Food #8 Industrial Food (revised)

The Meatrix-

I found this example to be a bit corny but informative. As soon as I read the name of the movie I got the gist of what the clip would be about. The Matrix but in a form relating to industrial farming. To show the real world, the truth about the farms we get our food from. The scene where the pigs are in a spacious pen and then are pushed in a smaller and more cramped pen to make room for 3 other pens of similar size, just to make in increase the amount of pigs on the farm, made me sick. I felt disgusted by the fact that in real life pigs are put into these situations and we gone on supporting industrial farming because we don't see it happening around us. We haven't been to an industrial farm to know what the animals go through in order to produce milk and meat for us. All we care about is that we buy our foods from the supermarket where everything is well kept and clean, foods are neatly packed and are in fun colors, so we are attracted to the industrialized food without knowing where it came from or how the animals were treated. We live in the Meatrix, blinded by the world we live in and the lies fed to us.

I thought about why I continue to eat meat while I know what happens to the animals on the farms: it is because I am not on the farm to see these animals up close and personal. I have not created a relationship of some sort with these animals so I have not connection with them whatsoever and feel no sympathy towards them in their poor living conditions, I just don't care. But once when I was in Japan, my great grandparents owned an eel house in the mountains, and Jin and I were able to spend the day there. We go to see eels in the pond and then one of the chefs came out with a bucket and picked out several eels. Then went back into the kitchen, our dad brought us into the kitchen and pointed at the deep sink. Inside were the eels from the pond. My dad said we could put our hands in the sink and touch the eel. When I stuck my hand in the water I could feel the eel sliding though my fingers and hands has I tried to hold them. The feeling was unfamiliar but nice and since I was little, of course it was the most amazing thing in the world! But then dinner was ready and what was in my rice bowl was a bunch of sliced broiled eel. Pop said that they were the ones in the deep sink in the kitchen, the ones I was touching in my hands. I didn't finish my dinner that night.



A food post related to: Michael Pollan on the Colbert Report

Food, Inc: How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter & Poorer

"Food, Inc, a new documentary by Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing many of the shocking truths about what we eat, how it’s produced and who is calling the shots. It takes an indepth look at how this industrialized food system effects our environment, our health, the economy and workers’ rights."

After watching the trailer from the documentary, Food, Inc.

"Faster, fatter, bigger, cheaper." Industrial farming is always trying to expand and increase the amount of product they produce in as little time as possible. The more food they can produce the more money they can make and the larger they are able to grow their industry. "The industry doesn't want you to know the truth about what you eat because if you knew, you might not want to eat it." This I believe, when I found out what were in the main contents of hot dogs, there was no way I would ever try a hot dog, ever.
A modern supermarket now sells about 47,000 products and gives the illusion of diversity. Many of the products we buy are just rearrangements of corn, for example ketchup, cheese, twinkies, batteries, and peanut butter. As for the types of foods offered in your average supermarket: While on a "field trip" to the local supermarket near school, I found that there were 9-11 types of humus and from different brands, but all were labeled as Humus. There were 12 companies of ice cream that all sold their version of chocolate ice cream. 7 brands of whitening toothpaste which all claimed to have the same effect on teeth, and 22 companies which sold bottled water.
The movie trailer also showed a family who has trouble buying healthier foods because of the prices, the mother said, "Sometimes you look at a vegetable and say 'okay, we can get two hamburgers for the same price.'" So you usually choose the better deal.

http://greenupgrader.com/7734/food-inc-how-industrial-food-is-making-us-sicker-fatter-poorer/