Have you ever seen a chicken that couldn't walk because it's bones couldn't hold up its obese body? Have you ever seen a bulldozer pushing a cow to slaughter because it couldn't get up and walk for same reason? I'm betting most of you said no. Well if you get the chance to watch the epic documentary Food Inc. than you will see that and a lot more. It really opens your eyes to the awful thing farmers are doing to their livestock to keep up with the demand of meat.
Who doesn't love corn on the cob, or corn with Thanksgiving Dinner? As good as that sounds for us it isn't good for animals. The cows and chickens on most farms are being fed corn. That doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is. Cows are supposed to eat grass. Corn is bad for them and can give them e coli. Why would farmers do that to their animals??
Well the answer is that corn makes the animals grow fatter faster. The faster they grow the quicker they can slaughter them for their meat and get paid. With the chickens they keep them in dark 24/7, they are cramped together in building and feed constantly. They grow chickens from a chick to an adult in 49 days verses the normal 3 months. Because they grow that fast their bones can't keep up and they can barley walk by the time they are slaughtered.
I know when you have a plethora of cows and chickens on your farm you may not get too attached to them, but I still don't know how they could knowingly do that to their cows and chickens. I also know that is hard to be farmers in America today and that you need to make money, but it just seems so morally wrong to do that to animals. Some of them don't like doing it and wish they could do it differently, but they don't get a say. They need to make money. When they were filming the documentary they could have conversations with some of the chicken farmers, but they couldn't show them inside where the chickens were or they would get fired.
One question you may have is how is there enough corn for this? How can they have enough corn for us to eat and then corn for the animals. The big food packing companies are paying corn farmers to over produce the product. They also have clever ways to rearrange the corn. Each farmer will produce 200 bushels of corn a year.
They also discuss a child, Kevin, that died after eating a burger at a fast food restaurant because of e. coli in 2008. After dying his mother vowed to never let this happen to anyone else's child. They were trying to get Kevin's Law passed that would allow the U.S Department of Agriculture to close d
own plants that produce contaminated meat. This law never got passed. Versions of this law continue to be passed through Congress, but so far nothing has been passed.
They do say that sometimes it just takes one person to make a difference, but that doesn't seem to be case for changing the laws that allow the USDA to shut down meat plants. Granted children die everyday, but we can do something to prevent more deaths like Kevin, but apparently the big food companies have their claws in too deep with certain congressman. One would think that just hearing this story would make you want to do something. Apparently money is worth more than people today.
Another aspect they talked about in the movie was Soy Beans. I grew up in a small town in Upstate New York where there were farms, but nothing that big where the production of soy beans would have been a concern. In the Midwest this is a problem. A company called Monsanto is the leader of genetically engineered seeds. When farmers use other types of soy beans they are violating a patent that Monsanto has. Since the mid 1990's Monsanto has filed over 145 lawsuits against farmers for this violation.
If that is what this company is spending a lot of its money and time towards that is kinda sad. I mean I don't know how many farmer's would use their own seeds, but it would be better than us eating genetically engineered food. And most of us don't know we are eating it.
Overall this documentary made me want to pay more attention to the ingredients in my food and where the food and vegetables come from. The things that farmers are doing to animals and the way the government is controlling it is really disgusting. Sometimes I wish I lived in a different time when the government didn't run everything and people are more free to farm and do whatever they wanted. I really think we should look back in time and think about how our world looks today.
Well the answer is that corn makes the animals grow fatter faster. The faster they grow the quicker they can slaughter them for their meat and get paid. With the chickens they keep them in dark 24/7, they are cramped together in building and feed constantly. They grow chickens from a chick to an adult in 49 days verses the normal 3 months. Because they grow that fast their bones can't keep up and they can barley walk by the time they are slaughtered.
I know when you have a plethora of cows and chickens on your farm you may not get too attached to them, but I still don't know how they could knowingly do that to their cows and chickens. I also know that is hard to be farmers in America today and that you need to make money, but it just seems so morally wrong to do that to animals. Some of them don't like doing it and wish they could do it differently, but they don't get a say. They need to make money. When they were filming the documentary they could have conversations with some of the chicken farmers, but they couldn't show them inside where the chickens were or they would get fired.
One question you may have is how is there enough corn for this? How can they have enough corn for us to eat and then corn for the animals. The big food packing companies are paying corn farmers to over produce the product. They also have clever ways to rearrange the corn. Each farmer will produce 200 bushels of corn a year.
own plants that produce contaminated meat. This law never got passed. Versions of this law continue to be passed through Congress, but so far nothing has been passed.
They do say that sometimes it just takes one person to make a difference, but that doesn't seem to be case for changing the laws that allow the USDA to shut down meat plants. Granted children die everyday, but we can do something to prevent more deaths like Kevin, but apparently the big food companies have their claws in too deep with certain congressman. One would think that just hearing this story would make you want to do something. Apparently money is worth more than people today.
Another aspect they talked about in the movie was Soy Beans. I grew up in a small town in Upstate New York where there were farms, but nothing that big where the production of soy beans would have been a concern. In the Midwest this is a problem. A company called Monsanto is the leader of genetically engineered seeds. When farmers use other types of soy beans they are violating a patent that Monsanto has. Since the mid 1990's Monsanto has filed over 145 lawsuits against farmers for this violation.If that is what this company is spending a lot of its money and time towards that is kinda sad. I mean I don't know how many farmer's would use their own seeds, but it would be better than us eating genetically engineered food. And most of us don't know we are eating it.
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