Why is the government allowing the food industry to poison you? Wouldn’t you feel unsafe knowing that the government is not paying attention to what’s in your food? Well this is only partly true. The food industry is controlled by huge corporations who decide everything from policy to how much farmers get paid. This results in a system that is cutthroat and industrialized leading to food that is unsafe. The government cannot do much to stop this due to the power and deep pockets that these corporations have.

The Food industry has had a drastic shift in how they produce their products. Food Inc. explains that when the word farmer is said, most people naturally picture the stereotypical farmer in the mid-west with his hat and his tractor planting his crops. Unfortunately, only part of this is true. The farmer is very likely to be a business man, as Blake Hurst explains, and he’s planting using techniques that would maximize his yield and profit. Now, this probably isn’t the way you would want your farmer to be thinking. The farmer is most likely planting a genetically modified organism (GMO) seed. The chemicals that are used to plant these crops can be dangerous. The whole process lacks oversight and is run more like an industrial business than a food producing farm.

The processes that are being used are scientifically improved every day to give higher yields. As Robert Kenner, the director of Food Inc. explains, “Back around the turn of the last century, the average farmer could feed six or eight people. Now the average American farmer can feed 126 people.”

Blake Hurst explains that with one of the worst droughts in California’s history, the amount of production, or the yield, was still higher than the yield in 1993. This means that even though California’s environment is downright horrible for farming right now, the yields are still better than they were in the 90’s. Makes sense and seems great right? Not exactly. These high yields are being achieved by using techniques that aren’t at safe and are putting your health at risk.

Farmers are trying to have high profits because they have many bills due to lack of government regulation. According to Food Inc., they have to pay for their seeds, even though their crops produce seeds, because big corporations like Monsanto control the industry. This causes farmers to spend money that doesn’t have to be spent and have to save money in other areas, resulting in farming that isn’t as safe.

When you go to the supermarket, you wouldn’t want to buy vegetables or meat that have been produced by a farmer with the business mind frame, but unfortunately that’s what you are purchasing.

When we think of meat, the process is also not quite like what we think. The cattle are raised until they are of slaughter age. While they are being raised, they are often fed things that are not natural to the animal’s diet. For example, Consumer reports has an articles named “You Are What You Eat”. In this article, it is stated that “processed feathers are an acceptable source of protein in cattle feed”. In addition, the article also describes how animal “waste” is used to be fed to other animals. Antibiotics are also put in the cattle’s food to prevent outbreaks of illnesses. The industry is doing this to increase their profits. If cows are healthier and fatter, there is more meat to sell. Since the waste is naturally produced, it means that there is no need to spend money on food to feed the cattle. All this increases the profit margin for the farmers.

When the consumer (also known as the reader) puts this meat into their mouth, they are eating everything that the farmer fed to his cattle. Doesn’t that sound delicious? So what’s the problem? It is dangerous because the cattle were given drugs, which can be bad for humans. The farmers can feed their cattle almost anything they’d like so they can make a bit more profit and in the meantime poison the consumer. They are able to get away with it because the government is not fully regulating the food industry.

Government oversight is weak at best for the food industry. One of the reasons for this might be the amount of money that the government sees from the industry. Taxes have to be paid for all the food that is eaten or produced. Taxes are also paid for all the ingredients that are used to prepare the food whether it be chemicals, seeds, equipment, or food for cattle. Farmers are also a big supplier of jobs for local towns. This means that if a farm is making more money and hiring more people, it looks good for the representative of the government from that area. As a result, the government representative is not going to be looking for ways to implement regulations on the industry that is making him look good. All he wants to do it win, and this helps him get there.

On a national scale, there is a lot of money involved when candidates are trying to be elected to office. Since the food industry is so large and powerful, they are in the position to make large contributions to campaigns and they can lobby representatives of the government already in office. However, this doesn’t mean the government is doing nothing, even though that wouldn’t be hard to believe. Instead, the government puts forward regulations that are either extremely difficult to oversee or regulations that require too many inspectors to oversee successfully. Sounds like the government really wants to help the problem right? An example of this is the division of responsibility between the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which Marion Nestle points out. Some examples of the division include the USDA being in charge of soups with more than 2% meat or poultry while the FDA being in charge of soups with less than 2% meat or poultry. Similarly, if you have spaghetti with meat stock it is the responsibility of USDA, but the FDA is in charge of spaghetti with no meat stock. This means that if an agent of the USDA walked into a restaurant and saw a meal prepared that consisted of spaghetti with marinara sauce and it had a violation of the code, the agent wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. Sounds like great governing and regulation.

With these regulations, it is very hard to catch violations in progress. If the government would try to make these regulations more viable by simplifying them, there would probably be a negative reaction coming from the food industry. This in turn would mean less money being given to the representatives that are trying to change these policies. Christopher Leonard explains how damaging proposing food regulation can be when he says “In 2010 and 2011 when there was a really ambitious reform agenda proposed by President Barack Obama, it was absolutely dismantled, pushed back and defeated by the meat industry lobbyists”. He continues on to say that it probably “did more damage than if they had not proposed to do anything”. Instead, the propose policies such as the one Marion Nestle points out. Part of the reason why proposing changes can be so damaging is that the food industry has some of its most powerful former executives working for the government. Food Inc. explains how some food industry executives work for the government and after the governing administration is over, they go back to the food industry. These executives in the government are unelected and it would not be unreasonable to believe that they are in their positions due to the contributions they made to elected members of the government.

Why would these members of the government make their lives harder in a few years?

The former and future executives of the food industry working for the government don’t pass necessary policies because they know that these new policies would make their lives more difficult in the future and would mean lower profits for the company they would work for.

Big corporations unfortunately control the way the food in America is produced today. Christopher Leonard explains that these corporations not only have the money to be able to manipulate the market whichever way they want, but they have the customers locked in. There are four companies that produce 85% of the meat in this country. This is very important information for several reasons.

1. The first reason why it is so important to understand that these companies have so much control is that these companies control the prices on the meat market. Over the last several years, meat prices have been going up, yet corporations like McDonalds can sell you cheap meat because they are the largest buyer of ground beef a year. Food Inc. explains that McDonalds can raise the price of the market, but still sell you cheap, unhealthy beef.
2. Another reason this is important is because they can also choose what to pay farmers. If they pay farmers less than what they used to be paid, as is the case, farmers will only have two options. They will have to find ways to raise their cattle for cheaper or they can go bankrupt. If they raise their cattle at a cheaper cost, there is likely to be problems such as outbreaks of diseases or cattle being fed things that are not natural to their diet.
3. Lastly, these corporations have so much power that when they do force these farmers to go out of business, the US federal government ends up paying the debt accumulated by these farmers. This just goes to show how powerful these corporations are and their control in the government. Not only do they get to bankrupt the farmers, but then they get to call the government to clean up the mess with your money. So instead of being able to use that money towards improving things like education, the government takes your money to bail out the farmer that was forced to bankruptcy by the company that is ripping you off at the grocery store.

Another example of a company that controls the market is Monsanto. Robert Kenner says that Monsanto owns the GMO seed for corn through a patent. Farmers who want to plant corn have to plant this GMO or risk legal action from Monsanto. Even though they have their own seeds, they have to use the corporation’s seed. If it does go to the legal system, Monsanto can outspend any individual farmer and win the case. Monsanto is rumored to have surveillance teams that look for farmers who are cleaning and using their own seed. They will take legal action on these farmers, ultimately leading them to use Monsanto’s seed. Corporations like these have the power to control the food industry, manipulate the government, and ultimately can do whatever they want with their food and no one will know or say anything for fear of what these companies can do.

The food industry is a very powerful industry that gets anything it wants or needs to make higher profits. The government is almost incapable of helping the consumers because of the power that the food industry has. If consumers want a change and wants this revolutionary change in the food industry to stop, they will have to stand up to the food industry. Without your money, the food industry has nothing. So the next time you go food shopping pay attention to where your food is coming from, who produced it, and what did they use to produce it.

 

 

Reflection questions:

1. 1. The writers project is what a writer intends to do with a project. If the author wants to convince you of a certain point or just bring to light an idea, that will be his/her idea. It is helpful to read the text and research the author to see what the project is. It is not always clear from the text. Sometimes after seeing what their experience is, it is easier to understand their project. My project in my blog is to bring to light the fact that the food industries power controls all regulation and results in unsafe food. I also propose several ideas on why the food industry is allowed to have so much power.
   2. I completed the sorting it out activity at home when it was assigned. This helped me for several reasons. It was the first time that I was able to tie together multiple texts and find quotes that relate to each other. With this, it became evidently clear to me what I was going to write about. The part where we connect quotes was most helpful to me.
   3. Synthesis is comparing two or more sources through writing. The importance of it is being able to tie together the sources and see what similarities and differences exist among the different sources. During my draft, there wasn’t much synthesis. I mainly pointed out different ideas from the different sources. As I moved into my final draft, I connected the different sources together. A good example is when I talk about how farmers are more business like now a days and they are not the typical farmer we imagine. I state “. Food Inc. explains that when the word farmer is said, most people naturally picture the stereotypical farmer in the mid-west with his hat and his tractor planting his crops. Unfortunately, only part of this is true. The farmer is very likely to be a business man, as Blake Hurst explains, and he’s planting using techniques that would maximize his yield and profit.” Here two sources are tied together to explain the same idea.
   4. During this unit I accomplished two things. I learned the components of an article and how to write one. I also learned how the food industry works. Although this is not a WRT 205 skill, I think that it is something that everyone should learn about so we can at least be educated about where our food comes from.
   5. The main idea started when I wrote my writing response. I started talking about the money and how it leads to power which was used to control the industry. I wrote “The amount of money in the food industry means there is also a lot of power involved. Companies like Monsanto control both the farmers who are using seeds and the members of government putting forth the regulations.” I then decided to write my blog about how this power impacts food safety and why nothing is done about it. An example of my main idea is seen in the blog when I state “The reason we have a problem is because of the money and power that are involved. The government lets the industry chose what policies go into place. These policies aren’t always the safest.” You can see how the main idea evolved from companies have power, to why does the government allow this and what are the ramifications. The evolution can be attributed to further research. When I kept looking for information, I noticed that the problem wasn’t that these companies have the power, the problem is that these companies are given the power by the government in order to gain money. Its almost like an exchange of power. The government gives the industry power in exchange for money and votes so the government can be powerful in other areas.
   6. I didn’t really use one organizational strategy. I first got my idea while writing the reading response. From there I reviewed my notes and found that I could definitely write a blog about this. I started collecting good quotes from the different texts and looking for a source that would be good for my argument. An example of a draft came from my reading response. This is where I first started discussing the idea of money and power in the food industry. I wrote “The amount of money in the food industry means there is also a lot of power involved. Companies like Monsanto control both the farmers who are using seeds and the members of government putting forth the regulations”.
   7. An example of three texts being synthesized is when I discuss the policies and how or why the government comes up with them. I bring Nestle’s example of the dysfunctional policies and explain it with Food Inc.’s explanation of who runs these departments for the government. I then bring in my source which explains what going against the food industry and proposing good policy can do.
   8. My first lede was “Food safety is a major problem in the United States. Money and power have a huge role in the policies and the production of the food. However, the industry is the one deciding which policies get put into place. How is this possible? Why is the government letting the food industry choose what is important and what isn’t? The food industry is trying to make higher profits by making the food process more industrialized and efficient, but leaving behind all oversight of the meats or produce, resulting in product that may be contaminated with no way to stop it.” This was more of an essay introduction than an article lede. Instead, I decided to scrap it and move towards a shorter and more direct lede. After my classmates gave me suggestions, I came up with “Food safety is a problem in the United States. The reason we have a problem is because of the money and power that are involved. The government lets the industry chose what policies go into place. Why does the government allow this and look the other way? How are these companies so powerful and rich? The food industry has become an industrial machine geared towards making money and is no longer about feeding the country.” While reading my final draft, I realized I needed something more powerful. I retyped my lede for a third time and came up with a more powerful statement: “Why is the government allowing the food industry to poison you? Wouldn’t you feel unsafe knowing that the government is not paying attention to what’s in your food? Well this is only partly true. The food industry is controlled by huge corporations who decide everything from policy to how much farmers get paid. This results in a system that is cutthroat and industrialized leading to food that is unsafe. The government cannot do much to stop this due to the power and deep pockets that these corporations have.”
   9. During the next unit, I would like to write a research article. I would like to be able to find my own articles and write an opinion that I have. While I was able to do that this unit, I also had to synthesize the sources and use the idea presented within them instead of using them to backup an idea that I am proposing.