Most people are probably not thinking about how that crisp apple or luscious lettuce leaf makes its way to your kitchen table. From the sun-drenched industrial corporate farms where your produce starts its journey to the labyrinth of logistics that ensure it lands in your grocery cart fresh and ready, the process is both fascinating and a bit eyebrow-raising.

This is a system ripe with pesticides and chemicals. All meant to further the corporate profits. At the expense of your well-being. It’s also a system ripe with misinformation and straight up gaslighting.

How U.S. Food Systems Work

The Chemical Lobby

The chemical lobby is so nefarious that it started its own children’s book publisher. Starting in 2019 the American Farm Bureau has been publishing children’s books under a publishing company called Feeding Minds Press. The American Farm Bureau is an arm of the agrochemical industrial farming lobby group called the American Farm Bureau Federation. More examples of a good sounding name with nefarious purposes.

According to an article in Vice, Big Agriculture Is Printing Children’s Books That Say Pesticides Are Great. “The sprawling industrial farming operations represented by the Farm Bureau are one of the biggest polluters of freshwater in the U.S., and a major source of methane and nitrous oxide, two highly potent greenhouse gases. As recently as three years ago, the Farm Bureau was officially questioning if humans are causing the climate to warm (it’s now partnering with corporate-friendly environmental groups and calling for “voluntary” industry-led climate solutions). The Farm Bureau is currently fighting with “energy and passion” an attempt by the Biden administration to bring in tougher regulations keeping pollution out of streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans.”

“It’s obviously nefarious,” Jennifer Jacquet, an associate professor of environmental studies at New York University, told VICE News. “If you want to spread propaganda, starting with what we tell our children is a very good place to begin.”

Do you think you can trust big business to do the right thing? This is the truest behavior of corporations and their lobbyists. Manipulation at its most precise. Convincing children, the very people who will suffer the most from the climate destruction. To keep on killing the environment.

Farm to Table Journey

From the moment a seed is planted, the journey of your food begins. Corporate agriculture, sprawling and mechanized, is where it all starts. Farmers tend crops using a combination of chemicals and modern technology to maximize yield. Once harvested, produce is transported to processing facilities. Here, it’s sorted, cleaned, and packaged.

Next, the logistics network kicks in. Trucks, trains, and sometimes planes, move food across the country. Since, everything is traveling such great distances. The majority of produce is harvested early. Which leads to a loss in nutritional content and flavor.

Pesticides and Chemicals

Pesticides and chemicals are part of modern corporate agriculture. They help in controlling pests and increasing crop yields, ensuring that food supply meets demand. However, their use is not without controversy. While they protect crops from insects and diseases, they also leave residues on the food we consume. As well as polluting the soil and watersheds. This has serious consequences health risks.

Chemical fertilizers enhance fertility but actually don’t feed the soil or improve the quality of the soil. Which leads to nutrient imbalances, erosion, less microbial diversity in the soil and lower nutritional contents in produce. Not to mention contamination of lakes, streams and rivers. These chemicals accumulate in the food chain, impacting not just human health but also wildlife and ecosystems.

Organic and Local

The reality of the matter is that if you want to be healthy you have to make healthy choices when eating. Taking the time to read the ingredients and seeking out produce that is in season and grown locally. The importance of organic farming cannot be understated here.

Organic farming is the key to good health, more nutrients and a more sustainable future for our children.