Competing for the MNT cause

By Julian Rosete

Key Club hosts their first ever MNT (Maternal Neonatal Tetanus) Olympics on Sunday March 31st.

“This is the first time Key Club has done the MNT Olympics, but hopefully it will become an annual event for our members,” says Key Club Publicist and MNT coordinator Emily Vu.

“It was an event that our fabulous MNT coordinators had been planning for a really long time, and seeing everyone participate and have a lot of fun at the event was pretty rewarding”, says Key Club president Kathy Ton

This event is for contestants to come out to compete and for spectators to come and watch. The event was run by MNT coordinators and Key Club officers at Cataldi Park. There will be many games for contestants to compete in such as three legged race, water balloon race, water toss and more.

“Our division goal for MNT was three thousand dollars and with the registration, raffle tickets and concessions sold at the event, MNT olympics pushed us over the three thousand mark,” says Kathy

The admission costed five dollars for those who chose to compete in the Olympics and three dollars for those who came to watch the event. All the money raised went to the Eliminate project to help fight the MNT disease.

MNT is a disease that causes mothers and newborn babies to experience convulsions and severe pain that can lead to involuntary death. This disease kills a baby every 15 minutes even though this could be prevented with three doses of vaccines that cost $1.80, according to Key Club. These vaccines can protect mothers and children for their rest of their lives.

The Eliminate project is a cause which not only helps to solve the MNT crisis, but also to provide clean water, nutrition’s and other vaccines. The overall goal of the Eliminate project is to raise 110 million dollars to support these causes.

Dangers of Meat Consumption

By: Rose Lu

In today’s society, meat is thought to be an essential part of our daily diets. While it may taste great and provide a lot of nutrients such as protein, people don’t often question where meat comes from or what it goes through to make it onto the table.

Many argue that meat is unhealthy for human consumption, as they are associated with all types of different diseases such as diabetes and cancer. Often, poultry also has added antibiotics and growth hormones that can affect and promote cancer growth.

Not only is meat unhealthy for the body, it is also inhumane and brutal to produce. According to the Huffington Post, animals are not allowed outside of their pens or cages unless it is slaughter day. Poultry animals are brought into the world solely to function as food later in their life.

Meat goes through a long process to get to our dinner tables. Factory farming, farms that raise large amounts of animals for food, encourages consumers to buy more meat products because they are so cheap. Factory farms barely make revenue off of selling these animals. Both the environment and the consumers facing the consequences, however.

It is extremely pricey to raise poultry for consumption. According to foot-tank, a site dedicated to tracking down the consequences of different subjects, the total amount of water needed to produce a pound of beef is 1,799 grams and 576 grams to produce a pound of pork. In comparison, soybeans take about 216 grams and corn takes about 108 grams. It also costs more resources to transport poultry across the world, which damages the environment in turn. Rather than feeding these plants to animals, humans could consume the plants directly rather than having an extra step.

There is another method that many small farms are adopting to make meat production less cruel and more sustainable. Rather than confining animals and forcing hormones into them, these farms are allowing these animals to free-range and adopt more natural diets.

Another solution to meat consumption is to become a vegetarian or vegan. A Harvard study has been proven that plant-based diets are healthier. Athletes such as Serena Williams have adopted a plant-based diet in order to perform better in their sports.

###359/350