I'm taking a break this week from my series on being a humane consumer to talk to y'all about another important topic. Food safety.
A few weeks ago I
began watching the documentary “Food Inc”.
This documentary really got m
e thinking about how ignorance is a really
bad thing especially in situations like this.
Ignorance is affecting our ability to change things.
For example, the
movie shows Wal Mart corporate employees working with Stoneyfield Organic – a
brand I happen to love. The employee
said that Wal Mart began carrying some organic products based on consumer
demands. Consumers changed one of the
largest corporations in the world. We
have the power to change things, but we also have to power to keep them the
same.
The guy who
founded Stoneyfield was often accused by his friends of selling out but explains that by
getting his product on the shelf at a place like Wal Mart, more people are
seeing it and getting educated. He also
said it proves that you can produce foods safely and organically and still do
very well on the business end. So more
people are exposed to eating organically than if he just targeted health food
stores. I completely agree with his
strategy.
This is why this next part really bothers the crap out of me.
When I put my
initial reaction to the documentary on Facebook, a lot of people said they’d
never watch it because they just don’t want to know. I’m sorry, but that is the stupidest fucking
thing I have ever heard! Like,
ever!
Our government is
basically supporting the poisoning of its citizens because of money, but you’d
rather not know? Let me know how you
feel about that after you or a loved one contract E Coli form a burger you ate. How are we, as
consumers, supposed to affect change if we just ignore the issues because "the
burgers just taste so good" or “it so cheap"?
This is a huge
problem! I wrote a seven page research
paper in my research writing class about the effects of antibiotics in animals
on our health and on the environment and let me tell you, it’s not pretty. And this is just the tip of the iceberg as
far as what’s wrong with the way food is produced.
I would rather
know the gory details so that I can choose my food more wisely. I would rather know what’s happening and make
the choice not to support it.
The same goes for
animal testing. It’s not pretty, so
people pretend it doesn’t exist so they can go on buying the $2.00 bottle of
body wash and not feel guilty that some poor animal had to be tortured so they
can be cheap.
Yes, I do spend a
bit more money on food, toiletries, and cleaning products but I know what I’m
putting on and in my body is safe and that animals were not abused in the
making of the products. I also know that
my fruits and veggies are not filled with nasty pesticides or sprayed with
gases.
Being ignorant is
not a good thing. Consumers have the
power to affect change by what they buy and what they don’t buy. If we support local non-factory farms over
the products sold in stores or that we know are produced by factory farms, we can really change the food industry.
However, if we do
nothing, things will stay the same and we will continue to poison our bodies in
the name of money, laziness and corporate greed.
Watch Food Inc. on
Netflix and let me know your reaction. I
would love to know what others think about it.
