Food

"The Food Bill codifies the rules of the entire food economy" (Food inc, 2008) This idea from Food Inc about corn production is an astounding observation that I didn't know. The fact that mass production contributes to monocropping oriented production and Food Factories which also has created a codified set of legal obligations in order to keep up with mass production is not only scary but it has attendant effects in the way we consume our goods and the way workers in laboratories and in factories are treated. It strengthens one of the main claims of the film -- that due to the Green Revolution and the allusion of convenience, what we eat today isn't the same foods we were eating 50 to 70 years ago, which came from farms that seasonally produced crop. This raises questions concerning the health of the corn we eat, especially with the laboratory ingredients in most foods like High Fructose Corn Syrup, the cereals we buy, the burgers we eat, and many of the foods that we continue to enjoy at a mere convenience. In other words, our consumption helps contribute to market oriented food production that provides for only those who can pay in exorbitant fees for unhealthy foods. Robertson discusses a similar topic when she says,"Industrialized agriculture uses a method  of planting called monoculture, designed to boost efficiency, in which fields are planted with single types of crops. (Robertson, 2014)" This factory style production, whether in the fields of in actual food factories where they raise chickens or cows or pigs (etc.), contributes to obesity and a lack of energy as well as increased rates of disease, depression, and many other issues which destroy the equilibrium of mind and body, ethics and economy, and society and nature.

However interesting Food Inc is and the ideas and examples shown to us throughout the film, there is one interesting use of language that is glaring in the words "veil" and "factory" as repeated in the film by Michael Pollen. That is, that he wants to open of the veil, which is an allusion to W. E. B. Du Bois' Souls of Black Folk, which, in turn, was written from a socialist perspective. Likewise, the metaphor of a "Factory" was popularized by labor movements influenced by the great philosopher Karl Marx during the Industrial Revolution -- Anarchists, Fascists, Communists, Socialists, and any other extreme social engineering movements have used this metaphor ever since. These two word uses must give the viewer pause, if only to find bias in the movies tone and rhetoric. This bias, however, is not unwarranted. The documentary continues to defends its argument admirably and seeks to convince people to eat healthier. I must say, I am convinced that Tyson is a factory head attempting to enslave my taste buds. Just kidding. To be honest, I don't think our food system as represented in Food Inc. follows the three E's of sustainability, and that is the sad part since, well, Equity is important for any social or financial contract, economic benefit is extremely important for anyone and any country who wishes to expand markets and decrease inflationary negation of currency value, and the environment is an important center for human well-being, a place that must be protected. To conclude, most of the video's ideas was already well known to me, but the use of language caught my interest and made me think deeper about what I was being told from a philosophical and political standpoint as well as from a concerned viewers standpoint.


http://dgeneralist.blogspot.com/2013/11/4-perfect-reason-to-make-you-have-your.html