Organic Farming In The Film Food Inc.

Hamburgers are some of the most, if not the most, American food that a person could get their taste buds on. Although hamburgers remain popular, the meat in such foods have their share of controversies since the labels, “organic” and “conventional,” were placed upon them. The harsh reality is that conventional farming methods of meat is gruesome and somewhat macabre; the animals are packed into a high density farms where they are constantly being pressured into confined spaces that are grossly unsanitary. For this reason, organic farming is becoming popular with their humane practices of raising farm animals. In effect, this raises the question: is the abuse in the industrialized, now called conventional, meat industry worth the final product?

The film, “Food Inc.,” from Director Robert Kenner revealed that conventional farms can be heartbreaking in the sense of the farm animals’ living conditions, however it also mentioned how efficient the farms were when it came to producing food and making money. As shown in the film, chickens are raised in half the time and are twice as big as they were 50 years ago. This means that farmers do not have to raise as many chickens, which also means that if the meat meets or surpasses the demand, consumers will pay a lower price for the product. This rule of supply and demand gives conventional farming the upper hand because organic farming cannot produce as much meat with its more humane methods, leaving low-income families to choose conventionally farmed meat because of its low cost and

Jeffrey Gillespie, Martin D. Woodin Endowed Professor Dept. of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, and Richard Nehring, economist for the USDA, discussed the costs between organic farming and conventional farming in their report, “The Economics of Organic Versus Conventional Cow-calf Production.” According to Gillespie’s and Nehring’s findings, “. . . estimated total cost of organic beef production to be $612/head [more than conventional farming]. . . The significant differences in costs between organic and conventional beef production were for unpaid labor, taxes and insurance, and overhead. . .” (Gillespie, et al). The study also provided that, due to the requirements for US certified organic beef production, farmers are not allows to use any GMOs, irradiation of foods, and the use of antibiotics, growth hormones, synthetic pesticides, non-organically grown feed, and processed sewage sludge as fertilizer. These restrictions limit what farmers can use. Organic feed, pesticides, etc. cost much more for the cattle, leading to raised prices for additional