"Food Inc." is Garbage

There is absolutely no accountability any more in the American media. We've seen the journalistic pendulum swing from the sensationalistic writing of the 1920s to the misleading reporting of today.

Anyone with a video camera and enough money to produce a film can create a "documentary" about one of their soapboxes - regardless if it has all of the facts straight. That's exactly what the makers of Food Inc. have done to explain their misinformed views about where America gets its food.

This film is absolutely ridiculous. What's even worse is high profile morning shows like Good Morning America can promote the film and further mislead Americans.

Does anyone check their facts anymore?

Food Inc. is a documentary that tries to convince the American public that their food comes from large-scale "factory farms" or "huge agribusinesses".

The film begins with a horse-drawn harvester in a wheat field and depicts "the way American agriculture used to be before large-scale agribusinesses took over the family farm". They claim American agriculture is dominated by millionaire farmers who make their fortunes by mistreating animals and tearing up the environment.

GARBAGE!

Are you kidding me? Millionaire farmers? Do these people have ANY idea about American agriculture is really like? How many millionaire farmers do you know? Seriously.

It's not dominated by large, corporate farms. Read this excerpt from The Hand That Feeds U.S., a campaign aimed at educated urban media about the truth about agriculture:

Ninety-eight percent of U.S. farms are family owned, and the number of non-family corporate farms—an percentage of sales from those farms—has remained virtually unchanged since 1978 (before the modern-day farm bill was even around), according to the Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Large farms, defined by the USDA today as any with sales of $500,000 or more, encompass nearly every full-time farmer in America. And any full-time farmer will tell you that gross sales is not the same thing as net profit. According to USDA data, a 650-acre cotton farm will need to sell more than $500,000 a year just to cover production costs—the same can be said for an 800-acre corn and soybean operation.

These farms produce three-quarters of the country's food, and because they are so essential to America's food security, they are covered under the 2008 farm bill. Importantly, the farm bill also provides a strong safety net to part-time producers who might not grow as much of America's food and fiber, but are important parts of rural America nonetheless.

Ironically, those sectors of agriculture that opted against having a direct form of a safety net in the farm bill have been the most susceptible to vertical integration with large agribusinesses—a tiny detail most farm policy opponents conveniently ignore.

If you want more reasons why Food Inc. is garbage, visit Monsanto's fact site about the movie.

This movie presents such a unrealistic view of how to feed a growing nation. Apparently, we're all supposed to start growing our own food in our backyards.

If all consumers tried to grow their own food, or at the very least bought it from only local farms with limited capacity, it would result in drastically lower levels of food production than we experience now; making our food more expensive without any increase in its nutritional value or improvement in its safety. It would also result in fewer food choices for consumers and possibly lower nutrient intake. Consumers would also likely have to quit their jobs in order to grow and harvest their food, taking us backwards in the United States’ progress as a leading innovator and technologically forward-thinking nation.

Get for real people. If you think American agriculture is causing you to get fat, or is detrimental to your health, or is starving third world countries, or is taking food away from you by creating ethanol - grow ALL of your own food for a while and let me know how that turns out.

Want more information about why this movie is garbage?

SafeFoodInc.com

International Food Information Council

That's my soapbox for the day.