Wow. I just finished watching Food, Inc. I know I'm predisposed to let stuff like this make me depressed, but it really does.I'm trying to find the words to describe what's going on in my mind right now, and what angle to look at this from.
I think one of the key things that is swirling around for me ties in to a debate that's been going on lately about people who have fallen out of love with the conservative/Republican/Randian/whatever viewpoint.
One of the biggest reasons I have fallen out of love with the whole Ayn Rand/laissez faire capitalism point of view in recent years is my exposure to all of the truly horrible stuff that unbridled capitalism, tied to exccessive corporate entanglement with government, has done to us as a people over the last 50+ years.
The mind is just reeling right now and I don't have much of a cogent argument to lay down just yet but I really just feel so small and disempowered in the face of multi-billion-dollar conglomerates that are doing what they are designed to do, i.e., do everything in their power to maximize profit and spend billions to bribe politicians to change the legal and regulatory structure to broaden the boundaries of what is considered safe, legal and acceptable.I mean, we used to have a food safety and regulatory regime that conducted over 50,000 safety and contamination inspections per year. Over the years, and especially under Bush, this number dwindled to less than 9,000. And who knew that the main reason for the explosion in E. Coli deaths over the last 20 years had to do with changing the diet of factory farmed cows from grass to heavily subsidized corn products?
Sigh. Maybe I'll go watch Polyanna now or something. :-(
