Earlier this year, 53 people were infected with e. coli in 9 different states from Chipotle. The causes for the outbreak are still unknown. The Chipotle on Marshall Street here at SU was always packed every night with people trying to eat. Imagine if your teacher, yourself, or friend was one someone that became extremely ill because of what they ate. We eat food at least 3 times a day. Most people go to the grocery store and just put things in the cart barely looking at the packaging. The public assumes that the food we eat is safe because the government regulates it knowing little about how the food industry works. The government is thought to have full control of the food industry but with the daunting task of inspecting millions of places with powerful companies seeking profit and efficiency, big business use it’s power to control the food industry to maximize revenue. Big companies pressure the government into regulations that are good for them because they are resistance to food safety when it comes to making money. Therefore, the public is in the dark when it comes to food industry business and process of food making.

The problem in the food industry comes from all levels. The government, the producers, and the consumers all contribute to the unruly food business. Nobody is willing to take the blame for problems that arise. Resisting Food Safety, written by Nestle, a professor of Nutrition and Food Studies at NYU, talks about how producers, processors, and the government are trying to place blame on each other when outbreaks of food borne illnesses occur. Nestle sates how today’s food production encourages bacteria and viruses to spread with animals being in such close living quarters. Not only are the living conditions poor, but the people raising the animals on the farm, or killing them in the slaughterhouse are not educated enough to know how to protect themselves and the public from bacteria. Outbreaks are being reported to the media but from the past to now, outbreaks have gotten nastier because bacteria like ecoli 0157:H7 have changed over time to be able to withstand extremely hot temperatures. Animals are being held in large holding pens where they stay in extremely close contact until death where touch is only needed to spread pathogens. It is evident that there are people involved in every stage of food processing. Everyone must take responsibility in food safety but taking responsibility makes the businesses liable if something happens. That is why processors blame producers, the government blames processors and producers, and everybody blames the consumer. Each stage of food processing doesn’t want to take the blame for anything because it can be devastating to business. Earlier this year when the Chipotle outbreak occurred, there stock dropped 42 percent. Money is a reason as to why producers try to wash their hands of any responsibility.   Because we eat food so often, it is very hard to determine where a food borne illness was contracted. But consumers even after hearing of an outbreak will still keep eating. Chipotle still has lines and they had massive outbreaks all over the country. Even though there could be repercussions, the government needs to get a better hold of the food industry so problems will be addressed.

Eric Schlossar, writer of Fast Food Nation, states in Food Inc. that the top 4 companies control 80 % of the food industry. These companies are so powerful that they are able to “bully” smaller companies, farmers, and to some extent, the government. The strength of companies like Tyson and Monsano pose great obstacles for the government when they are trying to get regulations passed because they have people on their side working in high spots in the government. Consumer Reports writes, “the need for slaughterhouse 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” (26). Animal waste is being recycled into feed, which is inhumane. Plus, the effects of animal waste in humans are still unknown. Animals are being fed drugs to grow faster and there own waste. The government is aware of the toxins that humans are exposed to when waste is being fed to the animals we eat, however they are not able to do much about it because of how many billions of dollars the drug companies make of selling there drugs to corporations and how little money it takes to recycle waste into food. Nestle writes, “The FDA proposed to restrict the use of antibiotics in animal feed. Congress, however, overruled this idea under pressure from farm-state lawmakers, livestock producers, and the makers of the drugs” (Nestle 46). With the pressure placed on the government, there still lie regulation loopholes because billions of dollars are at stake. These businesses allow animals to live in wretched conditions where there is no sunlight, manure on the ground, and dead animals lying around. They feed the animals waste and drugs in order to fatten them up cheaper in the shortest time period. They are unwilling to sacrifice public food safety for profit. The government is aware of this but can’t do much about it because how few companies there are nowadays in this industry. Each company has so much leeway that even the government cant control them.

Due to the lack of public knowledge about the food industry we are not able to make better decisions as consumers. This makes me question how much we really know about this business? There are plenty of articles and movies showing the sketchiness of the production of food but the public does not take the information seriously enough. Sometimes organic food is going to cost too much but the public needs to be aware of what is going on so changes will occur. If the public decides to boycott one brand because of unruly practices then changes will happen. Organic Illusions by Blake Hurst creates doubt in the readers mind about organic versus conventional farming. He writes, “organic foods are labeled as organic because producers certify that they’ve followed organic procedures. No testing is done to check the veracity of these claims” (Hurst 5). This makes me question the government’s role in organic farming. If the government is not checking whether or not organic food is actually organic then how is the public supposed to know if organic food is actually healthier and worth the extra money? The FDA and USDA do not have enough manpower to regulate imports, warehouses, slaughterhouse, and farms. It’s an extremely important job but one that is not being done to the best extent. Overall, the government oversight of the food industry is a mess and needs to improve.

If the government fails to step up to big businesses many things are going to be affected. Consumers will still be exposed to the harmful toxins, which the causes in humans are unknown, that are put into animal feed that can lead to food borne illness. More deaths will occur due to outbreaks and the public will become very concerned about the government and its role in protecting the people. If food is something that we need to survive, it needs to be well regulated to ensure safety and well being.

Robert Kenner stated it best in Food Inc. when he said, “The industry doesn’t want us to know the truth…if you knew the truth, you might not want to eat the food.”

Food safety is becoming a larger and larger issue every year as companies sacrifice safety for an increase in profits. The FDA and the government might seem like they are doing their job, but this is not the case as they are highly ineffective in making sure that the food that we eat is same to consume. If food safety is to become a lesser issue, there are going to need to be major changes made to the FDA and the other governmental agencies in charge.

In Marian Nestle’s “resisting food safety” the lack of organization and integration between the USDA, FDA and the government is exposed. “Any facility producing a food that involves both agencies must deal with inspectors operating under two entirely different sets of guidelines and schedules.” (Nestle, Page 57). The egg industry for example has three different agencies involved in regulations and food safety. This is an issue because they don’t work together making it harder for the company to please each of the agencies. It also makes it less efficient as they don’t work together and pool their resources together, instead they act completely independent of each other. Making their already small budget even less effective.

“You are what they eat” takes on a different approach by focusing on the issues with the feed supply and how little the government is doing about it. The FDA doesn’t seem to truly care if the acts that they put in to place, are actually followed. “Four years after the feed ban took effect, the FDA still had not acted promptly to compel firms to keep prohibited proteins out of cattle feed and to label animal feed that cannot be fed to cattle.” (You are what they eat, page 29). This just shows that the FDA put in place a policy and doesn’t even make sure the firms are following it. It seems like they made the act to please the public, yet don’t care about making sure the act is used to its full potential.

Marian Nestle further more extends this idea that the FDA does not go all the way with its policies. “The initial system worked well to keep sick animals out of the food supply but was poorly designed to deal with the challenges of microbes.” (Page 55). In this passage Nestle is talking about a policy that was put in place to make the feed safer for the final product. However, she points out that it might help some of the issues, but they completely ignored the issue of microbes. Which she argues is the main issue for food safety and the FDA needs to do more to control.

Blake Hurst’s “Organic Illusions,” focuses more on the false idea behind organic foods. His argument is that organic foods are not as safe as most people think. He even argues that they might be more dangerous and that the farming techniques are more impractical. “We don’t have enough land to turn our backs on the work of generations of agriculture scientists and industrial farmers, and we can’t afford the opportunity costs of a return to some romantic version od agriculture.” (Organic illusions). Basically saying that with the current demand it isn’t possible to produce enough food using organic methods, instead we have to keep “industrial” farming. But hopefully with better regulations that can improve food safety. Organic illusions also focuses on how Organic food isn’t the answer to safer and healthier food. This is an issue as the other texts offer organic food as the main way to avoid all of these food safety issues.

Next is Food Inc. which shows how big business is ruining farming and with it is taking down food safety, while the FDA sits idly bye. The reason why they don’t intervene much is, as shown in Food Inc., most of the FDA has connections to a lot of these big meat packing businesses such as Tyson. A lot of the higher ups in the FDA has other motives when it comes to food safety. Often making decisions that benefit the big businesses rather then food safety as a whole.

Another trend that is seen in most of the sources, is that the FDA is severely under budgeted and doesn’t have the money to control all of the food that is consumed in the United States.“About 80 percent of seafood sold in the US is imported. Yet the FDA test only about 2 percent.” (You are what they eat, Page 30). This is just one example of how little the FDA is able to regulate compared to the huge quantity of food that is being produced as well as imported. The FDA only has 700 employees to regulate not only all food but meat poultry and eggs. They also regulate all drugs that are used in the United States. They are severely under manned in order to effectively regulate all of the markets they are responsible for. Due to this they only do inspections every one to five years. It is not frequent enough to squash the issue of food safety. The USDA does a better job as they have 7000 employees which allows them to inspect almost daily. (Nestle). Yet with the lack of solid policies even the USDA struggles as they regulate all meat after the slaughterhouse.

Luckily, the FDA is starting to notice these issues as well as the rise in food-borne related illnesses. “The eight per cent increase is due to a number of factors, including $268.7m in user fees for projects tied to a number of areas including the implementation of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FMSA).” (http://www.foodingredientsfirst.com/News/FDA-Seeks-Eight-Per-Cent-Budget-Uplift-to-Improve-Food-Safety-Standards.html?section=Food%20Ingredients%20News&tracking=All%20News&article_type=article). Although it might not be a huge overhaul, it is a step in the right direction. The proposed budget would be $5.1 billion for the period of October 2016 to September 2017, meaning that it would not have an impact for a decent amount of time. Just another reason why the FDA is struggling as everything moves on a very slow basis. They are always reacting to a problem rather then trying to prevent them from happening. The FDA and other government agencies responsible for food safety are constantly playing a game of catch up, and losing. Big business knows this and has the resources to exploit it. Food Safety wont begin to decline as an issue until the FDA and other government agencies begin to take charge and make changes before an issue arises.

Unfortunately, it is easier said then done. Although an increase in budget by a small percentage sounds good. It is nowhere near what they need. They are still severely under budgeted and understaffed to effectively prevent the issues of food safety. $5.1 billion dollars sounds like a lot of money, but as a percentage of how much the government spends it is next to nothing. Food-borne illnesses are becoming a huge problem in the United States as big outbreaks such as Chipotle are becoming more and more common. An issue as large as food safety, which is causing millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths, deserves a much larger budget in order to attack it in an effective manner. Yet the issue continues to grow and the FDA continues to sit idly by, just doing enough to satisfy most people, but not enough to actually tackle the issue.

Food Safety is a growing issue as more and more food becomes contaminated. Causing the amount of Americans getting food borne illnesses to rise, including the deadly ones such as e coli. The FDA and the other government agencies responsible must begin getting larger budgets as well as producing policies that can better regulate the food in America. The government needs to allocate some of its trillion dollar budget in order to tackle an issue that is increasing every year, and next to nothing is being done about. The FDA and other government agencies are slowly beginning to do a better job, but they still need to do a much better job.

 

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 21^st 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:

http://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/articles/2016/02/prevention-instead-of-correction-fda-implements-n.aspx

Robert Kenner, ‘Food Inc.’

The Consumer Reports, “You Are What They Eat”

Blake Hurst, “Organic  Illusions”

Reflection Questions

1. 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.

Be sure to post your draft on our Expressions class site AND be sure to “check” the box for your class time (i.e. MW 12:45 or MW 2:15 or MW 3:45).