Food Inc is a documentary film that approaches the United States food industry head on. I've seen it discussed on the Martha Stewart Show, its really been all the rage here and there. It was all over for a while, you could not think food without thinking "Food, Inc." Which is probably why I added it to my Netflix que in the first place, but honestly I tried to avoid it. I always put these types of films off because honestly I wonder what the truth of the matter really is. Have you ever met a hippie with an agenda? Facts are never facts, theres always the truth and then the "truth that the man doesn't want you to know." Its always some sort of underlined agenda or conspiracy. If you try and tell them they might be wrong, well I can guarantee you will get an ear full. No one knows more than the enlightened "hippie". I'll admit that theres always dirty secrets that are brushed under the rug, however ... sometimes the reality of the matter is not everyone can afford to eat "smart" or organic, not everyone has a year round farmers market, (Hello! I live in the Poconos, not California.) not everyone has the opportunity to trade in their cars immediately for electric mo-peds or hybrid cars. Solar panels are absolutely not free, and I feel that the media's agenda thrives on wracking everyone with guilt. Its a nationwide scam to get people to buy more crap... eco-friendly crap.
This documentary film approaches agriculture, and the modified aka "zombified" plants we're eating, more specifically genetically altered soy plants that are bred and grown, MEANT to co-exist with pesticides. Meaning: the plant can not live without being chemically treated with poisons. Farmers that just happen to have this found in their fields are being sued by the corporations (Monsanto) that bred these genetically modified crops. As a result the farmer growing a regular crop have to kill their plants and throw away their seeds. All because somehow these genetically altered plants infected their crop. I found this particularly outrageous because there's nothing specifying whether or not the farmer willingly put the genetically altered plant on their fields. Whether intentional or accidental, the crop must be banished and the farmer is fined incidentally plenty of farmers went bankrupt -or- signed contracts to grow Monsanto crops.
The beef and poultry industry are pretty much shunned as a whole, as a general overview, they discuss first the inhumane treatment and cruelty to the animals, then of course the environmental impact mass producing and transporting causes. Now I'm not saying that the cruelty to animals is something that is something insignificant per say, however ultimately you ARE raising these animals to be eaten, messing with hormones and genetics is gross and un-natural, packing them like sardines half covered in their own excrement is sad but its the American way to want more for less. The way to achieve supply for demand is to produce more animals, fatter animals in a quick and "efficient" manner. You get fatter animals by feeding them altered feed instead of grass, you increase this process by making them fatter quicker and killing them sooner. Is it really surprising that the chickens are being genetically altered to have breasts so big they're legs break and they fall over? Its not surprising to me in the least... look to Hollywood as reassurance that Americans love themselves big fake breasts. Chickens or otherwise... However if we were going to transition to organic, farm raised, healthier chickens whats the end of the line cost difference? From what I found... at least twice the cost.
The expense of eating healthfully was actually approached, however it was unfortunately a very brief point in the film. One family was featured with the same problem that everyone in America faces, do you eat cheaply at McDonalds instead of making meals at home at a much higher cost? You can buy a sack of burgers for $5, yet walk into the produce, dairy and meat isles of your grocery mart and you cant get enough food to feed a family of four anywhere near that cost. You can probably do spaghetti, maybe beans and rice however add fresh produce or lean meats to that bill and its just not realistic. I imagine its possible if you try really really hard but this is where the modern convenience of drive-thru overwhelms the decision for most folks. Why is it that the cruelty to the chickens we're eating is a more significant subject than the fact that the average American family is less and less capable of affording groceries? The transition in the film for me, my favorite part and probably the single most pleasant person featured was Joel Salatin, an owner of the family run Polyface Farms. (Polyface Inc.) A real happy farmer (probably the only happy farmer, or happy individual at all in the film) with thick framed glasses and a straw hat he really grounded the film and approached it from what I see as an appropriate stand point. Why should we have to pick and choose what we eat thats healthy? What if as a nation instead of picking and choosing laws and regulations to better this or that, what if as a nation we went to the hospital less and less by eating healthier? Food is essentially our bodies medicine, what we choose to put in our mouth is important. People complain about paying $3-6 for free range organic eggs yet spend $1.50 for a can of pop or $1.00 for a bottle of water.
"Plants and animals should be provided a habitat that allows them to express their physiological distinctiveness. Respecting and honoring the pigness of the pig is a foundation for societal health"
"Cows are herbivores, not omnivores; that is why we've never fed them dead cows like the United States Department of Agriculture encouraged (the alleged cause of mad cows)."
I mean does this all really sound so obscene? Let corn be corn, let a pig be a pig, let the animal live as its supposed to instead of mass producing, caging and killing it all in a short period of time. Stop over-doing it, the pure and natural way to eat and live worked for so many years. Its just in the past 100 years that we've turned food into this processed interpretation of food. The concept of animals being raised and slaughtered in cages has been something I've always been irritated with, veal in particular was a really sore spot for me. At one point in my youth I'd adamantly say that hunting is just homicidal and needless, why would you track out to kill an innocent animal when you can go to the grocery mart and buy it? Are we such monsters that we need to kill? Without a doubt in my mind I now say yes, its actually more humane and well worth it health wise. Watching this film absolutely reassured my opinion of hunting (let me specify, hunting animals with the sole purpose of using them as food...not trophies) Those grocery mart animals were never allowed a single breath of fresh air, they ate not a single grain of grass and they never had a chance to run away, or quite frankly do anything but eat modified grain, poop and die. So yes! yes! yes!
And I now move on to the absolute major nail in the coffin for me, what I found to be the grossest thing of all... The Beef Industry. This subject was pretty much immediately approached with the grieving mother of a dead 2 1/2 year old son. Barbara Kowalcyk fed her son (Kevin, Kevins Law) fast food hamburgers and within 12 days her son died from E. coli. The picture she paints could just overwhelm anyone, parents especially with an un-describable grief. "We did not know the risks we were taking by feeding our child a hamburger." Now this alone I found heart breaking but this alone was not the grossest part. I believe there were FOUR children that died from that contamination, and the manufacturer that produced the tainted meat was allowed to stay open over 21 days AFTER Kevin and other children had eaten the tainted meat. Kevin ultimately already dead.
-"Despite a failing safety record, Supreme Beef sold $23.1 million worth of beef to the school lunch program during the 1999-2000 school year. USDA tried to close the Supreme Beef plant for repeatedly failing to meet the government’s limits on Salmonella, a potentially deadly bacterium. Supreme Beef sued and the courts ruled that USDA did not have the legal authority to close the plant for failing Salmonella tests. Because of this decision, USDA can’t shut down meat grinding plants for repeatedly exceeding government limits for Salmonella. Today, these plants produce foods that get stamped with the USDA seal of approval."
There is no law regulating the shutting down of plants that continuously produce contaminated products. So who's to stop this from happening to someone else? As a result of the E. coli and salmonella beef manufacturers (Beef Products Inc.- ) began processing beef scraps or "trimmings" and combining it with ammonia. They dehydrate this mixture and then cut it back into the beef products. This manufacturer is the main supplier to Mc Donalds, Burger King and what I found most disturbing... Government Facilities. Meaning... your children's school lunches, (as well as prisons etc. ) Although my son has never eaten a single school lunch I was absolutely disgusted with this. School lunches in general have always been pretty bad, in recent years theres been a huge movement to making students more healthy. They are striving to "teach" them about the food they are eating? Yet how many of those kids know what actually goes into those hot dogs? I understand that sometimes ignorance is bliss, and they are children but school lunches nationwide are getting a face lift? They are striving to include more fruits and vegetables, more protein and nutrient rich foods but yet they are feeding the kids the same beef that may or may not be infected with e. Coli or salmonella?, Or chemically treated and sold in bulk to Taco Bell and every other food chain? Yeah thats exactly what I want to pay $3 a day for. Now I know that a lot of people are open to eating chemically treated beef however for me, no way. A good number of years ago I became wise on the bleach in "bleached" flour and I have not purchased it since. I go above and beyond to try and healthfully feed my family. To the best of my knowledge, or the best of my ability thats what I hope to accomplish.
Although I definitely to some degree found Food, Inc. to be another healthy scoop of the liberal media's BS. (I know thats probably a frowned upon opinion but this is ultimately how I really feel.) It was fairly eye opening. Foods I thought were a pretty safe bet are complete wild cards. Almost all corporations declined participating in the filming of this documentary, first I thought what where they hiding? second I thought, maybe they just did not feel the need to be slandered by the liberal media, and lastly I thought, ...since these corporations chose not to be showed how much of the content was embellished by the producers of this film? Of the corporations that chose to film were pretty much two. Beef Products Incorporated, and Wal-mart. Wal-mart was actually featured as one of the faces of industry striving to improve the nations consumption of organic products. Ironic no? Even though I'm sure the information was slightly tainted or mildly embellished it really did raise a red flag or two for me. More is not more, more is actually less. When you pay for "more is more" your also getting chemical additives, genetically modified etc. More is less? Maybe eating more wisely is something I should strive to achieve a little more than before. Its hard, slightly impossible even however maybe if I just try a little harder or simply do without I will have peace of mind. In the end I would absolutely say that watching this was worth the wait, I almost wish I'd watched it sooner! For me I really did simmer with the feeling that more is not more, more is ...just too much.
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