Third Post Assignment - CST #3 - 7

CST #3 - Rights and Responsibilities

The Catholic Social Teaching of Rights and Responsibilities talks about the common good and the personal responsibilities for all people. The fast food industry is not upholding the common good throguh their business practices when they are allowing such large discrepancies between the actual nutritional data of their products and their stated nutritional values. The people should be able to trust the companies that they are getting accurate data about what they are consuming and the companies are betraying this trust. This is important because the people should be able to trust the fast food industry that they are getting what they are being told and that this trust should not be betrayed.

Picture: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/fast-food-chicken-pieces-blogsize.jpg

CST #4 - Option for the Poor and Vulnerable

The Catholic Social Teaching of the Option for the Poor and Vulnerable says that everyone including the poor and the vulnerable shoudl be given respect, dignity, and assistance, and they should be protected because they are the ones who are often struggling for survival and they do not not have the ability to protect themselves. This is important because fast food is often much cheaper than healthier foods and the poor are drawn to the availability and price of fast food but this is detrimental to the poor's health because when people are depending on fast food, they are consuming much unhealthy foods that do not offer the healthy amount of nutritional values and are hurting their own health and lives. This also affects the vulnerable, whiich are the children who are not able to form their own opinion about the fast food and are drawn into consuming fast food because of the large amoutn of advertising that takes advantage of their developing nature and essentially sacrifices their health in exchange for profits and loyal customers.

Image: http://www.diseaseproof.com/LATimesCostFood%281%29.gif

CST #5 - The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

The Catholic Social Teaching of the Digniy of Work and the Rights of workers talks about how it is necessary for workers to receive respect for the work that they are doing, and that workers should be compensated a just wage, as well as conditions that are not dangerous to the worker as well as other worker benefits. This is important because often in the fast food industry, workers are often treated as expendable labor and they are not taken care of by the company. Instead, it is much like the industry from the 19th century when workers had to take care of themselves in substandard conditions, and that is unjust in the modern society. Workers in the fast food industry should receive just compensation for their efforts and be respected because they are all dignified human beings and deserve the same respect that all people do.

Picture: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3599/3295067099_45eacffc2b.jpg

CST #6 - Solidarity

The Catholic Social Teaching of Solidarity says that people should citizens have responsibilities and that they should work together for the common benefit. This directly relates because the fast food industry depends on its customers and it should be a mutual beneficial relationship between the two because if the customers are taken care of, then they will keep on eating good and healthy fast food. This is currently a social justice issue because the fast food industry is not taking care of its customers in its responsibility for both just business practices as well as giving its customers the right information. Picture http://images.nymag.com/daily/food/31_fastfood_lgl.jpg

CST#7 - Care for God's Creation

As Christians we are obligated and required to be stuwards of our planet and our planet's childeren. In the fast food industry, the world's population of cattle is being gathered to provide for our food. This is not terrible but big fast food has disgraced the way that cattle have been raised and the way that they are prepared to be slaughtered. In the long feedlots with thousands of cattle, meat production companies have created disgusting environments for the animals where their food trays are only feet away from their manure troughs. This quickly spreads disease but also harms our fragile ozone layer that is severly damaged by the massive amounts of carbon dioxide emissions that come from the manure. http://fransonchiropractic.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/cow-feed-lot.jpg

Second Post Assignment - CST #1 and #2

Catholic Social Teaching and the problem of advertising to children and the harmful effects of health problems such as obesity.


Our social justice issue is the prevalence of obesity and being overweight and the heath implications that are brought along as side effects. Obesity has become a huge issue with the ubquitous nature of fast food today, and the fat filled foods that they sell; when combined with the sedentary lifestyle and the decreasing amount of phsyical activities that Americans go through today the results have been disastrous. Along with this, fast food corporations have increasingly targeted their advertising to young children who do not yet know the negative effects of so much fast food and thus will be drawn into eating large amounts of fast food without knowing the consequences, and corporations do this because they realize how easily children can be affected. This is the problem that we are targeting.

CST #1

The dignity of the human and the rights that he should receive are paramount to the foundation of rational and thoughtful human society. Since the life of humans and the advancement of peaceful human existence are essential to moral reasoning, the Catholic Church shows us that we cannot sacrifice the wellbeing of ones existence for self promoting gains or generally destructive outcomes. In the fast food industry, advertising has seen a change from gentle suggestion to relative programming. Advertising of fast food in schools is disturbing the right for self thought in our youth because it is scientifically known that a child’s brain is far less developed than a grown adult and in as such he or she is far more susceptible to foreign influences. Since we believe that humans are more important than anything else on this planet it is unjust for one people to program our young to eat fattening and harmful foods so that big corporations can gain profits. Human life should and must take precedence over all other worldly things so big fast food has no right to be profiting off the endangered health of our race. (Jarrett)
Image Citation: http://img.jangomail.com/Clients/32990/Images/SOTB2009-RestaurantLabels.gif

CST #2 - Call to Family, Community, and Participation

The Catholic Social Teaching of Call to Family, Community, and Participation says that the family is the base unit of the community and serves as the foundations in which the children will learn their values and teachings , such as the religious teachings of the church in Catholic families. These base foundations of the family should also be protected by the community and the government so that the community will be strengthened through the protection of the family. The family also has the responsibility of the well-being of the members of each individual member by providing certain necessities for survival and well-being. This is important because it should the family that teaches the children healthy eating habits especially following their own culture or values and this should not be obstructed by the fast food industry convincing children to consume fast food without being aware of the health implications. This sort of advertising by the fast food industry is undermining the authority of the family to teach the children healthy eating habits for later in life when health problems can have even more serious effects. While corporations are right to advertise their products, they should not do so in a way that takes advantage of the innocence of the children and their lack of experience and ignore the right of the family to teach their own children the good values.

Written By:Zhenyu

Image Citation: http://www.solarnavigator.net/sponsorship/sponsorship_images/mcdonalds_happy_meal.jpg

Introduction

Our topic is the massive health problems that have arisen in especially the United States of America as a result of the onset of the ubiquitous nature of fast food as well as cultural shifts to a sedentary lifestyle that do not mix well with the largely fatty and unhealthy foods that fast food serves. However, part of this problem is also the large amount of marketing and advertising and this has grown to the marketing of fast food to young children. This is especially a problem because once children start consuming fast food from a young age, they will most likely continue to eat fast food and with the lack of physical exercise that most children go through today this will cause serious health implications such as obesity and will lead to things like diabetes and colon problems. This becomes a social justice issue because fast food corporations are marketing specifically to children to get them hooked onto fast food when they are still young and this is a problem because children are not able to have the level of judgment to be aware of the health implications of eating too much fast food, and fast food corporations use this to their advantage to get children hooked on fast food from an early age without real regard for the health problems and implications that this may cause.

This issue interests me, Zhenyu because many have the misconception that fast food is the root of the health problems that have arisen and however ultimately it is up to the individual and his or her own discretion to eat this food. However, these lines are blurred when corporations market to children and remove that individual right to have the choice to eat it because children are not aware of the unhealthy nature of much fast food and do not realize that to enjoy fast food once in a while without serious health problems it is also necessary to exercise regularly and get good nutrition. However, this is often not the case and marketing to children is almost taking advantage of their naivety and cause them to get hooked much like the smoking industry to get teenagers to smoke by saying that it was the cool thing to do and get them addicted before they realize the health implications.

This issue interests me, Jarrett because I like to find the faults in systems that affect me. Corporate greed seems to be a major underlining theme in the research I have initially done for some problems with the fast food industry. I have noticed that it seems that the major fast food companies tend to sacrifice the integrity of their workforce and their customers for larger profit margins. This almost miss management has resulted in a lasting impact on the meat industry in the United States. Even after some of the most important and substantial food inspection laws, major meat producing companies keep their cattle in sub prime conditions and are a cesspool for diseases and bacteria we ingest. I am deeply interested in why we as a nation support this business and how we can combat some of these injustices.