Food Inc Reflection

Food inc in my opinion is a very controversial film for many reasons one being, it goes behind the scenes and exposes the food industry for what it really is and what it isn’t.

A few important things that I took away began with the lack of respect major corporations have for animals as well as the thousands of employees they hire. From hiring illegal immigrants and then giving away a few everyday just to keep the food plants open.

The more the cheaper seems to be the motto that these corporations seem to go by. For example they encourage farmers to grow massive amounts of corn. With this corn they put it into every major food product you can think of from candy to chips and many other products.

Companies such as Monsanto have no regards for the environment or people. Their primary goal is to turn a profit and intimidate anyone who doesn’t have the money to fight them off in court. For example they sued a seed cleaner who wasn’t doing anything wrong but helping farmers save seeds to replant for the next season. However they didn’t like this idea because they were losing money since the farmers weren’t buying seeds from them. He then settled outside of court because he could no longer afford the legal fees.

I also found it funny how many of the employees who worked for Monsanto later on when to receive higher jobs in the government. One man became a Supreme Court judge, others went on to work for the FDA and the USDA. These government groups are supposed it be protecting us are secretly working together and striking deals to help advance the companies’ forward. This makes me wonder if working for Monsanto entitles you to having a better job later on in the future, or is this company paying for election adds?

After watching food inc I am a little more cautious about where I shop and am gradually trying to switch from subsidizing to locally grown products only, because eventually if enough Americans start to do this large corporations will go to what the customer wants. Just like in the film Wal-Mart started selling organic products because that’s what the customer wants. I feel since we would switch to local products these larger companies will no longer be able to outsource either as well. Especially since they tried to bring corn from Mexico over. If we can make these farmers who grow corn switch to fresh produce then America could become healthier and obesity wouldn’t be a huge problem in America.