Food, Inc.

I watched this documentary on NetFlix the other day. Bill views it the same way you'd view the global warming documentaries... as a load of bull.

I don't.

I found a lot to think about in this documentary. For instance, 5 major companies control over 80% of the beef production in America. Those 5 companies altered the way beef is raised. Instead of eating pasture grasses and clover, cows are placed in feed lots, ankle deep in their own manure, and fed corn. It fattens them up and creates a nationally unified flavor for beef. That was in response to pressure from McDonald's, the #1 purchaser of beef (and chicken, and pork, and potatoes) in the US. McDonald's wanted their hamburgers to taste the same everywhere, so the cows needed to eat the same thing everywhere.

Does it matter to me if my beef got to wander a green field when it was a cow, or if it lead a miserable life before I ate it?

It should.

Corn fed cows contract E coli and spread it through their manure. That manure they are standing ankle deep in. 5 days of pasture feeding would cure them, but the companies would rather pump them with antibiotics while they are alive, then chlorine bathe the meat once they're dead.

How about chickens? Chicken ranchers sign contracts with one of the 5 major companies (Tyson, for example) agreeing to use company approved facilities and techniques. It costs over $500,000 to build one of the specified chicken barns. Then the rancher has to put in any company directed improvements that come down the wire. The ranchers make an average of $18,000/year from the chickens raised in one barn.

These barns have no windows, no light. The chickens are so crowded in there that they never walk around. They are fed corn. They have been genetically modified to reach full size in 48 days instead of the normal 70 day maturation cycle. They get so fat from lack of exercise that they can't walk more than 2 or 3 steps before sinking down to rest. Their bodies got too fat too fast for their system to be able to handle.

Again, does it matter that the chicken lead a miserable existence before I put it in my dinner casserole?

IT SHOULD!

We are the stewards of this planet. These animals have been placed in our care, to be used for our good. Does that give us the right to abuse them for our good, too?

80% of the soy beans grown in the world are controlled by one company. Monsanto. They are a chemical company that invented Round Up. You know, the weed killer. They then invented a genetically modified soy bean that resists Round Up. So, a farmer can plant the gm soy beans, then soak the field with Round Up. Only the beans will grow. However, Monsanto retained intellectual copyright to the gm soy beans, so farmers have to go to them for seeds each year. Farmers are not allowed to save seeds from the previous planting season. Monsanto has a team of 75 private investigators to hunt down and prosecute any farmers who violate the copyright by saving seeds. They will even prosecute a farmer if his non-copyrighted fields get cross contaminated by a neighbor's gm seed field.

It all seems so very un-natural to me.

I think it is time for a revolution. It is time to choose organically, locally grown fresh foods. It is time to return to eating what nature and God intended for us to eat.