I and hopefully many of you received this e-mail this past June 11th. It
read: "On Friday, June 12, "Food, Inc." the new documentary expose of the
safety hazards and corporate control of our current food system will open in
New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco, followed by the nationwide
release on June 19th. The Center for Food Safety (CFS) provided the filmmakers
with both expertise and critical information, and CFS founder and Executive
Director Andrew Kimbrell urged all concerned with the food they eat to see
the film." Of this film- Alice Walker said that it is the film that she had been
waiting for. I trust her opinion and judgment.
I also personally think this film can be an eye opener for all of us and that
it is long overdue. After the crash of our housing industry, the banks, and
Wall Street, I, like most of us, began to see the importance of government
oversight instead of self regulation. We learned the hard way --that the
Republican "hands off policies" of the past certainly did not work as they
and we had hoped. Sadly though, I'm not too impressed with the two
government entities which exist in regard to policing our food, drugs,
and animal welfare. In my opinion, neither the USDA or the FDA are doing
a good job in this regard. Somehow, we always seem to manage to put in
place people who manage poorly or who are allied with the big corporations.
I know they could be doing a better job, and I believe this film will expose
their inepititude.
This film will give all of us a chance to see the effects of the big farm
corporations on the food we daily put on our tables. Big corporations were
allowed to snap up small ranches and farms during the Reagon administration.
And they were the ones responsible for putting our poor farm animals in CAFOs
which are closed-in-entities which deprive the animals of interaction, of
movement, of clean air and sunshine. Where was the USDA and government
then?
For those of us who have believed for many, many years that eating too
much meat is bad for our health were happy that a study recently conducted by
the National Cancer Institute on more than half a million middle-aged and
elderly Americans from 1995 until the end of 2005 reported that "High intakes
of red or processed meat may increase the risk of mortality." They also stated
that white meat is also detrimental but to a lesser degree. Anybody wanting to
read the study can find it on the internet.
Well, for many of us -this finding is not new or surprising, but we are glad the
medical community is finally realizing more and more the deletorious effects
of too much meat in our diet. But not only lessoning our meat intake would
benefit us, but it would also cut down on the harmful CO2 emissions which farm
animals produce. I keep seeing on TV how detrimental Global Warming is but
they still don't mention the need to curb animal husbandry - as if this impact
is minimal. Some researchers feel that it is even more harmful to the
environment than gas guzzling autos and coal spewing factories. Why the
reporters can't seem to say that we need to lesson our meat intake for a
healthier environment baffles me.
Re the suffering of our food animals -at one time I envisioned a vegetarian
society. Yes, quite laughable, naive, and unrealistic. I couldn't even convince
my family in this regard. Now, I just hope that we reduce the amount of meat
we eat - better for our health, the environment, and the animals.
I can't believe that any decent human being would incarcerate a live animal in
such horrible circumstances as the present day factory farms. And then the
fast speeds of the slaughter lines to kill more and more animals to satisfy our
insatiable meat cravings condemn some to even being slaughtered alive.
And have we ever considered the huge amounts of natural wastes and
slaughterhouse ofal (which also makes it way into our dog food) from the billions
of animals we slaughter each year? One brave writer was caught viewing the
tons of innards and waste products which were outside in huge containers at
a slaughterhouse and was told to move on. She did, but the horror of the sights
and smells which sickened and revulsed her were burned into her brain. She
was later able to record them. Though I have forgotten her name, those
interested in learning more re this subject can read the book of another brave
woman who managed to get first hand information re what happens in our
slaughter houses. Her name is Gail Eisnitz and she wrote "Slaughterhouse."
After reading more of the trailer re "Food, Inc." I didn't realize that the film makers
were also of the same opinion as I re the USDA and FDA. They wrote: In "Food, Inc."
filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing unsafe
and inhumane corporate practices that have been hidden from the American
consumer. The film further shows how the government's regulatory agencies
tasked with protecting our food and farmers - USDA and FDA - have instead acted
complicitly with the corporations, causing the current food safety crisis."
How very sad - we couldn't trust the financial unregulated bodies and it seems
we can't even trust our governmental food and drug regulatory agencies either.
What is the answer? I hope "transparency." Nothing re our lives and needs
should be hidden and left solely to the discretion of our Congress and President.
It will also be helpful to have people of real compassion living in the White House.
I'm a little afraid of some of Obama's appointees. Salazar - the interior minister
sees nothing wrong with endangering the polar bears in Alaska with oil drilling.
Pleas to him in this regard have gone unanswered or dismissed. And then
another woman appointee whose name eludes me is a hunter like Palin. Help.
Not what I hoped for from a "compassionate" president.
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