Foreword
Before food class with Andy this semester my eyes were already open to new ideas and ways of life. And I was really interested on what else Andy had to say especially on food. I had taken the globalization of capitalism class the semester before and I felt his class was very profound and intriguing. He basically had me hooked. So I signed up for his food class and was ready to learn. And by god did I ever learn, from making a chicken coop to corn being in everything from syrup to the meat that you get from cows that are fed corn.
The omnivores dilemma written by Michael Pollan is a book based on the industrial food system. He talks about the beginning of the whole situation. From how corn go its name, to why it is the way it is today. He talks about the way cows are treated in feedlots and the way they get fed. The cows get fed 25 pounds of corn a day so they can fatten up and have more muscle so the farm owners can sell more meat to get more money. The farm owners keep the animals in very bad living conditions in cages and very small feed lots. They have no freedom what so ever, they are literally born to die.
I believe there are a few branches off industrial food witch are the fast-food market, the supermarket, and government-owned-food. The fast-food would be the corporations that make the major profit off there foods such as McDonalds and Burger Kings to the dunkin’ doughnuts and Baskin Robbins. The supermarket would be your every day super market Duane Reade and path mart to Cosco and B.J.’s. And then lastly the government-owned-food is the army, school, and certain corporations’ cafeterias.
The industrial food system profanes all foods. It takes eating food and fu-filling your hunger and not dieing to the next level and makes it this great big ugly money making machine. All the high powered ecetivies take advantage of this idea of eating and try to make as much money as possible. The IFS tries to suck every penny out of every money making part in food. They make food when it’s not in season and jack up the prices because of that, even thought it is not necessary to have all foods at your finger tips. Super markets allow that to happen. You can go to any market and get anything you want for any meal for any day. If your family wanted to you can have red meat every day for a month. That just isn’t right you as a person can’t kill that many cows and eat them and actually have red meat for a month straight.
After going to whole foods I realized that wholefoods is not really an alternative. It is just a less bad choice. Like driving a hybrid car, it’s not the best choice but it is not the worst choice you can make. It is better than a hummer but walking and riding a bicycle are better ones. You have to completely cut the string for the industrial food system to get the best, most healthiest, good for the planet food.
