Food Inc.

Hello all,

Since Candace is the consummate blogger in regards to our quest eating better I feel like I should pitch in as well. So today I am going to talk about a movie that I feel everyone should watch and discuss with their loved ones.

How many of our followers have seen Food Inc.? And for those who haven't seen it, why haven't you seen it? I have been hearing for years how our farming practices and food quality have been heading downhill for years now but I guess I couldn't or didn't want to believe how BAD things have gotten, even in my life span.

There are so many differences, most of them I would consider bad that it boggles the mind on how modern America is still alive, not healthy since most of us aren't. The first thing that comes to mind is the differences between the price of meat that is grown organic or from the supermarket. How much do you pay when you by Chicken? The last time we got chicken it was $1.99 a lb and it is normally $2.99 lb. We were able to get $20.00 of chicken that will last us a while. 2 days later we went to the Great Basin Community Food Co-Op and saw organic chicken that was $7.99 a lb. Why is there such a huge difference in price? The chicken that routinely sells for $1.99 a lb. is raised in crowded pens were there are thousands of birds getting fed corn to make them fat and profitable. They grow from a chick to harvest size in 49 days when a normal chicken takes around 120 days to get to that size. The cheap (no pun intended) bird is pumped up with antibiotics since they are covered with feces all day. Many of the birds have severe health problems due to fact that they grow so quickly that the body is unable to keep up with the rapid growth. Oh yeah, the farmers are forever in debt to the sellers of the chickens so they are essentially like slaves. I won't go into details on how they are processed to go to market, watch the movie.

The $7.99 a lb. chicken is fed grain and grass seeds, they are allowed to be outside they grow in a appropriate amount of time. When it is time to process them, they are processed in a way that might seem unsanitary (at least in the example in the movie) but the amount of feces in the meat is on around 200 FCS (Fecal Colony Standard I believe.) This admittedly sounds pretty disgusting until you compare it with the $1.99 a lb chicken at 2200 FCS.

This prices difference is the same across the board for all the meats (yes including farm raised fish as well). This is due solely to introduction of corn as feed. Corn is subsidized by the US Government which keeps the prices way way down. This allows animals that fed this way to be sold much cheaper, but at what cost? Ever notice the amount of contaminated food stories you see on the news. For all of us over the age of 30, look back and see how often that happened when we were really young. Now compare the frequency of the outbreaks. E. Coli is now no longer just a problem with meat, it is entering the vegetable as well. In the movie, one of the interviewees states that if cattle are fed grass for just 5 days, the amount of E. Coli reduces by 80% percent. Corn and the products that produced from Corn (which are incredibly numerous) is causing serious health problems for every creature that comes into it. I am not saying that Corn on the cob is a problem or Fresh Popped Popcorn is horrible. I am simply saying that corn produced into sugar then poured into our foods or fed to food supply is just wrong! Some 30% of our farm land is dedicated to corn production, land that could be used to grow grass or other crops is being wasted on the very product that is making our nation obese.

Last figure, in 1980 the average waist size for the average man was a 32. In 2010 the average waist size is 40. What is appears to be the culprit in the 25% increase in waist size in 30 years? About 1981 High Fructose Corn Syrup was introduced as a low cost alternative to sugar. I know there are other factors as well, but it rather interesting.

I find it strange that throughout the human race's history us humans have always struggled to get enough food. Starvation and disease were our constant foe claiming untold lives. Now we are eating our selves to any early grave and the years we are alive we aren't as healthy as we should be.

My post is going to end on kind of a downer this time, I promise my next post will be more uplifting. I promise to offer some solutions that we have tried and have researched. It is easy to complain about a problem. It is harder but far more productive to come up with some possible solutions instead.

Until next time...