Tuesday, October 5, 2010

disturbed by processed, fast-food chicken. i can't believe i used to eat it..

warning: disturbing images below. please continue to read!

i am not a vegan, nor am i a vegetarian. i do highly respect all vegetarians and vegans, however. so this is not about me not eating meat. its about me not eating fast-food meat, like chicken nuggets, chicken burger patties, etc. see photo below:

photo from this blog. read more here.

they mechanically separate the chicken, grind it all up, remove the bacteria (apparently by soaking it in ammonia), add food coloring and flavor... its disgusting. why go through that much bother to make something that doesn't really look like chicken, doesn't really taste like chicken, and is so unnatural? and yet we consumers totally buy it. its fast, its easy, and we put it in our stomachs anyways.

jamie oliver does these experiments where he shows kids the process of making the chicken nuggets, and then has the kids decide between the nuggets and the real chicken afterward. worked well in the UK (see video below)...




... but then he tried it in america. (see video below).



...failed. which is really sad what it says about america. i think he'd do a lot better in canada, but i still think there's a good number of people here who would react just like those kids in the video. sadly, i think i know of a few people too who just might not care where their food is coming from.

would you still eat the chicken nuggets? i want your thoughts and opinions!
i won't condemn you if you would still eat them. i'll just shake my head and invite you over for some real, homemade food. or you can answer anonymously and i'll never know.

update: october 11, 2010

some more posts to read:

huffington post
peas and thank you - hilarious, have to read it
potted meat product - i can't believe anyone would buy or eat a product (it doesn't deserve the title 'food') called 'potted meat product'!?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do I have to eat that disgusting stuff if I want to be invited over for some real home cooked food Joey? That would be a shame... Hope you're well - can't wait to see your brother again (Can't believe it's tomorrow!!). Love to Andrea too. Jem

joey armstrong said...

you and your soon-to-be wife can come over any time! you can even spend the night, since you live so far away. ;) i'd love to have you guys over. wish i could have gone with joel, but i sent my love with him when i dropped him off at the airport this morning. :)

Unknown said...

I'm glad you posted this. I saw this experiment a month or two ago online, and every part of it is heartbreaking. Everything from the fact that these kids still wanted to eat it, to Jamie's deflated spirit once it failed - especially if you saw the series and know how difficult a time he had in that city.

I'm afraid to ask how much of the food I/we/people eat is processed in the same way and its still considered healthy (or at least not unhealthy): genetically modified everything, growth hormones, super-feeds that make livestock and crops grow exponentially faster than they are intended.

I talk a lot about local, organic product on my blog, but the truth is that over a year I buy 85% of my veg and 95% of my meat at a grocery store. That product endures nightmares before it reaches me. It may not be as immediately pornographic as these videos portray, but the sin is just as evil.

It is easy to pick on the frozen food sections with ready-to-eat snack, and fast-food joints deserve everything that's coming to them (except the profits). I feel motivated to try and save the world of its ways - alas I am but one man, with but one stomach.

I chose some years ago to make a political statement regarding my fast-food intake: no McDonald's ever. I've managed to stay by that pledge since June 1/2007. I do still eat an A&W mozza-burger or a Tim's breakfast sandwich (about once/month) but the McDonald's statement is my form of symbolic resistance - people around me know about my choices and ask why, and information is shared. I know that McDonald's bottom line doesn't feel my boycott, but that is fine. The value comes in the statement.

I can talk for days on this, but I won’t. Good post, I’m going to link to it!

(I linked to the ‘how it's made - hot dogs’ clip from your video and it is even more tragic).

Anonymous said...

Thanks Joey for sharing this. That is truly disturbing and utterly disgusting! I definitely think it will keep me away from chicken nuggets!
JLee

joey armstrong said...

@matt
yeah, i'm afraid to find out about what's really in some of my other food. when i drink milk, i buy organic milk, but i don't know that they still haven't pumped antibiotics into it... i like to know what i'm eating. i have a sometimes annoying habit of reading the ingredients of things before i buy or eat (when i can, of course. its rude to do that when i'm a guest at someone's house).

i guess its easier to be oblivious to what is in our food. its definitely cheaper, so i understand why people who aren't doing well financially don't really care about knowing whats in their food, or where their food came from. its just tragic that the foods that are most affordable are the trashiest, most horrible for you foods. :(

@jlee
no problem! sometimes its hard to stick to our resolves in the world we live in. i know i've had a hot dog or two in the last year, even though i know how disgusting those are, too.