Poison on Our Plate-The Introduction- A Public Education Project of POOR Magazine

p From several hundred pesticides and toxic levels of radiation in our air and water, to poisons and frog genes in our milk and tomatoes, the youth and adult span data-scayt_word="skolaz" data-scaytid="1"skolaz/span in the Revolutionary Youth Media Education (span data-scayt_word="RYME" data-scaytid="3"RYME/span) span data-scayt_word="PeopleSkool" data-scaytid="6"PeopleSkool/span Summer Session of 2011 uncovered frightening facts about the food we eat, the air we breathe and the water we drink every day in the US./p p As a poverty span data-scayt_word="skolar" data-scaytid="8"skolar/span and mama, I facilitated the launch of this multi-generational, project based learning curriculum after I noticed that Burger King and other fast food chains now accept span data-scayt_word="EBT" data-scaytid="9"EBT/span Cards (Food stamp cards) tempting more poor children and over-worked families like me to eat fast food every day, while diabetes and heart disease rates soar in poor communities of color, illnesses that directly correlate with eating too much sugar, fat and salt found in mass amounts in fast food and bulk discount markets./p p Tony Robles, POOR Magazinersquo;s co-editor also added to the curriculum with some of the content from Eric Schlosserrsquo;s excellent book ldquo;Fast Food Nation, The Dark side of the All-American mealrdquo;, a book that exposes the devastatingnbsp;costs to society levied by the fast food industrymdash;costs that include damage to peoplersquo;s health, the environment and the unprecedented push at marketing to childrenmdash;the blueprint that was creatednbsp;by Walt Disney and McDonaldrsquo;s long time CEO Ray span data-scayt_word="Croc" data-scaytid="10"Croc/span./p p Fast Food Nation and the findings of the youth and adult span data-scayt_word="skolaz" data-scaytid="2"skolaz/span led us to the door of the humble, yet revolutionary Eric Mar, a San Francisco Board supervisor and father who launched a legislation to halt toy giveaways to children by fast food restaurants. Poison on Our plate enabled the span data-scayt_word="RYME" data-scaytid="4"RYME/span youth leaders and poor span data-scayt_word="mamaz" data-scaytid="11"mamaz/span and span data-scayt_word="daddys" data-scaytid="12"daddys/span and elders @ span data-scayt_word="PeopleSkool" data-scaytid="7"PeopleSkool/span to learn the implications on our body from fast food as well as dangerous levels of toxins in our air and water, including the rise in radiation, especially after the tragedy of Fukushima Nuclear Disaster which had a direct impact on the levels of radiation in our air and water in California, a fact that never gets reported by corporate media./p p Finally, there is no simple answer to this complex issue of consuming unhealthy food, water and air, and its not as simple as becoming a vegetarian or shopping at ldquo;Whole Paycheckrdquo; and other over-priced so-called ldquo;healthy storesrdquo; ; but it launched a revolutionary intergenerational conversation that is extremely important for communities of color and young folks to be having in the 21st century. For POOR Magazine, this project inspired us even more to work on localizing our food production and create long-term sustainable food security solutions like the launching of a community garden and a farmers market at the future site of a href="http://www.poormagazine.org/homefulness"span data-scayt_word="HOMEFULNESS" data-scaytid="13"HOMEFULNESS/span/a in East Oakland/p p Click on this a href="http://www.poormagazine.org/node/3994"link to read the Youth span data-scayt_word="Skolaz" data-scaytid="14"Skolaz/span span data-scayt_word="RYME" data-scaytid="5"RYME/span Reports and Watch the span data-scayt_word="PNN-TV" data-scaytid="15"PNN-TV/span coverage/a/p