I am slow to anger but some things really get under my skin. The movie Food Inc. is one of those things. I don't know if you are familiar with this very pointed piece of propaganda that is a direct attack on the proud family farmers and ranchers who feed and clothe all of us.
This film uses sensationalized statistics from dubious sources to make claims that are downright false. Claims such as farmers and ranchers are responsible for a rise in childhood obesity and adult diabetes. Farmers and ranchers only grow the food, we as a nation must take responsibility for what we eat and what we feed our kids.
E-coli is another subject of this work of fiction. The truth about e-coli is that if we properly wash and prepare our foods, it is not a problem. E-coli is all around us and the risk of this terrible illness is not increased due to our modern agricultural production methods.
The film takes shots at our crops, herbicides and other modern advances that allow the farmers and ranchers of our great nation to feed a growing world population. This horrible, slanted film makes the assertion that farmers and ranchers are pushed out by giant corporations, that everyone in agriculture is worried about making money and not about the people who eat the food we grow and that our food is not safe.
The truth is that most of our farms and ranches are owned by families who have made their living on them for many generations. The truth is that farmers and ranchers don't get rich but rather value the life living on the farm and ranch affords them. They are rich, but not in monetary terms. Most of all is the truth is that we feed our families the same food everyone eats. Our food supply is safe and healthy.
So yes, this movie makes me really angry. I would encourage each of you to spread the word that the movie Food Inc. is a twisted piece of propaganda full of half-truths and lies meant to cripple the very farmers and ranchers who feed and clothe all of us. Please, avoid this movie and advise your friend to do the same. The ultimate truth is that farmers and ranchers of this great nation provide all of us with the safest, healthiest most abundant food supply in the world.
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The one thing Food Inc gets right is that we all need to eat better. I agree we need to eat more veggies and less processed stuff.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, if many of the things the movie advocates came to pass, millions of people wouldn't be able to afford to eat at all because prices would go up dramatically. Over 49 million Americans live in households that go hungry from time to time. Over 17 million go hungry often. How would those numbers increase if food costs went up 30%? What if we had to pay double for food? How many go hungry then?
I very much disagree with your article.
ReplyDeleteThe film is very supportive of farmers and ranchers. In fact, several times the narrator urges the consumer to vote with every purchase and buy organic and locally grown foods. How is that anti farmer? And what on earth would be the motive to bite the hand that feeds you? Who do work for? Just joking.
The fact is that most of today's food is degraded nutritionally and made toxic with biocides (called such because chemicals do not discriminate; they kill everything) and pollution.
Modern mass farming techniques are the primary reason the food is nutritionally deprived and made toxic by biocides. Nutrition deprivation caused by soil depletion, picking fruits before ripened, and poor diet and conditions for livestock, and I think it is pretty obvious that all biocides adversely affect the human body in any amount.
The problem the film points out is that modern mass farming is greatly manipulated by large, profit driven companies. These companies do not care about your health as long as you do not blame them when it goes bad and your child is born retarded. They do not care about starving foreigners who cannot afford the food anyway. People consume food to survive. Corporations consume money. A starving person would eat money if it were food and a corporation would use food as money if it could. Wait a minute. It does. Patented seeds ... grains as commodities ... building a monopoly over the food supply so that it can be sold and even higher profits ... huh? It's great when businesses are successful, but not at my health cost. No amount of money heals my body from toxic overload.
@Daryl and Jody Donohue:
So why do you think food is cheap? Out of the benevolence of these large companies? Many farms are subsidized. That means you are already paying for the cost of the crops in your taxes. Then you get to buy it and give them more money. These modern corporation controlled farms actually produce very expensive food.
Take a look in your organic aisle. The difference in price is between even to 30% more. If you had to directly pay for the cost to produce these subsidized crops at the checkout it would be the other way around. Monsanto would be out of business.
So in a perfect world, food would be more expensive now and taxes would be less to the extent that you would be spending less in total because they do not subsidize farms.
I am always surprised at the number of people who swallow the information presented in activist films as "truthful" without further investigation. The way Joel Palatin raises his pork is a direct violation of current biosecurity law. Combining pigs & chickens in the same area is, for lack of a more polite term, stupid - - extremely so, to anyone familiar with the CDC recommendations for raising pork to prevent parasite infestation, or who understands the zoonotic transmission of diseases like influenza.
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