Unbreakable chain between food safety and desire in money
Would you still be able to buy the product, if the company includes the image of cows being fed with parts of downer cows and thousands of chickens packed over their manures on their advertisement? While the dirty truth should be revealed to the customers, yet producers are busy hiding it. In fact, it turns out that this is not the only secret they have.
As the society changed from domestic to industrial, farming is no longer universal and people do not have enough time to grow their own food or even cook a homemade meal. Therefore, consuming food that is produced by the food industries has become a matter of course and it has been decades since shopping at the grocery stores and eating at the restaurant became part of our lives. Because this has become such a natural thing, “Most of us do not worry much about the possibility that foods in our supermarkets might be contaminated and dangerous, and we act on the basis of what Nicolas Fox calls the “unspoken contract” among food producers, government regulators, and the public to ensure that food is safe”(Nestle, pg. 29). Since, people no longer farm to consume for themselves, all the food we get from the stores and the restaurants goes through lots of process, organizations and people. However, people did not start to put questions about where the food is coming from and how they are produced, until the food bourn diseases and food outbreaks have become an issue and reported through the media. As people started to have some interest in the origin of the food, they started to face the ugly truth. However, when they started to see the part of the truth, it was too late and too many people were already getting sick from the food such as food poisoning. In order to stop the problem, USDA and FDA started to set up the food policy and the rules for the food safety. While some people thought the food safety has been improved by having those rules, which was not the actual problem to solve in the first place, it just worked on easing people’s mind instead of solving the actual problem. If the policies for the food safety do not entirely make our food system safe, then who is it made for? Consumers? The Government? And also, why won’t USDA and FDA try to improve and change it?
In the film ‘Food Inc.’, while we always had the image that the meat we consume are coming from the animals which have been raised healthily on the green field, that is not entirely true as one of the chicken farmers interviewed in the film, “not farming, a mass production”. The mass production itself shows how the food industry cares more about their profit than the safety of the food. The animals are raised in a very nasty environment and fed with corns instead of what they are supposed to be fed like the grass or other nutritious crops. The reason they are fed with the corn is because it is known for its cheapness and a great way to make them fat easily. In the reading ‘You Are What They Eat’, told us more about the problem in the animal feed. Since early 21st century, people started to get food bourn diseases from the meat, and they found that cows those have been fed with body parts of downer cows were the cause of the disease.
As much as we care about what we eat, people should also care about what the animals are getting fed with. Like the name of the article, “You Are What They Eat.” We will eventually consume whatever the animals ate. Animals are also living creatures like humans, which means, if we can get sick from eating the wrong food, they also can. Farmers should realize that their job does not stop at selling their products to the big food industries but it continues until the food gets to consumers.
In the article ‘Organic Illusions’, Hurst talks about the truth in organic production. Since people started to have more interest in how to eat healthy, the organic market has grown quickly. Organic farming gave people a positive impression by advertising how it is good for the environment and for humans. However, its popularity did not last long because “organic foods often cost twice what conventionally grown foods do, the quantity of organic sales constitutes considerably less than 4 percent of the total market”. Organic products have more procedures and restrictions than the conventional products. However, it turns out despite of following the organic procedures, it could be not entirely organic, because “it’s possible that conventional pesticides are present-either from drift from neighboring conventionally farmed fields, or because the producer has been less than honest in his certification”.
Although organic products are harder to grow and has more restrictions, because it is more expensive than conventional products, it has become popular among farmers. However, growing perfectly organic crops needs more care and money than conventional crops. This has tempted some farmers to not to follow some of organic procedure and lie about it. This is a good example of how FDA’s food policy cannot be the only solution in keeping our food system safe. Producers should be more aware of how significant their job is and put their honesty before their profit. As Antonio put it as “ Food safety plans must be developed by a “qualified individuals”…. The qualified individual is responsible for applying the food safety plan.” When producers become more aware of the true goal of their job, a need in improving the food safety plan by FDA will not be much required.
As watching and reading those articles and a film, it seems there is nothing to trust about the way our food gets produced. There are so many problems that the consumers have not been aware of. Unfortunately, unhealthily produced food is not the biggest problem we have. The biggest problem is the way the government, producers and farmers are acting towards their mistakes. In order to find the origin of the problem in the food safety, we have to look into how they have acted. For example, when the mad cow disease happened from feeding some parts of downer cows to other cows, FDA has put the rule about banning downer cows and animal parts known to be infectious prions from human food and also banning in feeding of mammalian blood and blood products to animals. While it seems FDA has acted immediately about the problem, on the other side of the argument tells us “The FDA should have taken immediate action on the promises it made. In what appears to be a guise of considering a bigger step, they did nothing”.
When there has been an outbreak on food, the first organization that can make a big action is the FDA. However, it is ironic that “within FDA itself, the regulation of microbial hazards in food seems less important than dealing with drugs or medical devices” (Nestle, pg. 60), especially when those antibiotics have created another kind of food born illness. Their job is to help the food industry to produce a safe and healthy food by strengthening or changing the food safety policy for consumers. By FDA not taking action immediately, “even with the best of intentions, it would be difficult to keep up with food safety problems given the changes in the U.S. food system since 1906”(Nestle, pg. 59) has happened and this is just the start of the consequences from their action. FDA is not the only group that is avoiding taking the full action towards the truth in the food industry. In the matter of fact, the most responsible group, the producers are also busy blaming the FDA and farmers. As we could see in the film ‘Food Inc.’, the big food companies rejected to be interviewed about how they produce their products and what they do when there has been a problem. This rhetorically shows the audience how they are lying and masked towards what is actually happening in their companies. The main cause how these groups have been acting is because “food safety politics involves diverse stakeholders with highly divergent goals” (Nestle, pg. 60). Every group who are responsible of the problem in the food safety are busy blaming each other when they all have to get together in order to solve the problem.
Recently, FDA has decided to “prevent hazards in the food supply chain instead of a reactionary system based largely on enforcement and punishment.” This new system will allow food companies flexibility “to develop food safety plans tailored to the risks associated with their own products and operations.” I am sure the FDA has discussed about the problem and for a long time and has came up with this new system, but I am afraid that this system will only give the producers more advantage in “messing” with our food instead of become more honest. We, as consumers, should see how effective the new system would be and stay interested in on what we eat and where it is coming from.
Sources:
Robert Kenner, ‘Food Inc.’
The Consumer Reports, “You Are What They Eat”
Blake Hurst, “Organic Illusions”
Reflection Questions
- Writer’s project is the question of intent. It shows the purpose of the text and show its main idea. My “project” was to tell readers that how having a careful attention in what they are eating is very important by supporting the idea with sources that shows the dirty truth behind our food system because of the temptation in power and money.
2. I only had a general idea of my project but I needed help to shrink the general idea into a specific claim and the workshop helped me in organizing my argument in the text and show the strong claim. Also, by writing down the main argument of each sources that I will use, helped me sorting out which quote and ideas I will highlight about the source and how to use the source in supporting my idea. By visualizing main argument and quotes of each sources, it was so much easier to think how I will relate them together.
3. Synthesis has to summarize the combination of ideas by pointing out the main point of each ideas and by highlighting the key words and quotes. By writing a good synthesis, it will draw better attention from the readers with relatively short paragraph of key ideas instead of bored them with long, dragging paragraph. It will also help readers in better understanding the text. In third and fifth paragraph in my text, I tried to do a good job in synthesizing the sources I used by telling the readers the main idea of each source and key quotes.
4. Working on the Unit 1 project, I learned how to write a blog post which I never have done before. I could see how blog should be brief but still be able to show writer’s main argument by backing up with sources. Using sources appropriately will not only draw reader’s attention, but also give readers credibility about the text.
5. Honestly, I had a hard time in finding how to relate the food safety with power at the first time. Then, the first primary argument I came up with was to argue that “consumers have right to know what is going on in our food system.” In order to relate this to power, I thought the ignorance of FDA towards the food safety policy will support my argument well. So, I found quotes such as “within FDA itself, the regulation of microbial hazards in food seems less important than dealing with drugs or medical devices” (Nestle, pg. 60)” As I looked at the source to find more quotes, it got me further thinking that it is not only FDA who is being ignorant but also the producers and they could be the one who can actually make a bigger difference in our food system than FDA. The quote “food safety politics involves diverse stakeholders with highly divergent goals” (Nestle, pg. 60), got me thinking that the “stakeholders” are more like producers than the FDA. However, this does not mean that FDA did well in improving or changing the food policy.
6. At first, in order to draw the reader’s attention in the beginning, I tried to write a good lede. My idea of drawing their attention was trying to motivate readers to relate my text into their daily lives which will make them want to read further because there could be an important information that they don’t want to miss about. Therefore, I wanted them to picture the image of extreme case such as “the image of cows being fed with parts of downer cows and thousands of chickens packed over their manures”. Then, I talked about the main ideas in each sources to give readers the sense of what food safety is and what the issue is. While the beginning of the text was more informational by saying “The mass production itself shows how the food industry cares more about their profit than the safety of the food. The animals are raised in a very nasty environment and fed with corns instead of what they are supposed to be fed like the grass or other nutritious crops. The reason they are fed with the corn is because it is known for its cheapness and a great way to make them fat easily. ” , as the text goes on, it gets more argumentative with supporting quotes “However, it is ironic that “within FDA itself, the regulation of microbial hazards in food seems less important than dealing with drugs or medical devices” (Nestle, pg. 60), especially when those antibiotics have created another kind of food born illness. Their job is to help the food industry to produce a safe and healthy food by strengthening or changing the food safety policy for consumers. By FDA not taking action immediately, “even with the best of intentions, it would be difficult to keep up with food safety problems given the changes in the U.S. food system since 1906”(Nestle, pg. 59) has happened and this is just the start of the consequences from their action.”
7.”As watching and reading those articles and a film, it seems there is nothing to trust about the way our food gets produced. There are so many problems that the consumers have not been aware of. Unfortunately, unhealthily produced food is not the biggest problem we have. The biggest problem is the way the government, producers and farmers are acting towards their mistakes. In order to find the origin of the problem in the food safety, we have to look into how they have acted. For example, when the mad cow disease happened from feeding some parts of downer cows to other cows, FDA has put the rule about banning downer cows and animal parts known to be infectious prions from human food and also banning in feeding of mammalian blood and blood products to animals. While it seems FDA has acted immediately about the problem, on the other side of the argument tells us “The FDA should have taken immediate action on the promises it made. In what appears to be a guise of considering a bigger step, they did nothing”.”
I did not know much about synthesizing and how to write a synthesis, until we did the workshop and looking at the examples in the class. After I learned, I tried to go back to my draft and write a synthesis paragraph after the paragraphs where I explain the readers about the main idea of the sources.
8. I did not have a lede on my first draft, then after the workshop I wrote my lede and got a positive feedback that it draws the attention well and give readers something to think about. So, I stuck with my first lede!
9. I always had a hard time in analyzing and writing research projects in high school. So, I want to improve my analytical skills in the next Unit. Also, since politic was never my first interest and do not know much about it, by working on the next Unit, I hope it will motivate me to have more interest in politics.