In case you've never heard of "Food, Inc.," you can check out the website here. It is a documentary that hits on a number of different topics regarding our food system: its effect on the environment, cruelty towards animals, treatment of workers, health issues, and a great many more. It "stars" a number of people from different walks of life and different roles in our food system (including some who requested anonymity). I don't recall a single person from "Big Food" (outside of some Wal-Mart executives who were visiting an organic food producer) being interviewed, but the film noted several times that it reached out to some of the big food producers for an interview and were denied.
Like I said, the movie (and book) are pretty broad, but the one message that struck me the most is probably the biggest point the makers were trying to get across: Food is a business. It's products are just that. They're not nourishment. They're not made to be healthy or flavorful or unique. Your bag of Doritos or piece of chicken is made to be and taste the same whether you're eating it in Bloomington, Indiana; Bloomington, Illinois; or East Nowhere, New Mexico. (COMPLETELY UNRELATED SIDENOTE: I was driving through eastern New Mexico late one night a few years ago when I came to the realization that whoever coined the term "middle of nowhere" was probably driving through eastern New Mexico at the time.) Tasty and nutritious isn't the point. Cheap is. The companies have a bottom line that must be met, and just like Ford or Nike or Apple or any other big company, they're going to produce their product as cheaply as possible.
This focus on the bottom line manifests itself in many ways. To wit:
* The entire industry is basically mechanized. By its very nature, this means that everything is basically made the same and tastes the same. Heterogeneity is not allowed. It would screw up the machines and the entire process of food-making, which would probably lead to the complete downfall of society (said with tongue only halfway in cheek). The film shows how this situation is the result of McDonald's decision fifty years ago to basically turn their business into an assembly line because it was cheaper that way. So because of that we get cheap food that doesn't taste all that good and is not really healthy for you, made by people who aren't paid much money.
* Companies are so invested in the food system we've got that if something starts to go wrong, they look for new high-tech ways to fix it instead of taking a hard look at the system in general to see if maybe the system is what's broken. Case in point: Did you know that much of your meat is doused in ammonia to ensure E. coli and other bacteria are not present? Not real appetizing, is it? This is necessary because cows, pigs, etc., are allowed to root around in their own filth their whole lives. Instead of perhaps NOT letting animals sleep in their own poop, we get meat that's been blasted with ammonia. Go figure.
* Corn is used as feed in replacement of grass and other forage because it fattens animals up quickly and it's cheap (more on that below). This despite the fact that letting cows eat grass for a few days would obviate the need for antibiotics as the grass would just clean out the bad bacteria in their stomachs. Corn has been related to E. coli outbreaks in meat, but it's still used because it's --SURVEY SAYS! -- cheap.
* The "bad" calories that we take in -- in snack foods and other processed products -- are cheaper than "good" calories because of the subsidies given to farmers to produce these crops. Corn is the primary subsidy recipient, but soybeans and wheat are also high up there. The more we grow, the more subsidies farmers receive. That's a pretty powerful reason to stick with the current system.
* The people making our food are not compensated for it. Companies use a lot of illegal immigrants as laborers. They must know the workers are illegal, because, according to the film, they essentially throw local law enforcement a bone by allowing the police to take away a few laborers a week, and in return, the plants don't get raided, which would result in mass deportations and probably a lot of fines. Additionally, people raising animals (cows and chickens, for instance) in factory farms are under immense pressure to meet increasingly stringent standards, and go heavily into to debt in order to do it. In return, they are paid approximately $18,000/year, with which they must service debt in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Nice.
That's just the way that companies keep our food cheap. In the process, they treat the animals they raise terribly. Now, I've never been a PETA-loving animal rights activist. But I gotta admit, seeing how animals are artificially fattened to sickening proportions is kind of revolting. Chickens in particular are made so fat so quickly that they can't even walk or spread their wings. That seems pretty cruel, even for animals that are brought into this world specifically to be killed and eaten. Each day, chicken farmers have to go through their huge chicken coops and pick up the carcasses of birds that never made it to our dinner plates. Fun.
Health is another victim in the quest for cheap food. I've already mentioned the ammonia issue. Consider the fact that animals are also fed huge amounts of antibiotics to keep them from getting sick. This contributes to our growing resistance to these antibiotics, which could potentially have pretty severe ramifications for us. Processed foods are also loaded with unhealthy sweeteners that offer little more than empty calories and diabetes. Good to know.
There are people trying to do something about this. The film prominently features an organic farmer who doesn't use pesticides on his crops and lets his animals eat grass (which they then fertilize to keep the soil productive). The book features the CEO of Stonyfield, an organic yogurt producer, discussing the ways in which better food practices could actually be profitable. At this point, it doesn't seem like enough people have embraced this idea, but the growth in organic food sales seems to suggest there's progress.
Check out an interview Michael Pollan did with Bill Maher. Also, you can check out the website here, which has plenty of other good links to explore.
Yep, as if the actual process of artificially (and cruelly) manipulating the physiology of our animals weren't grody enough, here's this: there are prominent organizations like the FAO arguing that our meat industry is actually a huge contributor to overall global warming. I'm stealing this info from some classmates who recently presented in another class, but they're basically saying that the increasing prevalence of a heavily meat-based diet across the world has grave implications for climate change. It's a bigger green house gas emitter than the transportation industry! Goodness.
ReplyDeleteI had some good conversations with Michael Pollan and Joel Salatin when they where here for talks. Fascinating people! I thnk they have exposed fundamental flaws in our food system.
ReplyDeleteNow you are ready for Forks Over Knives. More health related, which gets back to your personal project.