My Industrial Food System Paper

Industrial Food Paper



“Can I take your order?” The woman behind the register asked. “Sure can I get a number 2?” I answered. “Would you like the large size?” she questioned. “No, I will be okay. I will take the medium size.” I replied. “And can I get an application aside from that please?” I continued. In order to understand The Industrial Food System (IFS), I had to have my own experience. After I received my order, I went to go sit down. I was expecting the wrapped present to be a surprising gift. It turned out to be that it was not Christmas and the so- called present was what I least expected it to be. Why is it that in the commercials, they make all their burgers look so delicious?
I decided not to take a risk in eating the burger, but I did consume the French fries. It was like going to a perfume store. I couldn’t resist its’ smell. While eating the French fries, I filled out the McDonald’s application. “Hi, can I please see the manager?” I asked. The woman that was pouring the soda from the fountain paused and went towards the back to call the manager. “Hi, my name is Paulie and I am interested in working with this industry. I filled out an application for you.” I handed the manager my application that seemed perfect to me. “Okay thank you Paulie. As of right now, I do not have time to go over it with you. Although I wish I could, but the restaurant is really busy as of right now. Would it be okay if I just give you a call?” He questioned. “Not a problem.” I shook his hand, smiled and walked away. But that’s enough with my experience.
I have learned a lot that I never realized when I was at a younger age. I was always looking forward to eating McDonalds. The main one that I would like to share is how the person behind the register would always ask the person the same question after taking an order, “Would you like the large meal?” So, what does this tell us about the Fast Food industry and the Industrial Food System? To get a deeper sense of what the IFS really is, I would like to say that it is what the majority of the American population is eating today. If you walk around any places in the United States or even drive around, you will always see a fast food restaurant along the way. Questions that don’t seem to come off a consumer’s mind while eating this fast food or even shopping at a supermarket is, how do we get our food and where does it actually come from?
The Industrial Food System is based upon machinery, in which the animals have no connection with the people. Looking back to what Martin Heidegger thinks about our food system today, he claims that “Agriculture is now a motorized food industry, the same thing in its essence as the production of corpses in the gas chambers and the extermination camps, the same thing as blockades and the reduction of countries to famine, the same thing as the manufacture of hydrogen bombs.” My interpretation on this quote was that the way we produce our food today is almost like a natural disaster. When he states “the same thing in its essence as the production…,” my understanding of his word choice of essence is to dwell or to originate. Our way of producing food is causing mass damage to other living things on Earth and to the planet itself. This is why he makes the analogies to many destructive objects, such as the last statement, “manufacture of hydrogen bombs.” According to the Fast Food Nation movie, “machines are taking over this country. When it comes to fast food, profit matters more.” Referring back to Heidegger’s quote, agriculture has changed drastically. Since machines can do its job very easily and quicker, the more profit can be made. And because of the machines, a lot of damage is occurring.
So how does this industrial food system actually work? It all starts from the feedlot. According to Michael Pollan’s, Omnivore’s Dilemma, “The first stage in the production of a hamburger is known as a “cow-calf” operation. This is the stage that least changed the modern industrialization of meat. It takes ten acres per head at a minimum to produce a calf ready for the feedlot.” (Page 68-69) Reading this made me get a clearer insight into Heidegger’s quote. It takes a lot of land to produce a calf that is just about ready to get slaughtered. It was also confirmed from ecologist that the most serious environmental harm today is associated with the cattle industry, which takes place in the feedlot. The animals are brought and herded into a pen where there is minimum space to move around. They stay under this living condition until they are brought into a factory. This is almost like the first day in kindergarten. The children are all together in one place and they are taught many different rules inside the classroom and outside the classroom. They become accustomed to the rules after it being taught to them. So what exactly is a feedlot? According to Michael Pollan, he describes it as “very much like a premodern city, however, teeming and filthy and stinking, with open sewers, unpaved roads, and choking air rendered visible by dust.” (Page 72) This type of environment is really uncomfortable and you can just imagine it to be a very big disaster. But this is the where all of the fast food originates from. And referring back to Heidegger’s quote, the production of food today is similar to the dwelling of blockades and the reduction of countries to famine. Both act as a weapon of mass destruction. As we speak about mass destruction, on page 81, “the speed at which these animals are being slaughtered and processed is at a rate of four hundred an hour at the plant.” If you create a picture in your mind of this occurring in a factory, everything is in a fast pace. Hundreds of animals are being slaughtered in a short amount of time period, which is a health hazard because their can be a lot of different bacteria left on the meat that would not be visible in the human’s eye.
The IFS is the primary source of U.S. nutrition because technology has taken over. With all the machines that are being created, a lot more food is being produced and is being sold at a cheaper price. There are a lot of different problems inherent in the IFS. The majority of deaths in the United States are due to the people’s diets. Eating a lot of meat can lead to heart problems. Consuming a mass amount of meat can clog your arteries, causing damage to the heart. (www.goveg.com) Also, many people who consume fast food on a regular day basis are becoming obese.
Aside from health problems, the Industrial Food System is also causing environmental issues, such as pollution. It’s almost like driving a huge SUV every day of the week. It all starts from growing a large amount of food for the animals, delivering it to the feedlots where the animals are being held, feed it to the animals, truck the animals to the facilities where they will be slaughtered, truck the dead animals to other factories where they will “eventually” speculate the animals and package them and lastly, deliver them to the supermarkets or fast food restaurants. This is a step by step process in creating fossil fuels, leading up to the pollution in the air. Raising the animals also causes pollution in the water. The leftover excrements that the animals produce are put aside to the rivers, which cause a lot of the aquatic life to perish and to damage to the ecological system.
Cruelty in the animals is another problem. People do not realize how the animals are being mistreated. For example, in the Fast Food Nation movie, the cows were trapped in one place that is surrounded by a fence with not enough room to move around. The Teenagers that were against animal cruelty decided to let the animals gain their freedom. As they destroyed the fences, the cows were confused. They become so used to staying in this area where they have been living all their lives. They decide not to move. They actually seemed afraid to even step outside the fence. This is almost like the thinking of an American mind. The majority of the Americans who eat fast food are afraid to admit reality. They decide to run away from the fact that they themselves eat fast food, when they know that it is not good for their health. Being a part of the industrial food system is like pushing a ton of bricks. It almost seems impossible, but there is a way to work through it. The workers are a prime example of trying to push a ton of bricks. The working conditions almost seem as if it can’t be real. The workers pretend like the animals are non living things.
After watching the movies, Fast Food Nation and Our Daily Bread, it is obvious that the workers in the factories experience no connection between the animals they are cutting because they are just doing what they have to do, repetitively. They don’t show any emotions while they are slaughtering the animals.
The IFS is a big issue because it is the food that billions of Americans are consuming. This system can lead to many different issues; health being the most important factor. Diseases are often originated from the factories and carried on to the consumer, in which can never be visible. What this system tells us about our culture, lives and our situation is that we are unaware and careless about what we are actually consuming. We don’t have much education on what is in our foods. I feel like this system is also telling us that everything is about the profit. Different organizations sell their food for a cheap price and are also unhealthy. People fall into this trap because it is what they can afford.