Fool the Public
Three facts big corporations don’t want you to know about food
Public perception is a huge influence in every decision a company makes, no matter the industry. The future of food is already being shaped by the loudest opinions of the food system as a whole, but is it for the right reasons? There is nothing that boils my blood quicker than vapid rhetoric from keyboard warriors about GMO wheat, or assertions that food animals are pumped full of hormones and kept in ‘horrid conditions.’
1. There is no such thing as GMO wheat
or strawberries or cucumbers or kale. There are only 8 GM crops, with a couple more coming soon (apples and potatoes). The 8 crops on the market in the U.S. today which are transgenic (GM) are Corn, Soybeans, Alfalfa (a grass legume used in feed for animals), Cotton, Papaya, Squash, Canola (for cooking oil), and Sugar Beets (used for processed sugars). Any other food or ingredient in a food that you can buy is already non-GMO.
You don’t have to rely on labels to tell you which foods are GMO or non-GMO.
2. Pork and chicken is raised with zero hormones. It’s illegal.
Regardless of what Chipotle might want you to think.
The FDA ban on hormones for pork and chicken started in the 1950's. So unless all the farmers who raise these animals are breaking the law to make their living, there is somehow an underground black market of suppliers of these hormones to farms, and they by some stretch of imagination slip by the various federal inspections that CAFO’s (concentrated animal feeding operations) undergo you can eat your bacon and nuggets, or your tenderloin and cordon bleu, and feel safe about it.
3. ‘Factory Farms’ aren’t factories
They’re still just farms. The animals are real and alive, the farmers are real people (not machines), and that’s not changing anytime soon. The following are just a couple of examples offering perspectives from real farmers who share their everyday lives with us. There are so many more out there ready and willing to talk to you the end consumer.
A dairy farm
Inside
Outside
A modern hog farm
Farming even involves all members of the family!
Some are also great at connecting what we may run into online to what the realities of farming are. The pictures below were a real eye opener.
We have all heard that business is ruthless, and seem to accept that as a fact of life. Few disciplines in this field, if any, are more unforgiving than marketing. Campaigns that cost millions can make or break a company’s future. Thus, many companies have taken to feel-good or fear marketing as a sure fire way to drive up sales and fool the public into thinking that normal food is dangerous to them.
These marketing tactics by agriculture companies and anti-ag groups alike are going to define the future of food if we let them. They already are. We all need to get more informed and look at both sides of every issue before taking what we are told at face value and letting our assumptions fill in the gaps for us. Transparency is out there, we just have to look a little harder for it, because it’s not the kind of in your face marketing that we are used to. This takes time, but it is time worth spending.
To create the best food future, consumers need to be empowered.
The Future of Food project on Medium
