Are you tired of the normal pepperoni pizza? Fear not: Burger King recently unveiled its “Pizza Burger,” and you can but this these sandwich-pizza for a mere $13 at 2,530 calories. The sandwich consists of four hamburger patties, pepperoni, mozzarella and the auspicious “Tuscan sauce” and has a diameter of about nine and a half inches.
This could never match KFC’s “Double Down,” but fast food restaurants continue to concoct new artery clogging, grease predominant foods. What’s more concerning is that corporations have not merely brainwashed children into unceasingly desiring a McDonald’s Happy Meal, but have taken over the meat-packing industry as well.
To illustrate this Black Op takeover, try to imagine a time when children awoke at early hours of the morning to feed the chickens, milk the cows and collect eggs. Chances are, the only reason you can imagine this is due to films and commercials.
Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation,” wrote, “There is this deliberate veil, this curtain that’s drawn between us and where our food is coming from. The industry doesn’t want you to know the truth about what you’re eating because if you knew, you might not want to eat it.”
Although the bargain chicken, beef and pork in your local grocery store is adorned with graphics of farmlands, streams and pastures- the reality of where our meat comes from can be summed up in four words: mass production in factories.
Generally speaking, farmers still exist. However, they’re now known as factory farmers. The average American devours 200 pounds of meat a year, and to increase production rates, farmers rely on as much technology as possible. Instead of traditional regional producers, factories have become the breeding grounds for our Big Macs.
Robert Kenner, filmmaker of “Food, Inc.”, reported in his movie that of the thousands of meat packers in existence during the 1970s, only 13 exist today — all are backed by the Food and Drug Administration — and control 80 percent of the industry.
Several things are wrong with this picture, many of which affect the average American. Because of the shortcuts taken by the money- mongering CEO’s of the corporations, animal brutality has been taken to an all-new high. Kept in sheds, chickens are born and killed without having seen the light of day and are fed steroids that cause them to grow so large, they cannot carry their own weight. Cows, who aren’t evolutionally equipped to digest corn, are fed corn because it is easily produced and cheaper for packers to use. The unnatural reaction creates bacteria in the cow’s stomach that is also in the feces and post-slaughter. E. coli, an uncommon bacteria, then finds itself in the meat that millions eat on a daily basis, which endangers and can kill consumers.
Who’s to blame? Could it be those who buy the meat at a steadfast rate or those who continue to drown our meat in chlorine in an attempt to cleanse it of its harmful additives? The meat-packing industry will continue to meet the needs of the American people as long as we are content with corporate food. The government will also continue to support these corporations while the Americans continue to spend their hard earned dollars on it.
The reality of the situation can be moderated at an individual level, Kenner suggests, “when we run an item past the supermarket scanner, we’re voting.” At breakfast, lunch and dinner, we’re voting.
Send your vote to Brittany at bemorri1@asu.edu
