I chose to watch video Food, Inc. I wanted to learn more about the foods we eat every day and how they are processed. During the video I watched and learned that animals are put into harsh conditions that redesign the way that they grow. They are given all types of drugs and steroids to make them grow quicker than they actually should. Chickens about 50 years ago would developed over 70 days but now they are forced to grow within 48 days because of high demand.
The producers of Food, Inc. asked dozens of farmers about going inside the farm and slaughter houses to see how the process goes and they all declined. Only one farmer by the name of Carole Morison allowed them in because she was tired of the way she was forced to treat her chickens. The houses were disgusting, they had to live in their own species and were all together. With the animals all together in unsanitary living space it is a high chance diseases will spread. The animals living the way they do, our food is not really safe. Sick or not they are still sent to
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Type two diabetes is normally common with older adults, but now it is starting to be seen in more children. Healthy food such as vegetables and fruits are too expensive to some. With fast food being cheap and quick it is always people’s first choice. Fast food restaurants are meat packing companies biggest customers. The farmers are put into these contracts that demand them to produce a lot of food. There really is no way out once you start. Farmers end up in about $500,000 debt and only earn about $18,000 a year. Companies demand that farmers upgrade their equipment that is able to produce meat quicker. The farmers are forced to take loans in order to upgrade their farm. If they decide to not cooperate with the meat companies they will be without a job. The farmers are not nearly getting back as much as they put in. They put in a lot of work and get in debt to produce a lot of
...in the market. Diversified mid-sized family farms used to produce most of our meat, but now, only a few companies control the livestock industry. This has resulted in driving family farmers out of the market and replacing them with massive confined feeding operations that subject the animals to terrible living conditions that subject our food to contamination. Major food corporations are only concerned with minimizing overhead in order to deliver the consumer cheap food, regardless of the health implications.
He explains how Type 2 diabetes and the money spent to treat it has dramatically increased over the years, but takes most of the blame from the consumers by saying some fast food restaurants inaccurately or do not provide caloric labels and information. Zinczenko brought up the interesting points of financial hardships, fast food restaurants not providing nutritional information, and the fact that fast food restaurants can be found pretty much anywhere. While referring to fast foods such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut, Zinczenko says, “these were the only available options for an American kid to get an affordable meal” (Zinczenko 195). I completely agree with him on this statement because the purpose of fast food is to get these foods quickly and at a low price. The general definition of fast food is food that can be made using a certain method at inexpensive restaurants.
...struggling to earn any income at all and sometimes do not even get the opportunity to eat. Another issue that Raj Patel did not touch on is the lack of care consumers have for the farmers. It seems that consumers care about farmers about as much as the corporations do, which, in my opinion, is not a lot. When consumers only care about low prices and large corporations only care about making a profit, the farmers are left out to dry. Many consumers believe “food should be available at a bargain price, a belief that relies on labor exploitation and environmental exhaustion at multiple points along the commodity chain.” (Wright, 95) Corporations as well as consumers generally tend to be selfish and I think Raj Patel is afraid to mention this. If only these people cared a little bit more about each other I believe the hourglass of the food system will begin to even out.
Factory farming began in the 1920s soon after the discovery of vitamins A and D. Shirley Leung said, when these vitamins are added to feed, animals no longer require exercise and sunlight for growth (B2). This allowed large numbers of animals to be raised indoors year-round. The greatest problem that was faced in raising these animals indoors was the spread of disease, which was fought against in the 1940s with the development of antibiotics. Farmers found they could increase productivity and reduce the operating costs by using machines and assembly-line techniques. Unfortunately, this trend of mass production has resulted in incredible pain and suffering for the animals. Animals today raised on factory farms have had their genes manipulated and pumped full of antibiotics, hormones, and other chemicals to encourage high productivity. In the fast food industry, animals are not considered animals at all; “they are food producing machines” (BBC). They are confined to small cages with metal bars, ammonia-filled air and artificial lighting or no lighting at all. They are subjected to horrible mutilations: beak searing, tail docking, ear cutting and castration. The worst thing is that ...
Zinczenko argues that fast-food companies ultimately hold responsibility for the growing problem of obesity and type 2 diabetes among the country. Due to the inexpensive prices, indefinite locations, and the deprivation of nutritional labeling. In Zinczenko’s view, “Before 1994, diabetes in children was generally caused by a genetic disorder- only about 5 percent of childhood cases were obesity-related, or type 2, diabetes. Today, according to the National Institute of Health, type 2 diabetes accounts for at least 30 percent of
Animals trapped in factory farms are severely abused and tortured from birth to death. Chickens sometimes will be starved for up to 2 weeks and given no water to shock their bodies into moulting, chickens and hens will have their beaks removed to prevent fighting between other animals. Pigs will get their tails cut off to stop other pigs biting them off. These cruel procedures are done to minimise as few of animals dying as possible so more product can be created by the farmer. Within factory farms, animals are abused with overuse of antibiotics to prevent disease and maximise their body growth to create a higher yield of product. According to Animal Rights Action, 2 out of 3 farms are now factory farmed worldwide and factory farming is only increasing this is leading to more animals being raised for slaughter, abused and tortured, mentally and physically. This is not fair. How would you feel losing your child minutes after it's born? As within factory farms, female cows get their calves are taken away from them within minutes they are born never to be seen again. This leaves these poor female cows depressed which causes them to lose weight and because of this are slaughtered as farmers want to maximise their yield of
Animals were once raised in a more humane and sanitary manner, but in the modern age of factory farming, animal cruelty has become common with large farm complexes. In reality these animals are housed in conditions worse than sweat shops. Under these conditions the animals are more prone to contracting illnesses due to the high amounts of bacterial growth. Furthermore, animals are fed sub-standardized feed such as genetically modified corn, which is low in nutrition, and does not contain the animal’s natural and essential dietary needs.
Over the past few decades, small and medium sized farms have been taken over by large-scale factory farms. These farms house billions of animals used for consumption each year. The conditions on factory farms are filthy, overcrowded and disease ridden. Animals forced to live out their lives on these farms are subject to extremely harsh conditions, such as mutilation, confinement and living spaces piled high with feces. Not only do conditions on factory farms make life for livestock absolutely miserable, but factory farms are also negatively impacting human health and the environment. The production and sale of meat has become a billion-dollar industry based upon the bloodshed of other sentient beings. With this being the case, at the very least, factory farms need to be properly regulated and companies involved need to be held accountable for their abuse.
It is so easy to become complacent in our sheltered world and to turn the other cheek to the violence and misery that our every life decision can perpetrate, and that the majority of the country (mostly unknowingly) buys into. The fact is that if the horrors of the meat industry were common knowledge, the business would decrease, and drastically at that. So, to keep the knowledge from becoming widespread, meat and animal factory farms are content to work quietly and discreetly in the sparsely-populated back corners of the country where no one can see what is being done without making an active effort. The problem for them is, many people have been making an active effort- as the animal cruelty cause became more mainstream, the US saw a huge increase in the investigative journalism aimed at uncovering the flaws of factory farming. These findings have been explosive, and have led to animal rights legislation , (although sadly, this legislation does not protect all animals). This boom in investigation led most factory farms to close down plants to the outside world, no longer allowing tours or photography and dramatically increasing the security during the hiring process in an attempt to eliminate undercover journalists. Representatives of the factory farm industry claim that they they work out in the middle of nowhere and have increased security for the welfare of the animals; however, this is clearly not the case. They are covering up the overcrowding, the starvation, and the misery that the world is all too happy to ignore, as long as ignoring it means that they can continue on with their lifestyle. The truth is that there is no such thing as a “happy” factory farm animal- even the supposedly “ethically treated” animals, the free ...
...nts that are harmful are released. The factory farms have not only been seen to affect humans, but the animals also. The food given to these animals are supposed to make them grow faster, but it is also causing serious digestive problems for the animals. According to the Sustainable Table, “recent studies have shown that chemical additives in feed may accumulate in animal tissues, potentially exposing consumers to unwanted chemicals such as veterinary drug residues and heavy metals.” This is not fair for the animals and humans to have to suffer through something like this just so unhealthy food can be produced.
The number one most talked about subject of factory farming is the cruelty, but there is not enough people are doing something about it. Animals in factory farms live in very confined spaces, and they also spend most of their lives in dim lighting, which makes them go blind. Every day, employees inflect mindless cruelty to the animals because of the fast pace processing line. For example, chickens are confined in wire cages with a maximum of 8 1/2" by 11" of space, which is as big as this peace of paper, and they have their beaks,which is one of the most sensitive part of a chicken, cut and seared to prevent cannibalism. This shows the cruel living conditions chickens have to live in.
Food Inc. Is a very well made documentary, very explicit and very clear about how the food industry works and how everything has been altered through the years to comply people’s demand. While consumers are demanding more cheap and “qualified food”, thinking that the bigger and the colorful the better, Food Inc. makes clear how meats, grains and corn are not produced in a healthy way for people anymore. In the same way, they show how the workers are being exploited by these huge monster food companies more and also how they have literally “kill” small farms. These fill showed us a lot of information about what we really eat and it tries to let us know how what we think is healthy it isn’t. This film have people who are specialist in a specific
Farmers are essentially the back-bone of the entire food system. Large-scale family farms account for 10% of all farms, but 75% of overall food production, (CSS statistics). Without farmers, there would be no food for us to consume. Big business picked up on this right away and began to control the farmers profits and products. When farmers buy their land, they take out a loan in order to pay for their land and farm house and for the livestock, crops, and machinery that are involved in the farming process. Today, the loans are paid off through contracts with big business corporations. Since big business has such a hold over the farmers, they take advantage of this and capitalize on their crops, commodities, and profits. Farmers are life-long slaves to these b...
It is horrifying to know the fact that the processed food that we eat today is once animals that are processed alive. The ignorance of the companies has caused the suffering of these poor animals. Gale (2013) writes, “.[media] do not tell us that chickens are the most tortured animals in factory farms and that most chickens have to stand on their own feces all day and end up getting litter burn from their manure. hens are often crammed together in cases so tiny that they do not get enough room to even lift a single wing—which then immobilizes them for their entire lives.”
In the movie “Food Inc” we saw how the food industry keeps their farmers under their control. Food incorporation sets new protocols that require the farmers to keep purchasing more on dept. As a result of loans and only $18,000 annually (Kenner) they are stuck in a hole that they can’t get out of. I find many things disturbing about this. First off, I find it disturbing that he picked a poorly educated farming area. It seems obvious that the farmers don’t know what they got into and don’t have any knownldge of how to get out. I find it an example of poor unionization within the small farmers that are to be blamed not the ones that find out how to exploit it (Kenner).