Santeros 1

Kathlyn Santeros

Osman, 2

English 3P

26 April, 2019

Food Companies and their Mysterious Foods

Advertising is a way for society to expect something immense. But society does not

know where half their things are coming from. An example is that most Americans do not know

where their food comes from. There maybe labels saying it is healthy and it is coming from a

local farm but in reality that is not true. Most of our foods are coming from slaughter houses and

companies do not put that on food labels because they want us to know that it is healthy and

good for us. Food that comes from slaughter houses have been processed and chemicals may

have been put into our food so it can last longer. American Consumers need to know more about

the food industries in order to make better life choices.

Everyone believes their food is being freshly made but what they do not know is how bad

it actually is. Many people think they know where their food is coming from and how it is made

but they only think about what they want to believe. “The reality behind how our food is

produced is not in a farm but a factory”(Kenner, Food Inc.). The meat we consume is made in a

factory. It gets picked up from a farm then taken to a factory to be processed. All these foods can

cause obesity and sickness because of how unhealthy it is. Society needs to be aware of what

they are actually eating because no one ever knows when they will get sick because of a piece of

meat they ate from the supermarket. “Most of the corn we consume is invisible, having been

heavily processed or passed through food animals before it reaches us”(Pollan 6). Meat is not the
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only thing being processed, everything we practically consume was processed in a factory. We

expect so much, but little do we know how unhealthy everything we consume is.

Companies like to advertise their products a certain way, they like to say what we want to

hear. If companies told the actual truth about how their products are actually made no one would

buy their stuff. Most of all the produce that is made has a food label on it but just because it has a

food label does not mean it has every part of the product labeled. School lunches do not provide

any food labels on their food so how can we know where that food is coming from or what is in

it. Some schools get paid to serve certain foods and that is how certain companies do their

advertising. “Some schools have contracts to sell fast” (Barboza 23). Schools can sell fast food

but they will not provide a label saying what is in the food. Even when schools provide salad

there is no nutrition list provided and no one ever talks about how the school actually gets their

lunches. “There are 13 slaughterhouses in the USA that process the majority of the

beef”(Kenner,Food Inc). Everyone usually says that their produce is coming from their local

farms but it is actually coming from a slaughterhouse. Companies have failed to point that out

when they are advertising their products. They do not give out enough information on food labels

and we need to know where our food comes from and not be lied too.

Not only do companies not tell us where our food comes from but they also like to rely

on cheap things so they can get their products faster and make their money quicker. “The

processors, factory farms, and the soft drink and the snack makers that rely on cheap corn”

(Pollan 5). The only reason why companies still rely on buying these cheap products is because

we are still buying them. Cheap food is popular because people would rather ‘save’ their money

and buy unhealthy items instead of buying expensive foods and being healthy. However
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companies are putting people at risk for illnesses because their products are cheap and unhealthy.

“It cost more to eat healthy than it does to eat badly” (Kenner Food Inc). Everyone decides to go

with the cheap produce instead because they believe it is better.

To conclude Americans really need to realize what is going on with their food. It is not

what everyone thinks food is. In reality everything that is processed or cheap has some type of

bad in it that can cause some serious damage to our lives. Society needs to be more aware of the

food labels of what they consume. Companies need to be more honest about were the food

actually comes from. They are hurting others by trying to protect themselves. Americans need to

step up and make a change in the way these foods are made because we can not keep being lied

too.
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Work Cited

Barboza, David. "If you pitch it, they will eat." ​New York Times​ 3 (2003): 1.

Pollan, Michael. "When a crop becomes king." ​New York Times​ 19 (2002).

Kenner, Robert, Mark Adler, and Elise Pearlstein. ​Food, inc.​ Los Angeles, CA: Magnolia Home

Entertainment, 2008.