Corn Growers Talk Back to "Food, Inc."

3-07-2010 @7:50AM christopher said... @Brad
I don't think you can take Food Inc at face value or anything else for that matter. Its another data point we all can use to make up our minds. Feeding the world is not an easy problem to solve. Growing more food isn't the only solution. We need cut back the some 1200cal/day that americans throw away. We need to cut back the some 3500+cal/day we eat. I don't expect your position to change I hope you can grant me the same.

I'm no fan of government mandated regulations nor am I a fan or a few special interests dictating how the whole country runs. True or False what I said is the premise of the movie and the argument being made. No one sees farmers as the problem tho they are made to look like helpless pawns. There is a lot of accumulated wisdom in conventional farming but the point is we've taken it too far. We always take things too far. You hit the nail on the head saying "Methane is not the only source of elemental hydrogen in the world, but it is the cheapest" - sure we could use the astronomically more expensive electrolysis of water but we will always use the cheapest (today) fuel source until its gone and then worry about the next thing. I think that destroying mountain tops for coal and rain forests for beef will come back and bite us.

I disagree about super-weeds and bugs. Industrial Ags biggest supporter, Monsanto, expects their products to become less effective over time and actively develops new technologies to replace the old ones. If you take antibiotics as an example there are many that are now ineffective against a number of microbes and newer, more toxic antibiotics have to be found and developed. MRSA is a huge problem that came from the overuse of the best tool we've ever discovered. Pesticide resistant weeds are around - do you really want even more toxic material on your food (which degrades into other toxic material)? Creating superpests is only one of the issues surrounding petroleum based farming additives. Runoff causes all sorts of problems downstream ending with deadzones in the oceans.

>"It is cheaper to use ammonia-derived fertilizers to replenish the soil than it is to rotate high-cost low-return legumes and the like."

There is a dutch saying "fertilizer is good for the father and bad for the sons." Soil health depends on the bacteria, fungi, molds, and other microbes that make up the its flora as well as insects, worms, and other bugs. They take complex compounds (leaf litter, bits of wood, organic and inorganic matter) and break it down into simpler compounds that plants can then use as food. Petroleum based fertilizers kill the flora and bugs. Ergo the soil becomes sterile dirt. We've made a big "terraponic" system from [now] inert growth medium and chemicals.

As for health - Its much cheaper to prevent problems than to treat them with drugs. Our problem solving approach has always been to make a new product to sell, not address the root cause. Where do you think our expanding waistline is coming from? Diabetes, cardiovascular disease and others are on the rise. Our sedentary lifestyles and crappy diet are largely to blame. Can you honestly say that a mountain of refined corn is healthy or that monoculture is a stable and safe why to farm? The robustness of natural systems comes from diversity. When one thing flounders another flourishes. Growing 1 thing and eating 1 thing is not healthy, safe, or smart.

If nothing else consider that humanity has largely burned up millions of years of surplus in a few hundred years. Our entire country is wholly dependent on cheap energy. What will we do when its not cheap anymore? What will we do when its really really expensive and our trees are gone and our soil is barren and we can't kill the bugs that attack us?
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3-08-2010 @10:38PM Ruth Schaefer said... Gentlemen: I'm not up to debating the chemistry you cite. However, what sticks in my craw (pardon the reference) is the idea that giant agri-business is working hard to keep food inexpensive. I'm sure that's true to the extent that it protects their markets, but let's agree that they are all in it to make money and make money they have, hand over fist. Which is the "American Way" I suppose.
So before we get all misty-eyed about the selfless contribution of American agriculture, let's remember that a good portion of not only poor people worldwide but here in the U.S. have trouble getting enough to eat. I find that obscene. You should too.

And I believe I read the statistic that 60 percent of greenhouse gasses are produced by meat producing operations rather than by automobile emissions, as most people believe. And one reason for this problem is that cattle, for example, are fed a diet high in corn, which produces more flatus (cow farts) and just by chance makes the cattle gain weight and get to market faster. Heavier cattle faster--more money! Never miind the effect on the environment. This diet also causes more infections in the cows, for which they are maintained on antibiotics that end up being fed to all of us.

Now, I grew up and still live in farming country and there are plenty of farmers that are friends of mine. They're nice folks, and wouldn't intentionally hurt people. But the bill of goods they are being sold by agri-business is very hard to detect and even harder to do anything about.

Bottom line, I have no problem trusting Frank and Tim down the road, but I'll be darn if I'm gonna turn my back on Cargill.
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3-08-2010 @11:54PM Janusz Haracz said... My family has gone Organic. We purchase our meat, eggs and vegetables from a co-op, or grow our own. We stopped eating anything with: HFCS, GMO's, Recumbent Bovine Growth Hormones, or fed with antibiotics added to feed. We have decided to vote at the cash register for the food we want to eat.
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3-09-2010 @9:05AM Patty, midwesterner said... Seriously, there has to be some truth to this documentary.
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3-09-2010 @1:29PM Sam said... Brad - Where does the energy come from for "cooking" the methane or for electrolysis??? Oh wait it comes from oil and other non-renewable energy sources. It's just energy transfer from oil to fertilizer to food. Since you are eating food for the energy (calories) you are, in a manner of speaking, eating oil. Eventually the oil will run out, and so will the cheap food. You can call me when wind/solar/hyrdo/geo provide the majority of energy for these process in the amounts we need, but until then don't pretend that they actually provide an alternative, because for the forseable future they do not.

As for obesisty, the problem isn't that adults shouldn't have the right to pork out, it's that companies, which have vested interest in making money not keeping people healthy, shouldn't be the ones teaching kids what to eat, especially when they actively promote porking out. You can say that parents can turn off the TV, but these companies put ads everywhere, grocery stores, billboards, even in schools, to send these messages. It is impossible for a parent to compete with that.
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4-06-2010 @6:47PM Hannah said...
to Ruth- In my grandparents generation being able to buy beef was considered somewhat of a treat. yes mass producing cattle the way we do today is cheap and it assures that everyone in America can have beef no matter what your income is and OF COURSE they want to make money off of it. IT IS THEIR JOB AND THEIR LIVELYHOOD. I will admit that their are some feedlots out there that dont do everything buy the book. however a great deal of these people run good opperations and care about the animals they are producing.






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