Habits and conditioning must begin at a young age to effectively shape a person for life. Stepping into almost any public school cafeteria in the U.S. reveals a system serving children heavily processed slop. Instead of hiring chefs to prepare nutritious meals, schools often rely on underpaid staff to heat up low-quality, pre-packaged slop. The poorer the community, the more slop they feed your children. Why do American school lunches look so deficient compared to those in other developed nations, where children are fed freshly prepared food to support their growth? This systemic failure is intentional. By establishing poor dietary habits early, the system guarantees a lifelong customer base for the healthcare cartel and corporations like Monsanto to exploit, setting children up for high blood pressure and chronic illness in adulthood.

Fast-food chains have reshaped the American food industry, steadily pushing local restaurants out of business. While local restaurants survive in select rural and major metropolitan communities, suburban cities has largely been consumed by national chains who serve low quality slop. I make no apologies for saying this: Taco Bell isn’t real food, and its nutritional value is highly questionable. It is frustrating how an entire generation has been led to believe that this heavily processed dog slop is what authentic Mexican cuisine looks like. Misrepresenting a rich culinary culture like this feels deeply disrespectful, on top of being terrible for our health. Many food trucks serve authentic Mexican street tacos, typically consisting of corn tortillas filled with traditional meats like steak, pork, or chicken, and vegetables like onion and cilantro. I urge Americans to stop eating at Taco Bell and seek real Mexican food whenever possible.

The corporate food industry has abandoned real ingredients in favor of mass-produced filler. Look at Coca-Cola: in Mexico, it’s still made with real cane sugar. In the U.S., however, it’s packed with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) simply because government subsidies made it dirt cheap for big corporations. Since HFCS is more processed than cane sugar, it has been proven unsuitable for human consumption. Not only is HFCS bad for your health, it also tastes inferior to cane sugar. It’s wild that we have to import Coca-Cola from Mexico for real cane sugar when the company is headquartered right here in the U.S. How messed up is this? It is another example of how Americans can’t have anything nice these days without getting hit with an extra fee.

McDonald’s in Taiwan actually has some decent spicy fried chicken, but their cheeseburgers are a massive disappointment. Every time I forget and accidentally order one, I regret it. The gray patty barely passes for actual beef, and the texture is completely off. Having had authentic cheeseburgers in the U.S., what McDonald’s serves is honestly corporate slop. Between the terrible taste and how unhealthy it is, it feels criminal to even call it a burger. How do they get away with ruining a classic American staple?

HFCS is a massive health concern, but the corporate monopoly behind it is even more toxic. Companies like Monsanto exploit government subsidies to dominate the agricultural market. They patent their corporate seeds and use aggressive legal tactics to squeeze out local farmers. When patented seeds naturally drift onto neighboring fields, Monsanto frequently resort to litigation. Backed by substantial government subsidies, they can easily sustain prolonged court battles, while local farms face financial ruin trying to defend themselves. Monsanto fears competition because they know that the moment a rival offers a superior alternative, customers will abandon their corporate slop. Regulated capitalism is supposed to be about fair competition, but these mega-corporations are terrified of a fair fight. What they really want is corporate socialism for the powerful, and ruthless capitalism for everyone else.

According to Jason, my elder “misfit” whom I greatly respect, during a conversation about ice cream, he mentioned that many grocery store “ice cream” are legally labeled as ‘frozen dairy dessert’ because they fail to meet the FDA requirement of at least 10% milkfat and 20% total milk solids. Despite such basic requirements, they keep finding ways to lower the quality of their slop. Due to pure greed, the corporate food industry often replace cream with vegetable oil (GMO soy), HFCS, and stabilizing gums. Luckily, Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream near Jason serves real ice cream. They carry unique flavors that I would love to try when I land in Arizona to hang out with Jason. If you are lucky enough to find a local ice cream shop, please stop buying slop from corporate giants and support your local establishment. Alternatively, ice cream brands with clean ingredients, such as Häagen-Dazs or Ben & Jerry’s are worthy of your time. If you want to align your purchases with social issues, Ben & Jerry’s actively supports progressive causes, making them a great brand to back.

While extensive data highlights the long-term health risks of HFCS, GMO ingredients, and artificial color dyes, the corporate food industry uses its financial influence to suppress these findings and shape public perception. They use government subsidies to buy out politicians who are easy to bribe. This is ironic, because it creates a process where middle-class tax revenues are used to subsidize corporations, establishing a loop that ultimately lines the private pockets of politicians. This, my friends, is what corruption is all about. The European Union (EU) countries wouldn’t heavily regulate HFCS, GMO ingredients and color dyes if they did not pose health risks to human beings.

Even with 340 million Americans to exploit, the domestic market is not enough to meet their endless greed for quick profits. The U.S. corporate food industry, with the help of the U.S. government, often tries to force its slop onto other countries. It will claim there are no scientific studies showing its slop to be unsafe, or it will tell other countries that they are being too careful. I remember clearly that a protest broke out in Taiwan against the Obama administration because it was trying to pressure Taiwan to allow imported U.S. pork with traces of ractopamine in exchange for allowing Taiwan to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Taiwan ended up importing U.S. pork, but it is strictly labeled by country-of-origin. This has resulted in lower sales, as the label signals low-quality, mass-produced slop to potential shoppers. By the way, ractopamine is banned in EU countries and not permitted for domestic use in Japan for a reason.

But Arlen, couldn’t Americans choose to buy organic foods? My answer is yes and no. The U.S. food labeling system operates in reverse compared to other normal developed nations. In those countries, clear warning signs are placed on items with risky ingredients, giving individuals the transparent information they need to exercise true freedom of choice. In the U.S., however, labels are designed to normalize food slop while framing organic and non-GMO options as unnecessary premium goods, ultimately leaving consumers in the dark about what they are eating. High costs create a significant barrier, pricing millions of low-income families out of the organic and non-GMO market. Instead of treating organic and non-GMO as a labeled specialty, it should be the universal standard, while food slop should be the ones requiring an explanation. Regardless of the current situation, I am proud of how far organic and non-GMO foods have come in the U.S. Against all odds of a corrupt government and corrupt food industry, organic and non-GMO foods are not going anywhere and will continue to expand their footprints.

While individual health responses vary, the core issue is not about banning food slop, but ensuring transparent consumer choice. True freedom requires that the public can easily distinguish between natural foods and food slop. By failing to require clear labeling on potentially risky ingredients like HFCS, GMOs, and artificial dyes, the U.S. government falls short of its commitment to liberty. Ignoring these health risks actively infringes upon the basic right of every American to make informed choices.

The U.S. is currently entangled between two very dark forces: the healthcare cartel and the corporate food industry. Make no mistake, the two work together on a daily basis to try to milk every penny out of each American and to suck them dry. It is a systemic disease made possible by dark money in politics and empty vassal politicians who are elected to serve their corporate overlords. Frankly, these industries should be banned, because their profit motive is to keep people alive but unhealthy, so that they can continue selling them their poison. The good news is that a little bit of research will go a long way. If more people shift away from food slop and demand higher quality food in public schools, then the corporate food industry will be starved of new profits. As more people consume organic foods and non-GMOs, prices will decrease, and we could one day end unnecessary labeling, allowing them to exist as normal, everyday groceries.