The Problem Of Food Industry

Summary After viewing the film “food Inc.” the way I now view the American food industry and our government has changed. I now see the food industry for what it really is, a corrupt business empire that is protected by government officials and policies. In the film it pinpoints many different areas where the food industry has become an injustice to the citizens of America, they have also been protected by laws and policies, and also have treated the cattle, chickens, and other farm animals with such cruelty for profitable gains. Some of the areas where the food industry has become an injustice to its citizens is in the processing of mass food products that are not healthy, the advertising of products to fit the description of farm grown food

Simply stated, I am advocating for the spread of awareness of the inhumane treatments and violations made by workforces in the food industry. All lives are valuable and every living thing deserves to be treated with respect.

The problem with food production in America is the mistreatment of livestock, the overproduction of corn in America, and the amount of corn feeded to the animals ; these issues affect consumers’ health because of the amount of diabetes has been increasing over years. Michael Pollan in "When a Crop Becomes King” he explains that the government pays for corn to be grown a lot more then it should be ,David Barboza in the article “If You Pitch it , They will Eat It” the way companies just want to get into kids mind by tricking them into telling their parents to buy them unhealthy food just for the toy it comes with, In “Pleasures of Eating,” Wendell Berry most of the people just rather be eating out then making food. There is uncertainty about the way food is produce because we cannot control people on what they

Over the next forty years, global population is expected to reach nine billion people. This increase in population, combined with expected economic growth, will cause an increase in food demanded and inevitably drain the resources we use for food production. So far, agriculture has been able to respond positively to the rising demand for crop and livestock products. However, farmers are already faced with many new challenges associated with feeding an expanding global population. Farmers must now meet strict new emissions requirements and produce more food on fewer acres while minimizing their environmental footprint. The demand for food is expected to grow substantially in the next couple decades. Some of the factors affecting an increase in food demands are population growth, rising incomes of individuals, food supply factors, and biofuels.

In order to change the way the United States food system is operating at the moment, a change needs to be made in the education that people are receiving about the way their food is produced, manufactured, distributed and consumed. The U.S. food system has become increasingly reliant on mass production factories and multinational retail corporations while local farms and family owned food markets diminish. Economies of scale and opportunity costs represent barriers to change of the current food system because of the many different paths available, each creating different outcomes for consumers, sellers, large corporations and small farms, determining their profit, prices, capital and value. Educating the American people about the benefits of local food production and the downsides of large scale food production, such as nutritional value, disease and safety concerns, and economic advantages, will help to move our food system from “point A” to “point B”.

As the world expands through time and business, the natural process of developing food is forced to adapt to the growing demands of civilization. Henceforth, the modern-day food industry is capable of producing a plethora amount of nutrients that sustains mass populations. However, is the modern tradition and technique of mass food production hiding a burdened truth behind the curtains of society’s unawareness? Is such truth more sinister than productive? Filmmaker Robert Kenner directed a documentary in 2008 where the methods of processing meats and harvesting crops were analyzed with their effects. As a result, Kenner’s documentary, Food Inc., has revealed that the ways foods are processed have consequently made them perilous for society. Through the use of

Remember when the tobacco industry was on trial and being held accountable for their illicit marketing and targeting tactics to further profits all the while denying any health issues associated? America has a similar issue but not as illuminated as the tobacco industry resulting in the surgeon general’s warning. This issue is free to market to children, free to market wherever profits are foreseeable, and free to label products to become more appealing. This issue is the ever growing food industry. Kind of taboo to blame food for the severe and skyrocketing obesity rate in America right? Have you ever checked your labels? Know what’s really in your food? Looked at and researched health programs controlled by politicians and bought and paid for health officials? The American food industry needs to have government regulation to prevent further obesity and malnutrition that is devastating our public health on a national scale.

The food industry has a large impact on individuals and will affect wider communities in the future. The rush of today’s society has pushed food production to become more commercialized with prepackaged/premade based foods. For numerous reasons such as time, work and costs of living, people are wanting meals that are cheap, fast, easy and don’t require much effort. This is due to many obligations and priorities in life that are put above

Consumers have become increasingly detached from their food as America’s food system grows larger and continues to ruin the environment. The main problem is that most consumers do not know how their consumption habits affect the ecosystem around them. Nor do they know about how their food was produced. Information about how and where the food is being produced and wasted is essential, so people can shop responsibly. Short of legislation, Americans make choices at the grocery store. It is essential for all Americans to cast in a vote with their dollars to change the way that food is produced in the United States resulting in more sustainable food being more accessible in the aisles of the grocery store for all Americans.

The basic survival needs of human beings include a small list of four things: food, water, clothing, and shelter. After watching an interview with Robert Kenner, the director of Food, Inc., I began to realize that the food humans are eating is actually decreasing are survivability. Within the excerpts from the movie and the dialogue amongst the interviewers, it was made apparent that the food industry has been able to completely deceive the consumers. Instead of choosing food for quality, individuals choose food by lowest price. As Kenner said in the video, “we have skewed our food system to the bad calories” (2:38). Instead of healthy home cooked meals, families are purchasing fast food for its convenience and low cost. However, the video made a very interesting stance in regards to this mentality. Although individuals are paying the lowest price for food in history, the cost of treating diseases caused by unhealthy eating has grown to be higher than ever before (8:04).

The things the American consumer eats are not what they seem to be. Much like pollution, the major food companies are treating America to unhealthy products that can cause physically damage to the human body. From motivational competition to company rivals, people aspire for greatness, to be the best at what they do. Some people desire to be the best will even go to drastic measures to get what they want. Companies like General Mills and Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Kraft, and Nabisco have more than their friendly share of competition, some could even say that they are fighting for the monopoly of the food industry.

Many people think they know where their food is coming from by just reading the labels on it. However, do they actually know where it’s really being processed and manufactured? How old there food has been sitting in the market shelves, and what chemicals they have put in so that it won’t go rotten? All people really know are the prices and the taste of their food. Having said this, I agree with the writer of the article “The Pleasure of Eating,” Wendell Berry, how people or shall I say “consumers” are being used in the agriculture and food industry, because they are being tricked into buying food products.

These powerful alliances requires the consumer to navigate through the confusing food environment and to pay close attention to nutritional facts, labels, and to carefully and consciously be mindful of advertisement of all sorts of media. For farmers, its a crippling business system that destroys their profession. For consumers, who do not make a conscious effort where they shop and what they eat subjects themselves to a lifestyle that can progressively lead to obesity and many other life threatening diseases. The politics of obesity and disease within the food industry is a public health concern.

We live in an age in which we have come to expect everything to be instantaneously at our fingertips. We live in an age of instant coffee, instant tea, and even instant mashed potatoes. We can walk down the street at 5 in the morning and get a gallon of milk or even a weeks worth of groceries at our discretion. Even though it is great that food is now readily available at all times, this convenience comes at a price, for both the producer and the consumer. Farmers are cheated out of money and are slaves to big business, workers and animals are mistreated. And, because food now comes at a low cost, it has become cheaper quality and therefore potentially dangerous to the consumer’s health. These problems surrounding the ethics and the

Throughout the years, there has been an incredible amount of speculation as to what ingredients are being put into the food we consume. The same food manufactured by major food corporations that can only be approved by the FDA. There are many techniques that these food corporations can use in order to gain consumer loyalty, but the main focus is the way their advertising works. Along with these advertisements, comes a target market as well. The food industry is constantly in speculation because there are always new foods that corporations want approved to sell. Some of these businesses are part of the fast food industry and others are international food companies that sell their products around the world. As adults and parents, we need to