Responsibility

After giving this topic some thought, I have been wondering if the industry should be the one who take all the responsibility of the problems from the food system.  The sources we have seen so far (e.g. Food Inc., the articles, etc.) seem to agree that companies like Monsanto are the sources of the problem.  Obviously, there are some things that directly contribute to the problem and are the result of their actions, but we should not dismiss all the other factors yet.

On the smallest scale, individuals are responsible for their own health and well-being.  If peoples are lazy or careless, they might choose to keep eating junk food and not exercise, causing their body to get worse.

Economic factors also have a big impact on this issue.  Poor people often eat low-quality foods and drinks because they are the only thing they can afford.  As shown in the movie Food Inc., you can buy multiple bags of chip, bottles of soda, Mcdonald's burger, for the price that is less than buying vegetables and fruit to make a healthy meal for themselves.

The government probably have the biggest impact most of all.  They have the ability to affect laws, economies, and industry.  People often blame the government for not doing enough to protect customers, and that is probably a justified accusation toward the government.  The biggest restriction that the government has is not laziness but rather a political one.  The United States and most western countries promote free market, which is the best type of market historically.  Anyway, due to this policy, the government are too restricted in power to do anything against big companies.  A government with enough power to take down Monsanto or Mcdonald would probably have to have North Korea type of power, which is not a good thing.

The companies are often the biggest scapegoat on this topic.  They are blamed for manipulating the information toward customers and abusing people and animals right to increase profit.  All these criticism have valid evidence to back it up, and they are problems that needed to be addressed.  But let face it, there are no real alternatives to these problems.  As long as people keep the same eating habit, farmers alone cannot provide people with enough food through traditional farming.  Besides, these companies help hired more people than farmers ever could and produce a lot more efficiently.  We must consider what is more important to us as a whole.

I did not make this post to dismissed other people opinion or trying excuse companies like Monsanto's action, it is horrible and need to be addressed.  However, I just feel like it is important to remember that the problem is started by multiple factors and probably cannot be easily solved by focusing on one problem maker alone.