Food is essential to sustain life and to know where that food came from is important as well. The food industry today is one of the largest industries in America. The way our food is processed and how it's packaged is deliberately hidden from the consumer. The sublime documentary, Food, Inc, unveils the hidden and grotesque microcosm of the food industry. The documentary exposes the truth and points out issues of great concern, such as: the way farmers are treated, the way food is processed, and the way America's food standards have changed industrially and socially. The few issues stated troubled me the most and the research the narrators found was extremely startling to me.
These large companies like Perdue and Tyson have dominated the food industry. They have ascendency over the farmers and practically control every aspect of their life. These companies tell the farmer how to grow and raise livestock; they make the farmer procure new machinery that's price is exorbitant. Also, if the farmers dont't comply, their contract with these companies will be terminated. With the price of up-to-date machinery and a low salary, the farmer is in debt and cannot afford to lose their contract. Carole Morrison, a Perdue grower, stated in the documentary that what these companies are doing is wrong and reprehensible. The feeds and coops of the chickens are noisome and the way these companies control the coops are flagrant. Carole affirms that,"This isn't farming, this is mass production", to illustrate a major flaw in the food industry- a detached relationship between farmer and the consumer. Apparently, farmers aren't supposed to grow for the consumer, but to grow for these companies. The food industry's main concern is the amount of wealth they can accrue.
The advent of mass producing corn brought a myriad of problems. Corn, with its high levels of starch, was genetically engineered into various products, such as soda, chips, and basically everything in the supermarket; also, it's used to feed cattle. Cattle are accustomed to eating grass from years of evolution; it is the grass that kills E. coli in their system, but grass dosen't produce a fat cow in a shorter time like corn does. Corn is the primary ingredient in the feed and its corn that contributed to the change in industry and societies diet.
The government subsidizes farmers by the bushel; farmers are encouraged to grow as much corn as possible. Furthermore, these large companies purchase corn at tremendously low prices. Now with the cattle mainly eating corn and society ingesting excessive amounts of high-fructose corn products, the populace is undergoing a genetic change. People are now prone to diabetes-from the amount of sugar these corn products contain- and there have been many outbreaks of E. coli in the past few years, indicating that this industry needs reform desperately. Cattle aren't raised on your typical farm anymore, but raised on a CAFO (concentrated animal feeing operation). Approximately, 3% of America is planted to corn, so corn is shipped to a CAFO where cattle are raised unjustly. Hours on end these cattle stand in their own manure, this is how our food industry takes care of our food.
The modern food industry is detrimental to the whole system. It's not just harmful to the animals, but to the consumer as well. There are some new alternatives that have just recently emerged into this bleak scene to combat the dark side of the food industry and they are the Organics. Organic food companies are trying to change the way people eat and how our food is processed. They strive to create natural food that is salubrious. However, organic food can be costly. The consumer can be changed by price; so, if organic food becomes cheaper than processed food, then the system will change. It would be great to see the conversion of processed food to organics. To help the cause, I am going to purchase and consume more organic foods. With this new knowledge about food, I will look at McDonalds and the food industry differently.
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