Entry #3: Food Today

Watching Food Inc. really opened my eyes to what's been going on with processed food in the United States. I was never aware of how exactly our food came about. Though I was curious, I never took the measures to educate myself on the subject. Food Inc. was a very good source of information, and it aroused many emotions from all of its viewers in class.

Chicken Growth

One of the biggest shockers from the film was seeing how farms treat animals. It's disgusting in my opinion. I couldn't believe that they grow chickens so that their muscles grow quicker than their natural development process. If the muscles are outgrowing the rest of the body, the chickens' bones aren't able to support their weight, as we saw in the movie.
I also can't believe all the crap that companies get away with, such as washing meat with ammonia! That's repulsive! How do they expect us to eat that crap? They don't -- that's why companies don't advertise the way they prepare food. I've attached a video below where If more people were aware of this process, I doubt they would want to eat as much fast food and store-bought food that they currently purchase.
I personally feel trapped in this situation. I don't want to eat grocery store or fast food because they come from the same major companies. Buying food at the store isn't necessarily much healthier than eating fast food. Ideally, I would grow my own plants and buy meat locally. My family already does as much of that as possible. We grow fruits and vegetables, we buy local food (not meat), and we raise chickens to produce eggs for us. I never realized the value in my stepmother choosing to do all this until I watched this movie. I suppose some could say I've been ignorant about what I'm putting into my body, but I know for a fact that I'm not the only one. I think that wanting to change my eating habits is better than nothing at all. It just takes some work and dedication.

We've established that businesses do all these terrible things, but WHY do they do them? Well, these processes are cheaper. They're cheaper partially because they're quicker. With a quick process, farmers are able to produce more product than they normally would be able to. So with this cheaper process, they are not charging cheaply, therefore they are making a nice profit. Also, they make this profit quickly because of how fast they can produce the food. I can't even fathom how so many people in that industry care about money more than they care about creating good, wholesome products that won't make people hate them when they find out what they do to animals and what they put in our food.
With all this new knowledge, I think it's important to know what happens to the food that we buy. It's necessary to know in order to eat healthy things and be a healthy person. Most people don't want to purposely damage their bodies. Many people are also not educated on the subject of processed foods, therefore they do not know what they shouldn't eat. I think we should all make a conscious effort to do the research to find out which companies are the most wholesome and buy their food. We should do as much as we can to move away from the unethical practices of these major food producing companies.