Food Inc. --> City Inc.

While watching the first 50 minutes of interesting documentary film Food Inc. (2008), I started playing around and fooling myself on purpose, replacing the word “food”, steadily pronounced along the film, with another one which is always in my mind, “city”, thus superposing a “virtual” documentary about urban planning upon the original one about food industry. Well, funnily enough not only the version of the documentary I “rebuilt” in my mind  kept its sense and coherence, but it magically focussed on the cracks, the lacks, inadequacy and the backwardness of current spatial planning approach.


Let me invite you to this exercise:


Between minutes 00:06:36 to 00:06:46 sentence...

McDonald's is the largest purchaser of ground beef in the United States and they want their hamburgers to taste, everywhere, exactly the same...

… with a good imagination could be transformed into

Technical universities “produce” standardized technicians (architects and engineers) that through the “copy & paste” strategy, both with “best practice” blind imitation and archistars' (self) emulating degeneration, make cities to look, everywhere, exactly the same...


From minute 00:09:23 to 00:09:28...

So all the birds coming off those farms have to be almost exactly the same size.

… meaning turns into

So all cities have to be almost exactly the same type and shape.


Thus because (minutes 00:13:00 to 00:13:04)

This isn't farming. This is just mass production...

Which in my virtual documentary is

This isn't urban planning. This is just mass production...


From 00:17:45 to 00:17:56...

When you go through the supermarket, what looks like this cornucopia of variety and choice is not.
There is an illusion of diversity. There are only a few companies involved and there're only a few crops involved.

… to me sounds like

When you walk through a city and observe recent interventions, what looks like this cornucopia of architectural variety is not. There is an illusion of diversity. There are only a few real estate companies involved and there're only a few architect's studios involved.


Here comes the juicy part. From 00:20:11 to 00:20:24 the following...

We are now engineering our foods. We know where to turn to for certain traits like mouth feel and flavor. And we bring all of these pieces together and engineer new foods

… easily transmutes into

We are now engineering our cities. We know where to turn to for certain traits like buildings [materials and shapes] and zoning [rationalistic atomization of cities' services and uses]. And we bring all of these pieces together and engineer new cities


From 00:21:36 to 00:21:43...

Increasingly, we're feeding the corn to the fish whether we're eating the tilapia or the farmed salmon. We're teaching fish how to eat corn.

… changes in

Increasingly, we're feeding the stakeholders with that mystifying “participation process” that in reality it is no more than “consensus building”, whether we're manipulating them with promises or brainwashing with lies. We're indoctrinating people about how good is to live in the slums we build.


Or even from 00:23:33 to 00:23:47...

The animals evolved on consuming grass. There's some research that indicates that a high-corn diet results in E. coli that are acid-resistant.

… it might sound like

Human beings evolved interacting in same common areas (i.e. the Greek agora and the Roman forum). There's some research that indicates that a high concentration of poor people in given areas and their isolation from the rest of the city results in the development of crime attitudes that are resistant to any future intervention of eradication.


From 00:35:51 to 00:36:20 these terrifying words....

The industrial food system is always looking for greater efficiency, but each new step in efficiency leads to problems. If you take feedlot cattle off of their corn diet, give them grass for five days, they will shed 80% of the E. coli in their gut. But of course that's not what the industry does. The industry's approach is...  when it has a systematic problem like that... is not to go back and see what's wrong with the system, it's to come up some high-tech fixes that allow the system to survive.

… turn into the mantra of current urban planning

Current urban planning is always looking for greater efficiency, but each new step in efficiency leads to problems. If stop building skyscrapers in the middle of nothing or sectioning the living core of cities through the practise of zoning, cities and their inhabitants will foment the right interventions for slightly recovering. But of course that's not what the urban planning industry does. The urban planning technician’s approach is...  when it has a systematic problem like that... is not to go back and see what's wrong with the system, it's to come up some “best practice” fixes and imported policies that allow the system to survive.


From 00:36:50 to 00:38:13 following phrase...

We control all levels of the gearboxes, the speed of motors... we can change those all from here. We built something that... from a food-safety standpoint, we think we're ahead of everybody. We think we can lessen the incidents of E. coli 0157:h7. But I just started working with ammonia and ammonia hydroxide. Ammonia kills bacteria, so it became a processing tool. I'm really a mechanic. That's really what I am. We design our own machinery. This is our finished product.

… becomes the confession of a civil engineer

With GIS and PSS tools we control all levels of the urban planning process, from the political decision to the realisation... we can change those all from here. We built something that... from the efficiency standpoint, we think we're ahead of everybody. We think we can lessen the necessity of walking. But I just started working with Modernism (Le Corbusier) and Zoning. Modernism and Zoning kill human choices, so city life became a processing tool. I'm really a mechanic. That's really what I am. We design cities with computers, enclosed in our offices, and never go to those areas. A city is no more than our finished product.


Then, from 00:41:55 to 00:42:00...

But when you're engineering foods you are pressing our evolutionary buttons.

… we can grab a sane criticism towards such a mere technical based approach

But when you're engineering cities and people's lives you are pressing our evolutionary buttons.


Wording from 00:44:57 to 00:45:30...

Everything we've done in modern industrial agriculture is to grow it faster, fatter, bigger, cheaper. Nobody's thinking about E. coli, type 2 diabetes and the ecological health of the whole system. We're outsourcing autonomous farmer decision making... we're outsourcing that to corporate boardrooms in big cities 1,000 miles away where people make decisions and don't live with the consequences of those decisions.

… becomes another technician’s benchmark

Everything we've done in modern urban planning is to grow cities faster, fatter, bigger, cheaper. Nobody's thinking about people and the ecological health of the whole system. We're outsourcing citizen's decisions... we're outsourcing that to technical and political boardrooms in big cities 1,000 miles away where people make decisions and don't live with the consequences of those decisions.


Sentence between minutes 00:46:39 and 00:46:47...

The industrial food system gradually became so noisy, smelly, not a person-friendly place.

… becomes

The industrial urban planning system gradually transformed cities into noisy, smelly slums, not a person-friendly place.


From 00:47:04 to  00:47:12...

If we put glass walls on all the megaprocessing facilities,we would have a different food system
in this country.

… it turns into a necessary cry

If the urban planning processes were crystal clear, involving cities inhabitants in cities design and decision making, instead of current megaprocessing system,we would have different cities in this country.


From 00:47:42 to 00:47:53...

We have allowed ourselves to become so disconnected and ignorant... about something that is as intimate... as the food that we eat.

… gets to

We have allowed ourselves to become so disconnected and ignorant... about something that is as intimate... as the cities we live in.


From minute 00:49:45 to minute 00:50:34...

We are using global positioning satellite technology, and nobody sits back and asks "But should we be feeding cows corn?" We've become a culture of technicians. We're all into... we're all into the how of it and nobody's stepping back and saying "But why?" I mean, a culture that just views a pig as a pile of protoplasmic inanimate structure to be manipulated by whatever creative design that humans can foist on that critter will probably view individuals within its community and other cultures in the community of nations with the same type of disdain, disrespect and controlling-type mentality.

… the meaning turns into the core of all denounces to current spatial planning

We are using GIS technology, and nobody sits back and asks "But should we be build liveable and human scale cities?" We've become a culture of technicians. We're all into... we're all into the how of it and nobody's stepping back and saying "But why?" I mean, a culture that just views a citizen as a pile of protoplasmic inanimate structure to be manipulated by whatever creative design that technicians and the real estate industry can foist on that person, a culture that views individuals within its community and other cultures in the community of nations with the same type of disdain, disrespect and controlling-type mentality.


Hope you enjoyed following me in this game. Besides, I hope you also came to the conclusion it is time we put such a simplistic and harmful engineering-centric approach aside and start focus again on something more complex: human beings. In any aspect of our lives.