Girl, You So Well Spoken!

Word to the wise: it probably isn't the best idea in the world to watch a documentary on food when you're three days into the master cleanse and so delirious with hunger that just about everything seems appetizing to you. But bearing that in mind, I settled in to watch a documentary I'd been hearing about for months: Food, Inc. 

Hungry or not, I was completely appalled by the things I saw in that film.  

We live in a society where demand drives supply, yet we are too ignorant about the quality and origins of our food to make better demands about what is being supplied. We don't know where that steak comes from, who makes that peanut butter, or what state that plump and juicy piece of chicken breast we are munching on was in before it landed in our grocery store. And we don't seem to care to know, because ignorance is bliss right?

Bliss... Until your two year old son dies from eating an E. coli infected hamburger that you were unaware was about to be recalled by a notoriously contaminated meat plant...

Did you know that the majority of the beef you eat is, if not organic and farm raised, corn-fed and living ankle deep in its own manure and the manure of the tons of other cows its crammed together to live with? And did you know that cows are not meant to have corn diets, and since their bodies do not properly digest it, they are prone to E. coli infection?

Why are we so complacent with eating genetically modified foods? Chickens are mass-produced-- grown in half the time but at twice the normal size. We have moved from thousands of slaughterhouses in the 70's to only THIRTEEN slaughterhouses today, because all of our meat is originating from the same corporate giants, whether you are eating a McDonalds hamburger or a piece of steak bought from Ralph's. 1 in 3 Americans born after 2000 will contract early onset diabetes, and in minority communities that ratio is 1 in 2. There is a monopoly on soybeans, forcing farmers to buy GMO seeds at risk of being sued for not complying. Seed recycling is against the law and certified soybeans are slowly being depleted and contaminated as genetically modified seeds take over. 

You're probably being bombarded with fearful facts right now, I know. That isn't the point of this post. Yes, I do want to raise awareness about what is going on in the food industry, but like the film states in it's conclusion, we have the power to change the terrible things going on. And if you're thinking about how expensive organic and farm fresh is versus big corporate and fastfoods, consider this: while we now only spend a very low 9% of our income on food, we've consequently also increased from spending 5% to spending 18% of our income on medicine. Pardon my redundancy, but we live in a Supply-and-Demand society. If we demand healthier, organic, non-genetically modified, humanely raised food stuffs, they will be supplied. Furthermore, our demand for better food whose origins we are aware of and comfortable with will drive the prices of those foods down. 

So shop smarter. Cook at home. Support locally grown food. Plant a garden (both frugal in the long-term and environmentally sound). Be wary of the soybean (that's for all you vegans/vegetarians who think this doesn't apply to you). And sidestep that meat selling for $0.99/lb. It's not worth the risk.

Oh, and you should definitely check out the documentary.