Food Inc

Food Inc. was a really good movie. I thought it would be kind of slow going and lame, but it definitely kept my interest all the way to the very end. I was already being extra cautious with the meat I by in the store but now I feel as if the grocery store cannot be trusted. I had a general idea of how bad the meat industry was but I did not think it was as bad as it is. I was completely blown away when they said that since the 1950s the number of slaughter houses went from over a thousand to just 13 currently. 13 what the heck!!!! Eventually what little choices there are in the store will all be gone if we as consumers do not make a conscious effort to change the food industry. Also I was very upset about the soy bean company who now dominates 90 percent of the market and then those greedy no good fools put that poor old man out of business. I would really like to see more farms like the one who did everything the way God intended. And then the USDA had the nerve to try an tell him he was unsanitary. Yes meat out of a factory is so much better. Just for the record factory and food should not be near each other in a sentences. I would like my food to come from the place that it is grown. Overall Food Inc was a great movie and does a very superb job of informing the people and lifting the veil on our food industry here in America. 

Food Mafia

To summarize a majority of "Food Politics," I would say that the food industry runs their businesses at times like the mafia. They wine and dine with the politicians, creating friendships through gifts, frequent social encounters, united interests, bribes, and pretty much what ever it takes. But, if these friendly tactics do not work they will turn to more abrasive tactics such as suing your pants off. Like many things in the world the food industry looks so harmless at first, but if you find yourself past the veil you have entered a den of wolves. Money drives these companies to do what ever they must to continue to make it. To them it is just business. The food industry mainly uses lobbying to influence the government. They do this in three ways: promoting the views of special interest groups, attempting to influence government laws and policies affecting them, and communicating with the government on laws and policies of interest. The last two seem the same but one is more for laws that are coming out and the other is for doctoring up laws to benefit the industry and government. The government does little to limit lobbying because they benefit from the research and technical advise that is offered through these well funded companies. There is a lot of money exchange between the government and lobby groups who work for the food companies. There is hard money and soft money. In a nut shell there are a lot of rules dictating hard money which is normally in the form of a donation. Soft money is less documented and in larger amounts. There is also what is called a "revolving door," which is the transfer of jobs between lobbyists and government officials. Pretty much one day you are a lobbyist the next day you have made it on the inside to benefit the company you where working for. Or, one day you are a government official who works with lobbyists and realized they make more money than you and are less restricted so you use your "friendship" with certain interest groups to get a job and then use your former government contacts to help you achieve that job. Oh politics at its finest. Overall the facts in this book are appalling but surly not limited to the food industry.

Food Politics

Food Politics by Marion Nestle is a very informational book so far. It is a very dry book however. So far it is confirming simple world truths. Money corrupts. The government likes money and capitalism and botches at least half of everything they do. So far it would seem as I read that the USDA is not doing what it was intended to do. In my opinion the United States Department of Agriculture was created to regulate the market and to inform the average American of what is going on with their food. Instead, like many things they have become to political and are secretly in bed with many huge food business. Because the USDA is a government agency they are sustained through elected officials. So, the elected officials cannot rock the boat to much as to anger large corporations that have huge amounts of money behind them. If you upset big business to much when you are in the government those business more often then not help you out the door, or at the very least make you job much more difficult. Nestle gives the reader her book in a nutshell and I will try to do the same in my own words. The food industry creates massive amounts of food. In fact they create to much food, however, there are only so many people to eat it. Wall Street demands they continue to grow fiscally so the industries process food to maximize profit by adding more fluff to raw materials to make the raw materials go further. In turn the food becomes less healthy. Then the food industry markets in the most genius of ways all their food to us. They promote an "Eat more mentality." Then they use all their money to lobby the government and shut them up about the scary truths to the food they sell. Another point that Marion makes that I really like is that the food industry puts all the blame of obesity on the consumer. The industry says that consumers should exercise  self control. I think every one would agree that obesity in part is blamed on self control. However, it were just self control than fixing the problem would be rather easy. But, in reality the food environment makes it very difficult to eat healthy. We have reached an age where you have to of a degree in science to really understand what is in your food. We need a food environment that makes healthy eating through self control easy because there are so many truly healthy alternatives out there.

Me and Food

Growing up, my mom always tried to make me eat vegetables and fruits to maintain some semblance of a healthy, balanced diet. I suppose some of that sank in. I am young and in my mid-twenties; needles to say, my body needs to last for a lot longer. I try my best to eat healthy and make good food choices. I have always been skinny--please don't hate me--so I can eat whatever I want without consequence. Yes, I know some of you are spitefully thinking, "Ha! Wait until you are older. It won't last forever."

Anyway, I digress. Aside from my love for pasta and sweets, I thought I was doing an all right job of eating healthy--enter my fiance. Victoria showed me, against my will, a grim world filled with "healthy food that is not healthy." Since then, I have looked at food differently. I buy whole grain noodles and organic milk. I shop at farmers' markets when possible to get locally-grown, fresh fruits and vegetables. I look for meat in the grocery store that is not filled with growth hormones and other nonsense. I buy fruit snacks that don't contain red dye in them and stay away from soda. I even buy special applesauce. Yes, even applesauce can be unhealthy when you look at the nutritional information, and it is filled with a ton of corn syrup to make it sweeter. I shop with tact and vigilance. As if it were not hard enough to stay on budget already, add trying to buy better and healthier food into the mix. I stay away from fast food as much as possible. It just seems so difficult to find the time to eat healthy and exercise on top of everything else. 

Family Table

I love food! My favorite food is Italian: pizza, spaghetti, lasagna, fettuccine, the list goes on. Growing up we almost always sat down for dinner. My mom would make a full meal consisting of some kind of meat, with a vegetable, and additional side. Usually there was some sort of bread to go with the meal. We all drank milk with our meal as well. Sitting down with my family for dinner is one of my favorite traditions growing up. No television, no cell phones, no distractions really. We all sat down at the table and where forced to fellowship and share with each other. My mom was seldom happy if we all sat silently and ate dinner in an aura of awkward antisocial behavior. I look forward to starting my own family and carrying on this good mannered practice of breaking bread and sharing our day with one another. When you look at the family model in modern America it seems broken and disconnected. Eating a meal together and loving on each other is a great way to strengthen families and maintain relationships.

The 21st century is a scary place when it comes to food. Our food is no longer transparent or simply grown. What you see is not always what you get, and America is the number one offender. Gone are the days of natural, home-grown goods. Farmers' markets are a dying breed. Grocery stores are full of distorted, manipulated, manufactured goods that are the equivalent of wolves in sheep's clothing. Carrots are dyed a brighter, more appealing orange. Chickens are injected with hormones to increase their rate of growth. Entire meals are placed in boxes and filled with enough salt to melt an ice burg. And if you think the grocery store is scary, you'll cringe at what fast food restaurants have been doing for the last two decades. Overall, it is a war out there and only the knowledgeable can win.