The Field Trip

Colin Papenhagen

I never have put in too much thought on how the food that I eat is made and where it
comes from. I have friends that would tell me that eating organic is the way to go and eating fast
food is horrible. “Do you know where that meat comes from?”, says my mom when I want to eat
Taco Bell. I act like I know where it comes from and how that meat is processed but in reality, I
had no clue.

On April 10th 2019, my junior year class took a field trip to places where we can learn
about healthy ways to eat foods and the difference between industrial and organic foods.. We
were given three choices of places where to go; the Fort Lewis College, the James Ranch, and
Sunnyside Meats. Of course I thought that going to a meat factory was going to be the most
interesting choice as it would most likely include butchering. I went and signed up for
Sunnyside. When it was time to go on the field trip, I was really not thinking that my food ethic
would change at all in regards to fast food and how uptight I am about what I put in my body.

By the time we arrived at Sunnyside meats, my friends and I were making jokes about
how we are all going to become vegetarian or something far from what our ethic was. We
thought this because we were going to see meat getting chopped up and to some people, that
can be life changing. Little did we know though, every single person there including myself that
had no desire for our food ethic to change would have an impact of our life style. My mother had
always told me that it depends on where and how it was raised to determine the quality of the
meat and how good it is for your body. I had never really put into thought what that meant until
we arrived at Sunnyside Meats.

When we we arrived at the gates to the ranch, right away I got a huge relief of how well
kept this ranch was. Before, I had only been on a few commercial ranches and just by the looks
of the pasture, it was a 10/10! We all gathered in the main building and just by the smell I could
already tell that this building was where the meats were processed. We were given the
opportunity to go through and see the whole process from start to finish. When asked if we want
to watch the meat processed, as a usual teenager I thought it would be interesting to watch the
whole procedure.

The first part of the tour where our group visited first was called ​The Death Cage. ​This
was a huge hint of what was about to happen. I was seriously not expecting to see the workers
baby the animals and treat it like royalty but what came to my surprise was that they take the
killing very seriously and make it as calm as possible for the animal. They would relax the
animal and let it be alone and eat all it wants. This allows minimum stress to the meat and
“bumps” up the quality of the meat. While I was very shocked on the procedure of killing the
animal, I knew that this animal had died in a less stressed out manner.

As we were approaching the final stages of the tour, I overheard people mention how
they were going to become vegan after this tour. I had no idea why and to this day, I was
thinking to myself about how this is amazing and this made me want to eat more meat. I was
simply convinced that eating organic is way more efficient on your body than eating industrial
processed foods. Though, I have never been to an industrial processing farm, I can get a pretty
good picture of it. The thought of the meats that were taken care of here was very pleasing and
was getting my head spinning about how we can all make this food not only affordable, but to
spread the word of organic around to over rule the industrial food markets. I was convinced that
this way of eating was the true way of eating healthy and to keep your body healthy.

Visiting Sunnyside Meats was not the only impact on my life style of eating. In my
humanities class we were in a stage of discussing foods and how they are made of mostly one
common ingredient. ​Corn. T ​ his topic was ranging from watching documentaries of corn to
reading a book, ​The Omnivore's Dilemma. ​Both resources provide facts on why eating certain
kinds of foods that contain corn can not be the best for your health. At first, I did not take it
seriously. I would find myself always making jokes about the books. I clearly did not find ​corn​ to
be that interesting but as we drove deeper into it, I started to actually take the material seriously.
To this day, I would catch myself reading the ingredients on the back of food labels at the store
just to find the word ​corn t​ o prove myself that corn is a common ingredient. I take this discovery
and break it down in my head to unveil the true meaning of why corn is added and where did it
came from. I try to imagion the health risks that can occur in my future life and how I can simply
avoid them by eating the right things and avoid the bad foods. In the market, different brands of
foods companies have a consistent characteristic to what they add in their foods and where they
are made. And some of these brands will be labeled organic and as we all know, organic = more
expensive. I see why it is expensive after watching how well processed the food is such as the
Sunnyside Meats farm but the question I have is​: why hasn't organic gotten more popular and
overtaken the industrial side?

During a whole 2 months of this project, I have become more and more less biased of
what I put into my body. I always have given my mother crap as she always looks at the
ingredients on food labels. I would be upset when she would say ​no put it back on the shelf.
That's not real food! I​ would be annoyed when she would buy organic things because in my
vision, organic equals a hippie vegan. After being well educated on this manner, I realise why
she makes these decisions. Not only to help out local businesses but to simply be healthy.
Being healthy is a role that I take after my mother and my father as it is important for my body’s
future. My mindset has grown from being a biased eater to now a smart eater and we all need to
pass it on around and spread the word that organic is the right way to eat and to knock out
these disgusting industrial food corporations.