Food Inc

Luis has been bugging me for weeks to watch Food Inc with him.

He kept telling me about this that and the other that happens with our food and animals and whatnot.

Finally, the other day we were cuddling and being lazy, so I asked to watch a movie on the computer, and he volunteered Food Inc. I caved in and said yes.

I'm still not sure if watching that documentary was a good or bad thing.

Watch the video on their website here

I honestly wanted to cry at some parts of the film, and on others I wanted to go purge everything I've eaten in my last 14 years here in the United States.

Both animals and humans are treated like dirt in the food industry here.

Animals are all force fed corn, because corn has become increasingly cheaper to produce, and it's produced by the masses. Corn corn corn corn. There is probably an overabundance of corn, so why feed animals anything else?

It doesn't matter that a cow's diet should consist primarily of pasture, if pasture is expensive and corn is cheap. We're going to force our cows to learn how to eat corn... And when they adapt to corn and get all super sick, we have to suffer the consequences of e.coli. that apparently originated with people forcing cows to eat corn. It's like making a lion take on a berry diet, doesn't work folks.

Then they show a whole bunch of differences between now and then, and the comparisons are disturbing to say the least.

Here's two of the ones that bothered me the most:

In 1972, 50,000 food inspections were conducted by the FDA. Only 9,164 in 2006. With more and more people getting sick from food, why are we cutting the number of inspections so drastically? The video makes several accusations against these animal farms, including the revolting one that cows walk around ankle deep in their own feces. It's really gross everything that they point out in the documentary.

Then there's the chickens. I think this picture speaks for itself:

The poor little chickens can't even stand on their own legs because they grow too quickly and their muscles never develop well enough to hold themselves up. And they never see the daylight, so sad.

This above picture is of the only farmer brave enough to speak out against the companies. And the below is of a pasture-less field filled with cows.

It's all so terrible how they treat the animals and process the food. The few companies behind the entire system make a huge profit off of it, and drive the prices for customers down, making it near impossible for others to compete.

I mean really, when you live on a budget (like me), which one looks more reasonable. Lord knows I have had more than my fair share of Ramen noodles and ravioli since moving to college. The healthiest I get is pretty much Activia yogurt. When I can buy a case of noodles for the same price as a stem of grapes, it's simply more practical for me to buy the noodles. And that is a true fact for any person or family living paycheck to paycheck.

I think that the sign of a good documentary is one that makes the watcher think, consider things they haven't considered before, and motivates the person to change something about the world or their lifestyle. I'd say that this documentary was a successful one. I definitely walked away from the film (That's figurative because we definitely watched it lying down and took a nap afterwards) wanting to change something about my lifestyle.

We both looked up organic brands and talked about how we could start eating more organically, and perhaps even making a difference in how the system works. We're both broke college kids now, and it's hard to make those changes right away, especially since my dorm lacks a kitchen (my biggest pet peeve about my dorm). But instead of buying Activia on my last grocery trip, I bought one of the organic brand yogurts. Expensive, but worth it. It was delicious. I'll just have to cook with organic ingredients when I finally get my kitchen!

Here's the flyer from the Food Inc website:

What do you think about the documentary? Any changes in your life?