Our Decrepit Food Factories Summary

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Food is one of the most important components required to sustain life, it is a necessity for all organisms spanning from plants, animals and humans. Food can come in all different forms: plants make their own, animals eat other animals and/or plants, and humans eat both plants and animals. Industrial practices have resulted in differing ideas both revolving around the use of industrial agriculture. In the article Our Decrepit Food Factories by Michael Pollan, he argues that the use of pesticides and antibiotics in our food has redefined the meaning of sustainability. Pollan believes that the original meaning of sustainability: able to be maintained without external factors, is now defined by industrial agriculture as being maintained with the use of external factors like pesticides and antibiotics. Pollan also argues that this so called sustained system is actually barely being sustained. In A Plea for Culinary Modernism by Rachel Laudan argues that…show more content…
Laudan and Pollan each understand the importance of trying to reduce the amount of diseases that are spread through food. They feel it is important to demand higher quality industrial foods, which would be beneficial for everyone. When Pollan and Laudan tried to understand why food is being processed and made the way it is, they came to the same conclusion: food that is produced cheaper will be bought first. Due to the society we live in cheaper food correlates directly with the use of pesticides and antibiotics, more food can be produced by using these methods. Subsidizes also pay farmers to use these techniques, which allows the products to be sold at more reasonable price. This appeals to many people, especially those who cannot afford natural foods. While Michael Pollan and Rachel Laudan both agree that food spreads diseases their beliefs of what causes the spread differ from each

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