The Dark Reality: Tainted Meat

            How far are people willing to go in order to save money when producing food eve n though there may be a health risk? Jane and her crew film a show about raising cattle for food uncovering some disturbing information. For starters, some beef may have been exposed to radiation from when people were making bombs. It is interesting that My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki is fiction yet it addresses problems that are present in modern times such as nuclear pollution and contaminating meats though using hormones. “In the 1950’s, it was discovered that the radioactive iodine had contaminated local dairy cattle, their milk, and all the children who drank it.”(ozeki, 246).  In modern times, there have been cases of nuclear pollution such as Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, Chernobyl, Ukraine, and the Fukushima plant in japan. These incidents have released pollution into the environment and it is possible that the cattle could have become tainted yet we may be eating that mead and not knowing how dangerous it is. If we are not careful, more dangerous pollution disasters could severely contaminate our food and we would have no choice but to eat the meat in order to survive.  Another problem with the pollution of the mead is all of the hormones Gale is feeding the cows. The hormones are really strong and can lead to birth defects. Today in my environmental class we were talking about how certain hormones could make male populations more feminine. The fact that this is a true reality is frightening. In Ozeki’s book she addresses these issues that could become a reality. Yes the hormones help beef grow faster, produce more product faster while saving money but what is the price?  The daughter that was exposed to those intense hormones developed into a woman at the age of five! If we continue, what affect will these hormones have on the human population and the environment? While this is a work of fiction and I don’t think there is scientific data of young girls developing that early, if we eat enough hormones could this become a reality? I feel that in some ways Ozeki’s treatment of issues such as tainted meat may be a warning for the future. She wants the readers to question if it is possible for these things to happen. Gale says, “ Now, aint that something? You see what I mean? That’s just another example of modern science comin’ up with a way to kill two birds with one stone.”(Ozeki, 263). Yes modern science can make things progress faster but it might me safer for us to be patient and let things take their course with out all of the hormones people would not be developing abnormalities. Just because things are more efficient, are they safer and better? Should we keep blindly eating this food when we are not one hundred percent sure of the results which we may not understand until twenty to fifty years down the line? I bet that most people do not know about all of the hormones in the meat. The meat industries and other people want to keep the information hidden by saying that it’s all right to eat it or avoid questioning. Jane wanted to expose the truth with all of the video evidence that will cause it to be a wake up call. If everyone knew the truth, would they let companies produce and make us eat tainted meat? Is there hope that science will fix the problems associated with hormones? “Nobody is going to do anything about it, and then slowly, bit by bit, it will be too late.” (Ozeki, 251). If we can expose the truth, will it be too late?