The Adventures of Baby Arthur

by Lincoln

I was surfing through Netflix's Instant Playlist the other night when I decided to watch the documentary, Food Inc., for no particular reason. (And almost on cue, an article about faulty beef treatment with ammonia showed up on the NYTimes.com.) The 94 minute documentary covers a broad number of issues, but to make a long story short, we don't really think about where our food comes from do we? Food Inc. attempts to follow the trail from the supermarket to the source and it exposes an alarming number of issues that everyone should know about.

The story of Kevin Kowalcyk resonated deeply. Kevin was a perfectly healthy 2-year old child until he suddenly became ill and died in a span of 12 days. The diagnosis: E.coli O157:H7 poisoning, from several hamburgers he had eaten during a family vacation before he passed. Since then, Kevin's mother, Barbara Kowalcyk, has made it her mission to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. Her efforts have resulted in the sponsorship of new legislation, appropriately named Kevin's Law, that would empower the USDA power to shut down plants that repeatedly produce meat contaminated with E-coli or other deadly pathogens. But the story is the same as it is for many issues in this country. The bill is not currently on the Congress floor as a result of resistance from the powerful meat lobby.

How did this all happen? Over the last few decades, the food industry has undergone consolidation and production of our food has moved away from the small farmer towards several extremely large and powerful corporations, such as Tyson and Cargill. Almost everything we buy in the supermarket can be traced back to these mega-companies. The mechanization, automation and factory line style production was introduced in order to maximize profits. Animal feed is engineered so cows, pigs, chickens and other produce can be raised from birth to slaughter in the shortest time possible. The feed used is often unhealthy and unnatural, which has led to the introduction of bacteria like E-coli into the system. To make matters worse, the animals are often crammed together in tight spaces and they are basically standing in their own feces for their entire lives. Add these two factors together and what you end up are the mass contaminations that we've been reading about in the news for the last 10 years.

To combat this problem, some companies have been washing the meat with ammonia! (NYT Article) Food Inc. attributes many of the health problems we see in this country as a direct result of all the various chemicals that are introduced during the factory-style production of our food.

The documentary really enforced what Liz and I have been trying or best to do when it comes to groceries since Arthur was born. When given a choice, we always buy the organic option. However, it's pretty impossible to only eat local and organic foods in our society and I do enjoy a McDonald's meal every once in awhile. But we won't be feeding Arthur that anytime soon!

I also started thinking about our trip to Dutchess County (Day 2) and remembered the farms we visited, the fresh food and just how clean and simple everything was. You see the animals grazing and that's where the food is from... not from some dark, busy factory plant somewhere no one knows about. I'm glad that the small farmer lives on.

It might be worth the added cost of seeking out the local options and buy from places like Fleischer's Meats and stick to grass-fed beef. I'm glad we're lucky enough to have such options here in NYC at least. I think even doing this half of the time will probably be better than not at all.

Labels: feeding, food, parenting