The First issue that should be brought up are the cruel living conditions of animals prior to being slaughtered for us to eat. As most of you know or probably have seen, these animals live in crowded spaces most often living in their own feces. Both crowded living spaces and having to stand in their own feces increase their likelihood of getting sick, and if one animal gets sick the odds are it will happen to others as well. As Food Inc pointed out there are instances, more frequently than we think, in which these sick animals are also slaughtered with the healthy ones and the spread of diseases just contaminates all the meat, but I'll discuss this later in more detail. One thing I'd like to point out was a commonly viewed clip which also appeared in Food Inc of a sick cow being pushed by forklift because it couldn't move on its own. These conditions must be put to end in order to ensure healthier meats for consumers.
The issue of the meat industry from slaughtering to packaging being dominated by a select few companies is definitely a serious issue. The most important reason why this issue is so serious is because the large number of animals being slaughtered in one facility increases the chances for meat to become tainted. As Food Inc pointed out, most of the meat we eat doesn't come from just one animal. For instance the ground beef that we eat in our hamburgers, either fast food or at home, is likely to come from hundreds even thousands of cows that are killed in a slaughterhouse. Thus the likely of eating contaminated meat increases because if one cow is infected with E. coli once it is killed and it's meat in thrown in with the rest it all becomes contaminated.
Lastly, I'd like to address the tragic instances in which people have died eating tainted meats. In Food Inc we hear the testimony of a woman about the death of her son Kevin who ate a hamburger at a fast food restaurant and about a week later died; the cause of death resulting from tainted meat. If anyone is interested Fast Food Nation details multiple cases of this in which Schlosser gets rather detailed in one case a boy's brain melts, he gets dementia, can't member his mom or dad, and dies less than a week after being diagnosed. This issue is a direct result of poor living conditions of animals which make it more prone to getting sick which in turn leads them upon being slaughtered to spread the disease into thousands of pounds of meat. The simple solution to solving this problem is to enforce stricter policies on the meat industry. Seems simple, however as Food Inc pointed out many of the top people at the FDA were former heads of meat industry corporations. Another problem is the power these corporations have by lobbying in Congress in order to ensure these policies don't become implemented. These corporations also have bought out politicians by financially supporting them when election times shows up.
The meat industry is a ruthless and cutthroat. As Kevin's mom stated in Food Inc, all she wanted was an apology and they wouldn't even give her that. This only further illustrates what kind of industry people are trying to battle in order to ensure safer more healthy meats to eat. Anyway, I hope this helps some folks out by explaining a little more in depth some of the issues from the movie. I'd highly recommend reading Fast Food Nation if anybody hasn't; the book will at least make you stop and think about what you eat even if you don't change your eating habits (like me), but its beneficial just to get an idea of where activist are coming from.
----Jordan Rodriguez
I still can't post my own entry because I think I don't have access to contribute...so I'm just commenting on other people's for my blogpost this week. Sorry for the confusion Alenda & Chiara!
ReplyDeleteMy experience at the farmer’s market is quite an interesting journey. First of all, there were a lot more kids there than I had expected. They all seemed really excited running around the lot trying free samples and asking their parents what they are trying, and what they like the best. During my childhood in California, I had no memories of going to the farmers market at all. The only farmers market I knew of was Safeway or Costco. However, this farmer’s market experience with kids running around after school reminded me a lot of my childhood in Beijing, China.
This week’s topic regarding food is a very domesticated subject within America. Only in “Corporate America” do we find most of our produce and meat being monopolized by giant corporations. Only in California where everyone’s so busy with work that going to the farmer’s market is a special trip that happens only once a week. Consumers have to go out of their way to plan a day to go to the farmer’s market, and once they go they spend hours there chatting and sampling, and enjoying the fresh produces straight from the field, as it is such a rare and precious activity.
When I was a 2nd grader in Beijing, I remember going to the farmer’s market everyday with my grandparents. There weren’t many supermarkets that sold produces. Most of the supermarkets sold only westernized material such as chips, cookies, and cheese. For fruits and vegetables, they were only sold along this road where all the farmers line up with their bicycles, tricycles, motorcycles, and even horses that carried the freshest produces that were picked that day. We would never buy more than 2 days worth of produce because going there to buy groceries is a daily activity. We didn’t hang around the farmer’s market to sample or enjoy the sunlight. It was a subconscious task to do at 5pm to get there, find the cheapest stand for our dinner plan that night, and get out of there. We didn’t have to ‘stock up’ on any produces because what we buy that afternoon is our dinner for that night. I would chat with my grandparents what I wanted to eat that night, and they would find those produces at the farmer’s market.
In California, I buy bulk quantities of produce from Costco so I would only have to make a grocery trip once a week. Even with my experiences at the Berkeley’s farmer’s market, I found myself buying random produce like oregano and pummelo, because they looked so fresh and smelled amazing. It’s now Sunday afternoon, and the produces I impulsively bought are starting to rot, and I have no clue what to do with them.
The cultural differences between the busy American lifestyle versus the rest of the world are a big reason as to why the food industry in America is so corporatized. Even when countries such as China are being globalized,
Over the years as I go back to visit Beijing, it has became a more globalized city where corporations are slowly taking over. But even in the process of growing as an industrialized country, people are still taking time to enjoy the freshest food available.
Jordan: Thanks for bringing up Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation! Many people don't realize that before Michael Pollan and the documentary Super Size Me, Schlosser did much of the pioneering investigative fieldwork into the "back end" of the fast food industry. I think he was also probably the first journalist to undertake the experiment of buying his own cow, so he could trace the cow's progress from birth through fattening to slaughter.
ReplyDeleteJessie: I'm glad you brought up your experiences as a child in China. Again, many people don't realize that many countries lead an entirely different way of life in relation to food. While the typical American shops for groceries as few times as possible, stocking up in supermarkets and giant megastores, the French still rely on what we would call "specialty" shops--buy your bread at the bakery, your meat at the butcher, your cheese at the fromagerie, etc. etc. I spent a year in Taiwan and had much the same experience... the quantity and variety of "street" food was amazing, and one only went to the grocery store if you wanted something totally commercial or processed, like chips or soda. What does it mean to not rely completely on foodstuffs that are designed to last eons? What's the shelf life of a Twinkie vs. a piece of fruit? Does that matter?
Like Jessie, I am unable to post my own entry for some reason. So my post is here, as a comment instead. Sorry for the confusion. Anyways...
ReplyDeleteIn last week’s class we watched a portion of the movie Food Inc. The film, in its depiction of our food industry, at one point focused on the treatment and production of chicken products. It revealed the inhumane living conditions of the chickens and detailed the lack of health standards seen in the production of “chicken” products. The movie then went on to explain how dangerous and diseased all of our meat (not just fast food products) has become. And finally, it provided the story of a child who had died in a week due to eating fast food. It was horrible. It was fascinating, it was eye-opening, and it was educational.
And then class was over, and I went to Golden Bear Cafe and ordered some chicken strips. And sure I felt a little guilty, but damn, they were some good chicken strips. I’m not really sure why, maybe they changed the recipe a little, or I had gotten them fresh out of the deep fryer. But they were quite possibly the best chicken strips I had eaten since I have been at UC Berkeley. And to be quite honest, in that moment, that was all I really cared about. Not that they came from mistreated chickens, who had been overfed and fattened to the point where they couldn’t even stand anymore. But that they tasted good.
Maybe I’m just a horrible person, or I enjoy my food a little bit more than the next guy, but most likely, I’m not the only one that feels this way. And this is where I would like to focus, in the seemingly overwhelming consensus that even though we disagree with what is happening in the food industry, we are not willing to change in order to fix it.
We have the occasional vegetarian, who refuses to eat meat in a stand against slaughterhouses, and we have lobbyists who fight tirelessly against the major food corporations. But for me at least, it feels like a fight against a force which cannot be stopped. And I hate to sound so pessimistic, but it feels like a cancer that has set in to our society. Entwined and rooted into the most important aspects of our lives; so that any effort to remove it will destroy those aspects as well. But that of course, is the pessimistic view. And the pessimistic view achieves nothing. The optimistic view on the other hand, is that solutions do exist. However, we must be wary of blind optimism. An example would be the assumption that America can simply boycott the fast food industry, and force them to change their ways. The simple truth, is that people, americans in particular, are not going to stop eating their meat, even if it kills them. SO, the most feasible solution it would seem, is the stricter regulation of major food corporations. Health standards must be increased and authority must be exercised on these companies and organizations before it is too late. Increased awareness is just one of the many factors that will help these health standards be taken seriously.
-Marc
In response to Jessie's article, I was completely astonished. Having grown up near berkeley all of my life, I have been exposed to several different farmer's markets. However, I thought Berkeley was being environmentally savvy because it is a very liberal town. I had no idea that other nations use market's like Berkeley's farmer's markets as their primary source of food. Thinking about my experiences with food growing up, I realize that the great majority of my food came from a package: Costco and Safeway are my mom's favorite stores. When we shopped at Trader Joe's, I felt as if I was being friendly to the environment. I cannot believe that for all of these years, my idea of being eco-friendly with food is nothing compared to other countries. Thank you, Jessie, for opening my eyes to other cultures and the way they purchase their food.
ReplyDeleteI have to play somewhat of a devil's advocate here. The American system of large farms are extremely efficient. We produce more food than anywhere else. Because of that, we are able to feed ourselves, and a significant portion of the world. USAID food shipments are often the lifeline of many developing nations.
ReplyDeleteCountries like Japan, where the government restricts large farms, are much less efficient. Japan imports much of its rice from us.
Overall, our food is quite safe. Properly cooked beef is safe. I wouldn't trade American industrial meat for meat raised on small farms in sub Saharan Africa. There is a level of liability which the companies have here, which is not present anywhere else.
Marc: As someone who has tried to make it a point to eat and shop more responsibly, I've wrestled for years with whether or not I should continue eating meat and purchasing and consuming things like french fries and sodas. I have to admit, occasionally, I get the hankering to stuff a bag of Cheetos into my face, or to drain off a Coke. Moreover, I grew up in a family that consumed meat regularly, and not just the standard American cuts but things like pig ears, cow stomach (tripe), and gizzards. Animal bits don't faze me.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have tried to realize, however, is something along the lines of Haraway's cat's cradles or shared sufferings. Rather than putting the knowledge of abuse and disease aside, I keep it in plain view and try to weigh my decisions accordingly. I know that when I drink a Coke, I'm consuming primarily water and high fructose corn syrup with caramel coloring, and that it's more of a dessert than a beverage. That's why I do it so rarely. I try to purchase my meat from local vendors I know from the farmer's markets in this area (Highland Hill, Prather Ranch, etc.), and stick to less processed versions (the filet instead of the ground chuck).
Max: Thanks for trying to point to some other opinions. There's no doubt that we can produce more food with less people and less land than ever before, but I think part of the concern with such a system is not only the disappearance of the "farmer," to be replaced with agricultural workers and laborers, but also the somewhat counterintuitive idea that more does not necessarily equal better. Yes, we send food to the impoverished, but often that kind of paternalistic American aid is not addressing the real problems, and may even exacerbate them. Many countries are suspicious of American food shipments because of our relative embrace of GMO foods (still unpopular in places like Europe), and others argue that the massive food shipments undermine local food economies, preventing countries from establishing their economic, let alone dietary independence: see one example.
Alenda: The point about the exacerbation of food scarcity is interesting. One of the main reasons that there is not enough food in many places in Africa is the increase in population. In such societies, the land is divided amongst the male heirs. The farms become too small to be self sufficient.
ReplyDeleteWith food aid, farming is usually either for purely cash crops, like peanuts or cocoa, or entirely subsistence driven, without the goal of a surplus to sell. This removes many incentives to have efficient food production farms.
A similar example to this is Salaula, or second hand clothes. About 95 % of clothing donated to goodwill and similar organizations is sold, then shipped to Africa for sale. This influx of cheap clothing devastates local textile manufacturing. This has been particularly severe in Zambia.
Unfortunately, watching Food Inc. and reading Fast Food Nation did not deter me from eating meats and taking a vegetarian-esque stand against the inhumane treatment of animals. However, this film did put into perspective how much control the fast food industry has over American society. It is completely unfair that the cruel treatment of animals and American's love for their fast food go hand-in-hand so much that you can't have one without the other. It's actually quite sick. Maybe the majority of society is unaware of deadly tainted meat tragedies or turkeys being submerged in boiling hot water as a killing tactic or maybe we just pretend these things don't happen to justify our chicken nugget dinners. Something needs to be done to stop these inhumane acts and I feel these movies, although incredibly informational and telling, do not awake us from the food coma that we all seem to be under.
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