Watch What You Eat

Here's a pretty solid idea: eat well. Seems easy doesn't it? Well, you'd be quite mistaken when you realize just how messed up the food industry has become in the United States, and the world for that matter.

I just watched the film Food Inc., which is a documentary about the industrialization of food in the United States. Though parts of it were grotesque and truly horrifying to watch, I'm glad that I experienced the film and am now more aware of the types of things I'm putting into my body.

The movie starts out claiming that the concept of food has changed more in the last 50 years than it has in the last 10,000. What I find alarming about that statement is that I'm not at all familiar with the process in which I get the food I eat (when you think about it, a caveman had a lot more authority over what sorts of things he put into his body than you or I do today).

But that certainly doesn't have to be the reality. We all have a choice.

However, there are a lot of entities in our world that are against full disclosure, which is absolutely disgusting and horrible. Essentially, it all comes down to dollars and cents. Food giants have grown to such enormous sizes that they have amassed incredible power; power in the form of money (perhaps the root of all evil). Four companies control 80% of the meat industry.

This means that even when we go into our supermarkets, it is very hard to know what came from where and what things contain. For instance, food distributors won't disclose whether or not an item has any sort of genetically engineered food in it. Bills have been brought to various state legislatures in order to release the information to the public, but with little success (California governor Schwarzenegger even vetoed such a bill).

But why does it even matter? Why is this movie even being made? What's the difference if I were to buy my own produce locally or from one of these mega-corporations?

As it turns out, a lot of the mechanisms that these corporations use in order to process food as quickly and efficiently as possible are hurting our world terribly. And what does that mean?

It's hurting the world in terms of pollution. Mega-corporations use millions of gallons of fuel in order to produce the food you eventually buy. Not only that, because these corporations are so dependent on gas and oil, when the price of one of these commodities go up that effects how much you have to pay for the item. Who needs that sort of instability?

Furthermore, the way we are eating is starting to hurt our ecosystem (the interaction between living organisms on the planet). These corporations have started to overproduce cattle, and have begun feeding them corn as opposed to letting them feed on grass. They give them corn because it is a far cheaper alternative. However, the corn can have an adverse effects on the cows. If this happens, a cow can develop a bacteria like e-coli. Then, due to the processing techniques used in handling livestock, it can spread through the entire factory contaminating all the meat. There are several instances in which there have had to be recalls of beef products (usually enough to feed millions of people).

Additionally, the stranglehold that these large corporations have on the growers is immense. Take for instance this situation. A chicken grower is forced into buying new equipment by the large poultry corporation, or else they will no longer extend their contract. The grower feels pressured to do so, or else they won't be able to put food on their own table. So they give into the corporation's demands and purchase the new equipment (probably from a company the poultry executives are on the board of). The startling fact you can derive from this is: growers have an average debt of $500,000 and typically earn $18,000 a year. That is messed up.

But, every cloud has a silver lining, and the movie showed that angle too. What we can learn from this movie is that we truly have a choice. As a consumer, it is the corporation who works for you, not the other way round, and the movie put your power very poetically, "you have the opportunity to vote three times a day."

Referring to the amount of meals we have in a regular day, we have a choice with each one to determine where we are getting our food. And don't think that this is just some sort of pipe-dream, ridiculous, fantastical notion that the director of the movie wanted to leave me with. There is solid evidence that change happens.

Recently, Wal-Mart, the biggest store in all the world, switched from milk with human growth hormone to milk without human growth hormone. Why did they do this according to the head of dairy procurement at Wal-Mart? Because the customer asked for it. He was very insistent on that message. If the customer asks for something, Wal-Mart will deliver on it.

But now you may be wondering, why would I want to support another large corporation like Wal-Mart? The difference being that Wal-Mart is not in the production of food, but rather in the business of finding supplies of stuff consumers want. If Organic and healthy, local food starts finding its way into Wal-Mart, it is still that organic, healthy, local food, it just becomes that much more accessible to the general public.

I'd highly recommend going to see the movie if any of this resonated in you. Or perhaps, go to a farmer's market the next time you want to go shopping. The end of the movie is filled with really great ideas of taking the lessons learned in the film and using them in your life. I'm going to try.