Michael Pollan suggests how industrial food system is unsustainable because of monocultures, which means a lot of the same species are grown together and that’s only possible by using antibiotics to keep them alive. To keep crop healthy, fertilizer is needed. For example, in Iowa, all the farms were corn and soybeans, which are for industrial use mainly. Separating the animals from the farms raises a huge sanitation problem and the animals are not happy with the conditions, a pollution problem occurs as well. Society is obsessed with productivity becoming cheap, which has made more problems regarding pesticides.
While traditional farming choose to grow organic produce and struggle to keep their businesses alive. In Jeffrey M. Smith book, Genetic Roulette the intro talks about the experements they had with animals and the GMO foods. Many of the animals organs were becoming defecting or mutated over time. After looking at the results, animals that consume the modifications continusly it can lead to serious health risks. In addition the animal’s lifespan was shortened and their offspring a lower chance of survival.
You still got all the nutrients and vitamins from foods that are not local. Plus they still taste good. If our community were to start a locavore movement it would affect everyone because we would have to make more space for crops and farmers. Also farmers from around the world would also have fewer costumers. As Source C shows, it actually takes just as much fuel—and thus, just as much pollution—to ship a small load from a local farm as to ship a large load from a farther location.
The corn based agriculture industry exists because of economy to scale and economical production which equates into globalization of food markets. The government is subsidizing the corn fed or monoculture farms because grain is a commodity and this provides them with gross national product and thus giving an advantage in the global economy. Romig states “The intense grain diet of conventional cattle, increases bovine indigestion raising the likelihood of bacterial infections among the herds which is why preventive antibiotics are used (Romig, 2013, p. 115). The antibiotics that are given to cattle are passed over to the human system after consuming the product and therefore creating problems over time. The grass-fed beef is produced without the use of antibiotics and hormones so nothing unnatural is passed to the consumer.
Cattle that are slaughtered for their meat are fed each other’s manure. Whether Eric Schlosser’s words are believed or not, fast food chains shall continue to expand and affect the everyday lives of
“The food industry doesn’t want you to know the truth about what you are eating because if you did, you might not eat it.” The sense of mystery behind our food and where it comes from just makes the viewer want to know more about the food system. The whole documentary is then broken down into chapters starting from the supermarket and ending with the government’s influence. The first part of Food Inc. talks about the actual process inside the food factories, more specifically, the corn and meat industries. These two industries are by far the bigger food industries the documentary showed.
But is this true? As we can truly say, nutritionism is not actually benefiting society in general because it lacks real food, it’s more expensive, and causes many diseases; however, nutritionism can be very successful for the world of business of industries. When we talk about real food, it means recognizable, good quality, whole food that rots when it's kept for too long. These foods are the ones our ancestors used to eat on a regular basis until it was replaced with a whole new type of nutrition one, in which chemically-infused, food- like materials focused mainly on nutritional facts. For example, when we go in the supermarket to buy food we read the facts in the back of the product checking what types nutrition it has, and how much it has.
This way of improving foods has been taking place traditionally by just crossing two plants together and hoping that the new traits are taken without any negative ones (543). Since this is time consuming and not as accurate, scientists now just introduce the new genes, or traits, through the plants’ DNA. Genetically Engineered foods, although meant to be helpful, pose many problems by causing environmental hazards, human health risks, and economic concerns. To begin with, one of the problems with engineered foods is that they can become hazardous to the surrounding environment. This unintended harm to other organisms is caused by many factors.
Why was our country so docile and accepting of such horrible food choices that were causing obesity, health issues, and in many ways contributing to the skyrocketing health care costs? I do not buy these unhealthy processed corn and soybean products and instead buy organic, whole foods. But it is expensive to make these choices, so some of this anger got projected towards Monsanto. But a good dose of it goes to the social injustice aspect of this issue: everyone should be able to afford healthy foods that do not harm your
Genetically modified organisms are the forefront of scientifically modified crops in the food industry today. Genetically modified means organisms that has had it genetic makeup altered using genetic engineering. This type of genetic engineering has mixed response with the food industry and people who are involved in sustainable development, meaning there are people who think that it is the forefront for the next generation and there are also people who think that it is the worst thing to do for our generation. In today’s society there is many different views on the matter especially when it involves the big chain supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose, Marks and Spencer’s etc. Big supermarkets like Tesco, Waitrose has expressed that GM crops are banned in their supermarkets due to their customers wanting the purest products available on the market therefore their customers will not buy their products if they sell GM products.