Schlosser and the Industrial Food System

It is important that people like Eric Schlosser are writing books and speaking at universities in an attempt to educate people about the largely industrialized food industry and the way it is negatively impacting not just human life and health but all other living systems on the planet.
There is often a reactive tendency to discredit or disregard people like Schlosser who speak up against a consumption based lifestyle that has become mainstream for many people in the United States. This response may come from a a general disbelief or skepticism regarding the things he and other critics like him have said, or it may stem from a sense of shame or embarrassment that the lifestyle one lives is directly connected to the industrial food system and that the personal choices a person makes do have an effect. Knowledge like that is heavy and often uncomfortable; once a truth is known there is no excuse for inaction that can hold up under close scrutiny.
Ignorance is bliss, and the "success of the [industrial food] system and industry is based on people remaining ignorant." (Schlosser) If complacency is the dominant emotion regarding food than things will progress in much the same way they have for the past forty years. There is hope though, and that hope lies with education of the public and an awareness of the severely broken relationship that most people have with food.
The growth of the McDonald food system parallels the boom in industry and manufacturing that occured in the 40's and 50's. The production of food in fast food restaurants was modeled after the concepts of Taylorism, a scientific method to increase production where workers are specialized in one particular job, and Fordism, the concept of building products in vast quantities so that costs of production go down and prices can be kept low to ensure large rates of consumption. Some of the problems that arise from this type of business model are fragmentation of production activities, a massive deskilling of workers, thus making them more disposable as employees, and a sense that while mechanized production increases efficiency the only benefits are for owners and big corporations.
In his lecture Schlosser spoke to the way people have become more and more disconnected from the food they eat. The massive shift in the way food is produced and consumed runs parallel to the way the American capitalist economy has evolved. Lifestyles have changed from a largely self sufficient interaction with land and food to a reliance on big businesses and corporations to employ and feed the general public. A multitude of human, animal and environmental health factors have arisen with the increased industrialization and mechanization of the food system. Farm sizes increase, and monoculture spreads, and the distance between plant and plate becomes not just a distance but a chasm.
If one has the courage to look closely at the food system as it exists in most of the country they will see that a solution lies not in the separation of issues but in the acknowledgement of the connections that span each problem facing the world. The industrial food system is dependent on oil for fuel and fertilizers which poison the earth and contribute to global warming. The disconnection from food sources leads people to the sense of complacency mentioned earlier, which then keeps them from questioning what they are eating which further enables the financial well-being of a few giant corporations who are entirely profit driven and rely on product demand and consumption to continue their agenda of relentless expansion.