During our last class we watched a video called Food Inc. I've heard about the ingredients they use at McDonalds and other fast food restaurants. I'm pretty good at not eating those too often. However, I was caught off guard by the process they use to put food in our grocery stores. I sat with my eyes wide and mouth open for most of the film all while trying not to throw up. I imaged the beef quesadillas I eat way too often. Or those Chick-fil-a nuggets I love so much. Ugh.
I didn't realize how much of a bind the farmers are in these days. Especially those who work for bigger corporations. They have to take out close to $500,000 in loans to keep up with equipment standards yet only make about $18,000 a year. I can barely comprehend how a company could knowingly put their employees in that situation. Or can I? Why isn't this more widely known to the media? I had assumed farmers who work for companies like Tyson make a reasonable salary.
The scene with the chickens especially got to me. They engineered them to weigh about four pounds more then they are naturally supposed to weigh. Their bodies can't keep up with the growth and collapse under the pressure. Thats truly heartbreaking and disgusting.
It's even worse that the majority of our meat comes from the same four companies. They are filled with pesticides and the processing is really unhealthy. I'm glad we live in the MidWest where we have more of a chance to choose our meats. The rest of the country isn't so lucky.
This makes me take the idea of feeding myself, and my future family a lot more carefully. I know theres a slim chance I'll ever became a vegan or vegetarian but I'm going to look into more organic options. As a college student however, the choices of value are limited.
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