Food Contamination and the Health Risk - Essay Example

Food, Inc Food, Inc. is about the industrialization of food production and supply. The movie offers insights into underlying the relationship between food production methods on one hand, and animal welfare, workers’ rights and human health. Through the movie, award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner together with investigative authors Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) seek to explore the complex the U.S. food and agricultural system by noting changes that has taken place in the last few decades. Besides some compelling footages, the documentary also features voices and eye opening stories of farmers, food experts, food advocates, business people, and government officials. Food, Inc. seeks to inform the audience as consumers about their role in bring change to the system through making informed food choices. Food, Inc. presents an historical overview of the fast food industry indicating the transformation that has taken place over the years based the revolution of farming practices together with what and how people eat in the entire global food system. The documentary singles out the increased demand for fast food, which is inexpensive and unvarying in quality, and taste as what caused the shift to factory farming. However, it is noted that the demand for inexpensive food has led to people paying other prices like poor health and environmental degradation. The government policy of offering subsidies to corn farmers has made the commodity cheap therefore; many food producers find it continent to include corn or its ingredients in different products making corn perverse in many foodstuffs. It has become common, Food, Inc. notes for food producers to include components extracted from corn like xanthan gum, high-fructose corn syrup, and saccharin in their foods. The documentary also covers food contamination and the health risk such contamination pose to the population because of the revolution in food system. Contamination of food for human consumption due to the presence of bacteria such as E. coli has had far-reaching effects on human health as seen from the death of a child who ate contaminated hamburger. To make the concerns in the current food system clear, the documentary explores inherent differences between small-scale farming and industrial farming. Related to large-scale production, Food Inc. explores issues of workers’ rights and immigration of people to work in large slaughterhouses. These workers get low wages, have no job security, and have no right to form unions. The current food industry has made it impossible for small-scale farmers to compete according to Food Inc. the documentary highlights a case of a CEO of what used to be a small-scale organic yogurt production company but his company has since been taken over by a larger corporation called Groupe Danone. Food, Inc. further explores the changes in the food industries specifically targeting the treatment of seeds. The patents held by companies such as Monsanto which sells genetically modified seeds has made it illegal for farmers to store seeds from previous seasons. Some farmers face legal action even when their seeds have been contaminated by the genetically modified once from such companies. Lack of consumer awareness on the way food is processed and the ingredient it contains has been highlighted in Food, Inc as a problem. Many eat thinking they have taken a variety of food nutrients yet they have only eaten the same food type processed and packaged differently. Business organizations as indicated in Food Inc. protect themselves and their products by holding onto intellectual property, and do not use detailed labels or warnings on food products they sale. Flow: For Love of Water Released in 2008, Flow: for Love of Water is a documentary about water management produced by Steven Starr. Irena Salina, the director, includes interviews from activists such as Peter Gleick, Maude Barlow, plus insights from scientists such as Rajendra Singh, Ashok Gadgil and Vandana Shiva in the exploration of the global crisis due to the diminishing levels of fresh water supply on earth. The experts and advocates who feature in Flow: for Love of Water present all the part of humanity that suffers from the poor use of water due to pollution, corporate greed, wasteful use, and privatization. Flow: for Love of Water warns that if the current abuse water supply is to continue, the Earth runs a risk of being derelict, which might lead to the extinction of humanity. Flow: for Love of Water accuses corporations that deals with water like Pepsi, Nestle, Suez, Vivendi, Coca Cola and Thames for the continued mismanagement of water resources, which is seen as more valuable than oil. Flow: for Love of Water underlines the importance of fresh water to human survival from the beginning to the end by. The documentary features water related disasters that are caused by human activities worldwide. Flow: for Love of Water presents as an example of how humanity uses water, different misuse of water resources in different regions of the world. In Bolivia, the film explores a river that has become red due to blood runoff and animal remains from an upstream slaughterhouse that use the river as a dumpsite. The film also features the effects of dam construction in Lesotho and China, which forces many to relocate to arid areas where they are faced with lack of adequate food and clean water. Construction of dams has also been accused of killing the ecosystem it redirects water from the natural course. The water experts warn that these problems should not be taken as affecting certain regions of the world given that water, a transient element, has its recycle process that takes it around the globe through different redistribution systems involving precipitation, evaporation, and accumulation. Therefore, Flow: for Love of Water warns against the assumption that some people are safe from water contamination that happens millions of miles aware since water entrapment and pollution affects all of humanity. According to Flow: for Love of Water, the current situation where a few multinational corporations have control over most of the water on earth should be checked as it is increasing the commercialization of the natural resource. Given the increasing fresh water shortage, the experts warn that corporations like Coca Cola, Thames, Pepsi, and Suez are positioned to be the ultimate power brokers in the provision of fresh water to humanity, which increases the risk that they might blackmail governments to do their bidding. The call for water conservation also covers agricultural practices especially where harmful chemicals like Atrazine find its way in the water meant for consumption. The points out that Atrazine which causes hormonal changes have been scientifically proven present in corn. This presence of Atrazine in corn puts the many people in danger given the corn part of many food types. Failure to purify sewage adequately before releasing to the rivers has resulted in detergents, cosmetics, medicines and other wastes to reenter the domestic water supply (Flow: for Love of Water). Work Cited Food, Inc. Dir: Kenner, Robert. Participant Media, 2008. Film. Flow: for Love of Water. Dir: Salina, Irena. Oscilloscope Laboratories, 2008. Film. Read More