The Truth of Food Production

Our food is not delicately prepared but comes from cramped, smelling farms and factories. Estabrook and Cook delve over the treacherous conditions workers and animals sacrifice in order for food to be presented on our plates. Estabrook informs in Tomatoland, that “a ten-foot drop followed by a sixty-mile-per-hour impact with pavement is no big deal to a modern, agribusiness tomato” (1). Estabrook argues the change from home picked and flavor, to a focus solely on business when he describes the tomato as “agribusiness.” Over the past fifty years, the tomatoes we eat have lost nutrition and flavor. Tomatoes are picked un-riped and then ripened along the journey to the grocery store. When falling out of a truck a tomato seems to have incurred no damage. This is a prominent example the food industry. The cheapest, simplest, and quickest way to get food into a grocery store will be used.

Cook writes about the process of getting chicken onto people’s plates. With eight billion chickens slaughtered each year for consumption, chicken farmers are finding the simplest and cheapest ways to get their chickens ready, even if this causes harm to the workers. In his article, Cook informs that 50% of the workers are immigrants and do not make enough money to pay for the necessary protection, goggles and gloves, for their work. Long hours and unequal pay are the characteristics of our food industry pointed out by both Cook and Estabrook.

Pollan adds to this claim in “An Animal’s Place”, focusing on the treatment of the animals. Pollan points out critical issues involving the politics of animal rights and animal sufferings. Our society relies heavily upon the convenience and cheapness of certain food items. Turning a blind eye towards the line of production of food poses severe repercussions to our society. Animals may continue to be treated harshly, but the entire food production is detrimental to the workers involved.