Food Inc. Part 2

The second part of the reading is very informative but extremely boring, which is why the movie, to me, was way more effective than this book. However, these pages brought to my attention things that I hadn't necessarily thought of before or had seen in the movie. At the beginning of the reading, he talks about how our government manipulates the oil industry with the use of ethanol, which derives from corn. It was interesting to see how they would rather use more ethanol in motor fuel than the corn to feed those in need. It surprised me to see that "the grain required to fill a 25 gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol would feed one person for a full year." This is outrageously inefficient and immoral when you think about the many starving children there are in this world. Another part I liked about the reading was when he talked about how our food industry gives off tons of greenhouse gasses and harmful pollutants to our environment. Animals, that eat fertilized grains, come from farms that are constantly sprayed with insecticides and other chemicals that contaminate our water. Making these chemicals is also terrible for our environment in that gasses are released into our air, which leads to global warming. Then, once the farm animals are slaughtered, the meat gets transported from one place to another, using diesel-fueled trucks that emit tons more of greenhouse gasses. Buying from these big companies rather than a local market contributes to several different ways that destroy our environment. He provides us with multiple ways to help prevent this from happening: purchase foods from local markets; buy in bulk; use reusable bags; and avoid foods that have been processed. As someone who doesn't really know much about the subject, I feel like I can be an environmentally friendly consumer by doing a few simple things when shopping for groceries.