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Kaitlyn Williams
Kaitlyn Williams

The document summarizes issues with the food industry, arguing that it prioritizes profits over consumer health and the environment. It discusses how the industry misleads consumers, produces food in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, overuses antibiotics and pesticides, and conceals information about food production. It also notes inadequate government oversight of the industry through insufficient health inspections and testing. The document advocates for consumers to be more informed about food production practices in order to enact change.

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Williams 1 Kaitlyn Williams Period 3 Mrs.Jones ERWC English 12 Research Paper The food industry is mainly focused on making money. They deceive consumers by mass producing food that is potentially harmful.The food industry view people as merely consumers. As many would think that these industries are thinking about the health and satisfaction of consumers, they care about sales and persuading us into buying their products. As in The Pleasures of Eating Wendell Berry states, Mere consumers-passive, uncritical and dependent.(37). The food industry relies on the people, the consumers. They will try and do anything it takes just so we will buy their product; they are unconcerned of the harm that it can bring. The industries have developed a concealed reputation, Consumers must be kept from discovering- the overriding concerns, not quality and health, but volume and price. (39).Its an issue that many are not aware of, and it a shame because if more would know things would eventually change. Why being a foodie isnt elitist Eric Schlosser says, They dont want people to think about what theyre eating (2). We have no idea what exactly goes into our body do we? No. Not to the fullest extent. We put our trust forward, and they influence us as consumers as much as they can. Berry refers to our food industry mind as and abstract idea, something we know or imagine until it appears on the grocery shelf or on the table (37).
Williams 2 Consumers support only because theyre oblivious to the cold hard facts. We look at food before we eat it right? What looks and smells good can be another down fall. Berry mentions that they Persuade the consumer that food is produced so good, tasty, and healthful (39). We are misconceived and tricked by their ways. Furthermore the food industry is basically behind closed locked doors. Many of the major companyswont take interviews to show the public what goes on in the factories. As consumer wouldnt we like to know what goes on? In the documentary Our Daily BreadNikolausGeyrhalter shows some disturbing footage in some major factories, theres a scene that shows men in white space suits that are fully clothed head to feet covered, spraying plant pesticides. If the pesticides are so dangerous to breathe in while spraying plants how can it be healthy for consumers to eat? This method completely contradicts itself in multiple ways. Schlosser states a fact, About 80 percent of the antibiotics in the United states are currently given to lives stock, simply to make the animals grow faster or to prevent them from becoming sick amid the terrible overcrowded conditions at factory farms (2). Its unstoppable to not wonder why the US has to do these things like prevent them from getting sick because of their living conditions. Shouldnt they just improve living conditions? Instead there giving these poor animals chemicals and antibiotics that arent healthy for them, so also cant be healthy for consumers. In the article Hiding the Truth about Factory Farms The NYT states Factory farming confines animals in highly crowded, unnatural and often unsanitary conditions. I find it disgusting and Im sure many other would to. Its only going to get worse because no one is taking precautions . Producing the product is just as dangerous as eating it, they have to take many precaution procedures to keep safe. In the article Occupational Safety in the Food IndustryTaunda Edwards goes into detail, Employees working in the food industry can suffer
Williams 3 from injuries, illnesses and deaths like any other workplace. Its scary to think of the risk these companies and industries take just to produce their product, even there workers at stake. Theres a scene from Food Inc.by Robert Kenner where they talk about the works fingernails fall off due to the terrible working conditions. Its utterly disturbing that this is all for the sake of our food. The industries put forward a front so the consumers cant find out specific things, Limiting public awareness, companies such as Monsanto and Dow Chemical have blocked the labeling of genetically modified foods while meat packing industry has prevented the labeling of milk and meat from cloned animals.(Schlosser 4). There are many secrets that consumers will never find out, its sad but its the truth. The food industries do things that they arent proud of, so why do they? Pursing this further the beef industry remains a huge part in society today and many are unaware of the effects of the consumption consequences. We as Americans consume a massive amount of meat that is fittingly unhealthy. In the article Rainforest and Beef Industry Sandra Ariskan says The average consumption of 67 pounds per person a year. The beef consumption is humongous, its so close in our daily diet in America and many go over board and eat way more then they should. There has to be land that we are taking up to raise all this cattle right More and more land is going to be taken because were basically asking them to. This rocketing global demand has boosted cattle raising in Central and South America to triggering deforestation in the Amazon rain forest (Ariskan). We are slowly killing off our natural resources that are needs to keep living on earth. So many consumers of the beef industry are so unaware to the massive demand for cattle and deforestation and the demand is always going to rise. There are many issues with massive risingcattle; a main issue has to do with corn fed vs. grass fed cattle. The food Inc. website states Cattle are traditionally bred to eat grass but major
Williams 4 producers have shifted to corn. Many large producing farmers have changed their feeding method to corn because of corn feeding is way cheaper than traditional grass feed. Even though grass fed have many more benefits then corn. In the article The Health Benefits of Grass Farming Jo Johnson goes on to tell, Although grass-fed meat is low in "bad" fat (including saturated fat), it gives you from two to six times more of a type of "good" fat called "omega-3 fatty acids." Feeding cattle corn feed can result badly in many ways, Feeding corn to cattle results in high occurrence of acid resistant e coli (Food Inc.). It goes to show Producers dont care about consumers health only the quantity and amount of meat. Kevins law was a law in a result of a little boy of two years of age, ate a jack in the box hamburger and got ecoli and died days later. They bill never passed, and the contaminated meat that Kevin ate didnt get recalled until 16 days later (Food Inc.). In addition pesticides have many surprising effects not just on the product but on the consumers to. We cant tell if our fruit and vegetables are sprayed with pesticides and many other chemicals. We have no clue if it can harm us. In the online article, How to Win an Argument with a Meat-Eater John Robbins states, Fewer than 1 out of 250,000 slaughtered animals is tested for toxic chemicals. Theres no way this can be safe for society. We have so many health regulations yet they only test 1 out of so many slaughtered animals. Many pesticides are unharmful but a lot are very harmful. The earth justice website tells, Methyl iodide is an extremely poisonous and dangerous pesticide that causes cancer and pollutes groundwater. It's been linked to cancer and late-term miscarriages and, because it's a gas, easily drifts from the fields. No one realize the damage these chemicals really cause. Many think its just to keep the bugs away it causes humans no harm and thats completely wrong. These pesticides are being linked to more and more health issues, and the run off from the pesticides is huge issue. Its
Williams 5 causing many neighbors of industries health problems. In the article One Woman Takes a Brave Stand against Factory Farming Kathy Dobie says, Their well contaminated, they couldnt go outside, couldnt open their windows, they had to wear face mask. Shes talking about an elderly couple that was basically tortured by living next to a CAFO factory. Not only is it harming humans its also harming out environment. According to When a Crop Becomes King Michael Pollan shares that our cycle of making food looks Sustainable, solar powered system for producing food, but its actually a huge, inefficient, polluting machine that guzzles fossil fuel (45). Were killing our environment and everything it has to offer. These industries think that theyre working the system and making everything easier in a sense but actually there making it even more complicated towards global warming. Similarly, health inspections arent doing what is necessary to keep our food safe. According to the journalist Carl Mungazi, The cut in the number of inspections comes despite the increase in the number of fast food outlets. With the chain of fast food restaurants growing vastly there should be a higher rate of health inspections but inspections are decreasing. Mungazi also mentions that Theres to be a 30% drop in the number of inspections for medium to high risk food businesses and a 30% cut in the number of samples sent for testing. Assuming due to the cost of doing these inspections is what the set back is. But because the government isnt doing these inspections our health is at risk, all for the sake of them saving money. Adding to the exact problem, we as consumers shouldnt be at risk for our health because they cant afford health inspections. Do workers for these food industries work thoroughly? Do they do everything they can to keep our food safe and do we trust them? The FWW Travis Waldron seems to disagree, Company employees often miss quality defects like feathers, lungs, oil glands, trachea and bile still on the carcass. Many of these, consumers cant see and we are not
Williams 6 naturally looking for these specific things when we buy our products. If consumers new this there would be a change in health inspections and the demand for them would rise. Are the agencies just assuming? Wouldnt we like to know, Other foods were considered safe by the government and they were not subject to daily inspection. (Waldron) Just because the agencies have checked a certain product and seems to be safe every time doesnt mean that they can assume its safe without any health inspections. Its pretty scary that we put most of our health in other peoples hands and we trust them and what they say even if we dont know everything thats in the process of making our food. Additionally relating to the money the food industry is strictly concerned about income and is unconcerned of the harm towards consumers. They will possible put anything out in the consumers world to get our attention. They have many tricks up their sleeves to have success with their product. Julie Moore goes into detail about how demanding the food industry really is, Fast food restaurants can possibly be seen as the drug pushers of the culinary world. Indeed they are pushers, you wonder why every advertisement looks so appealing or why they always try to catch our eye. To get there product noticed and known they will try anything and everything to succeed. Many companies put themselves at risk of their liability and you could call it working the system. Food industry doesn't care for the health of its customers; this can be seen through its advertisements geared towards youths and its frequent use of immigrants or inexperienced employees to work for low pay. (Moore). Cheaper to make is the way industrys think, if its cheap to make and they sell it for double the price they made it for why not right? But in many cases cheaper is less health and less efficient. Theres a scene in Food Inc. where they hire illegal immigrants and pay them as low as they can then let them go because they know that there company is going to get in trouble, But they do this over and over again. Promising a
Williams 7 person with a job then letting them go when they have a family to support is very sad, they completely use the immigrants. Marketing towards children has become a huge issue in the food world. Children are very susceptible and vulnerable; putting something anything in front of children thats appealing to them theyre going to want it no matter how unhealthy it is. Parents for the most part want to buy things for the children that they want. The food industry manipulates children in many ways to buy things.Moore states, There has been a rise in health concerns in our country; many blame the fast food industry, and they believe that the industry's focus on marketing to children has contributed directly to the worsening health of the nation's youth. Agreeing with Moore the food industry is only going to find more tricks work around the consumers. As a result the food industry views people and their health as not an issue. When in many eyes its the main issue. The industry doesnt care for the satisfaction but for the currency. If consumers would see what really goes on a lot would be different. Consumers are so blind to all the things that these industries hide because the yhey make us believe everything is human ans healthy, when thats not the full truth. With the mass producing of food theirs only going to be more and more health risks, and less and less inspections which conclude that people will be more susceptible to harm. We as consumers need to take a stand for our health our environment, and the sake of our animals. Not only are our animals being mistreated but we are to, we are tricked and schemed in multiple ways, the industry basically has control on how we think about our food and what we out into our bodies. All of these issues need to be put to an end, Consumers need to be told the truth, and animals need to be actual living things and live natural, and the environment needs to be a safe and healthy environment.

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Reserch paper 4

  • 1. Williams 1 Kaitlyn Williams Period 3 Mrs.Jones ERWC English 12 Research Paper The food industry is mainly focused on making money. They deceive consumers by mass producing food that is potentially harmful.The food industry view people as merely consumers. As many would think that these industries are thinking about the health and satisfaction of consumers, they care about sales and persuading us into buying their products. As in The Pleasures of Eating Wendell Berry states, Mere consumers-passive, uncritical and dependent.(37). The food industry relies on the people, the consumers. They will try and do anything it takes just so we will buy their product; they are unconcerned of the harm that it can bring. The industries have developed a concealed reputation, Consumers must be kept from discovering- the overriding concerns, not quality and health, but volume and price. (39).Its an issue that many are not aware of, and it a shame because if more would know things would eventually change. Why being a foodie isnt elitist Eric Schlosser says, They dont want people to think about what theyre eating (2). We have no idea what exactly goes into our body do we? No. Not to the fullest extent. We put our trust forward, and they influence us as consumers as much as they can. Berry refers to our food industry mind as and abstract idea, something we know or imagine until it appears on the grocery shelf or on the table (37).
  • 2. Williams 2 Consumers support only because theyre oblivious to the cold hard facts. We look at food before we eat it right? What looks and smells good can be another down fall. Berry mentions that they Persuade the consumer that food is produced so good, tasty, and healthful (39). We are misconceived and tricked by their ways. Furthermore the food industry is basically behind closed locked doors. Many of the major companyswont take interviews to show the public what goes on in the factories. As consumer wouldnt we like to know what goes on? In the documentary Our Daily BreadNikolausGeyrhalter shows some disturbing footage in some major factories, theres a scene that shows men in white space suits that are fully clothed head to feet covered, spraying plant pesticides. If the pesticides are so dangerous to breathe in while spraying plants how can it be healthy for consumers to eat? This method completely contradicts itself in multiple ways. Schlosser states a fact, About 80 percent of the antibiotics in the United states are currently given to lives stock, simply to make the animals grow faster or to prevent them from becoming sick amid the terrible overcrowded conditions at factory farms (2). Its unstoppable to not wonder why the US has to do these things like prevent them from getting sick because of their living conditions. Shouldnt they just improve living conditions? Instead there giving these poor animals chemicals and antibiotics that arent healthy for them, so also cant be healthy for consumers. In the article Hiding the Truth about Factory Farms The NYT states Factory farming confines animals in highly crowded, unnatural and often unsanitary conditions. I find it disgusting and Im sure many other would to. Its only going to get worse because no one is taking precautions . Producing the product is just as dangerous as eating it, they have to take many precaution procedures to keep safe. In the article Occupational Safety in the Food IndustryTaunda Edwards goes into detail, Employees working in the food industry can suffer
  • 3. Williams 3 from injuries, illnesses and deaths like any other workplace. Its scary to think of the risk these companies and industries take just to produce their product, even there workers at stake. Theres a scene from Food Inc.by Robert Kenner where they talk about the works fingernails fall off due to the terrible working conditions. Its utterly disturbing that this is all for the sake of our food. The industries put forward a front so the consumers cant find out specific things, Limiting public awareness, companies such as Monsanto and Dow Chemical have blocked the labeling of genetically modified foods while meat packing industry has prevented the labeling of milk and meat from cloned animals.(Schlosser 4). There are many secrets that consumers will never find out, its sad but its the truth. The food industries do things that they arent proud of, so why do they? Pursing this further the beef industry remains a huge part in society today and many are unaware of the effects of the consumption consequences. We as Americans consume a massive amount of meat that is fittingly unhealthy. In the article Rainforest and Beef Industry Sandra Ariskan says The average consumption of 67 pounds per person a year. The beef consumption is humongous, its so close in our daily diet in America and many go over board and eat way more then they should. There has to be land that we are taking up to raise all this cattle right More and more land is going to be taken because were basically asking them to. This rocketing global demand has boosted cattle raising in Central and South America to triggering deforestation in the Amazon rain forest (Ariskan). We are slowly killing off our natural resources that are needs to keep living on earth. So many consumers of the beef industry are so unaware to the massive demand for cattle and deforestation and the demand is always going to rise. There are many issues with massive risingcattle; a main issue has to do with corn fed vs. grass fed cattle. The food Inc. website states Cattle are traditionally bred to eat grass but major
  • 4. Williams 4 producers have shifted to corn. Many large producing farmers have changed their feeding method to corn because of corn feeding is way cheaper than traditional grass feed. Even though grass fed have many more benefits then corn. In the article The Health Benefits of Grass Farming Jo Johnson goes on to tell, Although grass-fed meat is low in "bad" fat (including saturated fat), it gives you from two to six times more of a type of "good" fat called "omega-3 fatty acids." Feeding cattle corn feed can result badly in many ways, Feeding corn to cattle results in high occurrence of acid resistant e coli (Food Inc.). It goes to show Producers dont care about consumers health only the quantity and amount of meat. Kevins law was a law in a result of a little boy of two years of age, ate a jack in the box hamburger and got ecoli and died days later. They bill never passed, and the contaminated meat that Kevin ate didnt get recalled until 16 days later (Food Inc.). In addition pesticides have many surprising effects not just on the product but on the consumers to. We cant tell if our fruit and vegetables are sprayed with pesticides and many other chemicals. We have no clue if it can harm us. In the online article, How to Win an Argument with a Meat-Eater John Robbins states, Fewer than 1 out of 250,000 slaughtered animals is tested for toxic chemicals. Theres no way this can be safe for society. We have so many health regulations yet they only test 1 out of so many slaughtered animals. Many pesticides are unharmful but a lot are very harmful. The earth justice website tells, Methyl iodide is an extremely poisonous and dangerous pesticide that causes cancer and pollutes groundwater. It's been linked to cancer and late-term miscarriages and, because it's a gas, easily drifts from the fields. No one realize the damage these chemicals really cause. Many think its just to keep the bugs away it causes humans no harm and thats completely wrong. These pesticides are being linked to more and more health issues, and the run off from the pesticides is huge issue. Its
  • 5. Williams 5 causing many neighbors of industries health problems. In the article One Woman Takes a Brave Stand against Factory Farming Kathy Dobie says, Their well contaminated, they couldnt go outside, couldnt open their windows, they had to wear face mask. Shes talking about an elderly couple that was basically tortured by living next to a CAFO factory. Not only is it harming humans its also harming out environment. According to When a Crop Becomes King Michael Pollan shares that our cycle of making food looks Sustainable, solar powered system for producing food, but its actually a huge, inefficient, polluting machine that guzzles fossil fuel (45). Were killing our environment and everything it has to offer. These industries think that theyre working the system and making everything easier in a sense but actually there making it even more complicated towards global warming. Similarly, health inspections arent doing what is necessary to keep our food safe. According to the journalist Carl Mungazi, The cut in the number of inspections comes despite the increase in the number of fast food outlets. With the chain of fast food restaurants growing vastly there should be a higher rate of health inspections but inspections are decreasing. Mungazi also mentions that Theres to be a 30% drop in the number of inspections for medium to high risk food businesses and a 30% cut in the number of samples sent for testing. Assuming due to the cost of doing these inspections is what the set back is. But because the government isnt doing these inspections our health is at risk, all for the sake of them saving money. Adding to the exact problem, we as consumers shouldnt be at risk for our health because they cant afford health inspections. Do workers for these food industries work thoroughly? Do they do everything they can to keep our food safe and do we trust them? The FWW Travis Waldron seems to disagree, Company employees often miss quality defects like feathers, lungs, oil glands, trachea and bile still on the carcass. Many of these, consumers cant see and we are not
  • 6. Williams 6 naturally looking for these specific things when we buy our products. If consumers new this there would be a change in health inspections and the demand for them would rise. Are the agencies just assuming? Wouldnt we like to know, Other foods were considered safe by the government and they were not subject to daily inspection. (Waldron) Just because the agencies have checked a certain product and seems to be safe every time doesnt mean that they can assume its safe without any health inspections. Its pretty scary that we put most of our health in other peoples hands and we trust them and what they say even if we dont know everything thats in the process of making our food. Additionally relating to the money the food industry is strictly concerned about income and is unconcerned of the harm towards consumers. They will possible put anything out in the consumers world to get our attention. They have many tricks up their sleeves to have success with their product. Julie Moore goes into detail about how demanding the food industry really is, Fast food restaurants can possibly be seen as the drug pushers of the culinary world. Indeed they are pushers, you wonder why every advertisement looks so appealing or why they always try to catch our eye. To get there product noticed and known they will try anything and everything to succeed. Many companies put themselves at risk of their liability and you could call it working the system. Food industry doesn't care for the health of its customers; this can be seen through its advertisements geared towards youths and its frequent use of immigrants or inexperienced employees to work for low pay. (Moore). Cheaper to make is the way industrys think, if its cheap to make and they sell it for double the price they made it for why not right? But in many cases cheaper is less health and less efficient. Theres a scene in Food Inc. where they hire illegal immigrants and pay them as low as they can then let them go because they know that there company is going to get in trouble, But they do this over and over again. Promising a
  • 7. Williams 7 person with a job then letting them go when they have a family to support is very sad, they completely use the immigrants. Marketing towards children has become a huge issue in the food world. Children are very susceptible and vulnerable; putting something anything in front of children thats appealing to them theyre going to want it no matter how unhealthy it is. Parents for the most part want to buy things for the children that they want. The food industry manipulates children in many ways to buy things.Moore states, There has been a rise in health concerns in our country; many blame the fast food industry, and they believe that the industry's focus on marketing to children has contributed directly to the worsening health of the nation's youth. Agreeing with Moore the food industry is only going to find more tricks work around the consumers. As a result the food industry views people and their health as not an issue. When in many eyes its the main issue. The industry doesnt care for the satisfaction but for the currency. If consumers would see what really goes on a lot would be different. Consumers are so blind to all the things that these industries hide because the yhey make us believe everything is human ans healthy, when thats not the full truth. With the mass producing of food theirs only going to be more and more health risks, and less and less inspections which conclude that people will be more susceptible to harm. We as consumers need to take a stand for our health our environment, and the sake of our animals. Not only are our animals being mistreated but we are to, we are tricked and schemed in multiple ways, the industry basically has control on how we think about our food and what we out into our bodies. All of these issues need to be put to an end, Consumers need to be told the truth, and animals need to be actual living things and live natural, and the environment needs to be a safe and healthy environment.