Growing up within a family of cattle ranchers from southwest Montana, I assumed I understood the where, how, and why in regards to where our food comes from. From a very young age, I was enthusiastically involved with the inner-workings of the ranch and jumped at every opportunity to work along side my uncles and older cousins. Not a glamourous job, however, the merits of hard work produced a respect and understanding for the way our food is produced. The animals on our farm were never mistreated, and quite the contrary, were looked after in a respectful and caring way. Knowing the other farmers and ranchers in the area solidified my understanding of food production, and at this young age believed this was common practice for farms nationwide. It was not until I was much older that the realization of corporate farming came into focus. With feedlots packed with cattle by the tens of thousands, this type of farming, along with chicken, pig, and big business agriculture, have created a vicious system of
inhumane practices. The treatment of these animals, from questionable feeding practices to the general lack of care for these animals and the foodborne illnesses in question, is a direct result of these mass production practices. Without proper food production practices, combined with strict oversight and regulation, the commercialization of food production has created a tsunami of problems that can no longer be over looked.
It has become frustratingly obvious that food safety, more than ever before, has taken a backseat to production efficiency and maximum profit. Blatant ignorance controls and justifies every aspect of a process that could very simply be regulated to adhere to strict quality control standards. While it seems that government has in place regulatory agencies overlooking issues of food safety, it has been made clear that profits are more important than public health. Although they claim to have the publics safety and best interest in mind, these agencies are under funded and under staffed, heavily influenced, lobbied, and riddled with regulatory loopholes. When it comes to the food we eat, these government agencies have continually dropped the ball. At times with disastrous and fatal results. Through the hard work and research of food activists such as Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, as well as, documentary filmmaker Robert Kenner, and Marion Nestle Professor of Nutrition and Food Studies at NYU, along with many other investigative news journalists and publications including Consumer Reports, the public has become more aware and better educated regarding the shady practices of food manufacturing and production.
According to Ms. Nestle, “the most authoritative estimate of the yearly number of cases of foodborne disease in the United States is 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths. Furthermore, although outbreaks of foodborne illness have become more dangerous over the years, food producers resist the attempts of government agencies to institute control measures, and major food industries oppose pathogen control measures by every means at their disposal. If it sounds like, or is assumed that, government agencies such as the FDA and the USDA would protect the consumer by every means at their disposal, fact could not be further from the truth. Ms. Nestle continues, “because federal policies cannot ensure that food is safe before people bring it home, government agencies shift the burden of responsibility to consumers.” Government oversight of food safety has long tended to provide far more protection to food producers than to the public. Today, an inventory of federal food safety activities reveals a system breathtaking in its irrationality: 35 separate laws administered by12 agencies housed in six cabinet-level departments. At best, a structure as fragmented as this one would require extraordinary efforts to achieve communication, let alone coordination, and more than 50 interagency agreements govern such efforts. This lack of proper regulation is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to food safety, and further investigation exposes alarming practices at the conventional farming level. According to Consumer Reports, life on today’s farm – often a 30,000-cow feedlot or a 60,000-chicken coop, and the need for huge quantities of high-protein rations as well as, the need for slaughterhouses to find a cheap, safe way to dispose of waste gave rise to a marriage of convenience between renderers and food producers, and to the inclusion of animal by-products in animal feed. Through this practice, food animals are now being fed processed feathers, floor wastes from coops, plastic pellets, as well as, meat and bone meal. These waste products, mixed with corn and soybean meal, make up 10-30% of the feed produced for these mega-farm feedlots. It does not take a food safety expert to see all that is wrong with such a practice.
Although many of those who work in big business food production decline to be interviewed about their process, much of the ignorance involved in their decisions and practices have come to light. Blake Hurst, commercial farmer and president of the Missouri Farm Bureau has stated, “plants and animals aren’t the least bit interested in the story the farmer has to tell. They don’t care about his sense of social justice, the size of his farm, or the business model that he has chosen. Plants don’t respond by growing better if the farmer is local, and pigs don’t care much about the methods used in the production of their daily rations.” The absurdity of such statements is fundamental to the myriad of problems that have engulfed the commercial food industry. When farmers such as this, and the government agencies that oversee these practices believe the current methods of production best provide a plentiful and affordable food supply, it becomes painfully obvious that profits are the driving force behind this line of thinking. Attempts to give federal agencies the right to enforce food safety regulations have been blocked repeatedly by food producers and their supporters in congress, sometimes joined by the agencies themselves, and more recently by the courts. These facts have been substantiated and echoed by others also investigating the food industry. In his Documentary, Food Inc., award winning filmmaker Robert Kenner has brought to light many other disturbing facts related to food safety. According to interviews with Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, five companies control 80% of the meat production in this country. Of these companies, ALL have ties or close relations to members of congress or other judicial or political figures. At this alarming statistic, it is not difficult to see that conflict of interest is obviously ignored so as to benefit big business and their partners. Although in a perfect world to have farmers such as Joel Salatin, full-time farmer at Polyface Farms who employs the strictest standard of environmentally-friendly farming practices, as a model for what farming and ranching could and should be, the reality is that we need food produced on a massive scale. However, with the current practices in place that give advantage to the big corporations in farming, and that turn a blind eye to the ridiculous number of violations committed by these individuals, there is very little hope that clean and healthy foods can be produced within this system.
From lack of proper food inspection and regulatory loopholes, to the antibiotics and inedible ingredients put into animal feed, to the ammonia and other chemicals mixed into ground beef and more, every step of the food manufacturing process is rife with unthinkable disregard.
Farming is no longer farming. We are no longer eating food, and what we are eating is the idea of food. When the agencies trusted to oversee food safety have such unimaginable conflicts of interest, how can they be relied upon to give truthful and accurate information on the supposed organic foods also regulated under their authority. Although the FDA and the USDA certify certain foods as organic, claims such as no antibiotics administered, no hormones administered and no chemicals added are unverified. So are claims by some beef brands that their cattle are raised on an all-grain or all-grass diet. Until the loopholes and conflicts of interest are eliminated and proper regulation is the standard and common practice within the food production industry, these problems will only get worse. With a population that is growing by leaps and bounds, not only is the question how will we feed everyone, but how to feed them safely and with the maximum amount of nutrition possible. Corporate farming and ranching is a huge problem that has run away with itself and until proper regulation and loopholes are addressed the dangers associated with foodborne illnesses will only get worse.

Reflection Questions
Unit I / 10%
Using the homework, in-class workshops, revision workshops, etc.

1.) Describe your understanding of the “writer’s project”? How were you able to identify the texts’ “project”? Discuss your own “project” as it pertains to this particular blog article.
– The synthesis of research, information, and quotes to compose a concise understanding of the material and to develop this into a blog-type format. From several sources on the subject of corporate farming and food borne illness, an attempt to combine this information into a quick reading and yet informative document, has been the goal.
2.)  Describe your completion of the “Sorting it Out” workshop? What sections were most beneficial to the development of your ideas—and why? Discuss how this workshop assisted in development of draft and/or assignment organization?
– The “sorting it out” worksheet is very helpful in the organizing of all source material. Drawing connections between these sources by briefly listing their content and literally drawing lines to connect similar thoughts and ideas.
3.)  Describe your understanding of synthesis. What is its importance? How did it manifest within your drafts and/or final blog article? Provide examples.
– To combine the essence of a lot of information into a precise and focused document.
4.)  Describe your own accomplishment (of something) during this unit.
– There is still a lot to learn through the practice of synthesis. Though barely scratching the surface of what this style of writing can accomplish, I feel a greater understanding can only come through further writing.
5.) Discuss the evolution of the main idea. Where did you begin (include the example) and show its progress (again, include example) throughout the drafting/revision process. To what do you attribute its evolution?
– The main idea was always to take a stand and express a certain combative uneasiness with the discovery of facts connected to the issue of food borne illness. The evolution of this article came in understanding that a lot of information had to be condensed into a short and concise reading.
6.) Discuss what organizational strategies you implemented in order to structure this blog article. Provide examples from a section(s) of an earlier draft and other excerpts in later drafts to support your response.
– For someone who enjoys long precise explanations, and see’s no end to research, the challenge with this writing was to trim the fat and then trim the fat again. The organizational strategies came mostly from the ‘sorting it out’ worksheet to find the essence of what needed to be presented and what we could do without. From an earlier draft, (The modern American supermarket has on average 47,000 products. Of these products, the majority have been processed and produced under sub-standard conditions with sub-standard ingredients. Seventy percent of these foods contain GMO’s) seemed to not be necessary in the sense that my article was focusing more on food borne illness and its cause. Although this information was important and concise, more could be said with less.
7.) Provide an example of the final draft where you successfully synthesize 3 texts in a concise and direct manner. Discuss how this evolved throughout the drafting process for you.
– I don’t believe there is a truly successful synthesis of this manner. Although there is a synthesis taking place, the challenge has been to find a way to really tighten this up. The synthesis seems to take place over the course of a whole paragraph, and attempts at trying to accomplish this in one or two sentences has been unsuccessful in my view. Synthesis seems to be an exercise in fine-tuning, saying more with less, and success at this type of writing needs the benefit of lots of practice.
8.) Discuss the evolution of the ‘lede’ in earlier drafts and its final version (provide examples of each): where did you begin, what feedback did you receive, and how did it end up in final blog article?
– The ‘lede’ in this article did not find its way until late in the process, and therefore did not receive necessary feedback. Due to the personal nature exposed by mentioning my upbringing, there was much thought and concern as to how to present this passionately yet with modesty as well. (Growing up within a family of cattle ranchers from southwest Montana, I assumed I understood the where, how, and why in regards to where our food comes from.)
9.) Name a specific writing/researching/revision goal you’d like to work on during the next Unit projects.
– Although much was learned from the process of synthesis, an intriguing and informing exercise, there is still much more to be learned about synthesis.