Nicholas D. Kristof on Food, Inc.

Originally published by The New York Times
A terrific new documentary, “Food, Inc.,” playing in cinemas nationwide, offers a powerful and largely persuasive diagnosis of American agriculture. Go see it, but be warned that you may not want to eat for a week afterward.
(It was particularly unnerving to see leftover animal bits washed over with ammonia and ground into “hamburger filler.” If you happen to be eating a hamburger as you read this, I apologize.)
“The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000,” Michael Pollan, the food writer, declares in the film.
What’s even more eerie is the way animals are being re-engineered. For example, most Americans prefer light meat to dark, so chickens have been redesigned to produce more white meat by growing massive breasts that make them lopsided. Who knew that breast augmentation was so widespread in chicken barns?
“When they grow from a chick and in seven weeks you’ve got a five-and-a-half pound chicken, their bones and their internal organs can’t keep up with the rapid growth,” explained Carole Morison, a Maryland chicken farmer who allowed the film crew into her barns. “A lot of these chickens here, they can take a few steps and then they plop down. It’s because they can’t keep up with all the weight that they’re carrying.”
Huge confinement operations for livestock and poultry produce very cheap meat and eggs. But at what cost?
Continue reading at The New York Times
Photo by David Jackmanson
- Posted by Causecast
Related causes: Environment, Health
Related Articles
-
Electric Touch Finds Its Power in Youth and America
Electric Touch found time for Causecast’s Brandon Deroche at the Mile High Festival to discuss th...
- 11.07.09
- |
- 01:26pm
-
No Drugs Down The Drain Week: Los Angeles Fights Pharmaceutical Pollution
In L.A., No Drugs Down The Drain Week kicks off November 9, reminding residents that flushing unu...
- 11.06.09
- |
- 04:25pm
-
Screw It, Let's Talk Politics And Religion
Peace Dot is put on by Stanford University and markets itself as an attempt to harness computing ...
- 11.06.09
- |
- 04:12pm
-
Hope Plus: Online Global Activism Portal To Launch In December
At the Copenhagen Conference, a new web portal will be unveiled. The site, Hope Plus, is targeted...
- 11.06.09
- |
- 03:22pm
-
House Leaders Expected To Finally Vote On Health Care Bill
The House is set to vote on the health care bill over the weekend - it isn't too late to make you...
- 11.06.09
- |
- 01:20pm













