Food, Inc. 183-218

This section includes three different readings. The first is by an eloquent farmer concerning taking back food from the farming corporations. He discusses the ways food is current produced with animals being fed chemicals and living their entire lives in cramped, indoor facilities. He discusses how the chemicals used today were not in food just mere decades ago. This food is unnatural in that we are placing chemicals in order bodies that are bodies do not even possess in it. His strongest points come from his comparisons with slavery. First, food safety is determined by politicians who although intelligent are also in the positions that once thought slaves were did not count as a full human. He also discusses slavery when he gives his solution to the powerful, money hungry food corporations. He discusses how consumers need only opt out of the system in order to change it as was the starting point of the movement to free slaves in the US and give them citizenship. I agree with him that the safety of food is a choice, an opinion, subjective, and relative. I feel that the fewer steps placed between nature and my plate, the healthier and safer my food will be for me. This is what I feel the author is also saying.

The next reading discusses questions to ask farmers. The questions discuss things like how was the animal raised, what was the animal fed, and how was the animal prepared for eating. It also offers explanations as to why these questions are important. I think it would be difficult for most consumers to find the farmers who raised and prepared their foods. After all, the meat and eggs are all combined from countless animals. So, how do you find the source? The answers must all be the same for farmers in order for the answers to be accurate.

The final reading for this section discusses nutrition. The author discusses how tests on nutrition generally only focus on single nutrients. This leaves out the overall food. Food companies can use the results to highlight one healthy fact while shadowing the facts concerning the unhealthy elements of foods (including candy). It is also discussed how different test results cause information thought to be facts to seem more unclear. There is information that shows organic food may not be as healthy as thought, but still healthier than conventional foods, that bone strength may not be as dependent on drinking milk, a connection between meat raising risks for cancer, and that soda does not necessarily cause obesity. But then, information from other tests can be used to support the opposites of these points. So, the nutritional facts on the label may not be as factual as the consumer population thinks. This reading really focuses on facts and information, while the first reading combined facts/information with some convincing emotional appeals. Both methods had a similar effect on me though.