As we move closer to Earth Day 2010, I decided to return to watching as many films and read as much as I can about the food industry to better understand the sources of the mainstay of our available food. Most recently, I watched “King Corn.” Even though this film is not my first exposure to this kind of information, it has left me saddened and concerned.
Realizing that the generations which came before me had a longer life expectancy than the generations coming after me is troubling. “How can that be,” you might ask, “with all the modern conveniences, technology and advances in medicine?” Sadly, many of the “advancements” have led to inhumane raising of animals in order to bring more meat to market quicker, toxins are pumped into the ground in order to raise larger, bigger yielding crops, and government subsidies are given in order to convince farmers to produce industrialized crops. In addition, high fructose corn syrup is added to everything from crackers to cans of soda. Obesity and diabetes are on the rise at staggering rates of increase. Previous generations spent more than half their earnings on food–today, on average, we spend less than 20% of our earnings on food. We are being conditioned to believe that the abundance of choices and the decreased cost represents improvements in the quality of life; yet, the quality of what we’re actually getting is significantly more inferior to what was available to our grandparents and great-grandparents.
In order to produce larger quantities (unprecedented quantities) more cheaply, industrialized food production has taken the soul out of the growing and raising of food. All the food my grandparents and great-grandparents ate had soul–contained in everything was the sweat and heart of the people who grew the produce and raised the livestock. The food itself was respected. Today, in order to survive, the majority of farmers and ranchers must sell their souls and turn away from the values and beliefs of their ancestors. In turn, the soul of the food itself is being ignored and denied. For many, it’s just too painful to look deeply at what is occurring.
For today, I leave you with data pulled from the King Corn website:
*America’s ability to produce bumper corn crops has translated into a food system awash in high fructose corn syrup and fatty, corn-fed beef.
*Every five to seven years, the US government reauthorizes the farm bill, a complex and powerful piece of legislation that makes an impact on our food system in a wide variety of ways: environmentally, commercially, agriculturally, and economically. Originally developed by Roosevelt’s Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace, the farm bill has grown to include a range of considerations, from commodity farming and rural development to the school lunch program and biofuel development.
*Less than $1 million was spent to promote the 3,700 farmers markets in the United States in 2005, while $9.4 billion was paid to corn farmers. (Source: Imhoff, Daniel, Food Fight, (Healdsburg, CA: Watershed Media), 2007, p. 92; The Environmental Working Group, www.ewg.org.)
*More than $50 billion was paid to corn farmers in the past decade. (Source: The Environmental Working Group, www.ewg.org; the United States Department of Agriculture, www.usda.gov.)
*Over the past three decades, consumption of high fructose corn syrup has increased 1,000 percent. (Source: Imhoff, Daniel, Food Fight, (Healdsburg, CA: Watershed Media), 2007, p. 92.)
*Soft drink consumption has more than doubled since 1971. The average teenage boy drinks two 12-ounce sodas per day. That’s more than 700 cans per year! The average teenage girls drinks 1.4 12-ounce sodas per day, amounting to more than 500 cans per year. (Source: The Center for Science in the Public Interest, Liquid Candy: How Softdrinks are Harming America’s Health, www.cspinet.org/liquidcandy.)
*The prevalence of obesity has quadrupled over the last 25 years among children between 6 and 11 years old. It’s doubled over the last 25 years among adolescents aged 12 to 19.5 years old. (Source: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the National Center for Health Statistics.)
*As Dan Imhoff points out in his book Food Fight, of the 15,000 new food products brought to market every year, 75% are candies, condiments, breakfast cereals, baked goods, beverages or dairy novelties. (Source: Imhoff, Daniel, Food Fight, (Healdsburg, CA: Watershed Media), 2007, p. 91, citing Mark Muller and Heather Schoonover in Food Without Thought: How US Farm Policy Contributes to Obesity, (Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy), 2006, p. 7.)
*Between 1985 and 2000, the real price of fruits and vegetables increased by 40%, while prices for soft drinks decreased by 24%. (Source: Pothukuchi, Karni, The Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan) June 11, 2007; United States Department of Agriculture, www.usda.gov.)
*Between 2003 and 2005, 66% of crop subsidies went to 10% of farmers. (Source: The Environmental Working Group, www.ewg.org; The United States Department of Agriculture, www.usda.gov.)
*Between 1997 and 2005, the industrial broiler chicken industry saved $11.25 billion, and the industrial hog industry saved $8.5 billion from farm-bill policies that kept corn and soybean prices below the cost of production. (Source: The Global Development and Environment Institute, Tufts University, Industrial Livestock Companies’ Gains from Low Feed Prices, 1997-2005, http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/CompanyFeedSvgsFeb07.pdf.)
