Industrialized Food:  Where Should We Go From Here

by Kari Kennedy, RD, LDN 

            Recently there has been a lot of press and a front page spread on an article in the Times titled "The Real Cost of Cheap Food."  I recently showed the documentary Food, Inc. in our OPTIFAST class which sheds light about how our food supply has changed more in the last 50 years than the previous 10,000 and people are starting to take notice as are our bodies. 

            According to the Food, Inc website, filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment.  Though the companies try to maintain the myth that our food still comes from farms with red barns and white picket fences, our food is actually raised on massive "factory farms" and processed in mega industrial plants. The animals grow fatter faster and are designed to fit the machines that slaughter them. Tomatoes are bred to be shipped without bruising and to stay edible for months.  The system is highly productive, and Americans are spending less on food than ever before. But at what cost?  Cattle are given feed that their bodies are not biologically designed to digest, resulting in new strains of E. coli bacteria, which sicken roughly 73,000 Americans annually. And because of the high proliferation of processed foods derived from corn, Americans are facing epidemic levels of diabetes among adults and alarming increases in obesity, especially among children.