Food

I have never been one to get overly zealous when it comes to causes. However, Sean and I recently watched this movie Food, inc. and it really opened my eyes to the kind of foods we eat. I would definitaly reccomend the movie to everyone. A couple of things really got to me. First the fact that when fruits and vegtables are out of season companies simply spray them with chemicals like petroleom to get them to ripen. Also they give livestock hormones that make them grow faster than their bones and organs can keep up. These animals often cannot stand and live their short lives is horrible pain. Now I am not one to advocate vegatarianism, and I have no problem killing and eating animals, but there has to be a point where we don't eat animals that are tortured or pumped full of hormones. Lastly, I didn't realize how heavily our government subsidizes what are known as cash crops like corn and soy beans. You can actually buy corn cheaper than what is costs to produce. What this has done is cause so much of the junk food that we feed to ourselves and our children to be full of corn products like hugh fructose corn syrup. And, because these food are so cheap there is a direct correlation between income level and obesity. Why would a family buy broccoli for $2.50 when they can buy a bag of chips for less and feed more? Basically our governemtn is paying to support these corn farmers and in return we are paying for the side effects of a junk food nation with our tax dollars. More so, as a fiscal conservative, it makes no sense to me why we are even subsadizing these corn farmers. It should be a free market. The problem is these food corportation who run everything have gotten so big and have so many lobyists and donation dollars, there isn't going to be a change on the government level. What will have to happen is that everyday people need to start voting with their dollars. The movie had a great example of WallMart (don't worry I still hate WallMart for the way they exploit their workers). People started demanding organic food and dairy that did not contain HGH (human growth hormone) and WallMart listened. If WallMart will carry organic food than it can be done. Instead of fighting the big corporation or expecting the government o babysit us into health, we each need to take person responsibility for what we buy and what we eat. If everyone does their part, we can see a change.