HW 10 - Food Inc. Response

The food industry today isn't just damaging individuals, it affects our nation, the environment and the animals. Farming is no longer working in the fields, in the barns, it has turned into a factory system. Big corporations make sure it is kept that way, by inhibiting farmers that work for the companies to not have a voice. By doing this the customers are kept out of the darkness, and remain oblivious to the real conditions where the animals are being raised. If a farmer decides to speak up they are shut down, and left in piles of debt. If a citizen of the United States decides to speak up they are sued. The corporations do not want to leave foot steps of negativity that could and do affect their sales. The food industry is not honest with the people. Members of the government have close connections to these large corporations hence why no debate is brought up for public interest. Knowing exactly where are food comes from is rare, on average it is usually 1500 miles away. No longer do we have connections with basic necessities, diseases are rising, diabetes is rising and the link between our food and our health problems isn't often brought to the table.

The movie visually showed the examples instead of deeply explaining them. Images are concrete facts and lead us to see the realness in the situation. Instead of trying to imagine the circumstances it was displayed in front of our eyes. I think for the average person this is more effective. Unfortunately in our country today people are more willing to believe real footage than words. If we have a certain opinion about a topic we are more likely to find more information that backs up those ideas than to find information that puts down our ideas. In the book, The Omnivore's Dilemma there is more room for disagreement. Although the facts are being laid out for the reader it really depends on how you interpret them. Since in a movie the audience is all being fed the same information there is less room for disagreement. While in the book even though we are all reading the same words, our minds may break down the meaning differently. The book does a good job of explaining the hidden truth behind the problems but the movie does a good job of showing the actual outcomes of these problems. Since in the movie many different experts on the subject shared similar opinions the audience is more convinced. In The Omnivore's Dilemma it is Pollen and the people he meets along his journey. However, I think both do a good job of trying to convince the mass of the situation we are dealing with and how we all need to join together to fight against the messed up system.

Food Inc. was a great film to see as we finish up the book. It gave the book even more life. When I was reading I created my own images of the conditions we are dealing with but the movie made those images more clear. Some chapters in The Omnivore's Dilemma felt very repetitious to me, it seemed like the concepts were going in circles. While in the movie there was enough information of a wide variety of different issues. I was in shock while reading but once I saw the images of it, I couldn't believe my eyes. I am even more certain now that the government is our main source behind this. There is a law that people cannot complain about products. Politicians are linked to these food corporations. There are "secret agents" running around and tracking down those doing "bad." People are being sued left to right for criticizing big corporations. Meat packing used to be one of the best jobs in the United States and now it is one of the most dangerous. Workers and animals are treated the same. Joel Salatin of the Polyface Farm said, "We have allowed ourselves to become so ignorant with something so intimate." A farmer from Purdue who went against her contract said, "This isn't farming, it's mass production in a assembly line in a factory... It is like being a slave to the company." And after she gathered dead chickens, threw them in her truck said, "That's normal." The chicken council isn't even denying the state of strangeness to the concept of food, "We are not producing chicken, we are producing food." Animals are no longer animals, they don't eat like animals, they don't live like animals, they don't taste like animals. They are here for what many of us would like to think a purpose to benefit us specifically. So we treat them like machines, that eat each other, eat corn, are injected with hormones, live a life of darkness, and then are killed for us. They no longer live on farms, they live in practically cells, innocent creatures living in tortured lives. We see this as normal because when we sit down for dinner we are not thinking of the lab coats, the gloves, the illegal immigrants or even the animals, we are thinking about ourselves.