Why do we let someone else control what goes into our bodies?

In Wendell Berry's article The Pleasures of Eating he argues a point that really sticks out to me. He talks about how in food politics we let others control the foods we eat. But why do we do that? Why in this free country do we let someone else control what goes into our bodies? Mostly because we don't have time to cook our own food or are just flat out too lazy. Berry also discusses how food is an "agricultural act" and how people see it as farming, so they feel as if they aren't or can't be participants. All society is concerned about is that they have something showing up on their plates, not worrying about where it is actually coming from. Berry explains that "food wears as much makeup as the actors." 

I feel this to be a major problem because our health is at risk because of all the preservatives that are put into the food that we are consuming. The way to fix this problem, according to Berry, is to prepare our own food, start our own garden, and learn about food and what is healthy and what us not. Berry says, "learn as much as you can, by direct observation and experience if possible, of the life histories of the food species." 

My topic is cutting down meat consumption and how it would affect our health. And during my research a favorite piece I found was a Ted Talk by Graham Hill. He talks about vegetarianism and how eating meat only a couple days a week or less will make a huge impact on our economy. Ten billion animals are raised each year for meat consumption, this creates more emissions than all transportation combined. Eating one hamburger a day increases risk of dying by a third and beef uses one hundred times more water than vegetables. He calls this method of only eating meat a couple times a week as being a "weekday vegetarian" and swapping some of the dark meat for light meat such as chicken. 

Basically what I am trying to say is that America should be taught what is put into their food, and should then be aware of what they are eating. I am suggesting that we should change our eating habits and eat things that are only one ingredient and cut down on our meat consumption in order to save some animals, land, water, and especially to save our health.