Common Sense Topic: Our Food Sources

Film                                                                Director

Food Inc.                                                         Robert Kenner

Food Matters                                                   James Colquhoun Carlo Ledesma

Forks Over Knives                                          Lee Fulkerson

Vegucated                                                       Marisa Miller Wolfson

A Place At The Table                                     Starring Jeff Bridges

The common thing each of these films showed is that we are a nation with an abundance of food and resources. Yet we have a poverty level that is not far from some third world countries. This is something no one wants to talk about. When people pull themselves out of poverty, they face a dilemma, they lose subsidized childcare and food stamps or SNAP as it is called now. The people will work really hard to pull themselves out of poverty to just end up back in poverty. We punish people for working hard and try to be self-sufficient by making them food insecure. We have a food insecurity problem across our country that is growing every year. I can say with all honesty I often go hungry so my daughter does not.  I often stress over food that does not get eat but thrown out. We often do not know where our food for a day or week will come. Very rarely do food banks have fresh vegetables or fruit. They rely on donations and what they get at Second Harvest centers where they can buy food by the pound so they tend to get stuff a bit cheaper. People like myself go to free dinners in communities. Then people ask why people in food insecure homes are heavy? That is simple. Healthy food is expensive and junk food is cheap. I know this is the wrong direction.

This brings me to the next issue the films exposed. Members of the Beef Association will also chair all of the government committees like American Deictic Association.

Do you see the conflict of interest here? Here is the direct problem. All the commodity-based foods like soda and sugar are cheaper than say apples and asparagus. It should be the other way around. Romen is 2.22 at Wal-Mart for twelve packages. Then we have what is called Food Deserts. These is an area where there may be a mom and pop store with junk food and canned foods. Nothing fresh. And some areas will have fast food places but nowhere to buy actual groceries. The government is ignoring these problems.

An awful secret that was exposed in the films was the treatment animals for the big agi companies. They have billions of dollars because they do not spend any money on vet care. If an overweight chicken has a heart attack because it’s body is bigger than their legs can support. Then you have the fact that chickens, pigs, and cows live in their own waste. Then we wonder why there are illness like mad cow disease and ecoli from tainted meat. It was truly disgusting.

A very nasty little secret the government does not want to talk about is the fact the big agri companies are contributing to the immigration problem. Take a company like Smithfield Farms, they will have over two hundred people from, say Mexico, working and suddenly they get a call that fifteen will be deported and the supervisor will give the people the day off if necessary. Now the supervisor is not worried because there are people coming here to replace the ones who have or will be deported. The people who are here illegally are the ones being punished, not the company. Why not? Because a big agri company like Tyson or Purdue will have lobbyist and they have members on committees. Therefore, they get a warning call instead of a fine.

The video will be at https://youtu.be/HoqLTYy2QJE by Thursday.