The Uglier Truth

Food Inc. shows one of the real horrors of the world. Sure it's a minor one, or at least some would think, but it all adds up in the end. The message this documentary tells is the truth. The ugly truth.

Fast food is what people eat when they are in the mood for obesity, heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes. And we all know how often that is, right? These big chain companies aim to take your children at a young age in order to get them hooked. These companies use modern day human weaknesses for example money, time ,and taste as an accessory to their little money gain spree.This is where our "great" government comes in. The government gives subsides to these fast food companies to make their products cheap. From there the companies do a lot of advertising which helps lure children in to come eat their food. They manipulate economic weaknesses and other setbacks so people would think they have no other choice then to buy fast food. What you are about to hear in this review will get you thinking "isn't the government supposed to be protecting us?"

Then again it's not only the fast food companies that have a part in this little horror flick. No they are not alone and do take note of this, these "farm fresh" meat companies are just as horrible. Okay, okay so they are not exactly lying about farm fresh, they are just manipulating people's idea of a certain farm fresh. You see, we, as humans automatically imagine or at least I do that farm fresh is a countryside daisy filled green pasture dotted with black and white cows, pretty little clean chicken coops resting under an Oak tree and a kind Mr. Farmer Bill, I'll pop in a little theme song while I'm at it like Old McDonald. Sure it doesn't hurt having that nice old picture on the meat package. Boy, was I wrong about their so called "farm fresh". No, big companies love livestock fresh from farms more like this... huge, gloomy, bare "pastures" suffocating with over crowded cows that are up to their ankles in their own feces eating corn that can cause E. coli, unhealthy chickens that are over crowded in dirty coops where they can't even support their own weight because they are always injected with growth hormones.

What about the slaughtering of the live stock one would ask. Well, yes there is a difference in that too, in specific I would say organic small scale farms are more humane than those huge money racking companies. Who knows small scale farms may even be more sanitary (which I'm pretty sure they are). On small scale farms, livestock is slaughtered quick and clean, but big companies have people doing only one job to cut one cow or pig in record time. So the animal has to go through many steps to be packed. These processes are unsanitary and unsafe for the workers, but because it's unsanitary there may be a chance of bacteria in the meat which means it's unsafe for us.

These companies like to hire workers who are in debt, illegal immigrants, or anyone who won't talk because they are terrified of the chance to be fired or deported. Meat industries blackmail their farmers into staying in the business by making them go into more debt then they already are. Also the companies scare their farmers in to being quiet and not showing anybody the chicken coops when people like the Food Inc. producers come along to spread the truth about how the livestock is treated and where we get our food from. These big food companies like to hire illegal immigrants because they think they have no rights, privileges, or power of any kind, which stops them from talking. Although not everyone agrees with what is going on with these companies so once in a while someone speaks up, and guess what happens to them? They end up getting fired.

Vote with your forks as the movie would say. Thanks to people who speak up we are starting to be more aware and curious about our food, which is a good thing. Next time your shopping at a grocery store or eating out, think about what you buy and start asking questions about what you consume, but most of all get answers. To learn more about these topics watch Food Inc., Super Size Me, or other documentaries and resources concerned with this crisis.

-Mikiko