Reaction Piece to Food Inc. (Guest Post)

Hey guys, this is Anne. As promised, here is my 16 year-old sister's guest post. She's much more of an intellectual than me--the girl is semi-fluent in french, has already taken the SAT II's, AP tests, and gone to a summer program at Northwestern University to study neuroscience. And she's just going into her senior year of high school. She also has a solid 4.0. She'd actually have an even higher GPA if the high school counted her A+'s, too. She's probably gonna hate me for telling you all this, but I'm pretty much in awe of her :D I mean, I couldn't just whip up a mini-essay like this! Hope you enjoy her post, and she'd love to read your responses.

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Hi everyone! I'm Anne's younger sister, Katherine, writing a guest post. My lovely sister asked me to write something about Food, Inc. after we saw it together, and of course, I am honored to do so! She covered some main points the movie made in her review here. I definitely liked the movie and I wish that more people could see it (in my town, it has a week-long run at an independent theater). I decided to write a more general, informational reaction piece to the film, as opposed to a clear-cut review. And like Anne, I won't name any of the companies for fear of lawsuits.

Enjoy! I hope this gives you some food for thought ;)

Our way of life, and consequently, our way of eating has changed drastically in the past fifty years. America is no longer a nation of farmers. Back in the day, a farm could support about six people. Now, one single farm can feed around 126 people. Most of us are now removed from our food. Less people are needed to fulfill the role of the "farmer". Instead, we've become consumers. We are the people pushing the carts in supermarkets, perusing the shelves, buying foodlike substances packaged in boxes so far removed from the plots of land on which the ingredients were, at some point, grown.

These "plots of land" are today's farms, if you can call them that. They are not so much farms as highly mechanized factories. Today, farmers grow one crop--soybeans, corns, cows, chickens, pigs-- in mass quantities. Companies own these farms, and by extension, the farmers.

The farmers are no longer independent workers; no longer are they the free, wild cattle-harnessing, crop-harvesting cowboys of American folklore. They are now slaves to these larger companies, earning less than the cost for production of the crops/animals. The companies are able to dictate exactly what they want the farmer to grow, where, and how they want the farmer to grow it. Chicken companies force farmers to raise chickens in a specific controlled environment. These are not the hen houses of yore, with a few different varieties of chickens flitting about. Everything about the chicken is specifically designed for monetary gain. This chicken has been engineered to have large breasts because people prefer eating white meat. This chicken is designed to be fattened and ready for slaughter in a couple weeks instead of a couple months. As many chickens as possible are crammed into a single, large room, with no lighting and barely any ventilation. And the farmers can't do anything about it. They have to comply with the company's rules, or they will be fired. It's conformity in the name of efficiency.

On the flora side of things, companies are also heavily involved. A certain company has genetically engineered a soybean that is resistant to diseases and pests. And they patented this soybean. They, by law, own all of the seeds. Very business-savvy, as now all the farmers who have used the seed have absolutely no right to it whatsoever. These farmers cannot save their seeds. They do not have the right to the end-product after they watered, tended to, grew and harvested it. No, the seed belongs to this company. And the company is hell-bent on making sure that no one violates its patent. They have private investigators and hidden cameras spying on farmers who may be saving their seed. They've buried a poor man who makes a living off cleaning other farmers' seeds in lawsuits, claiming that he encouraged farmers to break the patent law.

These companies have a monopoly over America's food industry. Most of us don't even know it, and it isn't (entirely) our fault. These companies are extraordinarily skilled at covering their tracks. As Food, Inc. so aptly stated it, there is a "veil" between us, the consumer, and the story behind the products we see on our supermarket shelves. The companies don't want us to know about their poor business practices, as it may provoke us to boycott their food. So they got involved in the government.

For years and years, corruption has been going on in the government (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, anyone?), and today is no different. These food companies have connections to people in very high places in branches like the FDA, the USDA, and agricultural committees. Because of this, they are able to continue to hide their ways from the public. They've cushioned themselves from journalists by creating laws that prohibit simple acts, like taking photos of the feedlots. They don't want the public to be exposed to this stuff. And by having these laws in place, it's obvious that they're trying to hide.

But it's getting harder and harder to remain hidden. With exposes like Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, and Food, Inc. journalists are revealing what this industry has been trying so desperately to keep from us. We have a right to know what we put in our bodies. We have a right to know whether the food we're eating has been genetically modified, or where it comes from.

Most people don't think of these things. They see food in the grocery store and buy it. They've assumed that the government is trying to keep us safe, and that they're keeping our best health and nutrition in mind. In theory, that's what the government is for. But unfortunately, due to the pre-existing corruption and deceit, the high-positioned people in the government have more of the food companies' interests in mind rather than our own.

I know those of you who are reading this are well-informed individuals who have an interest in nutrition. I am not that concerned for you. I am worried, however, about the average American. People from low-income families. People who don't have the time or money to educate themselves about nutrition. People who need inexpensive calories, and will go to the dollar menu at good old McDonald's before the produce aisles in the grocery store. The reason why the unhealthy foods are cheaper than the healthful ones is because these food companies have, in a sense, cheated by underpaying the farmers and using tricks like mass-production to lower their costs. It's not fair that a bag of chips costs less than a bag of carrots. However, there is hope.

It's as if the food industry opened an archetypal Pandorian Box. They've unleashed a myriad of evils on the consumer, yet hope perseveres. The hope for change. We, as consumers, do have the power to change this. As evidenced by Walmart's switch to rBGH-free milk, and their new line of organic products, even mega-corporations respond to consumer demands. We just need to educate ourselves and make these demands. We must lift that veil. It's been done before--back in the early 1900s, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, an expose about the corruption in the meatpacking industry. People responded, and so did the government. It led to reform of the food industry as a whole. Change is possible.

Food, Inc. ends by listing ways in which we can help improve this problem. Eat organically and locally. Write a letter to your congressman asking them to support Kevin's law. Boycott companies that mistreat their workers and animals. Instead, purchase products from ethical companies. Eat grass-fed beef, free-range chicken, and wild-caught fish. Go to farmers markets. Re-establish that broken connection between the farmer and the consumer.

Get back to nature.