HW 10 Food, Inc Response

Power is being used against workers, farmers, and consumers who don't understand the complexities of food in the United States. Farmers are being exploited by these big businesses who purposely give them less money for a larger quality of food. Workers in these factories are being exploited because they are used up until they can't work independently. Working in slaughterhouses is one of the most dangerous jobs out there, because everyday workers risk stabbing someone, cattle falling on them, and other dangers. Big corporations have a connection to the government because in the movie there was a guy working for Monsanto, who moved on to get a government job, then came back to work for Monsanto after being offered a higher salary. The main idea is that all these people have a connection and this is what allows their businesses to strive. In the movie, something that was not mentioned in Fast Food Nation was that Monsanto sued a man whose job was to clean seeds, to save money. Monsanto didn't want that, the goal was to make people spend more money to buy seeds and they would continue to increase the prices. Monsanto sued this man because he would interfere with that goal. In the book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser made an interesting point, he said, "Today the handful of agribusiness firms that dominate American food production are championing another centralized system of production, one in which livestock and farmland are viewed purely as commodities, farmers are reduced to the status of employees, and crop decisions are made by executives far away from the fields" (Pg. 266). Basically the most powerful businesses in the past have been replaced by technology and a new system of capitalism. This new system exploits farmers,workers and the consumers who don't know the truth.