Ever since I saw Food Inc. in the theater when it came out, it's been in the back of my mind. It brings up so many issues that are just so relevant to our lives and important for our health and lifestyles. While the trailer doesn't really highlight the aspect of the movie that I want to discuss here--it's all related, obviously. I need to watch the movie again, but what I've always remembered most was the movie's discussion of the blatant political and economic ties between the companies who are producing our food, and the government agencies that are supposed to be regulating what is being produced. The documentary details how instead of protecting the people of the United States, the USDA and the FDA seem to be most concerned with protecting the big agribusinesses like Monsanto. It has been widely reported that members of the USDA, FDA and EPA who are supposed to be unbiased regulators of Monsanto, have been rewarded with extremely high paying jobs from the huge agribusiness. My question is what is the danger, if there is any, in allowing these relationships to continue, and if you think they need to be stopped, how can we do so? How can we regulate those are supposed to be the regulators?
Governmental Ties to Big Agribusiness
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This page contains a single entry by rega0167 published on October 31, 2010 2:53 PM.
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Like you suggest, I do think that ties between regulatory agencies and agribusiness is dangerous. As corporations their number one priority is profit, and we can't really fault them for that. If we change the rules they'll be forced to change how they do business; we can't count on anything to be self-regulating. Theoretically we're supposed to be able to change things like this through voting, but, like you said, oftentimes politicians are on the same page as these big companies. Since that's the case, I think the best way of making some noise is through awareness and through our power as consumers. This issue is getting more and more attention lately, and that's fantastic, but many people still don't know just how unhealthy some of the food we eat is. Movies like Food Inc. are important because they help shed light on problems within the food industry. Once people are aware of the issues they can choose to spend their money elsewhere. This is the best way to get a business's attention. If consumers start wanting something else they have no choice but to respond to that.