Food, Inc.

Food, Inc. by Robert Kenner

Another film that is almost regrettable to watch. The information in this film is great to know, but do we really WANT to know about the foods we are eating? What has come evident is that the food industry is a huge power that is not afraid of attacking "the little guys." are being drained of their livelihood and in come by the "big guys", the worst being Monsanto. Monsanto has come up a lot in class discussions, including the independent film "Seeds of Change." The University of Manitoba houses the head office of Monsanto in Canada. Why are we accommodating these people that have little regard for peoples health or well being? It is almost as terrifying as the power that oil companies have over our country.

Chickens that are being bred so quickly that their "breast enhancements" happen quicker than their internal organs and bones can keep up with and they either suffer and die or cannot even walk. They are being kept in dark sheds and quality of life is completely disregarded. They just lie their and wait to be butchered in a production line. The diets of cattle are altered to "cheap" corn instead of grass, which has been a huge cause of the E.coli outbreaks that are killing people and even getting on vegetables. Simply changing the cows diet back to grass can eliminate the bacterias such as E.coli. I wondered about all of the carcasses of the wasted meat of cattle that died of disease or poor living conditions are a waste of the GHG emissions they produced during their lives. Nothing resulted out of it, nobody was fed, and those that do survive can carry disease. Ammonia is being used to kill the E.coli, and meat "fillers" are also used for the hamburgers that we are eating.

Promoting the "dollar menu" concept has been why this is happening. Right from the beginning, McDonalds was a HUGE part of this speedy and unhealthy way of life we have adopted. They wanted hamburgers everywhere to taste the same and were clearly very successful in doing so. Families can easily afford the cheap dollar menu fast food as opposed to going to the grocery store and purchasing vegetables and other healthy options. The problem is that in doing so, we are trapping ourselves in a viscous circle. Health problems start to arise (diabetes) and medication is required to maintain our health. People that cannot afford medication as it is, are still forced to continue on the "cheap" and "speedy" diet of this so-called meat.

A major point of this movie is for people to become aware, to ask questions and to gain knowledge on their own about the foods they are eating. We are entitled to know what is going in our mouths, but not everything is required to be on the labels. Beyond the labels we don't realize that the people that are processing our meat are "human machines" as stated in the movie, and mostly illegal immigrants. Poor wages, poor working conditions, and people were being arrested and hauled away, but the companies that hired them that were fully aware of their illegal status probably did not receive even a slap on the wrist. They were being treated like the hogs they were slaughtering.

"People" along the way that contributed to our way of life has been the Bush Administration, Monsanto, McDonalds, and many many others. They are extremely successful in what they are doing and somehow can go after the little people and get away with it. At the very end of the film they discussed how there is hope going against these food corporations that seem to win everything and get away with everything. They compared the battle against the food corporations to the battle that was fought against tobacco companies. Smoking has been banned from all indoor facilities (excluding reserves), tobacco products are being hidden from sight in stores, they are properly labelled with their toxic ingredients, as well as the surgeon generals warning and pictures right on their packaging. We should know what is in our food and understand what it is that they are listing on those packages. If the soybeans that are in our food are "round up ready" we should know exactly how that modified the seeds. Ingredients on websites are probably not always accurate, and people don't always want to do the leg work in researching their food. What is the simplest solution would be to eliminate all these GMO's and to stop the mass production of chickens and cows and pigs. As suggested in this film and many other discussions, we should go back to traditional practises and step away from this quick paced food production.

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