Food Inc Summary

In the documentary, Food Inc., we are given access into the world of industrialized American food production. Because of our modern agricultural farming practices and policies, the quality of food being massed produced in our country has taken a toll on consumer’s health particularly those in lower income brackets. The idea the McDonald brothers put forth on the delivery of fast food by standardizing large volumes of food production is now proving disastrous. I saw this documentary a few years ago when I was working on changing my dietary lifestyle to improve my health. The most compelling things I learned then had to do with the realization that there are only a handful of companies controlling the majority of our food supply with limited regulations and being exempt from serious consequences. I recall very vividly when those E. Coli outbreaks started occurring because as a mother of young children, the horror of learning that a little boy died from eating a hamburger was very frightening. My heart ached for the mother in the story that lost the little boy; all she wanted was for the company that produced the tainted meat to say they were sorry, and explain what they will do to prevent it from happening in the future. Then, we finally learned the truth that feeding an unnatural diet of
corn to cows created a harmful strain of E.Coli and has also led to affecting other foods such as spinach due to contamination by factory farm run off. Watching in disbelief how factory-farmed meat is produced immediately led me for a brief period of time to stop eating meat all together.
Back in 2012 when I began my journey of changing my dietary lifestyle, I started frequenting the local co-op in Anoka and purchased organic or grass-fed meats along with mostly organic produce and have never turned back. At the time, my husband started questioning me on why our food budget was increasing substantially and I had to start educating him on the fact that cheap food is not only unhealthy, but it is not cheap in the long run due to the environmental, social, and health costs that are steadily increasing as a result of this cheap
food. The other compelling issue when I first watched this documentary several years ago was learning about processed, packaged foods. The fact that corn in some form or another is found in most processed foods in grocery stores led me to gradually find alternatives and abandon nearly all processed foods that were not listed as organic or non GMO altogether. My other concern lies in the fact that large food conglomerates are buying up the small organic companies. As a consumer, how are we guaranteed that these companies remain committed to producing foods with the same quality and organic principles? The fact that they go to great lengths to hide the fact that they are the owners now makes me very uneasy and I find myself steering clear of those products I now to be owned by larger food conglomerates. In conclusion, this documentary depicts many disturbing practices that impact the safety of our food, ethical treatment of animals, unfair treatment of workers, and misleading consumers with advertisements that promote products as healthy when in reality they are anything but healthy. On the plus side, the move towards eating organically and shunning foods containing GMOs has steadily been increasing each year. It does ultimately come down to two main issues; consumers demanding quality nutrient dense foods and the need to change government policies so everyone can have access.