Rough Draft: Food Production

Natalia W.

World Studies

Mr. Baldwin

Period 5

4 November 2014

Food Production Essay Rough Draft

The corporate food industry has changed the way we eat, both negatively and positively. Food production, up until the late 20th century, had depended on the relationships between the farmers and the consumers. With the revolutionary methods of fast food and the adaption of factory methods, the majority of farmers had been replaced with large multinational corporations. Subsequently, there were both environmental and political consequences. Industrial agriculture has created many issues related to habitat destruction and pollution of both water and land. Many creative solutions to farming have been created to partially solve these issues.

In order to deal with these issues, there have been many modifications to our natural environment to solely improve the food growth rate. The technological advancements born during the Green Revolution greatly affected the modern industrial agriculture system and its effect on the environment. Pesticides and synthetic fertilizers use help development of a single crop to be grown in large quantities. This method of agriculture, known as monoculture, was one of the revolutionary practices created and nurtured until the rise in organic foods. Farmers were able to grow multiple crops in the same amount of land, allowing for more profit and greater annual yield. These advancements benefitted the world until it began to be overused. The abuse of the technology has lead to many negative effects on the environment, one of which occurred in Punjab, India where the government had been intensively irrigating the land. As a result, it could no longer be cultivated. The removal of crop residues from the fields, which virtually removed all nutrients from the soil, the overuse of fertilizers and pesticides created issues of water and land quality. The loss of productive land created due to waterlogged soils and salinization created a hardship on both the town and its

They have been able to dominate the market through vertical integration and ties to government officials. Many of the officials who support the corporations had previously worked for those very same companies, giving them an advantage over those opposed (which often are small farmers or individuals criticizing the work of the corporation). For the small farmers, who often do not associate themselves with politics, this is a large disadvantage because the farmers have no political resources compared to that of a large corporation. For the individuals fighting against the corporations, they are often limited by the laws favoring large corporations. There have been many attempts at shutting down this corrupt system. One of these is Kevin’s Law, a law that would allow the USDA to shut down plants that produced contaminated meat. The act never passed despite being introduced in Congress for six years before it was officially dropped. As a result, large corporations save money by not having to following this law. It portrays a negative image of the corporations who will pride themselves with cheap, mass produced food and hide the ugly truth behind closed