EC Blog: Food, Inc.

Food, Inc. is a documentary many have watched by now. It shows the horrors of industrial farming in a whole new light. The film starts with chicken farming. Many chicken farmers are now mass producing to keep up with corporation demand. A Tyson chicken farmer refused to let the cameras into his chicken houses after being told by the corporation not too. However, a Perdue chicken farmer allowed them in into her chicken houses. She spoke openly and honestly about how messed up the chicken industry is now. The overuse of antibiotics and improper food has made these chickens grow to twice the size in half the time. The chickens bodies can support this overdevelopment though; many of them can't move and die because their organs don't function properly. 

Another key issue discussed in the documentary is E.coli 0157:H7 cultivated due to chemicals used in industrial farming. Barbara Kowalcky, a mother from Nebraska, lost her 2 year old son after he ate a burger infected with E.coli. Now Kowalcky is working to create legislation to better monitor slaughterhouses. Surprisingly, the FDA doesn't have the authority to shut down slaughterhouses even if they repeatedly fail safety tests. Kevin’s Law was made to try to help this, by making sure the FDA actually has power. Despite new laws being drafted, the inner workings of the FDA is just as corrupt. Many top people in the FDA are also top people in industrial farming companies; making their motives very questionable. 

The issue of good food and farming is one every American should be concerned with. What we put in our bodies is extremely important to our health. We, as a country, have a very negative attitude towards things that inconvenience us in any way. However, we need to reevaluate how much our demands matter compared to the health of all of us. Personally, I value quality over quantity and would rather adjust to having less than continually destroying the earth and my health.