To Be Oblivious Is To Be Profitable -- Final Food Paper

It seems like when it comes to everything in America no one (or at least our class) seems aware of what is happening in our society. It makes me think that these ‘evil’ corporations are doing a good job at keeping us unaware of what’s really happening, all attention is devoted to keeping us [the consumers] interested in buying their products. I think that this is because we are always shown the + side of everything when we are young and from then on we don’t look into anything anymore because it doesn’t directly concern us. Take Vroom: Farming for Kids, yay big tractors that make loud sounds not to mention a great spokesman who makes farming seem like the best job that a kid could have. That sounds fun when you’re young and all but when you get older in a way you are in this state of mind that says that farming is fun and harmless so you don’t really devote more attention to the subject.

Just last weekend I watched a movie called Antz. It’s a animated children’s movie about how ants work and how one poor worker ant gets the rich girl while managing to cause a revolution within the nest. I just realized how many messages were being portrayed through this seemingly harmless and funny cartoon. I have not watched that movie or even thought about it in years. When I was a child, all I thought was how funny and cut the insects looked and I never thought about how it shows that the rich are the oppressors and it’s actually the workers who have the power if they only realize it. So in ‘fun’ farming movies we are under this spell that farming is fun and harmless, boy were we wrong.

What seems even weirder is that we [Americans] are in a way given constant reminders and notices as to what is happening. But somehow any chance that we have at gaining awareness all seems to go out of the window. Take the Meatrix the video in plain ol’ English tells us how bad things happen, I highly doubt that many people are actually aware of how they get their precious beef and chicken and pork. I wasn’t aware that the very animals that are killed get treated so horribly. Also there is also that aching response “so what?” to the constant reminders that our society for lack of a better term, sucks. It’s almost like the American people want to be oblivious, which in turn leads to more money going to McDonalds and stupidity coming to this society.

Take birth for example, countless sources are on the internet about home births and how the doctors for many women may not be the best choice. But what happens? Women, actually almost 100% of our female society go in to the doctors with high hopes and happy faces and come out with a doped up baby and a sob story. It’s almost like it’s being oblivious has become attached to our society and the only ones benefiting from this are the rich.

Food is a big deal in this society. Mostly advertising pulls everyone in depending on the demographic. What’s amazing is that even when those rare times arise when people are aware they don’t fully grasp what’s happening. I have taken the whole food thing into consideration. I showed the Meatrix, video to my mom and she actually started looking in to more healthy places to purchase our food which in turn makes me more aware of where I get my food from. Ever since we have started this food unit my mother has taken a great interest about what is really happening with the food that we buy. Just like when I went to the food conference I brought her back a little booklet that suggested healthier things to look for when you go food shopping.

I think that actually taking the time to sit back and think about something affects you take a certain level of patience. To be able to think about or even care about the life of the poor chicken that you are about to digest. Its because we weren’t taught to revolt but to accept what is given and we are forever stuck in a cycle of nonchalant oblivious people. Maybe if that were to change this lovely society might get somewhere.