FoodINC Reflection

1. After watching Food Inc, what are your impressions of how science of food industry, technology of food industry, and society are interrelated?

I think that food industry, its’ technology and society are connected as the following:
First come a lot of hungry consumers which don’t have enough time to make and eat healthy, not so good looking food. -Is it going to be so tasty without all those chemicals that will be added by the food industry??? No!
Then comes the food industry, which gives the animal, for instance a cow, the fat food to make it better and tastier for us. In the first place, the saddest thing to me, the death of the animal, but certainly it starts off with a circle of an endless production, which should be faster, cheaper, and with a lot additives and chemicals… that’s the time when factories start making the product or packaging for the animal meat to be put in. We, the consumers buy that fat, tasty looking animal to eat at home. We gain the animals fats because we have eaten their meat, so we full-fill our fats, right?
Thirdly, there is one more problem: we also gain all those chemicals from animal meat, and we are not aware of all the consequences on our health while we enjoy in eating the genetically tastiest food ever!

2. How did the film describe science & technology as a positive or negative impact on society or the environment?

In my opinion, science and technology are described to have a negative impact both on society and the environment. Factories have fewer workers involved because the machines do everything by themselves; however they also can create a huge amount of carbon dioxide and other pollutants which harm the environment. But factories are built to full-fill the needs of the hungry, fast rising human population and so that’s why they are necessary to exist but their technologies are sometimes bad for consumers, because we can intake things that are genetically modified which is not healthy because who know what kind of chemicals they include. Take a hamburger from McDonalds. It is not healthy, doesn’t have any nutrients, and is genetically modified so it is not real at all but it looks and tastes really great!

3. How do our consumer choices affect what is out on the market and therefore, our own species survival?

Consumer choices are not often very smart, but we should really be aware of what we are taking inside of our bodies because our healthy choices will affect our own survival. My mother was retelling a movie to me which is created by a man who had eaten only McDonalds for a month, and at the end of that month, he was much heavier and fatter, exhausted and with a lot of disease that can just a person have who is for example chronically sick. (That is the reason why she doesn’t allow me to go to McDonalds.) So, the point is that we should be very careful when buying and eating something, however, marketing, I admit, is a miracle! We care mostly about taste, and less about health; we, as consumers look at how, or if the food package is nicely decorated, and attractive to us. Also, we look at TV commercials which are also suited in the technology group. But, if we stop buying products, they will not be out in the market anymore because it is a waste of the producers’ time and money to make it. So we should try to raise our own awareness of what we want to eat, and that will direct industry to make healthier products.

4. How are we as humans connected to how the Earth is used?

Humans have mainly caused problems on the Earth, because they are on the top of food chain, the most intelligent mammals, but the ones that don’t use the Earth just to survive, more to enjoy and obstruct. We caused a lot of disturbance using much more spaces and resources than we really need, also in not recycling, polluting waters, airs, causing global warming etc. we kill mammals and animals to get our food, we cut down trees to get materials such as paper, cardboard and so on. We have done a VARIETY of things to our Earth, and the only way we can change this is by caring, and respecting the environment around us. For instance, we can buy food cans, we can recycle the things that are recyclable, we don’t need to pollute the waters by throwing poisonous trash in there and harming the air by causing climate change with gases coming out of our roof, we have to respect everything around us, because everything around us is ideally our environment and our society. We can help.

5. A few ideas that popped up in conversation throughout the movie were:

When do we say "no" to more high tech devices and go back to what caused the problem in the first place? Why are we only into the "HOW" things work and not the "WHY" things don't? What did this farmer mean?

The questions that the farmer has asked are to me very suspicious. In my opinion, people think that they cannot help, and that they cannot do anything to make our environment a better place, because they think that others don’t care, so why waste their time. But they are wrong, every little piece they waste is trouble for the WHOLE Earth. That is a big problem, and that really affects the Earth. The other possible reason is because it can be expensive for them so they don’t want to waste time and money on that. Anyways, back to what I was talking about, humans think that they cannot help, so they make up things that are already possible for them to do, just talk about how things work, and leave out the why because they don’t want to waste time learning more .

6. What is the difference between natural farming and industrial farming? Which is better? Are they both necessary for human survival? Why or why not?

Natural farming is much better and causes non-use of technology. The difference between those two things is that natural farming is when farmers use their own hands to pick up food and vegetables, it involves less industry, less chemicals, but also less resources obtained, ex. less food, or meat. In opposite, the industrial farming is when people use technology to do the work for them, it includes big land spaces, machines and chemicals, but all these things should be very controlled, for me, it looks more as “allegedly”. Natural farming is better because it includes clean and not genetically modified, but it cannot give enough food for all people on the Earth, that’s why industrial farming is also necessary!

7. If technology and industry have improved so much that we are getting faster, fatter, bigger, and cheaper, how are science and technology held responsible for improving or ruining human health and survival?

Human health and survival depend on a lot of things. First of all, space and nutrients! They both should be healthy, but, unfortunately, they are not, because everything is getting faster, fatter, bigger, cheaper and less healthy for sure. So the more fats from an animal we gain, the worse it is for us. I would say that technology makes some kind of fake food for us, and it can ruin our health. This also goes to animals. Animals that eat that kind of food are poisoned. Then when we eat the animal, we get poisoned too. So it is a problem anyhow!

8. What economic costs, environmental costs, ethical costs, health costs, and cultural costs did you observe while watching the film?

Everything costs, but the human health most-for example if u are sick, you can’t go to work, you can’t earn money, and you have to pay insurance, medicaments etc. So you waste a lot of money by getting healthier, instead of just keeping your good food choice. The ethical cost can be seen by the unfair choices that are offered by factory owners-buying cheap and tasty, no matter if it’s not healthy. Environmental costs are also obvious, spreading diseases, pollution, occupying spaces etc.

9. Finally, state your final thoughts about this film and any changes you see happening in the food industry in the future or even your own eating habits.

I think that this movie stated the right facts, and everything was very well said. I agree with most of the things, and I learned, well not learned, but figured out why my mom was so against eating my favorite McDonalds meal-now I have much more understanding and facts that I can tell her to support her.