This assignment is about providing relevant points that connect with class lectures, discussion question and outside readings as well as looking at all opposing viewpoints and ethical theories involved. This is NOT meant to be a debate, but a chance to discuss openly (without censure or judgment) all sides to each issue and the theories/rationalities behind various viewpoints.
Do stock brokers put all their investment into one company? Do high school students
only apply for one college? Do generals only have one strategy for battles? The old phase “don’t
put all your eggs in one basket” applies to a lot of decisions of life because we simply cannot risk
the unknown. So why are the agricultural industries going with the all or nothing principle with
our food? I feel the answer is simple in nature but complex in concept. The root of the problem
belong to large corporations, such as Monsanto (by the way is saved as an original word for
Microsoft word), that replaced the “old” farming methods with their “green GREEN” revolution.
How did they set up this system and have we, the consumers accepted it so willingly?
Looking back in history, we can see that evolution by artificial selection practiced by farmers
used to dictate how farmers produced food; this kind of production does not destroy the land and
crop variety but is lower in yield comparing to modern farming. Very few farmers in the United
States nowadays can afford not to give in to buying Monsanto’s genetically modified corn. Why?
Because it produces so much more in net weight than what their seed stock can do in one season.
I think the farmers are suckered into this seemingly golden deal. To protect their monoculture,
they have to buy the company’s fertilizers and pesticides: more greens for the Monsanto. Now
that they have more corn, the price of corn goes down, trapping the few farmer survivors in a
constant positive feedback loop of relying on corporations. Sure, we benefit by the low cost of
food these days, but did anyone consider that one dollar Carl’s chicken sandwich is not truly one
dollar if you think about it? We are outsourcing not only jobs to other countries, but also the cost
to someone else. Someone had to pay to get the bread, lettuce, and patty of that chicken
sandwich to cheap enough for the fast food industry. Someone has to pay the labor of workers
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Journal #2: Food Inc. Chapter 3 and 4
and the transports fee for those products. And the environment pays for the over farming and
over concentration of animal waste from those ingredient factories. All of these outsourcing of
cost make it really hard to see these fast food and agricultural corporation in the self-portrayed
utilitarian picture they often advertise. The richer gets richer and the poorer gets poorer, but there
are underlining costs for this progression.
The drastic decline of the Mayan civilization is caused by disparity of wealth and
environmental degradation, and we have both in our hands right now. I hate to see
Swaminathan’s prediction come true but I will have to accept the evidence that these kinds of
farming and pasturing methods are not “green” (unless you are talking about profits for the big
companies) or sustainable in neither industrialized or third world countries. The big companies
are saying that they are doing their duty to help produce more food for the growing population,
but this is simply not true. Third world nations do not have the money for the company’s seed
package, so we are producing excess food for a society that is already overweight while poorer
nations benefits nothing from our technological advances. Then these large corporations decides
to plant destructive cash crops in these third world nations, getting more food for ourselves while
destroying people’s ways of life and the environment. The poor people in these third world
counties pay the highest cost, in terms of land, pollution, deforestation, etc., for us to enjoy cheap
products. Someone is paying for our sake that is not how Kant’s duty operates, I do not trust
corporations that promotes “good for humanity” when this is their motive. We and the citizens of
third world countries literally did not sign for this.