HBO Documentary Discussion Response
HBO Documentary Discussion Response
about 100-150 words for each reply and there is two need two be reply.
This is the first one need to be reply:
After viewing the HBO documentary clip, I was both shocked and not surprised at the same time as to why America faces such a large obesity epidemic. It was really interesting to see what happens to the food many Americans consume prior to the food ending up on their grocery shelves. The clip does a good job at highlighting the government’s direct involvement with our public health crisis as they subsidize products bad for people’s health, giving many people little option when trying to eat on a budget. Additionally, local fruit and vegetable farmers are experiencing further suffering as they receive little to no help from our government.
Though subsidizing particular agricultural products are beneficial to the public, the United State’s obesity epidemic has gotten so bad that the USDA needs to reevaluate what they are subsidizing. In particular, corn, which offers minimal nutritional benefits has snuck into so many products we consume, including meat as that is largely what is fed to the animals.
This is the second one:
Before watching this documentary I had heard about farm subsidies; however, I had no idea the true impact of these subsidies on the average American farmer. Although these subsidies sound like a good idea on paper, helping to ensure that farmers have crops to grow, it seems to be at the expense of healthy foods and locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables. It amazed me that 70% of arable land in the United States is planted with commodity crops like corn, soybeans, and wheat. It also shocked me that less than 15% of USDA public funding for agricultural research and development goes toward fruits, vegetables, and other specialty crops. When doing other research on this topic I found that these subsidies only go to a small percentage of farmers. According to Amelia Urry, “Since 1995, 75 percent of federal subsidies have gone to 10 percent of farms.” In addition, Urry states that “massive industrialized food system that takes its toll on our land and water, while our diets are full of all that extra corn, from our corn-fed burgers to our Halloween candy.” Overall, this excess of corn seems to be bad for the American diet and for the American farmer. Fresh fruits and vegetables can be grown in the United States, however, much of it is imported from other countries. This means that farmers are missing out on this profit and consumers are missing out the nutrients and taste of fresher fruits and vegetables from local sources.
