I have heard a lot about the documentary "Food Inc." and so I figured it was time I saw what it is all about. It was produced in 2008 and runs a little bit over an hour and a half. This documentary investigated the food industry and the hidden truths the big corporations keep from the consumer. It has transitioned from farms to factories and most of what we are eating comes from a GMO animal or crop, regardless of what it says on the label.
When the fast-food industry was essentially started by the McDonald brothers in 1930s, the idea of uniformity, conformity and cheapness were established. Now, to get these burgers to taste the same everywhere at each location, they needed to change the way meat was produced in general. Chances are, even if you don’t fast food, the meat you eat is most likely from the same factory and made in the same way. They then went into the details of chicken farming, as that rose when tobacco farming decreased. Chickens are raised and slaughtered in half the time they were 50 years ago and they are twice as big. The way the animals are raised and treated while waiting for their death, so to speak, is also a problem. When the animals constantly stand in feces, they contract bacteria because if one cow has something, they all get it. This is how E-Coli came to be such a widespread epidemic. Another issue the documentary pointed out was the decrease in food inspections. In 1972, the FDA conducted 50,000 food inspections while only 9,164 were conducted in 2006. Because fast food/junk food is so inexpensive, it puts the poorer community at risk for diseases like diabetes. After 2000, one in three Americans will suffer from onset diabetes, one in two of them being minorities. The centralized power of these big corporations is against the people who produce the food (farmers), the abused workers of the big companies, and in turn, leaves the consumers in the dark.
Quite frankly, I was horrified by this video, and yet it has fueled my desire to become more educated on the corruption and issues within the food system. One of the opening statements was the most compelling for me: “A deliberate veil or curtain is dropped between us and where our food is coming from.”
The industry withholds the truth from the people and the majority, including myself, are blind to the fact of how much these big money corporations own and control. Quoting Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "Man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains.” We are technically free people, but there are so many restrictions and control upon us, it makes us question if we really are. This proves to be true when the video shared that the four big companies, Tyson, Swift, Cargill and National Beef, control 80 percent of the market. Their span of control has even come down to one of our simplest rights: self-preservation. As a consumer, I need to be more conscious of what I am putting into my body. For me personally, not reading the label is just an example of how lazy society has become. (Myself included as well).
One of the main issues that came to my attention was money. Money is what is running this world, the way people feel and the decisions they make. Not to insert my political beliefs into this response, but I will quote something that Bernie Sanders said in a debate, “Greed is the religion of millionaires.” This is not to say that all wealthy people are greedy, as I am referring more to the big money corporations. They put their belief in the power of money and will go to great lengths to achieve their desires. Their end goal is not what’s left on this Earth, but what’s in their wallet.
I was disturbed by what Tyson grower Vince Edwards said on the drive around the farm area, “Smells like money to me.” The American stigma with work and efficiency has notoriously been the quickest and cheapest while making the most money. This relates to the Manna account in the Old Testament, in the collection of the bread throughout the week. On the sixth day, He tells the Israelites to collect enough for that day as well as the Sabbath, or seventh day. God gets angry when he sees people go out on the Sabbath in search for the food they were told wouldn’t be there. To me, this goes to show how people are always looking for more than they have, or the desire to have more wealth.
