Food, Inc.

[ZRabbits]

Thank you for your suggestion. My husband knew about it, but we did watch again.

Very interesting. Also would like to share with you a website and maybe you know of it.

Offthegridnews.com. Also extremely helpful.

Wishing you and your son all the luck. Sorry that some disapprove but it seems that things are changing here to enlarge the bunny family

and that is GOOD!

You stay safe.

K

 

[pxtyson]

I think everyone should watch this DOC.

 

[missyscove]

I think with things like this it's important to remember that there is bias on both sides. A few weeks ago, I was waiting in line for my free burrito at a local burrito place and had someone say to me, "If you'd seen 'Food Inc.' you would never eat beef again."
I responded, "Actually I have, but I'm also an animal science student and just finished working hands on with some beef cattle so I'll go ahead and take the beef."

My education has allowed me to tour a number of farms - both big and small- as well as facilities like a "meat solutions" slaughterhouse and even a veal grower and I am consistently impressed by what I see. Yes, there are bad facilities out there and it's easy to generalize but in the end, the industry is willing to conform to whatever the consumer wants (and is willing to pay for). Consumers have driven value-added products like organics or "natural" meats, group housed veal, concepts like "free-range" or "pasture-raised" that generally decrease the efficiency of the industry and that are honestly not always in the animal's best interest. I love animal products and have no intentions of decreasing my consumption, but I also know what I want in a product and I'm willing to pay more to get it. At the same time, not every consumer can pay more so there's an important balance between the ideal situation for the animals and efficiently (and nutritiously) feeding the world.

 

[Raspberry82]

It's a good documentary, but it just scratches the surface. Studying animal science is well and good, but it doesn't show you what raising cows entirely on cheap GMO corn does to their system and how that completely changes the nutritional quality of the meat. Raising cows like this encourages nasty bacteria and antibiotic resistant bacterial strains to grow and spread. MRSA has been found in meat. That's a big hint we are raising animals in a bad way. Cows are meant to eat grass and grass-fed meat has more of the nutritional balance we need with omega 3s and 6s.. commercial beef has zero omega 3 which is the more important essential fatty acid.

Most ground beef has parts from over 20 different cows from all over the country in 1 package. That's pretty nasty. It also makes it almost impossible to trace if it ends up making you sick.

Temple Grandin did a lot to change slaughterhouses and make things more humane for animals also. But we have a long ways to go. I hope eventually organic and local meat will become more affordable for everyone.. we all deserve better food than stuff full of antibiotics.

The other factor to consider with eating non-organic meat, dairy, eggs is that there are still levels of antibiotics in those meats. So over time, consuming those meats can and does cause people to become resistant or allergic to common antibiotics when they need them for emergencies.

 

[New to Rabbits]

I highly reccomend the book "What to Eat" by Marion Nestle. Its basically an encyclopedia that people can use to sort real meaningful food terms from mumbo-jumbo.

http://us.macmillan.com/whattoeat/MarionNestle

 

[Apscvt11]

In Denmark they banned sub therapeutic use of antibiotics in an effort to stop resistance in humans, but it has basically failed after an entire decades worth of data was analyzed. And since some of the antibiotics that were showing levels of resistance weren't even being used in the livestock industry it stands to reason there are other factors, one of the being hospitals.

Banning antibiotic use can also end up being more expensive for the producer and less productive which will raise food prices way up. In addition, since the sub therapeutic antibiotics were banned, it was sometimes necessary for veterinarians to prescribe even more therapeutic drugs, leading to a higher level of antibiotics being used than if they were allowed in moderation to begin with.

Sure, a ruminant has a digestive system that evolved to eat mostly high fiber content, but today their diets are closely monitored at feedlots. Feeding too much grain CAN cause acidosis which would cut into their profit if they had to treat all the cattle people think are being pumped full of too much grain. And I hate to break it to you but even organic food can be a GMO.

I agree that feeding large amounts of livestock in smaller areas is not IDEAL but it is necessary in order to continue being able to feed our growing population. Grass fed beef, while it has slightly higher levels of Omega 3's, is not really that much more nutritious for you and it is actually less environmentally friendly than corn fed beef due to the amount of land needed, taking longer to grow, methane emmisions, etc. If you would like to read about that more look up work by Judith Capper.

Most of the "healthy" "organic" "natural" stuff is marketing nowadays. Slap a label on it and people will buy it thinking they are eating healthier or being environmentally friendly when that isn't the case at all.