FOOD, INC.

Food, Inc. is a documentary that reveals how the nation’s food supply is influenced by a handful of corporations that are more focused on the profit before the consumer’s health.

I would recommend watching the film, not to scare you from eating meat, but simply to be more aware of where you are buying your food.

Here are three points that left an impression on me:

CHICKEN

To keep up with the “need” from consumers, the industry is not producing chickens; they are producing food.

Birds are being raised and slaughtered at half the time they were 50 years ago, and growing twice as big. To advance the chicken’s growth, a combination of factory breeding, hormones and antibiotics are being used. These birds are growing too big too fast that their bodies cannot keep up. Some can barely stand on their own two legs because their joints cannot keep up with the changes. In the book Eating Animals, and example of imagining “human children growing to be three hundred pounds in ten years while eating only granola bars and Flintstone vitamins.” Crazy right?

The industry has redesigned the birds to be “big breasted” since the majority of the population prefer white meat. (That’s probably how they get guys to eat chicken instead of ground beef)

RANDOM FUN FACT: After the decline in tobacco use, farmers in the south turned to chicken farming.

CORN-UCOPIA

There are over 40,000 products in supermarkets today, but about 90% have corn in them.

Here are a list of items that contain “clever rearragements” of corn that may surprise you:

Ketchup

Sweet and Low

Cheese

Salad dressing

Peanut Butter

Coke

Meat

Grape Jelly

Fast Food

RANDOM FUN FACT:  The average American is eating 200 lbs of meat per person/ per year.

VEGETABLES

We all know that we need to eat our broccoli and brussell sprouts, but vegetables seem more expensive these days.

Why is that?

The government supports the production of corn, bringing the market price down significantly. As a result, the corn that is made is being broken down and put into processed foods such as Coke or cookies, making these foods cheaper than a head of broccoli.   High fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, xanthan gum are all products of corn.

This makes it more tempting to buy something off the shelf than something from the produce aisle.

Isn't that tempting?

TAKE HOME MESSAGE

Read labels.

Shop on the outside aisles of grocery stores. 

Buy food from companies that treat the animals and workers with respect.

Buy foods that are grown locally and in season.

Shop at farmer’s markets.

 

THANKS FOR READING!

Sources:

Food, Inc.. Dir. Robert Kenner. Perf. Eric Schlosser. Magnolia Home Entertainment, 2009. DVD.

Foer, Jonathan Safran. Eating Animals . New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2009. Print.