TOW #29 Food Inc. Documentary Argument

The documentary Food Inc. reveals what the public doesn't see about the food production industry. Many of the practices used by corporations are hidden from the public because they have negative effects. Though the development of new food production practices over the past 50 years has increased efficiency and production, the implementation of these practices by current corporations are undeniably harmful to society.
   Industrial production of food can have wide health risks. As shown in the documentary, food poisoning is a serious possibility. Feeding cows the cheaper option of corn rather than grass has increased the development of E.coli in cows, and when those animals are taken to slaughterhouses to be killed and their meat processed, this bacteria can spread to meat that will be shipped all over the country, and it can effect other foods to. Companies have had to recall products from ground beef to peanut butter: in the early 2000's, a batch of Peter Pan Peanut Butter was recalled because of the presence of salmonella. This potentiality of food poisoning is dangerous for all members of the population, and often tragically reaches young children.
   Furthermore, the rise of industrial food production has changed the culture surrounding American food for the worse. Companies producing food used in fast food restaurants are often subsidized, making it easier for chains such as McDonald's and Burger King to buy cheap chicken and ground beef and sell it at incomparably low prices. This has been happening since the rise of fast food in the 1950's and has driven much of the United States away from the home grown healthy foods and to the drive-thrus. Because unhealthy food is cheaper than unhealthy food, many people, especially those low on the socioeconomic ladder, opt for the former. This increases health risks and perpetuates the unhealthy American attitude towards fast food.
   It is true that new industrial practices have made food production more efficient. Mechanical processes and genetic engineering have allowed the US to produce more food than ever before, enough to feed the whole world. However, this has not been beneficial because of the dangers these processes can pose to workers, and the lack of responsibility with which this power is handled. Industrial food processors have some of the long, hard, and most dangerous jobs in the world, and the food corporations do not improve these conditions because they are focused solely on profits. When the meat-packing industry was gaining power in the early 20th century, it had enormous influence, and was focused on making profits, making their workers work in horrible conditions as revealed in Upton Sinclair's book The Jungle. Food corporations, like the oil, steel, and railroad corporations of the Robber Baron days, create monopolies and use government influence to maintain their freedom from regulation and increase their profits. The few people in power control a majority of the resources and how they are produced, and motivated by the desire for money, little care is given to the quality and benefit of current industrial food practices.