Entry #4: Food for Thought

Hello again Reader! :-) I'm going to share some thoughts relating to a documentary I watched in my ENG 101 class. The documentary is called Food Inc. It reveals (supposed) truths about the U.S.'s food industry--from farms to grocery shelves.  It is a very interesting and potentially shocking documentary. I recommend that you watch it. (That is if you can handle the truth. :-P Seriously though, it may drastically change the way you look at your food.)

I won't cover every last bit of the whole documentary, but I will talk about some striking ideas it shares.

For one thing, the documentary talks about the U.S.'s corn production. If I remember correctly, an interviewee mentioned how farmers are pretty much given incentives to overproduce corn--more than enough for obviously corn-based foodstuffs--by way of government subsidies. This is because there is so much that can be done with corn. Different substances can be derived from it, like high-fructose corn syrup, corn oil, xanthan gum, and a whole lot more. It was surprising how many various products that contain corn one way or another were shown in the documentary. Some of them aren't even food products. Corn is such a big part of people's lives here in the U.S.

Also, corn can be used to feed cattle--possibly after some processing. About that, there's supposedly something problematic with it. As I recall from the documentary, as opposed to allowing cows to eat grass, "forcing" cattle to eat corn--for economical reasons--causes them to be more prone to harboring (a) dangerous kind(s) of E. coli. When infected cows are slaughtered and prepared for human consumption, people can then get infected, become ill, and possibly die. Thus feeding corn to cattle may have been a major, if not the biggest, contributor to the many past E. coli outbreaks in the U.S., as shown in the documentary. 

You have to wonder if it's worth it to the cattle companies considering all the expenses like product recalls, compensation to those affected, potential lawsuits, etc. Sadly though, these companies cannot bring back those who may have died as a result. Unless, there's a way to prevent outbreaks that is equal to or better than letting cattle eat grass, I don't think companies should be benefiting at the expense of the consumer by feeding corn to cattle.

There was also talk in the documentary about how hard it can be for farmers who work with the few big food companies. They, or at least some chicken farmers, supposedly don't get paid much, but they have huge loans to payoff. These loans resulted from purchasing things needed for farming such as (large) chicken coops. Also, these farmers must follow whatever their companies want or else they may risk losing their contracts and thus losing their income which can be made worse by the previously mentioned loans. You could say that this is Capitalism at work, but I think the government should step in (if it hasn't already) with laws to promote fairness, programs to help farmers financially--since they, or more specifically, food is vital to the country--, and/or any other way. The government already manages different parts of the economy for the country's well-being. It should do the same with this matter (again, if it hasn't yet).

Also shown generally in the documentary were the seemingly unpleasant living conditions of livestock. I have thought about the moral considerations that could be made about slaying animals for food. If you think about it, what right do we have to take the lives of animals? If it's due to our superiority in terms of overpowering them, or basically put, just because we can, then consider how the "weak" (people) are sometimes unjustly taken advantage of by the powerful. Consider if that is alright. I wouldn't say it is right at all. So why should we take advantage of animals like we do? One thought I had that could justify it is if we ensure the survival of these animals, which we do when we raise them as livestock. Though not only must we take care of them, but also provide pleasant or at least decent lives for them and not lives where they just suffer and finally die. With that in mind, I don't think food providers in general shouldn't just blindly go on in pursuit of efficiency, but they should also think about the quality of life of their livestock.

I thank you (once again) for reading my blog. I hope this stood as a pleasant read for you. Again, you may want to watch the documentary, Food Inc. If you do, I hope you enjoy as much or even more than I did. Until next time... :-)