Timing is Everything
We got some movies from Netflix today. Food Inc was in there. We watched it. I was practically drooling I watched it with such intensity. And at the end the question that kept rolling around in my head was: where along the way did we sell our SOULS?
Honestly. (And this isn’t my usual ‘Oh HONESTLY’ sarcasm. This is genuine). Im not sure what I think of a country….of a a society that has become……THAT. I wonder: what do we stand for as a society/culture/nation? The truth of the matter is when I watch things like that, I totally get why people hate us. We have no conscience or moral compass anymore.
I can’t get the image of the poor, defenseless [still living] cow being SHOVELED by a forklift out of my head. Or the pigs being slaughtered so inhumanly. What monsters we’ve become. And for what? So we can feed ourselves another burger made with 80% “meat filler”. The word glutton comes to mind.
Harsh words I know, but Im just so disgusted by it all. Everyone needs to see this movie.
Filed under: "Its called food, you eat it", Iowa and Corn Make Me Happy, The Whole Wide World
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Oh, I am dying to see this movie! I waited for it to come out on DVD (couldn’t wait to see Polyface farm b/c it was featured heavily in “Omnivore’s Dilemma”), but we haven’t had time to watch a movie in a few weeks now.
But it is at the top of my Netflix instant streaming queue. Can’t wait to discuss once I’ve gotten the time to watch it. Maybe tonight…
1 Jessica said this (January 25, 2010 at 6:16 pm)
Can we still be friends even though I worked for a meat company, toured a veal slaughter facility and fabricated a cow carcass? I’d like to see the movie, but I bet I’d like to be able to have a face-to-face talk with you afterward.
2 Steph said this (January 26, 2010 at 3:39 am)
So that “meat filler” was so vile. Good movie, so glad I finally watched it last night. Once again swearing off fast food beef…
3 Jessica said this (January 26, 2010 at 5:11 pm)
You know what? I have flat teeth in my mouth for eating plants, and sharp teeth in my mouth for eating animals, so I will continue to eat both. As far as how I get my animals: I’m sure part of the industry is driven by corporations trying to increase their shareholders’ value (that’s capitalism, and I like it), but part of it is efficiency. And as our population, and that of the rest of the world, continues to grow, we are going to need that efficiency if our food supply is even going to have a chance at keeping up with the number of mouths (with sharp teeth) ingesting it. I haven’t watched Food, Inc. but I’m guessing that it doesn’t offer up any practical, and I stress the word practical, solutions to change this industry. I also don’t understand how you humanely kill something. Either way, you’ve ended it’s life. Prey have lost their collective lives to predators for millions of years..
4 Marc said this (January 27, 2010 at 4:47 pm)
Watch the movie, you’ll understand. Agreed…prey have lost their lives to predators for millions of years. If it were that simple, there wouldn’t be a problem. I don’t mind killing a chicken so I can eat some deliciousness. I do mind growing that animal from a chick to a chicken four times faster than a normal chicken to ultimately weigh more than twice as much as a normal. That’s just not right. Or taking hundreds of cows and putting them in such tight quarters that they stand/lay in their own feces for their entire lives, eating corn/meat combinations just to fatten them up. You get serious byproducts when you feed an herbivore something other than plants.
In my opinion, it’s less about “not eating animals” and more about knowing what you’re eating and voting with your wallet. If you don’t want to eat beef that lived in it’s own feces, then buy beef that says “I used to live in a nice green pasture” instead. If you want to eat something that actually is BEEF and not meat filler, don’t buy hamburgers that cost $0.69.
As for practical solutions to change the industry? Don’t buy it. Part of the movie was discussed how Wal-mart was stocking more and more organic food because the customer’s want it. Wal-mart is a powerhouse in the food industry because of the quantity that they buy and if Wal-mart’s customers demand these types of products, the food industry will HAVE to change. If fast food vendors demanded these types of products, the food industry will HAVE to change.
5 PC said this (January 27, 2010 at 9:43 pm)
Marc,
I’d never make it as a vegetarian. Im all for eating meat and as you said, its been this way since the beginning of mankind. The “food system” (industry- whatever you want to call it) is no different than any other (say for example banking). People are greedy and when all they care about is making a dollar the whole system eventually implodes (like, say BANKING). Producing meat the way we do now on these disgusting CAFO lots is not sustainable, both from an agricultural standpoint and an environmental one.
Furthermore, TWO THIRDS, the vast majority, of Americans are overweight. Translated: some of us are eating WAY MORE than our fair share of food. If everyone ate a ‘reasonable’ # of calories….I actually wonder what that would mean in terms of the # of cows/pigs/chickens we had to kill every year? I bet it would be shocking. You can’t tell me we have to keep up this ‘efficiency’ when in fact we’re so efficient not only do we have enough food many of us have TOO much food.
As for the humane killing….I know you are a compassionate person. I mean- you took care of the great Sandino– you have to have compassion to have taken care of that scared-of-everything creature.
(steph- Im reusing some of this from my email )
The poor cows in these CAFO lots live in beyond miserable conditions. They are jammed in there, there is no grass or shade just a big lot filled with manure. Cows were made to eat grass. They were meant to graze and lay in the sunshine. Instead we feed them corn because its cheap and fattens them up quick. Corn fed cattle is the major contributor to the E. Coli outbreaks. When we feed corn to cows they need medicine because they become so sick when eating a corn diet. The cow’s digestive tract normally has a neutral pH but becomes acidic when eating corn. The acidity has led to acid tolerant/resistant E. Coli strains. When cows were grass fed this wasn’t a big problem because (our) stomach acid used to kill the bacteria, now its resistant. When you have all these cows packed together, standing knee deep in feces thriving with E. Coli- what happens when they get to the slaughterhouse/meatpacking? Its all over their fur and in their gut, and can easily contaminate the meat. Think of all the MILLIONS of pounds of meat recalled because of our “efficiency”– all those animals died for nothing.
The movie highlighted this new “invention” of making meat filler that had been treated with ammonia to mix into burgers in order to kill e. Coli. So instead of attacking the problem (the feedlots) and having people take some responsibility, the solution is to add more chemicals to our food. Nice. In addition to the poor cows, the effect those huge CAFO lots have on the environment is devastating. All that manure has to go somewhere. It used to be natures perfect fertilizer when cows grazed on grass the manure fertilized the field and nature was in balance. Now, produced in such great quantity in such a confined space its toxic. It pollutes the air, it runs off (along with all its e. Coli) into water or other crops. The amount of nitrogen that is flushed into the area kills fish, and contaminates water supplies.
As far as being humane…. I copied this from something Michael Pollan wrote: “Perhaps the most serious thing that can go wrong with a ruminant on corn is feedlot bloat. The rumen is always producing copious amounts of gas, which is normally expelled by belching during rumination. But when the diet contains too much starch (corn) and too little roughage (grass), rumination all but stops, and a layer of foamy slime that can trap gas forms in the rumen. The rumen inflates like a balloon, pressing against the animal’s lungs. Unless action is promptly taken to relieve the pressure (usually by forcing a hose down the animal’s esophagus), the cow suffocates.
A corn diet can also give a cow acidosis. Unlike that in our own highly acidic stomachs, the normal pH of a rumen is neutral. Corn makes it unnaturally acidic, however, causing a kind of bovine heartburn, which in some cases can kill the animal but usually just makes it sick. Acidotic animals go off their feed, pant and salivate excessively, paw at their bellies and eat dirt. The condition can lead to diarrhea, ulcers, bloat, liver disease and a general weakening of the immune system that leaves the animal vulnerable to everything from pneumonia to feedlot polio.” (The acidosis is why we give cows antibiotics and growth hormones– we have to stave off illness and keep them alive just long enough to bulk them up for slaughter).
Most antibiotics sold in the US today end up in animal feed. A practice that is leading directly to the evolution of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. All because we want to be “efficient.” The thing is– whenever a shortcut is taken we PAY for it somewhere else. In this case we get cheap hamburger but the reason its so cheap is because the cattle are fed corn, corn that is heavily subsidized by your tax dollars. What are the healthcare costs of people that contract E. Coli? Think of all the costs from Swine Flu. We are part of the same microbial ecosystem as the animals we eat…whatever happens to them happens to us. The sick cows get slaughtered. What will we do with all the sick humans when we have no antibiotics that will treat us? There are no ‘real’ shortcuts. “Efficiency” is sort of an illusive term. PC uses the phrase “slow is steady, steady is fast.” I think the most efficient way is the old fashioned way. “We vote with our dollars” and I think thats the (most) practical way to affect change.
6 Lisa said this (January 27, 2010 at 11:54 pm)
So I went to turn on the news last night and saw the VERY END of Oprah which was all about Food, Inc.! I was kicking myself for not getting to watch it (I would have watched if I had known). I think it might have been interesting.
7 Jessica said this (January 28, 2010 at 5:43 pm)