Food Inc.: What's Really In Your Food?



Major fast food corporations.  Source.

McDonalds Happy Meal, Burger King kids meals, Carl's Jr. Cool Kids Menu, all these sound delicious. But do you really know what that food is made of? In the movie titled, Food Inc., we are shown how fast food is really made, along with how the workers are treated, and how food gets on our table.   


McDonalds Brothers. Source.

McDonalds was created in 1940 by two brothers named Richard and Maurice McDonald, or the McDonalds' Brothers. They first started out as a normal restaurant. By the 1950's there were McDonalds all around the United States and workers would deliver your food to your car. Workers would make the hamburgers but that cost a lot of money. One day the McDonalds' Brothers decided to save money by creating a different process called the factory way. The factory way was able to have many workers, but payed them less money. They did this because it was now cheaper to make food. It also made it easy to replace workers since they all did the same job, they basically became robots. By using the factory way, it allowed them to make all the food taste the same everywhere a McDonald's was located. Now only four companies provide 8 out of 10, of the American beef patties.

Fake Crabby Patty. Source.

Back then, meat factories were allowed to label their meats however they wanted. In the movie, Food Inc., it shows how some meat companies would lie about how their chickens were raised. They would label their chickens "humanely raised" and have pictures of barns, and farmers. Humanely Raised means to be raised in a fair and comfortable way. But in reality those cows and chickens are really grown in factory where in the movie, Food Inc., it is shown that both the animals and workers are treated badly. One way the chickens were shown that they were being treated badly was when the movie shows how the chickens were living. All the chickens would be cramped in one big chicken house and would be laying in their own poop. It is also said in the movie that the chickens were given a shot against their will to grow faster. Since the chickens were so big, they had to drag themselves to move, resulting in burns on the chickens bellies. Many food companies don't want you to know this because they don't want you to know the truth about what goes on in their chicken houses.

Corn is in basically every food
we consume. Source.

In the movie, Food Inc., it is shown that both chickens and cows are fed corn. Corn can be found in almost every food now. For example it is in ketchup, Twinkies, syrup, salad dressing, French fries, and many other foods. However there are many hidden costs of eating cheap industrial food. It causes many problems in our world, and health problems in the long run. Large
meat suppliers choose to feed their produce, chickens and cows, corn
because it is cheaper. Corn is cheaper to produce because the government pays only half of what the corn is really worth while the farmers who grow the corn pay the other half. This causes there to be more corn available at a cheaper price. In the movie, it is shown that large meat companies, like Tyson, like to be able to buy food for their produce at cheaper prices. However, chickens and cows are not meant to eat corn, they are meant to eat greens. By feeding their produce a corn based diet cause some dangerous consequences. One consequence was a getting dangerous sickness.

Kevin Kowalcyk's mom campaigns
for safer food. Source.

In the movie, a story is told by the mother of a two year old who died from a dangerous sickness. His name was Kevin Kowalcyk and he got this sickness from eating ground beef that was contaminated with the sickness. The meat inspectors found the germs that cause the sickness in the meat on the day Kevin ate the meat, August 1, but didn't do anything about it until 16 days later when it was already to late. A solution that the meat companies used was pink slime, which is a mix with regular hamburger meat, beef, and ammonia, which is a dangerous chemical. 

Eating "junk food", or fast food causes many health
problems such as
diabetes and obesity. Source.

    

According to the movie, fast food and "junk food" are the cheapest to buy. This is explained in the movie because corn is over grown that it
makes up almost every food you eat. In the movie, it connects obesity, diabetes, and poverty to fast food. If you live in poverty, it would be cheaper to buy fast food instead of healthier foods like fruits and vegetables because they are more expensive. However by buying mainly fast food, you are eating a lot of salt and sugar which leads to diabetes and obesity that cause many health problems.


Joel Salatin at his
farm. Source

In the movie, Food Inc., they introduce us to a man named Joel Salatin. He owns a farm that raises chickens, cows, and pigs organically, or naturally. He doesn't keep them cramped together, and doesn't feed them corn. Joel lets his animalsbe free and eat greens, for example grass. In the movie government officials thinks that Joel's farm is dirty because he cuts his meat outside. In the movie they compared Joel's meat to the companies meat and found out that Joel's meat is cleaner and better for you. Many of the meat factories, where meat is put into packages like the ones at the store, get their workers from local towns or even Mexico. This is because they are taking away jobs form many Mexican workers by selling
cheaper corn than the Mexican farmers do.
Because of this, many Mexican workers come here to work for the meat factories.

Food corporations protected
by the law. Source.
    

In the movie it shows how food corporations are protected by the law. They are able to clone meat, or make an exact copy of the animal, to produce. Meat companies also have connections with the government and the people who check the meat for germs. Also, nobody is allowed to say anything bad about the meat
because the meat company could sue you.