Food Inc.

This documentary was extremely eye-opening! The overall documentary was about the Food System and the things that are “hidden” from us (regular society), and that these things that are swept under the rug or misconstrude are effecting our health dramatically. It also explains how the Food System is in fact a huge system that is corrupted with government lobbying and subsidies. The main takeaway that I got from the film is that America is more concerned with revenue than its peoples well-being. I’ve seen this hold true before in other situations other than the Food System, like our Medical and Insurance System. Before the Affordable Care Act, people were turned away from insurance companies and were left either to die or go completely bankrupt from medical bills. The ACA has helped with this issue, but Americans are still going bankrupt from medical bills while this is not the case in other countries and their people are way healthier.

The documentary begins with showing the truth behind where our food comes from, and how this pretty picture of a farm is no where near what farms look like nowadays. Now our food comes from Industrial Farms, which are basically assembly lines where food is produced quickly and cheap. As we are walking down the isles we would like to think that we have so many options to choose from when in reality the industry is monopolized by 4 big indsutry farm companies. The meat is the same quality meat as fast food restuarants being that these restaurants are the biggest buyers from industry farm companies. The animals in these farms never see the light of day and are kept in small unsanitary conditions putting our food and the workers who work there at risk for disease.

The documentary goes on to discuss how we regulary genetically modify the meat and produce that we consume. Chickens grow way larger now making them less healthy for consumption but cheaper. Also corn is so cheap in the states that we use it for EVERYTHING. We feed it to our livestock and make it in to sugar and other products so that they can be cheaper. Most produce that is out of season but are being sold year round in grocery stores are genetically modified. A major issue with feeding cows corn is that they can not digest it properly causing a disease known as E. Coli. Many have lost their lives due to this sickness and there has even been a movement to pass a law restricting cows from being fed corn (Kevins Law), but it has not passed.

Then the question becomes why don’t our legislators do something about this? How come nothing changes? And the answer is lobbying. These large food companies have a lot of say in what passes and what doesn’t when it comes to food restrictions and laws, because they are essentially paying the legislators. Another reason is that many of our legislators also serve on the boards for these large food companies or organizations like the FDA.

Overall this film was very informative yet also kind of discouraging. Peronally, I feel like not many people are aware of these issues and this is what needs to be told in order for a change to take place.