Portfolio Preface

John Lennon once said, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”  I come from a world where being a dreamer is all you can be.  Dreaming is the only place where there are no limits to your imagination and where freedom actually applies to its definition. Without dreaming, life would be so meaningless. That’s why I take every opportunity I can to dream about whatever my mind wants. I’m the type of guy that likes to sit back, relax, and enjoy whatever life offers you. It might sound like a peachy life style, but it can be bittersweet. I love to watch nature work at its finest by taking strolls in the park, swim at the beach, and focus on the beautiful aspects of wildlife we are surrounded with.  I believe in peace and hope someday I will make a difference in this world just like our great leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Ghandi did.

This semester, my mind has completely changed on the aspects of food. I use to believe food was made to keep you healthy but after learning about the food industry, I learned that corporations just care about the money and not the lives of their customers. The truth began to unravel as soon as we watched the film, “Food Inc.” in class.  The movie discussed how animals were being treated in these so-called “farms”. Without a gentle touch or seeing the light of day, chickens, cows, and other farm animals are brutally genetically modified to develop faster so that they reach slaughter age quicker for commercial use. The animals get all these types of diseases and are still sold even though they are contaminated. The process starts off with raising the animals and feeding them food that has chemicals in it to make them grow faster and then once it reaches the perfect weight, they are killed and the meat goes through another coat of chemicals. Animal meat isn’t the only thing that companies manipulate. They have found a way to manipulate crops and water as well. Water is being cleansed with chemicals that were once used in war and now we are drinking that water. As profits go up, these water corporations search all over the world for fresh water, which is running out quicker every day. Crops are also given coats of chemicals so that they grow quicker for merchandise.  Our ways of growing our food have become unethical and has to be stopped.

My essay, “The Retrogression of Poultry Farming”, discusses how chicken farming has gone through some major transformations over time. It went from nurturing chickens by hand to squishing hundreds of them into a small dark room. Without any special connections between the farmer and the chickens, they are brutally raised using special chemicals to make their bodies grow faster. There are different types of chickens like for example there are broiler chickens, which are the ones that are killed for their meat, and then there are the egg-laying hens. Both play a big role in the industry because both are exploit for their resources. The egg-laying hens aren’t fed or watered just to make them molt into a new egg-laying cycle. Once they are out of laying eggs, they are killed just like the rest of the hens.  Many people don’t want to step up and bring this unethical case to justice because they are perfectly fine with the system. The only concern is that the current system isn’t considerate of animal rights and isn’t healthy for us either.

My essay, “Those Beach Days”, talks about one of my trips to the beach that had a lot of meaning to me. The trip took place throughout the afternoon and night at Venice beach with one of my good friends. Since the prompt of the essay was to write and observe the surroundings and capture the essence at the moment, that’s exactly what I ended up doing. I described the temperature, sound, and movement of the water and everything else that surrounded me. I ended up making a new friend with a little lizard that was at the beach. The situation that brought me to the beach was that I was going through a break up and my good friend was trying to cheer me up. Overall I ended up having a deep conversation and finding a precious rock to remind me of that day.

This semester not only taught me new things but it also embraced a part of me, which was the environment. Writing about my surroundings and the works of nature always satisfies the soul and soothes you within. You learn something new everyday and that’s what I kept doing every. The fact that I know what’s going on with our food motivates me to advocate this to the world and begin a revolution. Since I want to become a revolutionary leader, I’ll probably fight for animal rights and human rights in general. Its time for us to step up and fight for what’s right. The fight might be a struggle but at the end it’ll be worth it.

Place Essay

Those Beach Days

A body of water dances back and forth while it roars at me. The gentle breeze flows through my hair and gives it its own unique style. The grains of sand drizzle on me every time I take a step into it. That’s natures work at its finest. On a Friday afternoon, I sat at Venice beach staring into the beautiful ocean with one of my good friends. The water sparkled as if stars were beneath the water shining like they do in the sky. As I sticked my legs through the sand, a tiny lizard popped out of sand trying to escape and catch some sunlight. While it laid there sunbathing for a moment, I watched it carefully like if it was a celebrity and I was the security guard. My eyes were mesmerized by such a creature. After a while, I stood up, picked up my things carefully and moved back to sit with my friend, leaving the lizard unharmed.

            As the sun started making its journey down to the other side of the world, my mind became troubled as I remembered the problems that made my life momentarily difficult. The air started to get colder as I sat on the beach blanket with my friend. I thought to myself how relationships were so complicated. At the moment, I was going through a serious heartbreak, which caused me to go through a depression mode. Having nowhere to go I made up my mind to go to the beach with my friend. As my thoughts became more puzzled, I decided to go for a walk with my closest friend Kevin in the sand to get my mind off of things. We walked for miles leaving a good trail of footprints for people to follow us. As I told him my story, he carefully listened and gave me advice like a good friend does. The sun, becoming less visible by the minute, was giving its last glimpse of sunlight for the day, making the darkness approach faster and making the view harder to see. A mystical fog started to form amongst the ocean and I realized time was moving quicker than I expected. That’s when I did something not even I imagined I would of done. I ran into the water and decided it was the right time for a swim.

            The moment my skin came in contact with the freezing Antarctic water, it gave me the hugest goose bumps known to man. Even though the water was bone chilling, I didn’t mind because all I wanted was to get my mind off of things. The oceans roars became louder as the night approached but that didn’t stop me from riding the waves. Instead I accepted the challenge the ocean was bringing me. My friend carefully watched me at first but after feeling lonely for a couple of minutes, decided to join me for a swim. As we swam deeper into the water, something smooth swam by my foot. I jumped in fear and decided to head back to the shore thinking that the creature that swam by my foot was a shark craving my flesh. Sad that my swim came to an end, I sat on the shore where the huge collection of rocks laid. From that point on, I spent my time trying to find the perfect rock to keep. The wide variety of rocks made it hard to choose. There were red rocks, shiny rocks, smooth rocks, black rocks, brown rocks, and rocks shaped in the weirdest forms. Amongst the rocks were also shells that were beautiful with its splash of multiple colors.

            I wasn’t really interested in the shells because back home I had enough and my mission was to find a beautiful rock. I searched for a while until finally my eyes laid upon a rock that was laying far away from the other crowd of rocks. It was a smooth orange rock that was in shape of a heart. If you moved it around, it would shine brighter than any of the other rocks when the moonlight would hit on it. I stared at it with joy and decided to put in my wet pocket and continued my search. While I bent down to pick up a rock to skip into the ocean, a wave crashed down on me and I fell down on the rocks. The pain of falling and having rocks as my landing got me in a bad mood and as I got myself up, I picked up as much rocks as I could and threw them towards to ocean. My friend still swimming in the water saw what happened and starting laughing at me. Enraged my what had happened, I slowly walked back to the beach blanket.

            A little surprise was waiting for me while I was reaching towards my shoes. The same little lizard that I encountered before was resting inside my shoe. I knew it was the same one because of its brown circle spots pattern on its skin. I grabbed it and put on my palm of my hand and watched it move around. The little legs tickled me when it would walk around my hand. I gave a grin and placed the lizard back into the sand. My little friend digged back into the sand and disappeared right before my eyes. Once it was gone, I told my friend it was time to head back home. We packed up the things in silence, only listening to the gust of winds and the mighty roar of the ocean. Looking at the ocean one more time, I gave it a grin and started heading back to my car, where I decided not to look back; only continue walking forward while leaving a trail of footprints on the sand.

Food Essay

The Retrogression of Poultry Farming

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “ The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” When we walk into a grocery store and go to the frozen chicken aisle, we don’t begin to assume where our poultry is coming from. We believe that all our chickens are raised in farms where there are other animals in an open field, which are fed with care and treated fairly. Sadly, that’s not the case though. Chicken farming has gone through a major transformation over time. From raising them in a cozy barn and nurturing them by hand to small cramped sheds filled with chemicals. That’s how our chickens are being maintained in the twenty first century. I believe our society has lost the respect and traditional values of chicken farming. What was once done with love and care has been demolished and transformed to corporate greed. Old style farmers have been revolutionized to multi billion dollar companies, which run these so called “farms” where our chickens are processed and packaged without the proper handling. The greed of money has come to interfere with the way our food is being processed.

            Imagine being a chicken that is raised in a small shed cramped with hundreds of other chickens just breathing in chemicals and diseases in the dark. Doesn’t sound so pleasant, right? That’s what these animals go through everyday until they are slaughtered. Not only are they suffering because of the environment but also internally as well since these multi billion dollar companies manipulate their biological development. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica Advocacy for Animals, “The birds raised for meat, called “broilers” by the industry, are the product of genetic manipulation that has drastically increased breast and thigh tissue (the most popular parts of the animal) and produced a very rapid growth rate that outstrips the development of their legs and organs. Broilers raised in this way are supposed to reach “slaughter weight” at just six or seven weeks of age, but the death toll is very high.” In such a small amount of time, these birds are expected to reach their adulthood and are killed for their meat. They are forced to grow rapidly using these chemicals that are harmful to them. The bird’s abnormal growth causes them to collapse due to their incapacity of reaching the water nozzle and causes them to get deformities in their skeletons because of their weight. With all this artificial growth going on, it is obvious that chickens are prone to get diseases. These birds end up getting cancer, heart failures, and heat prostration, which is stated by the Encyclopedia Britannica Advocacy for Animals. There is no question why we humans suffer these diseases as well cause as the saying goes, “ you are what you eat”.

            Artificial development is just the beginning of the unethical ways these birds go through. You might think that they are at least treated right since they are going through some major changes in their body. Well, you are wrong. Studies show from the ASPCA, an organization that works to prevent cruelty to animals throughout the U.S, that egg laying hens live there whole life in this cramped cage called a battery cage. With only a small amount of room, chickens begin to fight. With all this commotion going on, factory farms come up with a “solution” which is to take off the beaks of these animals. The Factory workers either slice the beak off or burn it off without any painkillers. Imagine the pain these chickens feel when it is all over. Basically being burnt alive without any medications to help heal the wound. An organization called In Defense for Animals tells us that layer hens are constantly being manipulated for their egg production. They are deprived of food and water after there layer cycle ends to force them to molt and begin a new cycle. Imagine not eating or drinking anything for fourteen days. You would obviously not be in great condition for survival if you were to do that. That’s what our chickens are going through in order to lay eggs faster for the industry. Many birds lose all the minerals they have in their bodies because of these “diets” and just collapse or aren’t capable of laying eggs anymore. Once they cant lay eggs anymore, the birds are sent to the slaughterhouse to become another meal for a family out there. What kind of example does this set for our country? If we cant even respect our animals then how are we suppose to progress and respect human beings as well?

            Now many people in the United States agree that they don’t care with what is happening with our chickens. Instead they worried about other problems such as having enough to feed the family or ending world hunger. In my perspective, health should come first and then factors of survival. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t end world hunger or that we shouldn’t feed our families but if you’re going to help people out or your loved ones then the first step towards solving these problems is to check if the food is safe to eat. Instead of helping others out, you are poisoning them and ending their lives quicker. People should be more open minded about how our chickens are being processed for us instead of giving their close minded opinions. I’ve had many of my friends simply tell me that they “don’t care as long as they have their chicken then they are good” when I’m just trying to advocate them about the dangers of chicken factories and chickens themselves. People think that chickens are cleansed and are diseased free when they reach the market. According to the Organic Consumers Association, “Chickens are reservoirs for many food borne pathogens including Campylobacter and Salmonella. 20% of broiler chickens in the US are contaminated with Salmonella and 80% are contaminated with Campylobacter in

the processing plant. Campylobacter is the most common known cause of bacterial food borne illness in the US.” People who sell us our chickens can care less if the birds are contaminated with illnesses. All these multi billion dollar companies want is there money to continue poisoning people. That’s why there has been so many cases of people catching the Salmonella disease. Estimates from the National Center for Disease control and Prevention tells us that each year, Salmonella and campylobacter from chicken and other food sources infect 3.4 million Americans, send 25,500 to hospitals, and kill about 500. A lot of innocent people die or get ill because they aren’t aware of the illnesses chickens have.

            The role of love over the years has become endangered and extinct and the rise of greed and chaos has taken its place. The way chickens are being raised and treated now a days are becoming more unethical as the days go by. New ideas are being brought up to make the process of chicken farming quicker. This means more illnesses will rise and more people will become sick and corporations will continue to not care about the dangers.  Not only are corporations abusing the chicken’s lives but our lives as well. They manipulate with our biological development by exposing our bodies to chemicals we aren’t familiar with. We as society should spread the word and stop this madness we call normal. The education of factory farming is very little and isn’t very popular. It is up to us to advocate this injustice and bring it up to rise. After all, don’t we want a better healthier life?

"Fools," said I, "you do not know 

Silence like a cancer grows 

Hear my words that I might teach you 

Take my arms that I might reach you" 

But my words like silent raindrops fell 

And echoed in the wells of silence

- Simon and Garfunkel 

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”   - Albert Einstein

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,

Nothing is going to get better. It's not.” 

                                                      - Dr. Suess, The Lorax