Food Inc. Blog

I found this movie rather interesting, if not disturbing. The many facts that I learned peeked my interests, but a lot of the facts were not appealing at all to me. To learn that a few companies basically run the entire food industry was surprising to say the least. Since there are only a few companies, said companies hold very large amounts of power. The most disturbing thing I learned was how these companies used this power. A great example was the case in which a child died due to food contamination. The parents sued the food company and lost due to the fact the food company had more power and money. Their son died and they lost a case because they didn’t have enough money. What’s more is that the food companies pretty much control what we eat and know about the food we eat. Before this movie I was unaware that chickens were pumped full of unnatural hormones that made them grow much faster than they’re supposed to. This means that we’re eating food that is filled with unnatural things that most of us aren’t even aware with. The fact that the food companies can get away with this frightens me greatly.

Another thing that I found interesting was how dependent we are on corn. I knew that corn was used for many things and is a very useful food, but I had no idea how many foods have corn bi products in them. Another thing is how they showed that cows, who are not supposed to eat corn, are fed corn all of the time because it is cheap. Because corn is not supposed to be eaten by cattle, they develop bacteria and we eat the cattle. E-coli is one bacterium that has been found, and many have died because of it. Yet despite this, cattle are still fed corn no matter the consequences.

The last thing that I want to talk about is how a company called Monsanto, bioengineered plants so that they would be more resistant to parasites and pesticides and would last longer. The bad thing about this is that every plant that is affected by Monsanto is owned by them. They already own basically all of the soybean produce. This means that farmers cannot save left over seeds for later year because it would be considered product infringement. But since Monsanto owns most of the soybeans, farmers can’t really acquire seeds anywhere else.

All in all, after seeing this movie I realize that the food industry needs to change. They food companies hold fare to much power and are corrupt, and if we do not change it major health concerns will become even more of a problem. We need to be able to choose healthy foods over non-healthy ones disregarding the price. People need to stand up and say that they want organic food sand not mass-produced, hormone filled foods.