Food Inc

I watched this documentary sometime early last year and again on Wednesday but was still shocked by what I saw.  Only a handful of companies controls the US food supply and animals are designed to grow fatter faster. Cattle are fed food (corn) that their bodies were not designed to digest, which resulted in the new strains of E.coli. The animals live in such horrendous conditions, for example, cattle are kept in pens where they have very little room to move and spend the entire time knee deep in their own waste. This is another reason why our food is contaminated. When the animals are transported to the slaughter house with their hides caked with feces and it becomes very difficult to keep everything sanitized.  One company’s solution to the problem was to rinse their ground meat with ammonium. I could not believe that this was their answer. How about giving those poor animals more space and cleaning those pens?

The slaughter house workers are exploited by the companies they work for. For example, the workers in plants such as Smithfield’s meat processing plant are treated as machines. They work in such horrible conditions that some get infections, lose fingernails, and suffer other bodily harm. Moreover, the company’s factory is in a poverty stricken area in the south and knowingly hires illegal immigrants from Mexico and then reveals their immigration status to US immigration. The only people how suffer are the immigrants while Smithfield escapes scotch free. Companies like Smithfield pay and treat their workers badly because they no longer look at them as human beings. They know that the workers are easily replaced because of the poverty in the area.  

Something that had me wondering what on earth was going on was the chicken industry. The giant companies are forcing the farmers into so much debt that the farmers have no other recourse but to do as the companies dictate. For example, chicken farmer spend $500,000 following the companies rule but only make $18,000 a year. How on earth are those farmers ever going to pay back all they have borrowed?  It now takes a chicken half the time it took to grow and they now have bigger breast than ever before. They grow so rapidly that their bones are under developed and they cannot carry the weight of the newly designed bodies.

Another thing that was shocking was the fact that the government allowed a private company to patent a food source. The Monsanto Company, developed soya bean that is resistant to pesticides and soya bean farmers how had been saving the seeds for generations were told they could no longer do so. If a farmer beans had the patent gene regardless of nature playing its part thru wind pollination they would sue that farmer. Even after farmers bought the Monsanto’s seeds they could not save them from their crops to replant; they had to buy new ones every year. This law was passed by a Judge who was Monsanto’s attorney before he became a judge. (Conflict of interest anybody)

I was amazed by the amount of people in charge governing bodies like the FDA among other who worked for the giants of food industry. These are the same people are reluctant to enforce the necessary rule to protect the American people; rather they protect the food industry. So many preach about exploitation in foreign countries, but turn a blind eye to what’s happening right here in the US. Working against labeling that would inform people about the products they are buying, whether it is – where the product comes from or that the meat they are buying is the product of a cloned animal.

The company Tyson was praised for they charitable donations, how about extending that charity to their chicken farmers so they can provide an environment that produces healthy food. I guess those companies have never heard of the phrase “charity begins at home.”

I strongly recommend that you watch Food Inc because at the end of the day what we eat affects our health. They are pumping some many antibiotics into those animals due to the conditions that they live and we are the ones paying the price when viruses and diseases become resistant.

We as consumers have power to make the necessary changes for our children’s future. Every time buy or refuse to buy we are utilizing and making of preference known.

My question to you: Do you think that working for those companies created a bias and affected the decisions the Judge or members of the FDA made? What’s your take on the conflict of interest aspect?

In Response to Abby Hajec’s: Pandora Radio: Safe or Unsafe

What is your opinion? Is this sharing of personal information going too far? Or, is it okay for companies to do without our consent?

I guess the company thinks that it is ok because of all those social networks.  It seems to be the norm today to tell the world everything, regardless of how personal it is. So I guess that the company thought that it’s ok for them to do the same, since people don’t seem to care. Don’t get me wrong I am not condoning what they’re done; personally I think that it’s going too far and I believe that people deserve the right to privacy. If there is a possibility that a customer’s information will be shared then the customer has the right to know and the authority to decide whether or not they are in agreement.

So many employers are checking potential employees’ Facebook as a way to gain insight as to who the person really is. I think that we all have heard stories about people who lost their jobs because of what they said on Facebook. I remember listening to the news (maybe it was Stupid news on KNE FM) and the host was talking about this woman that was robbed because of her status on Facebook. She posted that she was going to a concert, where and what time and one of her ‘friends’ decided to make use of that information. The burglar was eventually caught.

Do think the use of social networks and the amount of personal information has affects people’s privacy

Disaster averted: The Government open for business.

I was amazed that republicans seemed willing to shut the government down with so much at stake and jeopardizing the recovery process while commenting that it’s not for drama. Listening to the news on Friday (CNN) a democratic representative said that they did what the republicans requested but it was not enough. The republicans then wanted more concessions and they were not willing to compromise (a word that came up a lot). It seems to be more about a power struggle than anything else and some people care more about their own agenda than the American people. According to Congress.org “Under Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution, members of Congress "shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the United States." Maybe what needs to be done is to renegotiate congress's salary and benefits; if everyone’s salary and benefits are getting cut then so should congress.

One of the recurring arguments is about Planned Parenthood and the fact that they used money funded by the government to conduct abortion. At a time like this the 3% of the funding Planned Parenthood spends on abortion is the least of the country’s problems. They should be happy that people are recognizing that they are cannot afford those children rather than having them and becoming a further burden on the state.  Maybe if more people acted responsibly there would not be such a strain on Social Security.

I understand the cuts were needed to be made and that something had to give, but no one wants to be the one to give. People don’t what to pay more taxes and I understand things are already hard. I don’t want to pay more taxes. Yet they expect so much from the government. Where on earth is the government going to get the money, unless there is some kind of money tree at the back of the White House that I don’t know about. The President inherited a country in crisis, he inherited two wars, he is trying to get the country back on its feet and like they say you have to spend money to make money.

Thankfully congress came to an agreement and the shutdown was averted. The consequences of the shutdown would have been devastating to an already decimated economy.

Do you think that the Tea Party extremists are right in allowing the shutdown and if yes would the resulting damage have been worth it?

Can the public’s perception of a company be affected by the behavior of the companies’ employees’ even outside of work?

Something happened today that really had me thinking about how a person’s perception of a company may be affected by the behavior of the companies’ employees even outside of work.

This is a summarized version of what happened. I was buying beer at a supermarket today and the young cashier needed assistance because of my ID. I am not a US citizen and therefore I have a Green Card issued by the United States government. This means that I am a permanent resident and I pay taxes like everybody else. The floor supervisor who came upon request was someone I had no respect for due to a pervious incident with my Green Card. Based on the principle of what happened I always avoided her and did not want to deal with her then. When she came over I made it clear that I did not want to deal with her and asked her to get her manager. After making it clear several times that I did not want to deal with her, she finally went to get her manager.

The assistant manager of the store came over asked what the problem was and I explained that I did not want to deal with her floor supervisor and why. She then took my card and said that she to go look it up in the handbook. Now this is not unusual I have even helped people find my type of ID in the same book before and have been buying alcohol at the store for the past three years. The assistant manager came back about 10 seconds later and said that she was sorry but my ID was unacceptable because it was not in the book. Imagine my outrage that an assistant manager would lie to a paying customer, someone who should be setting an example. I then told her that that was impossible since I know it’s in the book because I have seen it with my own eyes. Realizing that I know the truth and that I caught her in the lie she proceeded to tell me that they have the right not to sell to me. I also told her that I have spoken to her manager about something similar to this and he apologized and said that it should not have happened. I demanded to speak to the manager she said that he was in another state and that she was not calling him.   

Now don’t get me wrong I know that they have a right not to sell alcohol to anyone but within reason. But they had no reason not to sell to me – I am of age, I have a valid ID, I was not drunk nor was I belligerent and the ironic thing is I don’t drink. While I’m demanding a reason, a customer entering the line next to us pipes up that they have been in the business for a long time and that she is right not to sell to me. That really pissed me off, so I turned to the person and asked even for racist reasons and to my amazement, the person answered for any reasons yes. Realizing that this person was not someone that I could reason with, I ignored them but I was furious because they exacerbated an already tense situation. Still demanding a reason someone else said that she should call the cops, which I replied with please call the cops. The assistant manager knows what she did was wrong and that there is a law against discrimination she then proceeded to ask me to leave. I took her name, said I would be speaking to her manager and left.  

After I left, I found out that the person who had the audacity to tell me that they could refuse to sell me beer for any reason including racism since that was the question I asked, was an employee at Keene State College to my surprise. After my initial disgust, I had to laugh when a friend commented on how everything came back to KSC. On Saturday I presented at the Academic Excellence Conference and among the people I presented to were, the Vice President of the college Jay Kahn, and the Provost Emile Netzhammer. On Sunday morning I was inducted into the Management Honor Society and on Sunday afternoon a KSC employee was supporting someone’s decision to discriminate against me.

So here I was thinking that everything the college was working towards diversity, acceptance, and tolerance was been undermined by its own employee and not just any employee but someone who had a measure of power. The person had no idea who I was or many of the other people who were present. This is a small community and the college’s image may suffer because of the actions of one employee.

Personally if I was another customer and I knew or found out that the person who made such an atrocious comment was a KSC employee and they held the position that they did I would be appalled and would not attend, send my child or family nor would I recommend anyone to attend the KSC. Are we back to the days of Rosa Parks? If they have the right not to serve me based on my race where does it end? They might as well kill me while they’re at it so I wouldn’t ever bother them again. On that note, did Hitler have the right to kills the Jews?

Do you think that employees’ actions affect the public’s perception of a company and can you refuse to serve someone based on their race?

In Response to Ashley Guidi: Green Marketing: What's Green and What's Not

How many companies do you think are actually "going green"?

It is a fact of life that there will always be some people who take advantage of an idea or anything for that matter, to further their own agenda. We have companies that blatantly steal people’s money, companies like Enron for example. The 2008 economic crisis is another example of people doing unscrupulous things to get richer, so it would not be shocking if some companies who say that they are ‘going green’ just to get customers, are lying.

On the other hand there are a lot of companies that are making the effort to be green. Johnson & Johnson although embroiled in turmoil right now, has set environmental goals for the future that are stated in their Healthy Planet. The company also issues a separate sustainability report although unaudited is commendable. The company goals are measurable and in some cases they have reached their goals. Jonathan Fahey's April 26, 2010 article “America’s Greenest Companies” for Forbes, ranked Johnson and Johnson number five out of the top 10 greenest American companies (Intel was named number one).

It now has become economical to be green and companies are realizing that an alternative source of energy is necessary; especially at the rate we are using those nonrenewable resources. They realize that if they don’t change their ways their companies may not survive in the future nor are they immune to the results of the destruction of the planet. We need not only to become green but to encourage more sustainable actions. We are destroying forest, habitats, animals and fish stock, not giving them a chance to revive. Our ecosystem strives on diversity and if something does not change we will be responsible for our own extinction.

Do you think it’s possible to implement more sustainable practices in a capitalist society?

The Inside Job

Over spring break I looked at the documentary “Inside Job” which gave a detailed look at what led to the 2008 economical crisis. It proved that in theory, capitalism works and that regardless how good a system is, once the human variable is added there needs to be regulation. (Every school in this country should watch this and someone should send a copy to president Obama) Many economists and businesses argue for less regulations and more freedom, but they have proved that they are unworthy of such freedom. In fact Wall Street is fighting tooth and nail to prevent some of the necessary measures required to protect the economy from another crisis like the one we are still struggling with. The frailty of human nature, its corruptibility, and the darkness that lies within us all, makes regulations on businesses imperative.  I personally think that those people should be hanged, they committed crimes that affected lives worldwide and escaped unscathed. Ok so maybe we cannot hang them but at least the money that they made scamming people should be used to clean up their mess.

What do you think?

In Response to Douglas Sack

Do you think marketers are to blame? Are American consumers to blame? Or is it the affluent?

I believe that many people shoulder the blame, but not the affluent. So what if they have money and flaunt it, they aren’t holding a gun to anyone’s head forcing them to mimic their lifestyle. In my opinion, if you are stupid enough to go into debt trying to emulate people that make way more money than you deserve what you get.

On the other hand, the American consumer shoulders most of the blame. As an adult you are responsible for your actions, too many times people are not willing to take responsibility for their action. This also is becoming the American way, where people are always looking for someone else to blame. I was brought up to never be envious of what other people have (#1. You don’t know what they did to get what they have #2. You may not want to do the same) and to live within my means. Americans have become so materialist and fake that they have forgotten that money and things cannot buy love or happiness. People need to start getting to know themselves and to start loving themselves. They also need to stop defining themselves by what they have; material things are what you have and should not be who you are. We are social creatures but any friends gained through what you have aren’t true friends and will disappear as soon as there is any sign of financial trouble. Word to the wise, if your friends are like that you are better off without them.

Some marketers carry some of the blame because some of their messages are deceiving. They pretend that this is the way that the average American lives which is not the truth. But then again you are the one paying the ultimate price so you need to be on top of your game. Don’t get me wrong I understand the lure of nice things and the joy of a new purchase, but that happiness is flitting. I also understand the need to fit in but my question is at what cost and is it really worth it? What’s the use of fake friends, grueling hours and you’re not even happy. Do you think it’s worth it?