Abel Del Pino

Period 7
Food Matters Essay

After reading and viewing various works on the subject of food, I have realized that there is
many serious flaws in the current food system in the US that need to be fixed. The US food system
wastes a lot of food, the quality of food has gone down and there are many problems with certain
agricultural practices.
In the US more than 96 billion pounds of food are thrown away a year (Dive!). The amount of
food that is wasted on all levels of the food system is a lot more than it should be. One half of all
produced food is thrown away (Dive!). Produced food that has even a small imperfection is thrown
away. The film Dive! shows how at the supermarket level, a lot of food is also thrown away. Instead
of donating food that has not been sold or has had a slight change in appearance, large quantities are
thrown away. Jeremy Seifert showed in his film that a lot of the thrown away food is still edible.
Although there are supermarkets that do donate food, supermarkets need to put more effort into
donating edible food that goes to landfills instead of people who really need them.
Another problem that the food system has is how meat producers are caring to the wants of
the consumers. The quality of meat has gone significantly down as meat producers try to keep the
prices of their products low. In the movie Food Inc., union organizer Eduardo Pea says, we want to
pay the cheapest price for our food. We dont understand that it comes at a price. People want
cheaper and cheaper things, but, quality suffers in order to fulfill those desires. More people are
buying food that is created in feedlots and crowded chicken pens because it is cheaper without
knowing why that food is cheap. Michael Pollen says that food produced organically costs more
because it is worth more (Fresh). Although right now people are saving money by purchasing the
cheaper food, eating this food will result in paying more in the long term as a result of the potential
health problems that could occur from eating the lower quality meat. Paying more for food will prove

to be beneficial in the long term and would encourage you to buy and eat less food because the food
is more expensive.
There are many other practices in the food industry that are also harmful. The variety in food
that we are eating has gone down. A large part of foods we eat contains corn or soybeans. Larry
Johnson, a food science professor, said, If you go and look on the supermarket shelf, Ill bet you 90%
of the products would contain either a corn or soybean ingredient. And most of the time, itll contain
both (Food Inc.). The low diversity in the food that we are eating could prove to be a big problem in
the future. If the production of one food were to be significantly reduced due to a disease, it would
have a significantly larger effect than if we would have a large variety in the food we eat. In 2012,
genetically engineered soybeans accounted for 93 percent of soybeans planted, and genetically
engineered corn accounted for 88 percent of corn planted (FDA). This is another problem because
genetically engineered foods could have negative effects that we are not fully aware of. When
farmers use monocultures that have the same genes, the plants are more prone to being wiped out by
the same disease or pest because they all have the same genetic makeup. Another problem has to do
with one of the companies making GE seeds. The company Monsanto has created a bad situation for
farmers. Monsanto creates seeds that are resistant to pesticides allowing farmers to use pesticides as
they please. But, the only pesticide that the seeds are resistant to is Roundup, a pesticide also created
by Monsanto. Allowing them to have something close to a monopoly where they control the prices.
Because Monsanto owns patents on its genetically modified strains, it forces farmers to buy new
seeds every year (Parker). Monsanto enforces this by being armed with lawyers and private
investigators (Parker). Farmers cannot afford to have long legal battles with Monsanto if they want
to sue them. Widespread pesticide use also prevents its only problems. Aside from the environmental
concerns, there is an arms race between the scientists producing the pesticides and the pests. As the
population of pests who survive the pesticides grow, a new pesticide needs to be created and the

pests will adapt again created a cycle. The problems that exist will continue to grow if change is not
made with agricultural practices.
I have learned a lot about the USs food system and the flaws that is has as a result of
industrializing agriculture that I was not too unaware of. There are many people who are not
following this trend and are producing meat organically, like Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, or
teaching non-farmers how to create organic food in their own backyard, like Will Allen. But
unfortunately, the people and companies who benefit off of the current system are able to pay for
lobbyists who promote their views to the government, suppressing widespread change. Learning
about the food system has definitely made me more aware of these issues.

Works Cited
Dive!
Dir. Jeremy Seifert. 2010. Film.
FDAs Role in Regulating Safety of GE Foods.
FDA
. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, n.d.
Web. 16 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm352067.htm>.
Food, Inc.
Dir. Robert Kenner. 2008. Film.
Fresh
. Dir. Ana Sofia Joanes. 2009. Film.
Parker, Chris. How Monsanto Is Terrifying the Farming World.
Miami New Times
. Miami New
Times, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.miaminewtimes.com/restaurants/how-monsanto-is-terrifying-the-farming-world6392824>