Eco Maniac: Food for Thought

Diving once again into the thoughts from the Michael Pollan and Dr. Vandana Shiva posts I've written, I can't impress strongly enough upon you the importance and urgency for learning about the industrialized food system that is destroying us, quite literally, from the ground up. Watch The Future of Food and go see Food, Inc. These wonderful films frame the issues at stake in terms we can all understand – our very lives.

There are a number of critical factors at work within the larger, overarching category of food production. Our economic system, health care, human rights, the environment... they all hang in the balance on this one.

1. Seeds – Monsanto has patented life in the form of seeds and has proceeded to genetically engineer those seeds to the detriment of us all and to the destruction of farmers. Any farmer not using Monsanto's products is targeted for investigation and, generally, because the Monsanto seeds are so prevalent, their fields have been contaminated through neighbor's crops or passing trucks. Even the smallest evidence of patent infringement is pursued and the farmers are forced to pay massive sums of money to the multi-national conglomerate now controlling our nation's (and the world's) food production. Monsanto's avarice is not only galling, it is culpable in the suicides and poverty of millions of farmers around the world.

2. Livestock – The widespread necessity for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in order to meet the country's demands for meat has led to reoccurring outbreaks of E. Coli and other bacteria. The tainted run-off from these feed lots finds its way into the water system and into other crops, like spinach and tomatoes. Animals are treated like so much dross, rather than the living beings they are. One of the farmers featured in Food, Inc., Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, employs grass fed and free range techniques, and he spoke simply and eloquently to the problem saying that people who are cruel to animals are quite likely to be cruel to everyone and everything else in their lives.

3. Health – Farmer Joel also had an interesting spin on this topic, musing that what if the food we all ate was so nutrient-rich that it reduced the number of people who got sick each year. What if that were the goal, an element built into the health care debate and system? Food, Inc. also portrays a family of four who have to choose between diabetes medication for the father and buying healthy food at the market. They can't afford both. So, they opt for the meds and hit the dollar menu at Burger King. Considering that one in three children born since 2000 will develop diabetes (one in two for minorities), perhaps we really REALLY should be looking at preventative measures rather than cures. Like Pollan preaches, to level the playing field of healthy choices, we need to get the price of carrots down so that they are chosen instead of the chips. All the carbs and sugars in our processed food-based diets have forced our metabolisms to this diabetic precipice and we must turn back.

4. Human Rights – Not only should good food and good health be basic human rights, but so should a safe, healthy work environment. Factory farms and processing centers are really not either. Workers are considered disposable to the point that at least one company (Smithfield) has an agreement with the INS to deport workers once they are no longer useful. That's the thanks they get for working long shifts covered in feces, urine, blood, and guts on assembly lines designed to limit variation, from the size of the chickens to the workers' tasks.

Ultimately, if we are what we eat, there's an obvious argument to be made against pouring toxin-filled food into our bodies. Of course, ammonia-washed beef and bacteria-laced spinach are not going to further our physical health. But what of the energetic component? If Like Water for Chocolate is any indication, the emotions put into food – whether in its production or preparation – also play a key role. So are we not, then, ingesting animal cruelty and worker abuse with every bite? And will that not affect our emotional health? Food for thought.