Project 5

Destructive Food

Ever look at your dinner plate while eating and wonder, where did this food come from? That’s the million-dollar question that food production companies do not want answered. In the American food civilization there has always been factory farming, but in the past few decades, it has expanded into a nasty, vicious business of treating animals like they’re already dead, and feeding them chemicals. Factory farming today is more unsafe than ever. People need to know the truth behind factory farming and how it can harm them because food companies in the United States are producing foods that are harmful through the use of these systems, where people don’t know what exactly it consists of and how we get our food from that method. Factory farming systems in the U.S. are destructive to the people, animals, and our environment because of the way they are slaughtering our meat in unsanitary and unsafe methods which cause sickness, obesity and pollution. The food industries need to add more awareness like the use of menu labels and promoting more organic foods around our grocery stores to prevent sickness and have more safety with what we are eating everyday.

Factory Farming is the production of our food like milk, meat, and eggs through the use of industrial methods. This occurs at a high stocking density where a farm operates as a factory along with the poor conditions. Around the 1940s, large companies got into the factory farming business by hiring farmers to work for them. This started because it was a way of getting the production of food done faster. Factory farming in today’s society is something that has really gotten out of hand and needs to be addressed in changing the way meat is produced. Large food producing companies like Tyson practically own and control their farmers. The farmers don’t even own the animals, the companies do. In 2002, hog farmers filed a suit against Tyson Foods for saying they would “eliminate 200 positions at its live swine operations in hopes of strengthening the long-term viability of the rest of its company” (Henry). The companies get to decide what they are producing, how much of it is being processed, what they are feeding the animals, and the type of method used to get it done. The problem with these large food corporations is that the meats we are eating are being produced in the wrong way through this unnatural system of slaughtering. Watching the Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary movie Food, Inc., a difficult scene was seeing the cows tied up by their legs while they were still alive, and go through the factory line getting knocked all into the walls helplessly.

Meats being produced incorrectly are really harmful to the people that eventually buy and eat these foods. On the farms where the meats are being processed, cows are living in unsanitary places, like living in their own manure. They are biologically designed to eat grass, but they are getting fed corn because it causes them to get fat quicker, which causes more production and it gets to the consumer faster. Cows living in unsanitary conditions cause sickness and diseases that eventually can get to us, the consumers. Mad Cow Disease for example had an outbreak in the United States in December of 2003 from a Holstein cow in Washington State (Abramson). This disease causes the spinal cord and brain in the human body to not work right, having the neurological systems to be effected. This outbreak in the United States caught the eye of a lot of Americans and posed the question of why this happened. In addition to people getting deathly sick from the food, other effects like obesity in our country is a major problem that this process is causing. Food Inc’s website states that “One-third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese” (Food Inc). According to an article from CNN, Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity looked at “12 popular restaurant chains, and out of more than 3,000 kids meal combinations, found only that 12 met the nutritional guidelines for preschool-aged kids” (Sloane). If these are the numbers at this age for kids, the future looks far worse for them if they continue on this path. However some kids can’t help this because the food they are eating is “high calorie, sugar laden processed foods” (Food Inc). Food processors need to change their methods, or there will be much more harmful consequences. With obesity come major health risks like diabetes, high blood pressure, and fatty liver disease. One might think that food companies in our country might respond to this. For the most part, the big businesses have not done much. There have however, been some little changes that smaller companies have done to try and address this problem, such as introducing organic foods.

With these factory farms effecting people, it is also effecting our environment and animals. Going back to cows living in their own manure, this shouldn’t be happening. Cows should be living in pastures and have a certain livestock ratio. However, these factory farms just fit them all into a tiny building. The cows living so close together living in their own filth may create the question of where does all this manure go? Well, it goes untreated into creeks, waterways, and rivers. This can simply happen because “its agriculture, the rules are different” (Suddath). There have been some cases where this has become a major problem in our ecosystem. Suddath tells a story of a man, Rick Dove, who noticed that “fish were dying in really weird ways” (Suddath), in North Carolina’s Neuse River. Rick saw that “fish were developing round red circles on their flanks, and they would just start swimming into little circles and die” (Suddath). Wanting to know more of why this was all of a sudden happening, Rick found enormous pig farms in a factory farming setting where the waste was basically flowing right into the river. This waste that’s flowing right into our environment is polluting our waters, and killing the animals at the same time. This is a small factor that goes into the climate change occurring on our planet. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, hog, chicken, and cattle waste has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and has contaminated groundwater in 17 states. This is just one major factory farm issue of many that needs to be addressed and changed. Aside from the animals causing an environmental disturbance, the industrial way our food gets produced is a cause to the climate change on our planet. According to the Cool Foods Campaign, “tractors, irrigation pumps, lighting, and other types of machinery that are used on industrial farms contribute to a significant amount of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.” Along with the tractors contributing to our food, the food has to eventually get to the stores. According to the Food Inc. website, the average food product travels about 1,500 miles to get to the local grocery store. That accounts for 30,800 tons of green house gas emissions every year. These factory farms are just going to keep destructing our planet if nothing gets done to try and solve this problem. Not only are the animals causing it, but also the machines and transportation used to produce our food are.

Although it is apparent that factory farming is harmful there are some benefits towards factory farming. Many people view it as an opportunity for employment. The factory farms provide many different types of jobs for people in need of work. Also, many people and families struggle just getting food, and the production of these meats that go to the fast food restaurants like McDonalds are cheaper and faster. It’s much cheaper for them than getting a naturally grown piece of meat. In a journal article about factory farming Nierenberg states that “People in the Philippines eat relatively little meat, but their consumption in past years is growing” (Nierenberg). She also mentions that the average consumption of meat has grown from 21 kilograms of meat per year to about 30 per year. While these are some good benefits to less developed countries and families with less money, it still doesn’t account for the fact that people are getting sick from this method.

Adding more awareness to where our food comes from, for example, menu labels and organic food promotion has certainly grown in the past couple years. However, it needs to continue to grow and promote more of an understanding for the consumers. The food world has definitely tried to promote more an awareness of our food and have healthier options. This plays into trying to reduce the high obesity rebates in the United States. Restaurants and fast food places have recently started to put menu labeling of the calories and nutritional information on their menus. A couple of the food places that have started to do this are Chipotle, McDonald’s, Wendys, Starbucks, and Subway. These nutritional facts on the menus and boards of food places will definitely sway people’s opinions on what they are ordering. There have already been studies where this is true. The Los Angeles Time states that a study done on parents, “received [McDonald’s] menus with calorie information ordered an average of 102 fewer calories for their children than a control group not given that information” (Stein). Now that the menu labels are visible, they will certainly influence what people are going to order because they can see the real facts behind what they are eat and ordering. With food industries promoting menu labeling for better healthy meals, other food companies have started to go into providing organic food for buyers and consumers. Organic foods are a way of eating more safe and healthier foods. Organic foods are grown naturally without any help from pesticides or other chemicals that help grow food. It is exactly the opposite of what our factory farms are doing and producing. Grocery stores such as Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods have always carried organic foods with healthier options. Lately, there have been more organic food brands that have been embraced by our traditional grocery stores. If the whole organic rage doesn’t appeal, organic health experts in the movie Food Inc. suggest going to the local farmers market and picking up food. Foods at local markets are grown locally and are treated better than most food available at the grocery store.

The factory farming systems we have in the United States are damaging to our people animals, and environment, and will remain dangerous if the way they are slaughtering our meat continues. The unsafe and dirty places that our food is being produced will cause sickness, obesity, and pollution if nothing gets changed. Food industries around us are trying to improve our safety this with the use of menu labels and organic foods. Next time a friend is at a grocery store or looking at their dinner plate ask them if they know where their food came from. Food is important, make it something safe.

Works Cited

Abramson, Michael B. Mad Cow Disease: An approach to its Containment. 2004. 3

Journal of Health Care & Law Policy. Web. 13 Nov. 2010.

Suddath, Claire. “The Problem with Factory Farms.” www.time.com 23 April 2010

Web. 13 Nov. 2010

Nierenberg, Danielle. “Factoring Farming in the Developing World.” May/June 2003.

Web. 13. Nov. 2010

Sloane, Matt “Fast Food marketing up, food still unhealthy.” CNN Health. 8 November

2010. Web. 13 Nov. 2010.

Henry, John. Mooty, Kyle. “Hog famers file suit against Tyson Foods.” Arkansas

Business. 16 September 2002. Web. 13 Nov. 2010.

Stein, Jeannine. “Does menu labeling affect diners?” Los Angeles Times. 22

February 2010. Web. 13 Nov. 2010.