“Food, Inc.”: A Look at Where Your Food Comes From and What Goes Into It”
By Brendan O.
Have you ever thought about where your food comes from? Have you ever thought about what is in that cheeseburger you bought for a dollar? Most people don’t think about these things. Most people don’t care enough to find out what exactly they are eating. It is this apathy that allows the food companies to do what they do and get away with it.
And what exactly do they do? Watch the new documentary “Food, Inc.,” and prepare yourself to live on a monk’s diet!
The apathy of most people about the food they eat comes mainly from the incorrect notion that the government, including the FDA and other federal agencies, will protect us from any harmful practices that the food industry might employ.
What most people don’t realize is that the official watchdogs of the industry are made up of numerous former food company executives. So it’s not surprising that these companies can get away with virtually anything.
For instance, did you know that most of the meat you buy comes from one of just four companies? It doesn’t matter whether you buy it in the frozen food aisle of the supermarket or on the dollar menu at McDonalds; it all comes from the same place. These four companies control so much of the food industry that they can heavily influence, or even control, the regulatory agencies created to protect us. It all comes down to money.
“Food, Inc.” shows the factory farms on which our beef is raised, and the process is grotesque. Picture thousands of cattle packed into very small and unsanitary lots; cows standing hoof-deep in their own manure. That can’t be healthy. They are literally crawling with bacteria, some of which gets into the meat during slaughter and processing. It happens all too frequently, as it did just this week when beef sold in Arizona and New Mexico was recalled by industry giant Cargill Inc. over salmonella concerns.
Why, then, aren’t the farms made more sanitary? Because it is cheaper this way. It all comes down to money.
Do you know what cows eat naturally? Grass. Grass is a cow’s natural food. Do you know what feedlot cows are fed? Corn. This may not seem like a big deal, but feeding cows corn results in the formation of e-coli, a deadly bacteria that infects meat (as well as some vegetables) with alarming regularity. “Food Inc.” documented the tragic case of a 2-year-old who died within 10 days of eating an infected hamburger, and the subsequent efforts of his mother to tighten regulations of the industry. It’s been an uphill battle because it all comes down to money.
Do you know how most of the chicken you eat is raised? Most factory bred chickens never see sunlight before they are slaughtered. What’s worse, they are pumped up with so many growth hormones they can now reach twice the size of a normal chicken in half the time. It is safe to assume that these growth hormones end up in us, contributing to the national obesity epidemic and worse. Why then do growers persist in these practices? It all comes down to money.
Approximately 10 billion chickens, pigs and cows are slaughtered annually. Nearly all of them are raised on factory farms under inhumane conditions that also pollute the environment and pose danger to workers.
At this time, meat processed from cloned animals can also be found in the supermarket, but because the government has yet to demand that cloned meat be labeled as such. We have no way of knowing—or protecting ourselves—from the possible effects of this artificially bred meat.
Of course, the interference of technology in our food chain doesn’t stop with meat. The film also focuses on genetically modified soybeans produced by Monsanto, a multinational chemical corporation that also manufactures the selective herbicide Round Up. When sprayed on soybean fields, Round Up kills everything but the soybeans. Ninety percent of the soybean seeds in the country are produced by Monsanto. Soybean farmers who would rather not use the genetically engineered seed are being sued by Monsanto for patent infringement and often go bankrupt in the process of defending themselves in court.
In fact many of the crops that go into the foods that make up the American diet have been fundamentally altered and genetically engineered to the point of being nutritionally empty.
Fortunately, there options for people who don’t want to eat this “faux food.” Organic, locally grown or raised meat and produce is becoming more available, although it still costs more than its unhealthy counterparts. You still have a voice, though, so if you are bothered by the knowledge of what is in your food, you should speak up.
