**It should be noted that these were not the only points that disgusted and angered me, but many others. Maybe if I have time, I'll dust the box off once more and share my thoughts with you.
Below is my reaction paper, please feel free to comment your thoughts.
Also, if you feel moved by my words, please watch the documentary and visit its website in order to find out ways you can help ignite a change.
The Blood, Sweat and Tears of Food
For centuries, humans lived nomadic lives by traveling in order to follow their food sources and survive. However, as humans began to evolve, that lifestyle was traded in to form the foundations of agriculture. This change in humanity set of a chain of events, causing the human population to grow exponentially. Over time, the increase in demand helped revolutionize the way people look at their food and how it’s grown, but not every revolution ignites change for the better. Today, the simple task of growing food has transformed into a multi-billion dollar industry that is more protected than the people whose mouths it feeds. After watching the documentary Food Inc., I walked away realizing that the food system that should be nourishing and helping our population prosper, is harming the people who feed us.
Currently, only 3 or 4 companies control the meat market. In comparison, only a handful of corporations control the rest of the food we eat (Food Inc.). When looking at it from a farmer’s point of view, there aren’t a lot of options when it comes to finding employment; it’s either to run a small-family run farm with an unsure financial future or work for one of these corporations and know that a paycheck is going to come on a regular basis. For many farmers, the former isn’t an option; these large corporations produce so much food on a large scale, it drives down prices to a point where the small town farmer can’t compete. So, these farmers enter contracts with these corporations, which then set guidelines for the way they want their produce or product produced; they have to have a certain amount and type of tractor or seeds. As a result, these farmers end up borrowing money from banks in order to enter into these contracts (Food Inc.). What bothered me the most however, was that the borrowing didn't stop there. These companies keep expecting these farmers to upgrade their equipment on a regular basis, even though the new equipment costs a lot and the old ones work fine. What is the point of getting a $50,000 harvester to harvest 100 more corn stalks a year, if the farmer only makes $20,000, a year and already has a good harvester that he is still paying off? To me, it seems that these corporations are trying to find as many ways possible for them to make the the biggest profit possible. Which from a business standpoint is fine. after all, the sole purpose if for a business to make money. However, that profit should not come at the price of compromising a man or woman’s livelihood. These farmers work hard; they deserve to keep every penny they make.
Besides the massive amount of debt these farmers are in, they are still expected to purchase seeds annually. A few years ago, the supreme court ruled that an individual can own the value or right to life, paving the way for corporations to genetically alter life and patent it. As a result, 90% of the nation’s soybeans are genetically modified and owned by Monsanto (Food Inc.). In order to ensure that their monopoly over the genetically modified seeds remains in place, they have altered their beans so that they do not produce sterile seeds. Yet, some cash-strapped farmers still harvest the best seeds and clean them anyway in hopes of saving some money. Honestly, if I were a farmer I would do the same thing; it’s both practicable and reasonable. Why would you want to spend money buying something you already have at your disposal? It makes no sense and yet Monsanto wants the farmers to do exactly that. Knowing full well that farmers harvest their seeds, they have a team of lawyers and private investigators that are ex-members of the military who track down people to sue them for patent infringement (Food Inc.). To make matters worse, they even have a 1-800 hotline where people can turn their neighbors in. This has caused not only mental distress to farmers, but put hundreds of seed cleaners out of business. And for what? So that one corporation could make an extra $1,000 or $2,000 a year? In a way, the company has turned the humble agriculture industry into a greedy game of cat and mouse.
Another gloomy place on the board game of horrors created by Monsanto is where the humble small town farmer has his life shatter before his eyes. Currently, Monsanto has a list of all the farmers that purchase their products from them. They also keep a close eye on the farmers that don’t purchase from them or discontinue purchasing their product by sending investigators in the middle of the night to test fields for traces of their GMO gene (Food Inc.). After, they look at that list to see which category the farmer falls on. If they have traces of the gene in their yield and don’t purchase their seeds from them, they sue them. This is completely unfair, especially since the gene can be carried by the wind by pollen. Is it really the farmer’s fault that the wind contaminated his crops? What are they expected to do, build a dome over their crops to prevent the cross contamination? It’s inhumanly possible to control the direction of wind! Yet, Monsanto decides to sue them anyway and more often than not, they win because they can afford expensive lawyers and force the farmers to settle out of court. This then leads the farmer to take out even more loans in order to pay Monsanto for patent infringement. Sure the corporation won and got it’s money, but what does this loss really mean to the farmer? Sometimes, everything.
Many of us, myself included, don’t really sit to reflect on the food that we eat. We don’t think about where it came from or who helped grow it. More likely than not, all of the food we eat has been genetically modified in some way or another. As a result, our food is lying in the hands of a few corporations just like Monsanto. The sad part is, the problems farmers face aren’t only faced by soybean farmers; most of them face the same challenges each day. While Monsanto has a bunch of big shot lawyers to defend them, who do these farmers have? Its documentaries like this that remind me why I want to go into law. I want to ignite change, make a difference and give a voice to the people whom are often forgotten. Yet, we don't all have to be lawyers to spark this change. The solution is education. If more people were to see this documentary and learn about the blood, sweat and tears that went into producing our food, I know that a revolution will occur. Let’s just make sure it’s for the better this time.
Citations
Food Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Prod. Elise Pearlstein. Perf. Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan. Magnolia Pictures, 2009. DVD.
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