What I Learned From Food Inc.

After seeing King Corn, Fast Food Nation, reading Omnivore's Dilemma,  and other popular media on the dysfunctional nature of our food system, I was skeptical that I would learn much from the new movie Food Inc.  Popular media tends to dumb down subjects to the lay person's understanding, and I would hope that I know a bit more than the lay person given my 12 years working in agriculture.  I already knew that our subsidized, overabundant grain production system created the conditions for cheap confinement feeding of livestock.  That confinement feeding of livestock created the conditions for deadly pathogens such as salmonella and E.coli 0157:H7 to multiply and spread rapidly.  I knew that large slaughterhouses break down so many animals at such a fast speed that pathogens can end up in a lot of meat, contributing to a dramatic rise in the size & severity of meat recalls over the last ten years.  These large slaughterhouses treat animals and workers with nearly the same callousness, as though they are merely industrial parts that can be quickly replaced when they wear out.  I knew that the USDA and FDA are completely ineffective in preventing and controlling the spread of human pathogens from meat  and other food processors, which has lead to countless tragic deaths after contamination has already been established.  I knew that the Monsanto corporation seems to be above the law, hiring Pinkerton police to illegally enter without warrants and take samples from farmers fields and to put out of business gentleman like Moe Parr who have been helping farmers save non GMO seed for over 50 years.  I knew that there is no protection from genetic drift, when GMO genes come into your field and contaminate your seed source, making it not only illegal to now save your seeds, but also requiring that you pay royalties to the company who facilitated the contamination in the first place (imagine if an organic farmer had to pay the chemical company royalties when a neighbor's pesticide drifted into their field and coated their crops!)  There are countless other issues that this movie brought up, from the revolving door of corporate boardrooms & political offices, the cheap food conundrum in which healthy foods are expensive and health-degenerating foods are affordable, the industrialization of organics (or you might say the 'Walmartification'), and more.  I knew all of these separate problems were occurring, I had just never seen them all woven together so seamlessly as symptoms of one growing disease.  The most basic source of life, of culture, of humanity's interaction with the earth has been turned into a dehumanizing industrial process.  Food production is now calorie production.  Agriculture is now agricolonialism.  Farmers are now serfs.  

The solutions this film gives quickly at the end are mostly superficial in nature, based on the notion of "market-based change".  I see the need for much more intensive, methodical political and legal action to hold companies accountable for their pollution of our earth, their abuse of human rights, and their ironic dependence on corporate welfare (ironic because most conservative 'farm state' politicos are against welfare for families and people, but have no problem taking tax-payers dollars for their own enrichment).  Sustainable ag and 'foodie' folks need to unite with the grain farmers and other commodity farmers who are saying "no" to GMOs or "no" to production subsidies.  We need to unite with the public health community working to diminish the rates of diabetes and obesity across our nation.  We need to unite with labor groups working to create a safe and sane immigration policy that empowers workers on both sides of the border. Only by building these kind of coalitions will we see widespread change.

What kind of changes to our food system do you think are needed?

Comments

[Carmelite]

The "vote with your money" vs. "methodical political action" debate is interesting.

Obviously, doing both would be ideal, and there certainly are people doing that:

http://www.westonaprice.org/

It is troublesome that wealthier people in our country eat better, and are able to afford healthier food, than poor people. The industrialization of food production and the subsidizing of grains are obviously huge contributing factors here, but it is really a much more complex issue than that. The percentage of household income Americans spent on food in 1970 is almost double what it is today, and it was even higher before that. Where is all of our money going now? Mostly to higher housing and medical costs. It's hard to afford quality food when you can't pay your medical bills, but then again, you may have fewer medical bills if you eat well.

Catch-22 anyone?

[Frank Kim]

Thanks for the post. Sounds like another movie I need to see. I tweeted and shared on Facebook your post.

[Sophie Grunikewicz]

I agree, our food industry is disgusting.
My son was born at 26 weeks (that's 14 weeks premature) and the only thing the doctor said was "Check your beef consumption"! My son is 8 now, tall, strong and has never been really sick and has been eating grass fed meats and organic fruits and veggies since his birth! He was supposed to be sick, weak and have learning disabilities! I'm sooo happy I checked out "Beef" and got to waiking up !!! It's time others do too !

[adam]

Rebecca,
"The solutions this film gives quickly at the end are mostly superficial in nature, based on the notion of "market-based change""

Great point! It seems that many advocacy organizations over the past few decades have been framing their cause in neo-liberal values of the individual and the "free" market. Movies such as the Inconvenient Truth don't suggest to take collective political action, but rather change individual habits. Likewise, as you say, Food Inc invites the audience to "vote with your mony", which takes the accountability of these corporations away from the Public and into the private. It also ignores the class privilege of such a statement (people with more money do and maybe ought to have more voting power) and further romanticizes the market which is itself one of the roots of the problem.

[Bryan - oz4caster]

There are so many aspects to this problem, it's bewildering. The roots of the problem lie in over-population and proper education. If enough people learn about the food problems and related health problems and are willing to vote with their dollars, we can make some major changes from the bottom up. Part of the problem is that we face a well-funded and extensive propaganda machine that invades all aspects of peoples lives both directly and indirectly and has already blinded so many people, it's a real challenge. Not only that, but there is the heavy hand of big business in swaying government rule-making that further aggravates the problems.

If people don't buy their products, they won't have all that money to generate propaganda and influence government decisions. So I believe the key is education. Spread the word :)