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Food Inc Industrialization

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Director Robert Kenner’s provocative, Oscar-nominated documentary, Food Inc., looks at the food industry’s harmful effects on human health and the environment. He have taken over all aspects of the food chain in the United States, from the farms where our food is grown to the chain restaurants and supermarkets where it's sold (Food Inc.). In this shockingly informative documentary, sick animals, environmental degradation, corrupted and unhealthy food and obesity, diabetes and other health issues are only the more obvious problems with a highly mechanized and centralized system that promotes efficiency as the supreme value in food production (PBS.org). Food Inc. also tells us about wealth, inequality, globalization, and sustainability. As …show more content…

It’s cheaper to mass produce things, which is something demanded by the handful of companies who control the entire food chain in the U.S. and require standardised food products for major distribution. Costs are further kept low because the American government subsidies corn production so that it can be sold for less than the cost of producing it. Corn is the main factor of animal feed today, so cheap corn = cheap meat (Food Inc.) This industrialization of agriculture has several downsides (ReviseSociology). These downsides are one of the major arguments that viewers bring up after watching Food Inc. Some downsides are: Exploitation and abuse of animals, we see several images of animals being kept in horrible conditions and dying. Exploitation of workers, battery farm owners are paid very little, and the often illegal migrant workers who pack chickens often get paid even less. The spread of diseases and health problems linked to animals being kept in appalling conditions. Includes children dying of E.coli, and that the companies are being allowed to carry on producing. Environmental damage, when cattle and pigs are kept in major enclosures excrement becomes a pollutant rather than a fertiliser. Also because corn rather than grass has become the main feed for factory “farmed” animals. Food distribution have the situation where corn is shipped to meat growing houses, then the meat is shipped to consumers, with all the attendant petrol costs, which you wouldn’t have with local food production systems

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