Food

 Food 

Ch. 12 Food (p. 226) - 

Animals in these facilities live miserable lives. The grotesque details are many and come in nightmarish variety, but the fundamental cause is the same: humans who work at these facilities must handle thousands of animals a day, and many do not see, or do not allow themselves to see, animals as living beings who think, feel emotions, and suffer pain.

 In the movie Food, Inc. I got a glimpse of how animals are mistreated. It is sad that animals are not able to enjoy the goodness life has to offer as all they know is being caged up and neglect. We tend to forget that animals feel the way humans do. We need to treat them as our own. I understand how that can be difficult as we rely on animals for our source of food but I feel there has to be a better way. The need for food is not an excuse to mistreat them. 

Ch. 12 Food (p. 228) -  

Human health can be impacted by materials that are added intentionally, such as food additives and sweeteners, and accidentally, such as pesticide contamination.

This quote reminds me of the death of two-year old Kevin in the Food, Inc. movie as it was caused by eating contaminated meat. Human food should not be put at risk to meet high demands. I do not understand how hard it is to follow protocol and ensure food safety. The pressure of having sufficient food is difficult but if it means carelessly going through the food system to meet the demand of the day then it is not worth it. No one should have to lose their son while simply indulging a fun food on vacation.  

https://www.ecoliteracy.org/download/food-inc-discussion-guide caption

 Food Inc. 

Food, Inc was an epitome of a Wow! moment. It was an emotional rollercoaster as it had me experience everything at once such as sad, disgust, guilt, anger, and sympathy. The true Wow! moment for me was hearing about the process chickens go through. As mentioned in the movie, food packaging with pictures of a beautiful sunny farm has us fooled as the food process has nothing to do with farm and more to do with factories. I was aware of hormones added to chicken but personally did not know what that meant for the chicken. I learned how birds are raised and slaughtered in half the time as they are built as adults by the time they are at day 50. Our urgent demand for poultry has changed the food system by redesigning chicken to have larger breasts. I found out that antibiotics are put into chicken feed to help in gaining weight by eating less. My heart broke as I saw chickens attempting to walk and continuing to see them fail as they plopped down. To my surprise, since they are rapidly growing abnormally their bones and internal organs can not keep up with it. This is the reason why they take a few steps and plop down as they can not keep up with all the weight they are carrying. It angered me to see the abuse and torture animals are put through and how it is kept secret to the world because it is known as a cruel practice. My heart also went out to the family of Kevin. It blows my mind to know that after a two-year old's death due to eating a hamburger that was contaminated with E. coli and caused him to develop hemolytic-uremic syndrome that it still took months to recall the meat. It shows just how money hungry people are when the government is doing everything it can to protect this industry rather than giving a family justice by simply ensuring that this circumstance never happens again. Food, Inc opened my eyes to a reality I naively avoided. Now that I am aware of how the food system works, I want to help make a change and carefully considering what I choose to put in my body. I am a health freak and even I am putting myself at risk by not putting in time to research how food is produced at my local grocery stores. Truly a must watch film that should be publicized for more people to see and become aware of what goes on behind the scenes of our food industry. 

References

Robertson, M. (2017). Sustainability Principles and Practice.     Routledge.