HW 10 - Food, Inc. Response

Since the 1950's raw food production has grown exponentially. The way food as been grown has been merged with chemicals and poisons, and animals have been mixed with growth hormones. The major companies have had to keep up with the demand for their products, so that means that not only do the product pay the price, but so do the consumer and the people who make it. The only people who profit are the ones who own the whole operation. The corn is sprayed with pesticides as are other fruits and vegetables, pesticides that we can end up ingesting. The chickens are kept in coops and never see the light of day. Cows are kept in feedlots eating corn, chicken manure, old chickens and sometimes old cows, and they walk in their own manure. They are slaughtered and quickly disassembled by immigrants who usually don't speak English. The injury rate is so high because the disassembily line moves so fast, which also leads to the meat being contaminated by dangerous pathogens like E Coli and Salmonella. These companies have made is virtually impossible for normal, everyday citizens to stand up to them by having people on their side in the government. When pressed with issues of the quality of their food, they would rather try new scientific methods to clean the food, rather then redo their process for how they produce it. The days of the American farmer are dead and gone, we are now in the days of the American corporation.

I feel that both the movie and the book were extremely powerful and moving. The biggest difference, i feel, between the Food Inc. and Fast Food Nation was that in Fast Food Nation, you got to experience things from points of view, other then those of the owners of companies. You got to see things from managers, employee's and just even meat workers points of view. You get to hear their stories, which if not for this book, would never have been heard. One particulary moving story was the one of Kenny Dobbins. He worked for the beef company Monfort for almost 16 years. While working for them he severely herniated 2 disks in his back which required a surgery which failed. He couldn't read and was very greatful for the company giving him a job, he felt loyal to them for all they had done for him. He was given the most unsavory jobs, he went to the hospital on more then one occasion for the work he had to do and he always came back when he could. One day while lifting very heavy boxes, he felt a strong pain in his chest, the nurse at the plant told him it was a strained mussel and he should go home, Kenny had actually just experienced a massive heart attack, while recovering, Monfort fired him. After 16 years, he can no longer work; "They used me to the point where i had no body parts left to give," Kenny said, struggling to maintain his composure. "They just tossed me into the trash can." Once strong and powerfully built, he now walks with difficulty, tires easily, and feels useless, as though his life were over. He is forty-six years old." (p.190). This was the kind of emotion that was missing from the movie. The movie tried to get you to feel angry and betrayed towards the big companies and sympathetic towards the little ones, but what about the people? The men and women who work behind the scenes, not in cubicles, but on the floor, who get their hands dirty so we can have dinner? The ones who put their lives on the line for us. The movie spent an hour and a half knocking big corperations and their practices, but never once focused on a person and their struggle. Kenny Dobbins sacrificed everything he had for that company, and now he has nothing. But the movie never touched on that.