Let’s not beat around the bush, America. We’re a pretty fat country. We love sports, but we have a pizza and wings by our side while we’re chillin’ on the couch watching them. We’re so fat, actually, that according to the Food Research and Action Center , more than two thirds of adults in America are fat.
There’s clearly a solution to being fat besides just exercise, and that’s substituting your cheese-sticks for celery. But trust me, eating healthier is definitely easier said than done, especially when broccoli costs more than a pack of brownies at the grocery store. The cheapest food is not only the least healthy, but it’s more likely that that food isn’t 100% organic.
Bottom line, folks — poor and marginalized people are the most affected by big corporations and their lack of transparency with where and how food is processed — this is because the most manipulated foods are more accessible and cheaper.
In the 2008 documentary Food Inc., which describes the deceitful processes involved with food processing, a working-class Hispanic family perfectly describes the struggle to eat healthily, The family consists of a mother, father, and two young daughters. The parents work extremely long hours, so they don’t have time to cook. Rather than buying vegetables or other healthy foods, the majority of the family’s income goes towards the father’s medical bills — the dad has diabetes, and it’s getting worse by the day.
And what is the only food this family can afford in the meanwhile? Burgers, fries, and sodas from the dollar menu at Burger King. And let’s face it, this family probably doesn’t really have access to anything like a farmer’s market, which is probably way farther than the corner convenience store selling Twinkies and Dorito chips, as well as fast food restaurants that are on every corner.
So basically, what we have here is a cyclic situation: the family can’t afford healthy food, so they eat unhealthy. Family eats unhealthy, family becomes unwell, and must pay lofty medical bills. Paying these expensive bills, family can’t afford healthy food — and family suffers in the process.
Not to mention, the food that poor people are able to afford is very far from face value. Meaning, a lot of the cheap foods in stores and supermarkets have been ultra-processed, to the point where the ingredients are barely identifiable: I mean really, what average American can really tell me what saccharin, polydextrose, xanthan gum, maltodextrin actually is? If people knew how much of these alien-sounding ingredients were actually in our food, I’m sure we would think twice before putting it in our bodies.
And you know what? Those alien ingredients are all made of corn.
Yep, you read right. According to Food Inc, 90% of processed foods on the shelf contain either a corn or soybean ingredient. This means that all those boxes and cans on the shelves, regardless of what they say on the front label, have corn in ‘em somehow. Apparently, scientists have decided that adding corn to everything helps with preservation and shelf life. This makes these foods unhealthy, not to mention very vague and untrustworthy. Because it’s being used in so many foods, in fact, 30% of United States land is being used for — you guessed it — planting corn. Fields and fields of it.
If you thought that processed boxed and canned foods were the only sketchy food items that need to be avoided because of corn, you thought wrong. Corn has something to do with the sketchiness of our meat and poultry items too. From an evolutionary standpoint, most farm animals should be eating grain and grass for a couple of reasons. First of all, it’s logically cheaper because cows naturally fertilize the grass they eat, which produces more grass. Besides that seemingly obvious point, though, grass and grain digests much better, leaving the cows and chickens to be healthier, and the meat from them safer to eat.
Instead, cows, chickens, and other farm animals are fed corn, which as we know from the processed foods, leads to defective, unhealthy meat. Marion Nestle, a food safety professor and public advocate, points out that feeding corn to cattle basically fattens them up, so there is more meat available to sell.
And trust me, big meat packagers have taken full advantage of being able to make more money — as of 2010, the top 4 meat packers controlled 80% of the market. One of these meat-buying tycoons is home to one of America’s most prized possessions: the Big Mac. That’s right, McDonald’s is actually the largest purchaser of ground beef in the United States. This means that even if you aren’t necessarily eating McD’s, you are more than likely eating food that was processed at one of their slaughterhouses.
The problem with feeding cows corn, though, is that corn actually makes the meat that we eat from them more prone to disease — and not just any cute little harmless disease, either — it’s E. Coli 0157:H7.
If you know anything about E. Coli 0157:H7, you’d know a couple of things: First off, you’d know that this specific strain is heat resistant, and is still infectious even in small amounts. You’d know that nowadays, it contains a gene that basically destroys red blood cells, and we all know that without those, your health is in for loads of trouble — kidney failure, bloody diarrhea, you name it.
And of course, this yummy disease can be found sitting pretty right in that Big Mac of yours.
The fact that these cows eat corn instead of what they should actually eat doesn’t help anybody’s case–what do you mean?. It also doesn’t help that these cows are packed into confined slaughterhouses by the hundreds, and are standing in their own shit for hours at a time, making it more than easy for this strand of E. Coli to spread from one cow to the next. The worst part about all of this is that the ground beef mass produced by McDonald’s to make that one hamburger can have almost a thousand cows in a single patty, making the disease even more unavoidable.
With these disgusting facts about where the food that most American eats comes from coming to light, you may be asking: “why didn’t I know about all of this before?! I eat burgers all the time! They’re delicious!” Well, the answer to that is simple really: these meat-packaging tycoons don’t want you to know. You see, if you knew about the repulsive schemes that these large companies were imploring to make money, they wouldn’t be making money! And if you’re wondering whether you can write a stern letter to your congressman about this very relevant issue, you’d be wasting your time.
Why? Because the government is in on the scam too.
There’s a whole labyrinth of laws and laws for those laws, put in place by government officials who have roots in the food industries that they are supposed to be regulating. When it comes to food safety regulations, there are over 30 separate laws, implemented by over 10 different agencies, in six cabinet-level departments. If you think this is confusing and unnecessary, you are absolutely right. While the USDA may regulate corn dogs, for example, the FDA, which is a completely different organization, regulates bagel dogs. This makes it very easy for deadly Big Mac diseases to slip right underneath the government’s noses, making the American people sick.
One of the easiest ways to avoid all of this commotion and life-threatening food, of course, is to buy organic grown meats and veggies. But of course, this is definitely easier said than done for that working class family that is already in the vortex of unhealthy eating.
So in order for that working-class Hispanic family to prevent “death by corn”, they may have a couple of options. First of all, yeah, fast food? Stay far, FAR away from that as often as possible. Secondly, every little change to daily eating habit counts. Subbing that celery stick for that chocolate every now and again is a step in the right direction, even if it’s just twice or three times a week. It definitely wouldn’t be easy, but to be honest, severe illness due to corn? It’s just not worth the trouble. |
Asile Patin is a sophomore at Syracuse University, focusing on food politics in her Writing 205 class.
————————————————————————————————————————–
REFLECTION
1.) I think that the “writer’s project” differs slightly from the meaning of the text. Instead, it’s basically what the writer’s purpose is in writing it, and how they have attempted to pursue that purpose through their writing style. When thinking about this in terms of the texts for this unit, I really had to understand the writer themselves, and what their background and experience is in their particular field. If I were to just read or watch the texts for face value, I would have missed the nuances that come with the writer’s particular “projects” and purposes. For my post, I made my particular claims based on my background, and my understanding of how food politics affect the people at the bottom of the socioeconomic latter.
2.) The term identification section on the “Sorting it Out” worksheet was the most beneficial. It made it easier to understand what the writer was trying to convey in a very literal manner. This helped me synthesize texts that had similar messages.
3.) Synthesis is important because it’s basically a consolidation of a lot of different texts. This consolidation makes grasping a concept, and later explaining it, much easier for me. The specific E. Coli information would have been very difficult for me to understand if I was reading the cold, manuscript style Nestle reading alone. However, synthesizing that information with Food. Inc and the Consumer Report article, I was able to realize a humanized understanding of what effects the disease could actually have.
4.) Overall, I think that I am proud of how simply I was able to explain my thoughts. Because this isn’t the formal writing that I am used to, I was able to say what I really meant, without confusing fluff.
5.) My main idea was basically that poor people are at “steak” when dealing with food politics that are controlled in a monopolistic manner. With this, I was able to follow a chain of thought style writing, talking about corn, the ill-quality of slaughterhouses, and E. Coli, while still being able to bring the conclusion about in a circular manner. I think the “Sorting it Out” workshop helped especially with this.
6.) Again, I used a chain of thought style writing technique. I wanted to make sure that the reader could understand how things were connecting in a manner that wasn’t too confusing. For my lede specifically, I became a lot more concise with what I was trying to say, which made it easier for me to follow that thought.
Draft: “The lack of transparency in the food market presents a level of concern from the American people about what we are consuming, and how the foods we eat affect our health. From the surface level, individuals concerned with their health should steer clear of obviously unhealthy food — fast food, fats, desserts and snacks, etc. With the steadily rising obesity rate in America (can I provide a statistic here?), healthier alternatives for these food items, such as leafy greens and organic food, should instead be prioritized. “Healthier” eating seems like a definite way to ensure the American people’s well being, and tons of ad campaigns promote a healthier lifestyle. However, for poor people, this is much more of a tougher battle.”
7.) In the paragraph discussing how disgusting cow breeding and meat packaging is, and how it breeds E. Coli, I synthesized information from Food Inc, from Nestle, and from Consumer reports.
“If you know anything about E. Coli 0157:H7, you’d know a couple of things: First off, you’d know that this specific strain is heat resistant, and is still infectious even in small amounts. You’d know that nowadays, it contains a gene that basically destroys red blood cells, and we all know that without those, your health is in for loads of trouble — kidney failure, bloody diarrhea, you name it.
And of course, this yummy disease can be found sitting pretty right in that Big Mac of yours.
The fact that these cows eat corn instead of what they should actually eat doesn’t help anybody’s case–what do you mean?. It also doesn’t help that these cows are packed into confined slaughterhouses by the hundreds, and are standing in their own shit for hours at a time, making it more than easy for this strand of E. Coli to spread from one cow to the next. The worst part about all of this is that the ground beef mass produced by McDonald’s to make that one hamburger can have almost a thousand cows in a single patty, making the disease even more unavoidable.”
8.)As stated earlier, I became much more concrete with my lede. Instead of speaking theoretically, I provided a concrete, relatable example that made sense.
9.)The conclusion was the most difficult for me.