HLTH Flashcards

How has food production changed in the past 50 years? What are the characteristics of the industrial food system?

* mass production
* oligopoly
* commodification
* loss of diversity and damage to environment

What are the unintended consequences of the industrialized food system?

Contamination, antibiotic resistance, etc

How did the meat processing industry change during the 20th century?

Used to be very unsafe until unions and movements came along, there was also less diverse job work

What has happened to food safety as the food system has become more industrialized?

Due to mass production and mixing of the cows, it has become more unsafe, ecoli related outbreaks

Why is fast food cheaper than fruit and vegetables?

it’s subsidized with crops corn, beef, and wheat

Why feed cows **corn** when they naturally eat **grass**? What are the effects?

Corn is cheap. If cows are fed grass for 3 days, it strips E. coli risk by 80%

Why don’t big corporations, who control the inputs and outputs of farming, do the farming themselves?

Keeping farmers under their control with debt, farming is financially unpredictable

Do you think it is ethical for those who have been involved with the food industry to go on to influence or implement food policies? Why or why not

No because they are focused more on what pleases the consumers and mass production, rather than the labour and rights that goes into making food

Should food technology be seen as a positive thing because we can now feed more people at lower prices?

* a farmer could produce enough food for six to eight people, now the average American farmer can feed 126 people

What are the costs of cheap food?

Big corporations contain most power, where