You Are What You Eat

I was a vegetarian for about five years; from October 2005 to July 2010 to be exact. I converted when I was in grade 8 because of a video my home economics teacher showed us in class and basically, the horrific images of dying chickens and cows in slaughterhouses was pretty hard to handle for my 13 year old self; I converted right then and there. It’s funny because I remember bringing a turkey sandwich to school that day for lunch and I couldn’t even eat one bite! Certainly, my reasons for becoming a vegetarian back in the day were a bit naive and now that I am more educated about the world, I am debating whether to choose that lifestyle again, however this time I plan not to stop at strictly vegetarianism but go beyond that by learning where my food comes from, and choosing organic and local produce.

Have any of you ever watched the documentary Food Inc.? Here is a little Synopsis: Food Inc. is an American documentary released in 2008, and directed by Robert Kenner, a renowned filmmaker. This movie examines the multi – billion dollar food industry, focusing particularly on the United States. This film touches on corporate farming, unhealthy food production of agribusinesses, industrial meat production, and even industrial grain and vegetable production. It discusses the lack of environmental sustainability and the lack of transparency of this industry and how the first and foremost goal of major food companies is to supply food at cheaper costs, even if it means jeopardizing the consumers’ health. What really riles me is the way that food products in supermarkets are marketed – packaged with pictures of farmhouses and pastures with grazing animals, when in reality these products didn’t really come from a farm; they came from a factory.

Factory farms also known as “facilities Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)” are the breeding grounds for most of our produce these days (chicken, beef, eggs and milk to name a few). To ensure an exponentially fast growth of livestock, and to save costs, something called “animal feed” has been designed. Common ingredients in this feed include unhealthy amounts of grain, plastic and even meat of same species animals many of which perished due to diseases; basically, no real vegetation or grass (food these animals are biologically designed to eat) are being consumed. On top of animal feed, livestock are given copious amounts of hormones and antibiotics. Factory farms also produce excessive amounts of waste which is not managed properly, and leads to the contamination of air and water. Contaminated water from CAFOs can find its way to groundwater, or even disturb the aquatic ecosystems (Source: http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/factoryfarming/). The conditions of these farms are so unhygienic that diseases are common among the livestock; how can they not be considering multiple animals are cooped up in a small space for their entire life. It is interesting to think that the feed these animals consume, the diseases they develop, and the bacteria that are housed in them eventually make their way into our bodies when we eat something like a Big Mac or frozen chicken nuggets from the grocery store.


The unsanitary conditions of industrial farming, among many other reasons, is why I am contemplating returning to the vegetarian lifestyle, but more importantly choosing produce that come from local and small farms (other reasons include leaving a smaller eco footprint – did you know that the average food product travels about 1500 miles to get to our grocery stores? [Source: http://www.takepart.com/foodinc/action], consume lower on the earth’s energy budget, and I suppose deep down, the video I saw in eighth grade still has some sort of effect on me). The University of Waterloo hosts a farmer’s market every year and I haven’t taken much advantage of it during my time in this city. There are also many websites such as www.greenbeltfresh.ca that can locate local farmers markets closest to your city; a great tool! This link provides with some interesting topics discussed in the film, Food Inc., and the importance of educating yourself about where your food comes from. Have a look, because after all, you are what you eat! 

Came accross this cartoon the other day...really gets you thinking about where your food comes from!

Link: http://www.takepart.com/foodinc/action