Just watched Food, Inc and I'm blown away. Yet another reason I'm a vegetarian. If you haven't seen it yet, you need to. Here are just a few things I learned from it:
1) Chicken: Antibiotics are put into the feed that's passed through to the chickens. Bacteria builds a resistance so anti-bacteria isn't working anymore. Chickens can't even walk and there are thousands in the houses. The farmer they spoke with was the only one out of dozens that would let the camera into the chicken houses. She is now allergic to antibiotics and can't take them. Even if the chicken are sick they go to the plant for processing. Farmers are under the companies thumbs and they have no say in how to run their own farms. Her contract was even terminated when she refused to upgrade to dark, tunnel-ventilated houses.
I know God put animals on the earth to eat, but they are not meant to be treated this way.
2) Beef: Cows are not designed to eat corn, only grass, but corn is cheap and makes them fat quickly, so it is used. Corn diet results in e-coli. They stand in manure all day, so e-coli is spread to all the cows. Manure gets in the meat when they're slaughtered. E-coli is now found in spinach, and apple juice because they're all from the same farm. There used to be thousands of slaughter houses in the US and now there are only 13 which means your meat comes from parts of 10 or 15 cows. People die from e-coli and efficiency is leading to problems. If you grass feed cows for 5 days they will shed 80% of e-coli in their gut, but then the system would die. The company that processes 70% of hamburger cleans it with ammonia to kill e-coli before packaging.
3) Why would you give this kind of food to your family? Why can we get a hamburger for .99 and not even a head of lettuce for that price? That is not an accident, it's a result of our farm regulations. The biggest predictor of obesity is income. Industry blames it on responsibility, but when you're engineering food s you're pressing our evolutionary buttons. Salt, fat and sugar are rare in nature, but now it's available24/7 in enormous quantities. Type 2 Diabetes is now affecting children!
4) Why do we not have the right to know where are food came from and what's in it? Now there are laws for criticizing food, remember Oprah? What we buy is a vote. Consumers can change things. Carrots should be cheaper then chips. How are we going to change things? Look at tobacco industry. They had huge control, but the control was broken. The battle against tobacco is a perfect model of how an industry's irresponsible behavior can be changed. We need to demand good food. Buy from companies that treat workers, animals and environment with respect. When you go to the store buy foods in season, buy organic, and read labels! Buy local and shop at farmer's markets. Plant a garden. Tell congress to enforce food safety standards and re-introduce Kevin's Law. We can change the world with every bite.
Visit www.takepart.com/foodinc for more info
This DVD is only about $5.00 used on Amazon or you can rent it from your local library.
