Food, Inc. slams agri-business

I’m so ashamed. I was raised better than this. But still I find myself at Kroger’s purchasing store-brand meat, Tyson chicken, conventional produce, boxed this, processed that, fortified something else, and all without giving it a second thought.

You see, I grew up on a dairy farm; in fact, it was a small, independently owned family farm. In addition to dairy cows, we had, at one point or another, chickens, turkeys, pigs and sheep. My grandmother had a vegetable garden that needed to be measured by the acre. Name a vegetable, any vegetable, and it was there in her garden. Even those not well suited to being grown in Upstate New York – well, she dabbled. We even had our own fruit: raspberry and strawberry patches I still dream about when I close my eyes at night, as well as apple, plum and pear trees.

I remember spending many an afternoon during the hot summers with my grandmother, watching and waiting while she canned and preserved food that would get my family through the long winters. Grandma only baked bread – we never had white bread from the grocery store. But before you get the wrong idea, it’s not like we were Amish or anything. Before you think this is just one more pastoral fantasy in repose, I offer a little bit of a wake-up call. My grandmother was occasionally fascinated by the exotic items the supermarket offered; Mountain Dew, Pringles and Keebler Chocolate Fudge sandwich cookies stick out most in my mind as frequently having had a home in her pantry. Moderation, you know? And mindfulness.

And I think that is where I became derailed from the track I rode in my childhood: mindfulness. Amid the hustle and bustle of daily life in the 21st century, I rarely give a thought to where the food I eat comes from. And that is the problem, not only for me, but for most Americans.

A forthcoming documentary looks to change that. Food, Inc. looks to lift the veil on the oftentimes secretive and frequently appalling policies and practices of modern agri-business. (You can’t really call it farming anymore, not when the majority of farming is managed in a factory setting.) The days of simplicity of our collective pasts may be long gone, but the film’s producers, including investigative authors Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma), hope to alert us to a world that they say has been deliberately hidden from us.

The University of Cincinnati’s Center for Environmental Genetics hosted a screening of the film Thursday, May 21. Food, Inc. is scheduled to open in select cities June 12 and is expected to play at The Esquire.

The screening was followed by a panel discussion. Participants included Lauren Niemes, executive director of the Nutrition Council of Greater Cincinnati and Barbara Kowalcyk, a graduate student in the department of environmental health and a food safety advocate. 
Kowalcyk was instrumental in bringing the film to UC; she is prominently featured in the film. Her foray into advocacy is the result of tragedy: In 2001, her 2-year-old son Kevin died after suffering an E. coli infection and hemolytic uremic syndrome. The source: contaminated ground beef. Kevin died after 12 agonizing days and although the source had been identified before his death, it took the government 16 days beyond his death to recall meat that came from that same lot. Kowalcyk got educated in a hurry and has been fighting ever since for the passage of Kevin’s Law, to no avail. Kevin’s Law has never made it out of committee.

How can we know where our food comes from, how it was grown and what truly is in it when the average supermarket offers for sale more than 47,000 different products? And how can we trust the sources of our food to be safe and clean when money has become the overriding goal of the industry?

The film firmly lays the blame for the state of agri-business at the feet of the fast-food industry. The way we eat, according to the film, has changed more in the last 50 years than in the last 10,000. And, as McDonald’s is the largest purchaser of beef and potatoes and one of the largest purchasers of pork, tomatoes and apples in the United States, it’s fair to say that their drive for more food at cheaper prices has resulted in the creation of a system that caters specifically to the fast-food market.

Among the disturbing facts presented in Food, Inc.:
• The average American consumes more than 200 pounds of meat each year, nearly double the average consumption in 1972.
• The typical hamburger may contain meat from as many as 1,000 cows. With the addition of every cow, the risk of food-borne illness rises exponentially.
• In 1972, the FDA performed more than 50,000 inspections. Now, the FDA performs less than 10,000 inspections per year.

But it isn’t just meat that is affected.  Remember the spinach disaster a few years back? How about last year’s tomato and pepper scare? Are you actually comfortable eating peanut butter these days? Shouldn’t our food be the safest it has ever been? Why isn’t it?

There are many theories as to why the marriage of science and technology with our food chain is crumbling; some of them concern the ground-water contamination that may come with high-volume factory farming, some concern the roles and political positions held by lobbyists in the federal government and some concern our own ignorance; the ignorance of the American consumer, as to something as intimate as the food we eat.

And experts from both within the context of the film and across the United States agree that there is no easy answer to the situation. One would expect that education would be key, that people will make the right choices and choose healthier, fresher, organic, grass fed and free range food, if only they knew they were supposed to. But that argument loses weight when you can buy two McDonald’s double cheeseburgers for less than you can buy a head of broccoli.

Niemes, of the Nutrition Council, knows the justification to spend more on organics is hard to come by. She stresses that meat can easily be reduced if not eliminated from the diet, portion sizes can be cut, frequency can be changed.

“Just having a plan, being aware and thinking about it, will have an environmental impact,” Niemes said. “I would like people to replace the meat, however, with fruits and vegetables.”

Buying locally can also make a big impact on the environment, your nutrition and even your pocketbook. There’s an abundance of farmers markets in the Cincinnati area, and even UC got in on the act for a few weeks this spring, bringing the first farmers market to UC MainStreet. Farmers market produce is often price competitive with supermarkets, and many farmers markets take food stamps.

It’s also important, Niemes said, that we all become active and engaged citizens and stewards of our food.

I’ll be the first to admit that after watching Food, Inc. I was stymied as to what to do. And I know it sounds Pollyannaish, but together we can make a difference. Make phone calls, write letters to your governmental representatives. Demand greater oversight and safer food. Hit the corporate behemoths were it counts – in the wallet. And be realistic about the process; it won’t happen overnight. And that’s OK. It will happen.

“It is critical that consumers become educated about the food supply and where it comes from,” Niemes said. “Ask yourself is it something I want to put in my body?”

More information and great resources on eating locally, organically and ethically:

Paradise Found Living Food Energy Exchange: www.pfcincy.com
Snowville Creamery www.snowvillecreamery.com
www.eatlocalcorv.org
www.cincinnatilocovore.blogspot.com