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Bassel Hamieh
Doctor Kenneth William Bagley
Freshman Inquiry - Design and Society
6 May 2014
Food Week Outrageous Hidden Truths
Food Week in Design and Society has been a very educational, eye opening, and mostly a
shocking experience. Through watching Food Inc., Tapped, and King Corn, I realized the
corruption, neglected safety issues, and unlawful actions that are being systematically
implemented by corporations. Considering that these are companies who we have always put
trust in as a community, it seems that we do not ever question what the sources and the hows
are of the different products of our nations leading food and water industries.
There is this curtain dropped between us and where our food is coming from says
an official from the documentary Food Inc., to visually showcase the corruption behind our
governments and corporations, to understand how we know nothing about our food and drink
sources, and to open our eyes in the hopes of taking actions (2009). For example, most people do
not know that our meat industry is run by only a hand-full of corporations and that most of the
items, that diversity we see in stores and when we walk next to the meat coolers, is just an
illusion.
Inside the clips from the documentary Food Inc., this is clearly shown as we are taken
through an exhibition of the processes of genetic modification, growth methods, and the
unethical practices that our food industries are executing - showing the indescribable and hidden
truths of the foods we eat. A corporation that illustrated these traits is Monsanto, a corporation
that owns its genetically modified seeds, produces harmful foods for consumers, and hides all of

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it it very well (King Corn, 2007). This is also evident in the movie Tapped through different
corporations.
Tapped really made clear how ignorant we are as to how much trust we give corporations.
One fact that was shocking to learn was that bottle water does not need approval by the FDA
because it is produced by privately owned companies, which means safety standards as well as
testing are those of the actually company and not our nations standards (Tapped, 2009). Another
is that the plastic bottles that hold the water are made out of a residue derived from the
production of fuel, which yields horrific results. As stated by an official from the documentary
Tapped, as a result of this type of plastic, the water that we drink contains many deathly
chemicals Toluene (a constituent of gasoline), Styrene (a cancer resulting agent), and Phalathes
(a reproductive defects agent) (2009). Lastly, another disappointing result of this bottled water is
that all the toxins released by the plants is killing many of the residents around it; and to know
that drinking bottles water is indirectly, but surly, killing innocent people, is absolutely freighting.
Finally, King Corn showcased the history of how all of it began. With better
technological advances, selective processes of corn types, and better agricultural techniques, corn
quickly became the Americas number one food. Because of these evolution, we can now grow
up to four times as much corn as our great grand parents; in addition, instead of taking over 8
hours to plants 3100 seeds in the past, we can now plant the same amount in about 18 minutes, as
mentioned by an advocate in King Corn (King Corn, 2007).
Throughout this whole week, I was puzzled at the fact that these corporations are still
thriving in our communities. Why is that? How do we allow ourselves to be fed by them when
we know how harmful they are to us? These products are unlabeled, untested, and we are simply
eating them as if we are science experiments. We think that we cannot do anything because the

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government takes care of issues such as these; however, something we always forget is that we
created the government and that we are the government.






















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Works Cited
Food Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Perf. Robert Kenner. 2009. DVD.
King Corn. Dir. Aaron Woolf. Perf. Curt Ellis, Aaron Woolf, Ian Cheney, Jeffrey K. Miller.
2007. DVD.
Tapped. Perf. Stephanie Soechtig, Jason Lindsey. N.d. DVD.