highly escalated when you put it in
conditions that are prone to contamination
(a) It only takes one microscopic bacterium living in the dust of fecal matter in a CAFO to fall
into the meat processor
(b) If one E Coli makes it past the line then it is processed with over 75 million pounds of
meat Which then must be recollected and destroyed
Now that we understand the problem, what drives this food borne illness? And why do we keep letting go on?
II) Main Point 2 Causes: The causes of food borne illnesses are diverse They include the propagation of
bateria in CAFOs, the lack of federal funding to inspect CAFOs constantly, and economic benefit for a
cheaper product
A) Cause 1 How the bacteria gets in the meat: The livestock in CAFOs are condensed in tight
quarters, where they often wade through there own feces They are fed cheap corn feed over typical
grazing on grasses The livestock’s feed is integrated with a cocktail of antibiotics to void the spread of
animal illness Many of these animals become sick anyway and are processed into the stocks of meat
Many of which are covered in feces or have extreme bacterial infections
1) In 2010 the Humane Society filed a lawsuit because of the sales of non-ambulatory cattle
B) Cause 2 Why isn’t anyone enforcing the rules?: After the 1920 publication of a Upton Sinclair’s
novel The Jungle many new regulations for industrialized food where brought to light This is soley
because the novel recounts how Polish immigrants were churned and processed into the processed
meat with the cows themselves There are modern implications in order, known as the Hazard Analysis
and Critical Point Check, but there is a lack of funding in the USDA to have constant supervision for all
these private CAFOs
C) Cause 3 If people are getting sick why do we still use this system?: As Americans we love buy
and even more we love a great deal We pay a significantly lower cost for factory farmed over
traditional farm
1) In fact in 2002 it was noted that we pay on average 30% less for meat than we did 1970
Now that we understand the problem and its causes, what can we do as individuals to make our agricultural
system better?
III)
Solution: The solution to this problem involves taking personal action to change this system for the
better
A) We can personally insure that we don’t become ill from factory farmed meats by minizing the
intake of factory farmed meat
B) If we invest into a stronger system of food borne illness prevention we could stop potential
irreversible illnesses It would be most ideal to increase the standards of meat inspection and decrease
the amount of CAFOs
C) We should employ a mindset to really think where things come from that we eat and use daily To
think what is in this product and why am I buying it?
CONCLUSION:
Review: Today we discussed food borne illness as a result of Industrialized Agriculture, the causes that
propagate and support industrialized agriculture and potential solutions to make our agricultural a safer and
healthier system
Closing Thought: I hope that I have shed light on this concerning topic for you all today and that you will
think more critically about what it is your run your body on (ATTACH WORK CITED PAGE IN MLA FORMAT!)

Create a persuasive outline such as the persuasive example provided Use the topic of Dropping out of College

I Within the first main point (problem), you must identify the core problem you are trying to address, use evidence to show its scope and effects

II In the second main point (causes), you will address the multiple causes leading to your problem (reasons why it’s happening) If you feel that there is really only one cause, then you can swap the effects subpoint with this main point and go more in depth with those

III For the third main point (solutions), you must address solutions to the problem They must take into consideration the causes to the problem, and can exist on multiple levels: personal action, policy, and mindset change (you should address at least two)