Food Inc Documentary

Today, the concept of food has become so disassociated with its origins. We are consuming more and more products without so much as a second though to where these meals came from. Food, Inc., a 2009 documentary by director Robert Kenner, begins by stating that “[t]he way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000”. And this is true. What was once a very simple and straightforward thing has become a complicated, accelerated process aimed at profit-making. In this development, numerous issues have risen including diabetes, factory farming issues with the treatment of animals, genetic modification, worker exploitation, pesticides malfunctions and the domination of food production by big corporations. As a vegetarian

it was a struggle to get through the film. The exploitation of animals was particularly revolting as the film exposed the treatment of the cows that became your cheeseburgers and of the chickens that became your nuggets, whose lives were filled with unending suffering and abuse.

However, Kenner’s film has the capability to elicit feelings of remorse and anger from anyone. It is unquestionable that one will end the film with a new perspective on their food.

Food, Inc. links the mistreatment of animals with the recent domination of big corporation in the food industry. It holds the corporation’s privatisation and globalisation of the food industry responsible for animal abuse. Companies like McDonalds, Perdue and Tyson “control the entire food system”, finding new and more exploitive which will lead to profit and efficiency. This new fast-paced timeline has no room for the normal growing time of an animal. Food, Inc. reveals that Tyson, a big meat-packing company, completely altered the way chickens are raised. They are now raised and killed in half the time they were 50 years ago. One farmer of Perdue chickens, Carole Morison states that chickens grow “from a chick…[and] in seven weeks you've got a five-and-a-half- pound chicken”. This accelerated growth dramatically changes the chickens state of living, as they can’t keep up with their rapid bone growth or support their weight. The same is also seen in cows and

pigs, who undergo similar biological alterations which enhances parts of the animal’s body which is in more demand for food production. The animal’s living conditions involve minimal living space, no exercise and no sunlight. Images and scene appear showing cows, pigs and chickens cooped up in small scale pens, standing ankle deep in their faeces and dead kin for their whole life. This saves space and money for the big corporations and supplies endless amounts of meat for consumers. The whole chain process Morison say “isn't farming. This is just mass production, like an assembly line in a factory”, where the treatment of animals comes second to the need for a 24 pack of nuggets. The images show the power abuse corporations have. Eric Schlosser, an author who appears in the film rightly states that the “[t]he industry doesn’t want you to know the truth about what you are eating”. If we were to know, many companies would go out of business. However, consumers are coerced into buying foods that are packeted with what author Michael Pollan describes as a “pastoral fantasy” which sells the image of an “agrarian America”, blind sighting consumers to what happens to their food. In the end, its up to us. These multinational companies may take small steps to a more sustainable industry but it is our impact as consumers that will really get the ball rolling towards a more just way of life.