Reflection On Food Inc Reflection

In the article, “The Pleasures of Eating”, author Wendell Berry shares his knowledge of the food industry and discusses the act of eating as part of the agricultural process. Berry asks deep questions in his article that will make the readers question what they are putting into their homes and into their bodies. Most Americans, according to Berry, can be categorized as passive consumers that are basically allowing food industrialist to brainwash them by means of advertisement. He argues ,“They pay, mostly without protest, what they are charged” implying that the consumers do not even question what additional cost, such as transportation, might have added to the product .The article provides an interesting perspective on consuming food and Berry shares multiple ways that the passive consumer can become more educated on food.

In the world, there are one billion people undernourished and one and a half billion more people overweight. In this day and age, where food has become a means of profit rather than a means of keeping people thriving and healthy, Raj Patel took it upon himself to explore why our world has become the home of these two opposite extremes: the stuffed and the starved. He does so by travelling the world and investigating the mess that was created by the big men (corporate food companies) when they took power away from the little men (farmers and farm workers) in order to provide for everyone else (the consumers) as conveniently and profitably as possible. In his book Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, Patel reveals his findings and tries to reach out to people not just as readers, but also as consumers, in hopes of regaining control over the one thing that has brought us all down: the world food system.

The three essays assigned this week had several common threads running through them. The strongest core theme is the rapid change in the food cycle in America and the vast changes that have taken place in the way by which we grow, produce, and process the food that average Americans eat. The food we eat now is drastically different from what our grandparents grew up eating and the three essays each examine that in a different way. Another theme is the loss of knowledge by the average consumer about where their food comes from, what it is composed of, and what, if any, danger it might pose to them.

When I had first opened Ben Goldacre’s book “Bad Science”, I did not know what was to be expected. Know that I have read and assessed the book I feel as though I have learned something that has given me the confidence to voice my opinion and have evidence to support my arguments on how some products claim to have scientific proof.

Most humans do not think of the consequence that processed foods have on our bodies. The big name food producers have manipulated the youth by offering products that go along with their favorite television show. The farming aspect of food production is horrible.   The animals are treated very poorly. The process of slaughter is unsafe and very unsanitary. The farmers are treated poorly by the big name companies.  The health in the United States is declining severely, 16% of children are obese,have diabetes, and other major health problems.

Feeding animals, corn is not healthy for anybody, this process only affects the animal's ability to grow at their own pace. In Northern America, one particular Hispanic family tree, 70% of their family members are affected with both type one and type two diabetes, which can be associated with corn. A Hispanic family member changed the way he ate by becoming vegan. One of his main reasons was to stay healthy which meant cutting corn out of his diet. Emphasized in the film, Food inc. and in the novel Omnivore's Dilemma; corn can be easily sold and bought for a cheap price in the U.S. Many producers split the natural process in half by teaching and forcing the animals to eat corn, which fattens them up quicker than if they were eating food

Michael Pollan’s alternative to Factory farming has given a huge insight into a better ethics on food. In “The Animals: Practicing Complexity” Michael Pollan writes about a polyface farm and how it works. The goal of a polyface farm is to emotionally, economically, and environmentally enhance agriculture. Everything on a polyface farm has the potential to be helpful to something else on the farm. Pollan states “The chicken feed not only feeds the broilers but, transformed into chicken crap, feeds the grass that feeds the cows that, as I was about to see, feeds the pigs and the laying hens” (Pollan 345). This chain of profit very beneficial to farms because overall they spend much less money and have more money to spend elsewhere. There 's

In the article, “Escape from The Western Diet,” by Michael Pollan, who has also written many nutritional books, blames our unhealthy eating on the food industry. He argues that we should avoid any processed foods because of what they have become (424). Also, he claims that the American views for preparing a meal has downgraded over the years (425). His solution is to not overeat, but to eat plants instead because they are not as manipulated

What we eat affects not only us, but the animals, and the world. After learning the truth about where and how our meat and food products are prepared and the effects they cause on our bodies, I was shocked and disgusted. As a society, we can make a few small changes that will have a big and healthy impact on the world and how we live.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma is a non-fiction book that discusses the relationship between the food and our daily life. Michael Pollan, the author of this book, points out the advantages and disadvantages of subsidy on corn. Given the corn is one of the major crops in our daily life, there are lots of corn’s by-products in the supermarket, even the nonfood items. Some people believe corn is a miracle crop because they are impressed by the wide-ranged of corn products; On the other hand, some people think the expansion of corn industry leads to social, environmental, and economic problems. In Pollan’s view, he questions about the outcomes of the subsidy and believes it creates different negative problems to the society. He mentions that

From the movie we can see that the food industry has done a lot to provide consumers a false imagery of food, try to keep them from knowing what is really happening in the industry. It is shocking how they create the imagery of animals being raised in a farm when they are actually raised in a factory. As well as the illusion of choice, despite thousands of different products on the racks of supermarket, most of them contain the same few main ingredients such as corn and soybean.

However, William Speed has quite a common view of natural food: “Chicken labeled “all natural” may have been crammed by the thousands into tight pens, their claws and beaks clipped, and stuffed full of antibiotics they’d never find in that “natural” barnyard.” (Speed, “106 Science Claims and a Truckful of Baloney,” 614) He is over exaggerating to get his point across; treating the chickens in that way appears to be morally wrong; they should have the chance to be chickens, run free on over grassy hills. It all sounds like a wonderful contemplation, but there are people in the world who are dying from starvation, and they could really use larger chickens. Altering chickens or any other type of food product to accommodate for our growing economy may come across as ethically wrong, but the fact is, one must keep in mind that there is a growing economy that requires a copious amount of food to function. If everything went completely organic, there would be no possible way to sustain our growing society. A farmer from the film, Food Inc., which is a documentary on the take-over of chemically processed foods in the grocery stores today, had a similar exaggerated view to William Speed: “We have allowed ourselves to become so disconnected and ignorant about something that is as intimate as the food that we eat.” (Food Inc.) To an extent, as a people, America has lost

“Food Inc.” is a documentary which uncovered the truth about food industries in America. Contrary to the images they are showing to the public, animals like cows and chickens are no longer raised on the field but in unsanitary and infectious houses. Cows are forced to eat corns instead of grass, which caused them E. coli, and instead of abandoning this new technology companies just use more chemicals to erase virus out of meat. Farmers and workers are forced to work underpaid and not allowed to talk about the companies’ policies. Slaughterhouses are getting bigger and bigger, thus it is easier for virus and bacteria to pass from one animal to the other through the hand of the workers. FDA and other government agencies do not address the issues because many of the heads of these agencies and other Congress members have ties with food companies. Therefore, the government subsidies unhealthy food while leaves vegetable’s price go off the roof, making it impossible for poor families to eat healthily. Moreover, it is illegal in some states to criticize food corporations, as Oprah Winfrey was sued for criticizing

Every year over 56 billion farmed animals are killed by humans. This shocking statistic is the result of the factory farming system that has plagued the world, America especially. Factory farming is a system that began in the early 1900’s that is focused on farming animals in large numbers in a very small amount of time. The animals in these factory farms are often forced into confined spaces and inhumane conditions. Pigs are kept in small cages called gestation crates where they are unable to move or grow. Chickens are grown to be slaughtered in 42 days, resulting in their bodies being unable to support their size, leading to organ failure and death. These cruel conditions lead to sickness being easily spread throughout the farms, resulting

Cooking, it has been around for almost as long as humans. When humans first started roaming the earth we needed to cook to purify our meat and to also add some flavor. Today cooking is a little bit different than back in the stone age. We have mastered various different types of cooking throughout our existence. Cooking used to be essential to human life and to the progression of our livelihood but now we use it as more of a way to show our creativity. We have evolved to the point in our existence that we use food for many things than just eating. My mom is not a professional cook but in my opinion she still makes amazing food. She does it to feed us while other people due it show creativity. The cake shown is known as a galaxy cake. Many bakers love to make cakes like that to show their artistic ability and to test their reaches in the baking world. Many bakers like to vary their cakes. A galaxy cake is just one example but it shows how we have developed from just cooking to eat to cooking to eat and be creative.