Ruminating on "Fast Food Nation"
As I sat watching a recent sneak preview of the movie “Fast Food Nation,” director Richard Linklater’s fictional movie based on the 2001 book by Eric Schlosser, the quote “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see either of them being made” came to mind. Clearly, sausage-making, and the whole stomach-turning process of turning livestock into meat for that matter, is not a pretty business. As the owner of a company that provides feed additives to the animal industry, I have seen my share of chicken houses and processing plants, and while it’s not all bucolic red barns and farmers in overalls, the process is efficient and safe and provides a steady supply of affordable and healthy food to homes all over the U.S. and across the world.
Therefore, I must respectfully disagree with the premise of the movie that modern agricultural practices and food processing techniques somehow dehumanize and contaminate the food chain and only serve money-grubbing multinational corporate types whose chief desire is to create chemically treated, hormone raised, genetically altered food and market it in colorful packages decorated with cartoon characters to unsuspecting children. Yes, there are some things that the food industry can do to tackle the complex problems of obesity and diet in this country and yes the animal industry could adopt more environmentally friendly measures. However, the system works, and advances in the breeding and management of crops and livestock over the years have increased productivity and improved safety margins that benefits producers and consumers alike.
Organically grown foods and community-based farming, increasingly popular and mainstream recently, is not the complete answer. While these types of practices may have less impact on the environment and connect people to where their food comes from, organic farming can only feed a subset of the overall population. And until we are prepared to pay significantly more for the foods we buy, conventional farming practices will be the way most of the meat and produce we consume is delivered.
