Food, Inc. Case Study

How has technology been applied to the food production process?

Technology has influenced society in many different ways from the way we communicate to the way we do our daily chores. It has made life easier. It goes without question that technology has found its way into our food system and the production process of the foods we eat.

One of the ways technology has been applied to the production process is through genetically modifying organisms or GMO’s to produce foods on a larger scale with desirable characteristics. GMO’s is defined as organisms whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques (nongmoproject.org). In the documentary “Food, Inc.,” this is observed with the length of time and size of the growth of a chicken. In the 1950’s, it took approximately 68 days for a chicken to reach full size. In 2008, it only took 47 days for a chicken to reach full size and three times as large. The use of technology in this case has increased the output and reduced the length of time previously needed to produce foods needed to feed a nation of almost 318 Million people (U.S. Census Bureau 2014).

Another way technology has influenced the food production process is through advanced highly-efficient machinery. This improvement in machinery has allowed for a faster and inexpensive process to bring food to the consumer. It enables more crops to be cultivated in a shorter period of time speeding up production and resulting in more availability at a less expensive cost.

In the 1980’s, the Supreme Court ruled life can be patented. Monsanto, a chemical company that produces pesticides, patented the soybean. Using technology to genetically modify the soybean to be resistant to pesticide. When farmers sprayed the crop, all the weeds were killed except these soybeans. Farmers were initially discouraged and upset that they could not harvest their own seeds, but eventually, it became accepted that these seeds belonged to Monsanto....