Ethics

The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous ten thousand. This is the first sentence spoken when the movie began. And as the movie progressed, I found that the sentence is indubitably the truth. During the last century, the average farmer can feed six to eight people. Now, 126 people can be fed by an average American farmer. The changes on the farm and the grower had been momentous and radical but remained invisible to us because nobody knows the farmer.

Farmers Situation
Many farmers in the south turned to chicken farming after the decline of tobacco. Almost all of them had become growers for some meat industry. And because companies want to produce a lot food in a small space at a low price, they put so many biotic into the feeds. Chickens were deliberately grown to be overweight, and kept in dark, tunnel-ventilated houses. A Perdue growers contract was terminated just because she refused to do so. Companies keep the farmers under their thumb because of the debt their farmers have. One poultry house would cost 280 000 - 300 000. A typical grower with two chicken houses has borrowed over 500 000 and earns about 18 000 a year.

In the soybean industry, over 90 of soybeans in the US contained Monsantos patented gene by 2008. Monsanto has been controlling this grain from the seeds to the supermarket, even hiring private investigators to prosecute farmers. Anyone caught saving seeds can be investigated for patent infringement.

Workers Situation
Many of the illegal workers in America were corn farmers in Mexico. US have been producing so much cheap corn that around 1.5 million Mexican corn farmers were put out of work. They couldnt compete with Americas cheap grain. IBP, National Beef  Montfood then began actively recruiting in Mexico. IBP set up a bus service to transport farmers from Mexico to USA. For years, the government has turned a blind eye on this situation, but when theres an anti-immigrant movement, theyre not cracking down on the companies but on the workers. Immigration agents arrest 15 workers per day but there are no massive raids. That way, it doesnt affect the production line.  In fast foods, the companies basically brought the factory system to the backyard kitchen. They trained workers to do just one thing again and again and again. The employees have low wage, and theyre easy to replace. They have the same mentality with the workers as they have with the hogs. The company doesnt care about their employees comfort or longevity. Meat packing has become one of the most dangerous professions in the US. Meat packers are exposed to blood, feces, urine and infection on a daily basis.

Health Effects
According to survey, one in three Americans born after 2000 will contract early onset diabetes. Among minorities, the rate will be 1 in 2. The biggest predictor of obesity is income level, while the industry blames it on a crisis of personal responsibility. The reason why fast foods are so cheap is that these are the ones which are heavily subsidized. You can buy a cheeseburger for 99 cents when you cant even buy a head of broccoli for the same amount. The truth is fast food is expensive food when you add up the health costs, environmental costs and the societal costs of making that food. In 1993, a 2 - year old boy from Seattle died of hemorrhagic E.coli found in fast food hamburger. Tons and tons of ground beef were recalled from 1998 up to the present, and whats worse is that E.coli and salmonella is also found in spinach and apple juice.

There have been 20 E.coli outbreaks since the last decade, and the companys answer Hamburger meat filler thats been cleansed with ammonia to kill E. coli. In Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, the cows are standing ankle-deep in manure all day long. This has led to mutation of E.coli. It was also found that high corn diet leads to E.coli thats acid resistant.

Business is basically the source of everything thats ruining our planet. Herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers are among the top polluters of the earth. Factories are draining their wastes on rivers.

Socio-Political Implications
There has been this revolving door between Monsantos corporate offices and the various regulatory and judicial bodies that had made the key decisions. For the past years, the government has been dominated by the industries that it was meant to be regulating. Its really about what interest they decide to represent. Centralized power  is being used against the people who are really producing the food, like the farmers, the workers, and consumers. Not only do they want the consumers not to know about it, but they managed to make it against the law to criticize their own product. Its remarkable how toothless our Regulatory agencies are when you look closely at it, and thats how the industry wants it.  -Eric Schlosser, Author, Fast Food Nation

Each new step to efficiency would lead to new problems. When the industry encounters a systematic problem like that (food contamination, etc.) they do not to take a look on whats something wrong with the system, but come up with some high-tech fixes that allow the system to survive. Its threatening what the companies are willing to do just to advance their own interests. And to know how wide-scale these industries are is alarming to each one of us. The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous ten thousand. And we can continue to change that for the years to come.