Review of Food, Inc.

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Last weekend, I watched Food, Inc. If you haven't seen it -- I recommend you watch it! You will never think of food the same way again.

I thought I'd share just a few highlights with you here (all facts are as presented in the movie; I have not checked any other sources).

General Information
*The fast food industry pushed factory farming to what it is today, because the restaurants were so popular and needed so much food.
*In 1970, the top 5 beef producers controlled only 25% of the industry. Today, the top 4 control 80%.
*Some organic farms (one is featured in the film) are considered "unsanitary" because their operations are open to the air. Yet, when comparing their naturally raised and processed chickens to factory farmed chickens (which were bathed in chlorine), their chickens had only 133 CFU (bacteria count), while the factory farmed chickens had 3600 CFU (AFTER the chlorine bath!).

Chicken Facts
Chickens have been genetically engineered to grow twice as big in half the time (just 49 days now) and to have large breasts, since most people want to eat white meat. These chickens are too heavy for their delicate bones and could not walk around -- if there were any room to do so anyway. Most chicken houses are completely dark and crowded so the chickens cannot move much anyway.

Corn Facts
100 years ago, farmers could produce only 20 bushels of corn on an acre. Now, they can do 200. The government subsidizes their production so that they can actually produce corn for "below cost." This is because nearly every processed food is a "clever rearrangement of corn." 90% of foods contain some form of corn, including disposable diapers. Farmed fish is also fed corn (yet another reason NOT to eat farmed fish!).

Beef Facts
It is the cattle's corn-fed diet that causes E. Coli to flourish in their guts. A cow fed exclusively grass for only a week before slaughter (and corn-fed prior) will lose up to 80% of the E. Coli in its gut. Today, there are only 13 major slaughterhouses, and cows from all over the country go to each. A single burger can contain meat from thousands of cows. This, plus unclean conditions, allows the E. Coli to get into the meat.

In 1972, 50,000 FDA inspections of slaughterhouses took place. In 2007, only 9,514 inspections occurred. Yet, the rebuttal website claims that the FDA inspects "every cow that is slaughtered," which is impossible with the number of cows that are slaughtered per day!

BPI (Beef Products Inc.) is a large company that makes hamburger filler meat. To ensure "safety," they treat the meat with ammonia. This product is currently found in 70% of the U.S.'s hamburgers, and their goal is 100%.

Monsanto
This company is the most evil. Currently, Michael Taylor (who served as a lawyer for Monsanto, then Deputy Commissioner of FDA, then VP of public policy for Monsanto) is serving as Obama's "Food Safety Czar."

Monsanto is anti-food labeling (i.e. supported not labeling calorie counts, trans fats, GMO foods). They have patented GMO seeds and require farmers to buy new seeds each year. Farmers who save seeds can be and are prosecuted for patent infringement. Monsanto has employees whose only job is to roam farms and find those in non-compliance. Nearly all soybeans grown in this country are Monsanto's GMO soybeans.

There are many, many more scary facts in this movie, but you will have to watch it for yourself! I guarantee you will at least question factory farming after viewing it, if you ever buy anything factory-farmed again! It is eye-opening and really shows why we need to know what we are eating and choose wisely!

Win a FREE bucket of grass-fed beef tallow! Healthy fat, not made by the food industry! The giveaway is being sponsored by U.S. Wellness Meats, and the link will take you to Kelly the Kitchen Kop's site, where you can earn extra entries. Beef tallow is what McDonald's an other fast food restaurants used to fry their fries in...until modern dieticians decided this was "bad." Many people in their 30s and older remember those fries as being the best. Now you can have them at home! It's ironic, isn't it, that the switch to vegetable oils was actually LESS healthy? But if you've read this entire review, and my recent post on fats, you know that what the industry believes and does is not much about health but about being trendy and cheap!