Food Inc. Reflection

A few things that I found striking were:

1) The Hidden Surprises
Food now is more than just what is grown from the Earth like back in the old days, now there are preservatives, additives and some are even genetically modified. Antibiotics which are given to cows affect bone growth. Surprisingly enough, these antibiotics are transferred to the cow’s milk and now are affecting humans, which cause children especially girls to mature more quickly at a younger age. Now we have to ask ourselves, if this is just one side affect, what is the side affect of the other preservatives and additives in the foods that consumers are being served?

2) No Longer Bound by Limitations
It was stated in Food Inc. that farmers used to be able to grow 20 bushels per acre, and now over 200 bushels per acre is no problem. This is to be expected from the advances made in agriculture and industry over the past century. Now food can be grown without limitations. It would be expected that growing more food is better, but it is quite the opposite. As more and more food can be grown and harvested, it seems that the quality has not been able to keep up. Major companies are using new technologies to cut corners and continue their old ways that continue to make them money. It is apparent that most of the U.S. populace is unaware of the situation at hand and the major food corporations want to keep it that way. But there needs to be limitations to growing such large amounts of food, which hardly have any variety. Major farms grow mostly corn, what and soy bean. What about all the other foods? Where is the balance of nutritional value in most of the consumers’ diets in the U.S. if the correct foods are not even being grown in the farms? Where are the limitations for the major corporations to stop overusing the lands in order to make massive amounts of profits at the disadvantage of the consumers?

3) Cows’ Diets to Health Hazards
An ideal image of a farm, is seeing cows eating grass in the fields and having a fenced off area for the vegetable patch. But for most of the U.S. major corporate feed lots, this is a fantasy. Sadly, the cows in feed lots are fed an unnatural corn diet, which is used to fatten up the cows’ meat to create more product to sell. Unfortunately, the want for profit has created a hazardous situation. Deadly outbreaks of E. coli occur, from infected meat. Due to the corn diet of the cows, it allows deadly E. coli strains to grow inside the rumen (basically a giant stomach in the cow). These health hazards can surprisingly be wiped clean out of the cows’ systems in five days of feeding them a grass based diet. So why are the corporations not doing this? After all it is putting all of the consumers in jeopardy? Another issue with feed lots and other huge animal corporations is that the animals are kept in horrid living conditions. It is not fair to the animals and it is definitely not fair to the consumers who are in jeopardy of the health hazards that fester in these cesspools. Again, why hasn’t the major corporations taken charge of the situation? Why haven’t they begun to implement healthy food diets for the animals which will lead to better quality food to sell? A sad reality is that it would be more expensive, and these major corporations are all for a quick buck. Now the question is, is the quick buck more important than the health and better treatment of animals which inevitably affect the consumers?

4) Service vs. Profit
Another student in class concisely stated that Food Inc. really showed how in the food industry, it is services (E.g. small farms) vs. profit (E.g. major corporations). As seen a small all natural and organic farmer really cared about what he grew and sold, while the major corporations tried to fit as much as they could in the amount of space they could get. As the major corporations have dominated with their profit making, it is harder for the small farmers to continue to stay running. Which should the U.S. decide is best service or profit? Service, I feel is the best way to go since it would have a larger variety and more of nature would be in balance, as well as the humane treatment of animals.

My thoughts after watching Food Inc. is as follows:

Consumers in the U.S. need to demand and support the type of food that they want. To do this the populace should more frequently by and grow organic food and support humane treatment of animals in the food industry. After all these major corporations can only stay in business if people continue to support them by buying their products. It needs to be clear that awareness must be spread about the issue brought up in Food Inc. and through this will come action, which will eventually bring about the change to the food industry.

Ideas for Food Industry Reformation

In order for the food industry to reform, a few things need to happen:

- Corn subsidizing must be at the very least lessened, new subsidies should be placed on growing varieties and organic foods.
- Animal treatment must start with being humane, along with stopping genetic manipulation.
- All agricultural farms and companies need to be tested for health hazards in the farms and plants and in the products, if these tests are failed more than once then they must be shut down (as stated Kevin’s Law, which has not yet been passed).

A discussion question that I would like to pose to the class is:

What is the most crucial thing in the food industry that needs to be changed in order to reform it, so that it will eventually be reliable and safe for the consumers as well as humane to all animals and humans in the food industry? In short, what aspect of the food industry must be changed in order for it to turn around and reform?