What "they" tell us vs. the truth

Food, Inc by Robert Kenner

The film Food, Inc by Robert Kenner shows us that although the practices of food production and distribution have changed, it is still portrayed the same old-fashioned way by the food conglomerates and the media. There are still pictures of farmers, picket fences, silos, and cattle grazing on product labels and in advertising. His film makes the claim that the industry doesn’t want us to know the truth about what we are eating, so it hides it with claims of being “farm fresh” and using old-fashioned pictures on their products. Food now comes from assembly lines and not farms and ranches. The film claims that the food conglomerates don’t want farmers talking and limit what they are allowed to say, so, “What’s really going on?”

The film also discusses McDonald's role in modern society and how it has become the largest purchaser of ground beef, potatoes, and even pork and chicken.

Four companies control 80% of the meat market. Even if labels say farm fresh or farm grown, it is produced by one of four main companies designed to produce as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Tyson is the largest meat packing company in the world and has changed the way the chicken is raised. Birds are now raised and slaughtered in half the time they were just fifty years ago, and are twice as big. The chicken was redesigned to have large breasts and provide more white meat since that is what the consumer wants. It is all a money making business that Americans feed into. We demand the product and in order to meet our demands and grow both cows and chickens faster, these companies inject them with growth hormones and feed them diets that will increase their weight unnaturally fast. In the end, we are left with a product that is unhealthy, yet highly available.

Is it fair that labels can use pictures of white picket fences and old-fashion farms, label something ‘farm fresh’ or even claim to be ‘nature’s best’? Should there be guidelines for food labels that strictly enforce what is allowed to be portrayed? The food companies and the mass media combine to portray false images of where food is actually coming from and how it is produced. Commercials, food advertising, and food packaging give false impressions to what really is inside the package, and our government allows it! Environmental information campaigns and films like Food, Inc., and Supersize Me have started to guide people in the right direction by making people think about where the food is coming from before they put it in their mouth. The government is pressured by large food producers and does not require them to adequately and truthfully describe their products; it is up to the consumer to find out, "What's really going on?"