Since we are talking about agriculture in the U.S. and Canada tonight, I thought I would post Stephen Colbert's testimony in front of Congress on migrant workers. Enjoy!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Food, Inc.
As I was putting together today's lecture materials on the U.S. and Canada, I was reminded of a documentary that I watched about a year ago: Food, Inc. Part of my lecture was about the development of agriculture in the U.S. and Canada and as I was putting that part of the lecture together, I was seriously contemplating showing that documentary to the class (unfortunately, it would eat up way too much class time). So, for those of you who may read my blog, I highly encourage you watch it. Here is a synopsis from a movie reviewer:
"The current method of raw food production is largely a response to the growth of the fast food industry since the 1950s. The production of food overall has more drastically changed since that time than the several thousand years prior. Controlled primarily by a handful of multinational corporations, the global food production business - with an emphasis on the business - has as its unwritten goals production of large quantities of food at low direct inputs (most often subsidized) resulting in enormous profits, which in turn results in greater control of the global supply of food sources within these few companies. Health and safety (of the food itself, of the animals produced themselves, of the workers on the assembly lines, and of the consumers actually eating the food) are often overlooked by the companies, and are often overlooked by government in an effort to provide cheap food regardless of these negative consequences..."
Interested? Here is a trailer. I hope you watch it. It's definitely worth it! You will view the things you eat a little bit differently afterwards.
"The current method of raw food production is largely a response to the growth of the fast food industry since the 1950s. The production of food overall has more drastically changed since that time than the several thousand years prior. Controlled primarily by a handful of multinational corporations, the global food production business - with an emphasis on the business - has as its unwritten goals production of large quantities of food at low direct inputs (most often subsidized) resulting in enormous profits, which in turn results in greater control of the global supply of food sources within these few companies. Health and safety (of the food itself, of the animals produced themselves, of the workers on the assembly lines, and of the consumers actually eating the food) are often overlooked by the companies, and are often overlooked by government in an effort to provide cheap food regardless of these negative consequences..."
Interested? Here is a trailer. I hope you watch it. It's definitely worth it! You will view the things you eat a little bit differently afterwards.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)