Final Food Paper Rough Draft

Thesis: Food corporations will go to extreme lengths to maximize profits:

Within the past week in class we have been watching "Unser Taglich Brot" (our daily bread) and "Vroom! Farming For Kids," discussing where the food we eat comes from. Also shown in "The Meatrix" 1, 2, and 2.5 and the article "Industrial Food is Cheap," the general American way of food is uhealthy and cruel to Animals and plants.

The media in the United States convinces citizens that the ability to get food fast and easy is good because it is cheap and easy to get access to. We've seen in "Vroom!..." how farming has been industrialized. Extreme machines are used to pick crops and tend the farm where there is little work for a lot of food at a fast pace resulting in lots of profit. But replacing people with machinery used by fossiln fuels polluting the air as said in the article "Industrial Food is Cheap." Also stated in this article, because farms tending animals incompetently, the manure (12 million pounds of it) is not being taken care of and is leaking into rivers causing water pollution. This article's main argument is that Industrialized food is NOT cheap because although it is cheap in money, in the long run it affects the planet and all the hormones used affects us Americans who eat the food leading to risk of diseases. And in "Unser Taglich Brot" what is done to animals for our convenience where pigs, chickens, and cows suffer from this immediately, us humans have to face health problems and pollution problems. Whereas, if we eat organic food, although it is expencive money wise, it eliminates the use of chemicals devreasing the risk of diseases which helps us in the long run. Food corporations are willing to risk the health of citizens, and the well being of our planet, and manipulate American citizens in order to gain money.

Shown in "The Meatrix" series, the "Family farm is just a fantasy," animals are not being treated like the ideal farm, raising their animals with care. The animals in industrialized farms never see sunlight or even touch ground, they are kept in small tightly confined cages to then be killed and slaughtered, 5000 cows are slaughtered per day so corporations can gain profits.

Grocery stores which are chaings from food corporations tend to push foods that taste or look good to the consumer meaning food with sugars, salts, and fats, these are the general ingredients in products that react with the human body to make you want more salty, fatty, sugary foods. Even fruit grocery stores try to make it look most pleasing to the consumer. In the snacks aisle the chocolate chip cookies were at eye level for customers to see while the saltine crackers were at the bottom. And in the fruits and vegetable sections the fruits had to look shiny, colorful, and appealing.

In Pollan's book, he addresses the point that Americans are easily convinced when dieting. Because we are not educated enough about these things that we face in our everyday lives, we turn to the "experts" who

My initial thought about this question would be that healthy food is what we've been told since we were younger, fruits and vegetables. But according to foodasfood.com, each vitamin, vegetable, fruit, etc. has its advantages and disadvantages. One food can be good for one thing but bad for another. The example used was, a little alcohol will prevent heart attacks but maybe cause breast cancer. We can't know for sure because everyone's body has different reaction to something. From this I concluded that the definition for food that is good for you can vary for different people.



All of this is very messy and choppy because I had trouble organizing my thoughs so I came up with an outline trying to include everything I can use here:

Intro
Argument#1: Industrialization
-->Vroom!...
-->Our Daily Bread (factory examples)
-->"Industrial Food Is Cheap"

Argument#2: Animal Cruelty
-->Meatrix
-->Cows With Guns

Argument#3: Media/Manipulation
-->Grocery Stores
-->Fast Food
-->Pollan vs Colbert
Conclusion