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[Food Inc] Monsanto: Evil corporation, or the Evilest corporation?
Heartlash
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Food Inc is the Inconvenient Truth of the agriculture world. Directed by Robert Kenner, this documentary starts with melodramatic voiceover instructing us that there's a destructive veil behind the supermarket. It's a cinematic tactic so vapid that any skeptic will immediately roll their eyes. Scary, right?
Well, it is. Category by category the film proceeds to amply declassify the destructive practices of mass farming, the corn lobby, the ownership rights of genetically engineered seeds, freedom of speech restriction, worker abuse, and the overreaching theory behind mass food production. It does so using the words of the people involved and the footage of what happens. Aside from the introduction (and perhaps the soundtrack), the filmmakers stay refreshingly out of the way.
Much of the information it presents is already available in other sources. In fact, one of the first people to take the reins is Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser. But it provides such a clear picture of a wide array of food issues that even those who consider themselves "in the know" should still see it. Particularly potent is the story of 2 1/2 year-old Kevin Kowalcyk, who died of salmonella poisoning probably caused by unsanitary practices at a slaughter farm after eating a hamburger at a fast food restaurant. It also addresses organics and the power of consumer choice (e.g. Walmart no longer stocks milk created with a particular hormone, etc).
I think it's an extremely important film that will hopefully continue the progression away from these practices. The "buy local" and "grass fed-beef" movements that have gained considerable momentum over the past few years will no doubt benefit. I know I'm going to think twice about what I buy now.
Anyone else see it? What are your thoughts?
CLIPS:
Unintended Consequences:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoRNnCoEx-k
Kevin Kowalcyk part 1 (this is intesne/emotional stuff, be warned):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzAN_het4KM
Part 2 (the systemic part):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWO67pRgiGU&feature=related
Interview with filmakers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXmF_erEv1o&feature=related
Well, it is. Category by category the film proceeds to amply declassify the destructive practices of mass farming, the corn lobby, the ownership rights of genetically engineered seeds, freedom of speech restriction, worker abuse, and the overreaching theory behind mass food production. It does so using the words of the people involved and the footage of what happens. Aside from the introduction (and perhaps the soundtrack), the filmmakers stay refreshingly out of the way.
Much of the information it presents is already available in other sources. In fact, one of the first people to take the reins is Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser. But it provides such a clear picture of a wide array of food issues that even those who consider themselves "in the know" should still see it. Particularly potent is the story of 2 1/2 year-old Kevin Kowalcyk, who died of salmonella poisoning probably caused by unsanitary practices at a slaughter farm after eating a hamburger at a fast food restaurant. It also addresses organics and the power of consumer choice (e.g. Walmart no longer stocks milk created with a particular hormone, etc).
I think it's an extremely important film that will hopefully continue the progression away from these practices. The "buy local" and "grass fed-beef" movements that have gained considerable momentum over the past few years will no doubt benefit. I know I'm going to think twice about what I buy now.
Anyone else see it? What are your thoughts?
CLIPS:
Unintended Consequences:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoRNnCoEx-k
Kevin Kowalcyk part 1 (this is intesne/emotional stuff, be warned):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzAN_het4KM
Part 2 (the systemic part):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWO67pRgiGU&feature=related
Interview with filmakers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXmF_erEv1o&feature=related
My indie mobile gaming studio: Elder Aeons
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
Heartlash on
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Accept that fact, live a happy life, and just smile and nod.
What the fuck?
Or I could, you know, not buy from meat companies that I know employ and abuse illegal immigrants. And instead buy my meat at the weekly farmer's market down the street. Or sign up for a co-op at a local farm where I can see all of what goes into the food I get, and know the names of the people who work there.
I understand where you're coming from, though. Nobody can perfect consumer habits. I'm not going to be able to fix everything or never buy something that was made in a sweat shop. But I should still try.
Your attitude results in complete stagnation of immoral situations. If people always shrugged their shoulders at abuse, then we'd still be living with conditions in the industrial revolution. Child Labor laws, the attacks on the tobacco industry, living wages, etc. They're all a result of people not "smiling and nodding".
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
Yes it's nice to pay $10 for a loaf of sourdough at the farmer market, or $12 a pound for beef, but it's just that. Feel good feelings.
Real humanitarian we got here.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Your virtue is a beacon to us all.
I think I know the exact perfect place for this thread.
Its how the world works. You want that dollar menu? Someone haves to pay for it. You want that affordable computer? Somebody haves to work to make it affordable.
Feel good feelings are great. It's nice to donate a dollar to help stop child labor, but that delicious nestle chocolate you ate the other day was so delicious and cheap because a bunch of children slaved away their lives to get the cocoa so we buy the candy for $.50 a shot.
And your snideness is a detriment to this thread. If you have nothing meaningful to contribute, then please don't say anything at all.
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
World Shitty, news at 11.
Welp, guess there's no point in trying to make it not shitty. Good thing I don't have to care about how shitty it is for other people.
Pretty sure the OP is suggesting we buy (and support the growth of) Fairtrade certified products. So children don't have to slave away their lives to get the cocoa.
Didn't mean to hurt your feelings, champ. Prosletyze away. Be the law and the lash. Make us poor sinners understand.
What the hell are you doing in this thread?
You seriously think buying $10 loaves of bread is going to change something? You want true change? There's only one way
Just what kind of breed of retard are you? GTFO.
World problems = SOLVED!
I'm curious, what sort of farmer's market do you shop at that has bread going for $10 a loaf?
There are 3 farmer's markets within 10 minutes of me and the most I've ever paid for a loaf of bread from any of them is $5, which is in line with premium brands at most supermarkets. And it was a damn good homemade rye.
Buying local, fairtrade, and/or organic isn't all that expensive in the long run. I'm not sure where your prices are coming from.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
There is only one way.
$10 loaves of bread isnt the way.
I have an idea.
Hint: It's where poop comes from.
Seriously? Terrorism is terrorism. You can try to rationalize it by saying you're doing God's will, but at the end of the day it's still terrorism.
If you want a permanent ban, I'm pretty sure you can just ask Thanatos nicely, and he'll gladly provide it..
Plus it's kindof hard to argue with the filename of the pic he himself posted.
Industrial food production enables a quality of life that is across the board better than at any time in human history. The production of more food at lower cost has been synonymous with human progress since cave times, and we have not magically transcended the economics of it. You can probably afford to eat food less efficiently produced, but understand that it's a luxury you enjoy because you live in a rich country and get a share of the economic surplus provided by these methods. Straight up donating the same amount of economic surplus directly would have a greater impact.
Again, the film provides a lot of examples in the context of the food industry that prove you wrong.
Walmart now stocks organic food BECAUSE customers were buying organic food. If people are buying grass fed beef, it becomes in the interest of distrubtors to HAVE grass fed beef. Why do you think companies like Trader Joes, who stock locally grown foods, have been doing so well the past few years? Because they've become highly profitable due to people DECIDING to buy from them over other grocery stores.
I doubt I'll address much of what you say after this unless you start having a more rational discussion. For now it looks like you're content to massage your own ego with cynicism.
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
#1 Am I the only PAer from the third world in this thread?
#2 And also the only free-trader?
Well, a lot of the problems with the industry highlighted in the film are a product of government subsidies, not profitability. Corn, for instance, is insanely cheap not because it's mass produced, but because it's subsidized at an exponential rate based upon amount produced.
The result is we have tons more of the stuff than we know what to do with. So we feed it to cows and put it in batteries and refine it in all sorts of unsual ways, some of which are impratical and others of which are highly unethical. Feeding it to cows results in increased ecoli and has already produced a few strains resistant to anti-biotics.
The film does a good job at pointing out systematic faults to which your argument doesn't apply. I suggest seeing it.
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
I do not understand your second question. And I highly doubt you are the only PAer from a third world country.
The problem I have (not personally, but logistically - I am open to be discredited on this) is that fair trade and wholly organic food is a luxury good and continue to be one unless there is some upheaval at the supermarket. People with disposable income are the ones who can afford it and you can't really force it on impoverished people because they won't be able to get enough to eat in the long run. Until that latter changes, I doubt there will be the revolution that some people want.
If science and technology cant allow us to continue to produce more food then what is necessary, then the only answer is a massive die off.
Human population grows in a exponential rate, food production grows in a linear rate. Eventually there will be more people being born then food being grown.
I certainly hope you're right, but the whole "omg buy local" attitude is eyebrow-raising.
Why is it dubious? O_o
It's also killing us. Our diets in the U.S. have become a monoculture; everything we eat and a whole fuckton of what we drink is corn. This is true of everything from beef and pork to chicken to bread to peanuts to soda to alcohol to milk. We've even started producing fish that eat nothing but corn. And this is fucking terrible for us, from a dietary standpoint, from a disease standpoint, from a bacterial standpoint, and from an environmental standpoint.
We don't pay what this food actually costs us, we just pay the artificial price created by industrial food companies and the U.S. Government; if we had to pay for what the food actually costs us, we would all be eating organic produce and grass-fed, pasture-raised meat.
Or: How America's Most Biodiverse Geography Was Destroyed By Pig Farms and Humanity
Taught in every environmental class around the US.
Currently, we pay fucktons of money to farmers to massively overproduce a monoculture of corn, soy, and other commodities, which we then ship out and sell and massively reduced prices to the third world, making it so third-world farmers can't afford to actually grow anything but marijuana, coca, and opium poppies and turn a profit.
And don't get me wrong: I'm a free trade kind of guy. But what we have here isn't free trade; it's nowhere near free trade, and not liking it certainly doesn't make us commies.
...?
citation please. I can believe that organic food is healthier, but I am sceptical of the idea that it is cheaper as well.
So the fact that it's making that box of Corn Pops $2 cheaper is more than offset by the fact that a very sizeable percentage of the federal tax payed by American Citizens goes to making it that price.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.