Food Inc. Full of...???

"The Future of Food" Released 2004 is another good one to watch.

he still stands wrote:

vedderman71 wrote:

To honestly think that any of you would really believe any decent cattleman would feed their catlle CEMENT speaks to your level of ignorance (let alone comon sence) on this topic.

to be fair, chickens and hogs are fed bone meal - ground up poultry parts (whatever is left after the slaughter). Not always but it isn't uncommon. Its really cheap and like 60% protein. I don't know of any nefarious ingredients in cattle feed though. And I don't know any reason why bone meal shouldn't be fed to chickens and hogs... there isn't any scientific evidence suggesting it shouldn't be fed to these animals as far as I know. It shouldn't be fed to cattle because of the risk of mad cow and other diseases that are carried in the spine/brain of animals. Feed mills can't even have it on their property if they feed cattle. If you do it is like a $10,000 fine per pound.

Just thought I'd point out there are some weird things in animal feed (cement isn't one of them as far as I know).

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 30,7386416

'Want a Fat Juicy Steak? Feed Cattle Cement'



from the book Mad Cow, USA:

'According to Consumers Research food editor Beatrice Trum Hunter, rendered
animal parts were only one of the unlikely new materials introduced into
the animal feed supply:

It has taken us from grass and hay feeding to such non-traditional
ingredients in animal feed as sewage sludge and treated manure. The search
for alternative substances in animal feed suited the new conditions that
arose from agricultural changes... A plethora of substances found their
way into animal feed. They included agricultural wastes... They included
retail food wastes...Slaughterhouses and tanneries provided blood,
entrails, hoofs, bristles, and feathers for use in animal feed. Some
alternative substances were ...industrial wastes such as sawdust, wood
chips, twigs, and even ground-up newspapers, and cardboard boxes. Others
were cement dust from kilns, sludge from municipal composting plants,
water from electric generating plants that used fluidized bed combustion
of coal, and waste water from nuclear power stations.....The Four
Ds..dead, dying, disabled, and diseased animals ... moisture damaged or
maggot-infested grains; foods contaminated by rodents, roaches, or bird
excreta.'

http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/ecology/cattle.htm

Cattle and Capitalism

Some feedlots have begun research trials adding cardboard, newspaper, and sawdust to the feeding programs to reduce costs. Other factory farms scrape up the manure from chicken houses and pigpens, adding it directly to cattle feed. Cement dust may become a particularly attractive feed supplement in the future, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, because it produces a 30 percent faster weight gain than cattle on only regular feed. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials say that it's not uncommon for some feedlot operators to mix industrial sewage and oils into the feed to reduce costs and fatten animals more quickly.

At Kansas State University, scientists have experimented with plastic feed, small pellets containing 80 to 90 percent ethylene and 10 to 20 percent propylene, as an artificial form of cheap roughage to feed cattle. Researchers point to the extra savings of using the new plastic feed at slaughter time when upward of '20 pounds of the stuff from each cow's rumen can be recovered, melt[ed] down and recycle[d] into new pellets.' The new pellets are much cheaper than hay and can provide roughage requirements at a significant savings."

he still stands wrote:

the USDA would fine farms thousands of dollars for any of those feeding practices to cattle... is there proof of specific farms doing this?

from the last article

Cement dust may become a particularly attractive feed supplement in the future, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), because it produces a 30 percent faster weight gain than cattle on only regular feed. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials say that it's not uncommon for some feedlot operators to mix industrial sewage and oils into the feed to reduce costs and fatten animals more quickly.

it also says some colleges do these studies as well, like Kent State experimenting feeding cattle plastic

i can understand this is your livelihood so you guys feel the need to say not all are like this and i don't think anyone thinks all farmers are like that, i certainly don't. is the documentary spotlighting factory farms or saying this is how everyone does it? i don't know, i still haven't seen it, but it is on my netflix que.

thanks for discussing this in a civil manner

well 10c/pj gave me a free copy of this doc when i picked up my 10c tix 10.31. i already had it on my netflix waitlist, so always planned on seeing it...now i simply can see it sooner.

Staceb10 wrote:

I've noticed that a lot of "documentaries" aren't exactly truthful.

kinda like history.
everything has a 'slant' to some degree, a perspective that one holds and influences. i don't expect 100% objectivity in any thing. documentaries, at best, are meant to open our minds, expand our knowledge. they cannot be all encompassing and i don't expect them to cover every. single. thing. however, painting with a broad brush to illustrate a greater picture, i AM ok with that.


btw - good to seeya here stace.


oh and haffajappa - i haven't watched yet, but i think it's a good guess that it is US-centric. i am sure it is reflective in a general sense to world food sources, but i definitely think it has a US slant.

decides2dream wrote:

well, the husband and i sat down to watch this doc last night....very good! a lot of it i already knew about as i read a lot on this topic, but there was still some fresh information in it. funny too, b/c i am always telling hubby stuff i read and yet...didn't really hit home until he watched this last night. it is amazing how our food production seemingly is in the hands of just a handful of corporations and that is a tragedy for both farmers and consumers alike. idk really how much we can change that, which is even scarier...


oh and after seeing it i can definitively say it is entirely focused on the USA food system. i would've seen this doc eventually, but thanks pj for getting it in my hands sooner.

so is it full of untruths then?

haffajappa wrote:

decides2dream wrote:

well, the husband and i sat down to watch this doc last night....very good! a lot of it i already knew about as i read a lot on this topic, but there was still some fresh information in it. funny too, b/c i am always telling hubby stuff i read and yet...didn't really hit home until he watched this last night. it is amazing how our food production seemingly is in the hands of just a handful of corporations and that is a tragedy for both farmers and consumers alike. idk really how much we can change that, which is even scarier...


oh and after seeing it i can definitively say it is entirely focused on the USA food system. i would've seen this doc eventually, but thanks pj for getting it in my hands sooner.

so is it full of untruths then?

obviously i am no expert, but from all my readings.....no.
are there some? perhaps.
however, overall...i thought it was pretty accurate to what i've heard/known before.
also, it seems to me that 90% of the discussion in THIS thread does not even actually pertain to the documentary. if one knew NOTHING about the topic it may be shocking, but anyone who reads at ALL about health, nutrition and/or animal rights, factory farming.....really, the most surprising thing imo is the corporate control of our food supply, how farmers are very much dictated to if they are involved with these few corporations, etc. i really didn't think it painted farmers in a bad light at all. if anything, it made me feel a lot of sympathy for them. talk about being between a rock and a hard place! idk why one would even want to be a farmer today. seems a rough livelihood with not much payoff. as so many things, corporate interests seem to override all.

In PRAISE of FOOD INC!

So great that there is mass media production of the goings on in the food industry. Hopefully, this film will instigate some thought, conversation and change on what we put into our bodies. I have a strong belief that food is a connection to the earth and the world around you and the community aspect of culitivating your own food and preparing and sharing with your neighbors is very important to me. It needs to be out there that food wasn't meant to be manipulated for mass consumption. My life changed when I started consuming "whole" food and my community grew (in my own eyes) as I've started to meet the growers, farmers who raise the food I eat. It seems a more rich and full life now with some very basic changes.

Barbara Kingsolver has a wonderful book out - "animal, vegetable, miracle" and it took that book to open my eyes to the manipulation of the seed industry and thank goodness there are still purists who exist- (Seed Savers Exchange, Native Seeds, Heritage Farmers).

It's only "full" of "untruths" if you believe the film actually said these things:
(or if you believe your response is entirely accurate)

he still stands wrote:

just a few:
...
Most farms are corporate farms. Untrue: 98% of farms in the US are owned by individuals.
...
E Coli only exists because cattle eat corn. Untrue: E Coli exists in the digestive tract of all animals, whether grazing on pasture or fed grain.

Organic crops are better for you and the environment. Untrue: Farmers still have to spray these with "natural" pesticides that include things like copper and sulfur, but since they are less effective they have to use higher amounts which is worse for the environment and for you. People have DIED from this, no one has ever died because of "normal" pesticides used (like RoundUp).

Antibiotics aren't necessary for production of meat. Untrue: (if you can't afford $20 / lb for ground beef and $100 for a steak) Maintenance doses allow farmers to not use "therapeutic" doses when the animal gets sick. Therapeutic doses are dangerous to the person eating the animal. Maintenance doses are not.
...

1-The film doesn't say most American farmers are corporate. It recognizes that family farmers *have to* sell to large corporations regardless of whether the farms are "owned" by corporations.

2-The film did not say that "E Coli only exists because cattle eat corn," but it did say that e coli in their systems is vastly reduced when they switched to a grass diet for just a few days. This leaves even the possibility of feeding them corn to grown them, and then just switching them to grass for the last week of their lives before they are slaughtered so that less and less of things like this happen: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/11/03/be ... ll.e.coli/

3-Whether "Organic crops are better for you and the environment" simply depends on how you define "Better." So it is simply unfair to say that it's "untrue." Organic crops may not be more nutritious, but whether they are "better" depends on what you mean by "better." That is all.

4-It is also unfair to say that it is "untrue" that "Antibiotics aren't necessary for production of meat." Assuming the film says that, (and I do not think it says anything against using antibiotics when an animal is sick), antibiotics simply are not necessary for the production of meat. Whether they're "necessary" for a large profitable farming business or for something else is another question. Also, it depends on what you mean by "necessary."

Frankly, I think Food, Inc. is an excellent film. A lot more balanced than Earthlings, which just makes you feel horrible and doesn't offer a whole lot of solutions.

decides2dream wrote:

Jeanwah wrote:

This doc. looks just like The Future of Food, which was very good, but I'm not going to watch Food, Inc. if it's basically the same info. Is it? Anyone? D2D?

i can't say as i've not seen the future of food. so no help there.


embrace - nice post!
i've seen that book and have considered picking it up a few times...perhaps i finally will!
way back when, when i was veggie....i read soooo many books on food, animal rights, factory farming, etc, etc. while i have not maintained that lifestyle, i do try to always find that ever elusive 'balance'...

(btw - sad i did not see you in philly!)

Hiya :wave: Missed seeing you as well - hopefully Spring!!! and we can share a bottle of red

If you are a reader you should def check it out- she weaves a personal quest (to eat everything local for 1 year) with a lot of fact about the corporate food system. It has a lot of the same truths that are relayed in Food Inc.

One of the most jaw-dropping stories involves a lawsuit in Canada where a large producer of commercial corn ends up suing small farmers on nearby farms because they are growing the genetically altered varietal (more "hardy" in their eyes) for which they own the rights...corn is pollinated in the air so its not that these farmers sought out the corn but that it ended up on their land due to proximity...It's the eye-opening, get it out to the masses which is so right on for me- Freedom of Speech and Thought and educate yourself at least some of these nasty "hidden truths" are seeing some sunlight.