The Animals: Practicing Complexity, By Michael Pollan

Time is not something that we humans can control, however, throughout time, in regards to the way people nourish their bodies, it has indeed changed. From the complexity of a symbiotic and a natural system, to what many millennials now adhere to, such as biotechnology, a great population has moved away from the naturalistic way of farming. The new system such as factory farming, appears to value quantity and simplicity over quality and health, which is explicated in “The Animals: Practicing complexity” from the Omnivores Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. The way food is produced can either enrich one’s mind and body both physically and mentally, or be detrimental. How does this connect to the cost of health care? Does naturalistic food production

The annual cost of healthcare in the United States of America in the year of 2015 was 3.2 trillion, or 9,990 per person, however, 1 billion from the total National Healthcare Expenditure was towards hospitals, Medicaid, and approximately 2 billion on Medicare. (www.cms.gov.) There are healthcare policies in place and being formulated to adhere to the issue of the continuous growth of the National HealthCare, but, there are some that add onto the issue. For example, The Affordable Care Act(ACA), signed by president Barack Obama on march 3, 2010 has been perceived in two different lights, one being that the ACA is the reason why the National Healthcare expenditure has increased. One of the primary goals of the ACA is to “Make affordable health insurance available to more people” (Healthcare.gov). When there is more people with healthcare coverage, an increase in spending is one of the many outcomes. The Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), says that the “National health spending is projected to grow at an average rate of 5.6 percent per year for 2016-25” (www.cms.gov/). The numbers aren’t decreasing, and instead are increasing because of polices such as the ACA. One might say an increase of healthcare coverage is good, because the people who are sick can now be seen by doctors. Conversely, one reason related to the national issue is how the population of people eat, and how

The hormones and the antibiotics that are implanted within the animals causes animals to grow rapidly, and when undergoing the food production process the meat will be bigger in size. Consequently, many of the animals who are waiting to the undergo the food production process, can become ill with an infection bacteria, and because the animals are implanted with so much antibiotics the bacteria can become resistant, and antibiotic resistant bacteria can be detrimental if exposed to a population of people. For Example, In the documentary “Food, Inc” It explicates on how if there is a group of cows and one of them are infected with E. Coli then the whole group would be infected, and it is very easy for the infected meat to make its way onto the shelves of people’s local Walmart and Publix’s. when this meat is placed on the shelves of local grocery stores and people consume it, usually people will get sick. However, this is not the only problem that arises, because the meat has so many antibiotics and hormones when people eat that meat, they are ingesting those very same antibiotics and hormones, unfortunately when the animals are pumped with GMO’s vigorously, the bacteria can become resistant. So, when people are consuming meats in great numbers they are also ingesting those very same, antibiotics and hormones. Therefore, when it comes time to treat or cure the infectious bacteria that