Food Inc 

(you can stream this to your PC for free if you subscribe to Netflix)

Very powerful film.

To have the biggest food issues in America outlined with all the hard truths and ugly facts uncovered made for a tough 94 minutes to sit through, but I suggest you do it—especially if you never heard much about big agriculture and its negative aspects.

Story of a young boy that died from E. coli seems like an isolated incident; until they point out how many large eat recalls are coming out, and they are becoming more frequent as big farming gets bigger.  

Any of us could die from the lack of care the food system takes in trying to keep us from dying 5,000 people a year die from E. coli a year).

Monsanto genetically engineers soybeans—if a farmer buys them, he isn’t allowed to collect the seed from this year to plant next year.  They have investigators come and check in if you are suspected, and of course, they have an idea how much you should be buying. 

Food Inc explained that a farmer who doesn’t even buy their genetically modified bullshit can become a patent infringer even if he nevers buys any of it; if his neighbor’s farms genetically modified seed pollinates his crop and becomes a part of his crop, Monsanto can sue you.  If they test your crop and find enough of their modified gene in it, you can no longer collect your own seed anymore..it becomes their seed. 

Monsanto is an evil company, no denying it.  They make chemicals that do stuff, and then they set to work sticking them up your ass, whether you like it or not—dead or alive.  And they are very good at getting people that have worked for them into big FDA and USDA positions so things go their way.  Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court Justice Thomas, was actually a Monsanto lawyer for a long time. 

I spent 2 years working for a dairy right near my home and Monsanto took that dairy to court while I was there—they were in court the whole time I worked there, settling just before I moved on.  Monsanto sued them simply for advertising ‘No Artificial Growth Hormones’ on their milk.  That’s it. 

Not ‘Growth Hormones are Bad’ or

‘Monsanto would kill you and you kids in a heartbeat for $.10’

They put a little burst on the gallon to catch on with the organic crowd.  They called it their ‘farmer’s pledge’.

Well, after a lot of money was spent (in many cases, continued legal expense is just a means of extortion to get people to sign otherwise nonsensical documents to shut them up and making them stop doing things) the dairy finally settled.  The settlement involved them having to add verbiage to the little ‘No Artificial Growth Hormone’ burst that basically said

‘*There is nothing wrong with Artificial Growth Hormone’

They were just flexing their muscles and smacking around the little guys to send a message to milk producers everywhere.  ‘you wanna get cute and make a statement?  We’ll sick a pack of lawyers on you and divert every penny you make to lawyers for the next 3 years, so think twice about saying a word.’  It’s highly effective.  It’s the American way!  

Here is a link to a Vanity Fair story outlining the villainous ways of Monsanto.

 Vanity Fair article 2008

There are 13 major slaughterhouses in America and an unbelievable percentage of all meat we eat runs through one of them.  The animals and workers are both severely abused and when they are doing their part in the chain it is miserable and they have zero choice but to comply.  The control in the industry is so consolidataed, no farmer or little guy has a snowball’s chance in hell.

I just get so seethingly frustrated after watching a movie like this.  

I found it eye-opening—we all eat and unless you are growing everything you consume on your own property, and you live very far from anyone else, the subject matter affects you directly.