Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Olivia Madrigal
Ms. Wylie
19 April 2017
The way we eat has changed more in the last fifty years than the
previous ten-thousand, but the image that is used to sell the food is still an
grocery store, there is a realization that the food industry has framed a
pastoral fantasy for the available food, mainly produce, then anything else.
are picked when theyre green, and ripened with ethaline gas. Your
strawberry isnt a strawberry, but just the idea of a strawberry. What has
Food Inc. explored the harsh reality of the food industry. It walks the
viewer through the truths of the food industry among the FDA,
What happens when you trace the food on your plate back to the grocery
store, meat packing, crops, and finally to the farmer? Are we going to like
what we see?
The harsh truth is that our food comes from a factory not a farm. In the
U.S., there are national corporations that are controlling a powerful industry,
which affects every consumer in the nation, the food system! It opens up
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about a world that is deliberately hidden. Industrial food began with fast food
the fast food industry. McDonalds is now the biggest beef, potato, pork,
lettuce, apple, and tomato purchaser in the nation. It is also the second
largest purchaser of chicken. This fast food chain has now redesigned how
A few companies are now controlling the food industry, and we are
eating the food controlled by this system. For example, they have redesigned
the chicken species so rather than taking seventy to ninety days for a
chicken to be considered full grown now it only takes forty-eight days. The
goals for companies like Tyson, which is the biggest chicken producer in the
apparent in many animal factories. In the chickens lifetime, they are never
exposed to sunlight. The chickens are so large and top heavy they can only
walk a couple of steps before they become immobile. Antibiotics are in the
We have the right to know about our food. In Food Inc. the viewer is
shown how much America is dependent on the corn crop. So much of our
food and products can be traced back to corn. Thirty percent of Americas
land is corn fields. Corn makes so many ingredients. For example, high-
fructose corn syrup, citric acid, gluten, xanthan gum, fructose, baking
powder, and vanilla extract starch are all products of corn. Corn is also the
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meat that the average American consumes about two hundred pounds of
meat per year. Corn is also the main ingredient in animal feed. Corn is really
cheap to make, and because of its starchy component makes animals fat
really quickly.
red barn farm in pastoral fantasy shown in advertisements, but instead are
It then reaches our food on our table riddled with disease. Youd expect for
the government to step in and take control. Wrong. In the 1970s, the FDA
2006, the FDA only conducted on average less than ten-thousand a year.
During the Bush administration, there were many USDA staff members who
were former employees of the National Farm Industry Association or even the
governments own regulatory agencies, like the USDA, are being controlled
put faith in our government, but we arent being protected against the most
reported e-coli or mad-cow disease had occurred more than once in specific
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meat factories, but the USDA did not have the power to close down plants
that had cases of contaminated meat. The industry is more protected than
and pesticide residues can be found in foods (Wardlaw, page 596). The
hamburger meat filler product, like such used in fast food, and cleanse it with
system allows the food industry to not only survive under these dangerous
Our food system is so skewed the junk food is cheaper than the fresh
food that is better for you. Who are the controllers of the food industry? The
wheat, corn, and soybean corporations make processed food so cheap, that
Its no wonder that with salt, fat, and sugar are addictive ingredients being
so cheap that obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are on the rise. There is a
sort-of mystique when junk food or fast food has the appearance of cheap
food, but in the end, you pay the price in health. More than half the adults
in the U.S. are overweight, thirty percent are obese, and these numbers
The food system has lost all of its integrity and accountability
production that will, over long term, satisfy human food needs, enhance
economic viability of farm operations, and enhance the quality of life for
farmers and society as a whole (Wardlaw, page 600). We have lost the
ability for many farmers to go back to basics when it comes to animal feed.
Grass fed animals are hard to come by in farms. Cows, for example are
natural herbivores. They are not meant to eat corn or antibiotic filler feed as
their main diet. Mega-processing facilities are keeping the consumers in the
dark about where their food is coming from, and how the animals are being
treated.
The meat slaughter houses in the nation have some of the worst
conditions for both the animals and the workers. There are only thirteen
slaughter houses for the beef produced in the U.S., and thirty-two thousand
hogs alone are slaughter at the average slaughterhouse. The workers are
paid low wages, are not allowed unions, offered zero pensions, and are
mostly illegal immigrant workers. The U.S.s corn crop industry left a lot of
Mexican corporations out of work. Due to the poor working conditions (many
Americans want to pay for the cheapest food, but at what cost? The
government and the FDA can take back control by getting rid of any USDA
and FDA employees that have ties to the meat or farming industry. Several
generations ago the FDA took back control of the tobacco industry by cutting
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tobacco. The FDA can do the same on food. We need to lobby to cut the corn
crops and tax on junk food. Its time the government criminalizes the true
victimizer.
startling predicament when it comes to the food industry. This film was
directed by Robert Kenner. It took him about six years to produce the film,
and later won many awards including the 2006 Emmy and a Peabody award.
He alone does not have any health education, however he teamed up with
fact, President Trumps choice for the chief of the USDA, Sonny Perdue, has
many ties to the farming industry and meat industry. Before he was a
currently has agriculture business deals. So yes, the themes presented in the
where it was produced. Food Inc. was a powerful documentary that opened
where the food is coming from, and possibly start a small garden this
summer.
Works Cited
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