What am I really eating?

Watching Food Inc. directed by Robert Kenner really opened my eyes to what goes in the secret behind the scenes of the food industry in America. It is truly scary to how corrupt these corporations that are running major beef and poultry farms really are. The farmers are no longer actually farming, they are running a factory in which their product (chicken, cows, etc.) are being mass produced and are growing at much faster rates  than a normal cow or chicken would grow. For example, each chicken has to be exactly the same size to satisfy the needs for these corporations. So the chicken farmers have to introduce chemicals to enlarge the chicken breast to make more meat on the bones. Some of these chickens actually die because their breast gets so big compared to the rest of their body that the rest of their undeveloped bones cannot carry the weight. My idea of a chicken farm before watching this film was that each chicken had their own little stall in which they lay eggs. When the filmed the inside of a modern day chicken farm it was eye opening. Thousands of chickens just standing in a large room with barely enough room to breathe. This leaves the door open for diseases to strike.

The meat industry actually had an outbreak of E. coli in their meat because of how badly they treated their cows. Each cow stands in their own feces everyday so when they are brought into the slaughter house they are matted in feces. Then when they get slaughtered some of the feces actually got into the meat. In the result of this a young boy was killed by a strand of E. coli, which could have been completely prevented. These corporations were so corrupt that they knew of this outbreak of E. coli before it went out to the market, but they ignored it so they would not have to make a recall and lose profits. Knowing that these are the type of money hungry people that are controlling what the public eat is terrifying. The normal food industry has become so smelly and nasty that the corporations do not even want the public to know what is going on behind their big factory doors. Not only are the animals being mistreated but the workers are also being extremely mistreated. The workers have to work with feces, blood, dirt, and sharp objects all day and today most of the factory jobs in the meat industry are illegal immigrants. If we do not know how the food we eat is being made than how can we make an accurate decision to eat it or not.

Food Inc. really makes me think that next time I go to a fast food restaurant if I should really be eating this mass produced factory food. Next time i go to work at my local Stop and Shop and look at the chickens i cut behind the deli counter everyday I am going to wonder: How healthy can this mass produced fake chicken really be?