Op Ed Examples

https://www.colorlines.com/articles/preserving-our-democracy-starts-saving-our-environment-op-ed

• This Op Ed titled “Preserving Our Democracy Starts with Saving our Environment,” speaks about how people of color and underserved communities have long borne the uneven burden of pollution’s impact. I chose to post this because I am an advocate for equality and I feel this imbalance requires a lot more attention than given. A lot of people are unaware of how the negative impacts of envirornmental issues affects the lower class.

https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/opinion/op-ed-the-dark-side-of-social-media

• In this Op Ed, Emma Allowed speaks about social media and how it has become a trap. I found it interesting because the idea of social media as negative is such a debatable topic in my opinion and we have also discussed this juxtaposition in class. She describes social feeds as a “sea of illusions.”

My Op Ed

Selines Sanchez, Food Insecurity in New York City

March 13, 2020

Personally, it’s infuriating that people from low income communities don’t have access to, or are properly educated about healthier foods. More than 1.2 million New York City residents, or 14.4 percent, are food insecure. What is food insecurity? You may be wondering. The state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. Ask yourself, do you know what you should really be eating? More importantly, can you afford it? Have you ever noticed that once a community becomes gentrified, fresher, more modern produce shops appear? Meanwhile low income neighborhoods are full of fast food restaurants; promoting the food we teach students to avoid. This is because once an area is gentrified, it conforms to middle-class taste, but the people living in the area are not of the middle-class therefore leading them to purchase cheaper, less nutritious food to feed their families. In extreme cases, families now have to move to even lower income areas with little to no acces to fresh, affordable food. This can lead to various eating disorders, which are immensely poisonous to one’s mentality and self-esteem. Obesity alsone can destroy these and many other aspects of human beings such as depression and anxiety. This issue goes deeper than stress and lack of nutritional foods & knowledge in low income areas. With proper knowlege and access to fresher and healthier foods, we aren’t just imporoving health, but preventing the destruction of life due to inequality.

Since the term and concept is still rather unfamiliar, it may be something we don’t always think about, or realize the importance of. Many children in lower income neighborhoods don’t get the proper education to know what to eat and the importance of taking care of your body. Because of this many people are clueless as to how or what to eat. Even then, many don’t have access to or can’t afford to maintain a consistent healthy lifestyle. By middle school, obesity rates are flying. According to CDCP (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention),obesity prevalence was 13.9% among 2-to 5-year-olds, 18.4% among 6-to 11-year-olds. Childhood obesity is also more common among certain populations, mainly low income communities.

What makes me the most upset is that food insecurity is an easy fix. To reduce it we can attend local food pantries, instead of industrialized markets. Companies like city harvest and Grow NYC do pop up farmers markets multiple times per week. Supermarkets should have fresher produce. The FIFO (First in First Out) should be more heavily enforced. I’ve worked in food service for a majority of my employment career. Many employees including myself are briefly trained in this process and oftentimes don’t take it seriously because management is too lazy or lenient. I feel schools should be taking the conversation about nutrition more seriously in school. Not only focusing on the health benefits of healthy foods, but how to access them properly. High School and University curriculum should include how to shop smartly and nutritionally, including ingredients that should be avoided as well. Mainly, fresh produce and nutritional knowledge should accessible to all students of all communities and ages. We should never be insecure about one of the best things in the world. Food!