Food Inc Summary

Imagine having a big juicy hamburger or some fried chicken in front of you, of course you cannot wait to eat it. Now a days we want to eat the cheapest, fastest thing we can find without realizing where it came from or how the animal was treated before being killed. The production of food has changed drastically over the course of the years. There is more food being produced, but at the cost of becoming unhealthy. In the documentary Food Inc. released in 2008, it goes through and provides the real facts of what goes on in the food we eat. The documentary provides an American family’s view, a farmer’s view, and an expert’s view towards the modern day food production system. The movie makes you aware of the how dangerous food has become over

time. The food industry has become more focused on growing food bigger and faster and does not realize the consequences.

First of all the industrial agriculture is a way of producing food in a mass scale and quicker, which in turn creates lower prices in the food. The industrial agriculture controls most of today’s American farmland. But when did this system really start? According to Food Inc., the industrial food system began with fast food. In the 1930’s drive-ins became popular in restaurants, and McDonalds was one of those restaurants. McDonalds became very marketable and they came up with a system that is cheaper and faster. Because of their huge success they became the largest purchaser of ground beef. Therefore McDonalds changed how beef is produced in order to have all their meat to taste the same. All these fast food chains want big suppliers for their food and that creates only a few big companies. Today four main meat packers control about eighty percent of the market, so even if you are not eating from a fast food restaurant, you still have meat that is produced in the same system. For example, Tyson, a big meat company, has changed how chickens are grown. Chickens are now raised and slaughtered in a shorter amount of time then years ago. The birds are redesigned to grow bigger and faster, and not only that, but farmers no longer own the birds. The way chickens are able to grow big and fast is because they are genetically manipulated and dosed with other drugs. The fact that chickens are raised this way not only affects our health but the health of chickens their selves. It does not seem right to eat something that is not even healthy in the first place.

Moreover, two chicken farmers are presented in the documentary Food Inc.. The first farmer is Vince Edwards from Kentucky. Vince is considered a Tyson Grower since the growth of his chickens are owned and controlled by Tyson. By contract, Vince must do what Tyson says, he owns about 300,000 chickens and he has them in a storage room with no windows. He goes on to claim that “these chickens never see sunlight, their pretty much in the dark all the time”. The fact that the chickens are tightly packed into a storage room like chicken house, with no sunlight is terrifying. Who knows what goes on in there that makes farmers have to keep the chickens in this type of shelter. The second farmer presented in the film is more of an activist towards the modern way of raising mass production of chickens. Her name is Carole Morison and she is the only farmer who allowed filming inside the chicken house. Carole still uses the old style houses with open windows, but like all the other chicken farmers has many chickens packed in one place. She makes it clear that she is against the way she has to farm when she says, “this isn’t farming it’s just mass production like an assembly line in a factory.” She explains that antibiotics are put into the feed she has to give to the chickens, and that it no longer works. The bacteria has become resistant to the antibiotics and many of the chickens die. They die from being surrounded in feces and from having rapid growth. The chickens cannot keep up with their weight and just fall down or have heart failure. Carole has to get rid of the ones who actually die and the ones left are picked up at midnight by the meat company. Carole explains that, “it doesn’t matter if the chickens get sick, all of the chickens go to the plant for processing.”, which is hazardous to consumers’ health. All the companies want is to receive large amounts of poultry quickly without worrying about anything else. (Robert Kenner, 2008)

Corn has become the main source for most of the industrial food we eat today.

Like Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, puts it “so much of our industrial food turns out to be clever rearrangements of corn”. Today it has become easier to grow large amounts of corn, which in turn makes it very cheap. Corn has become a great raw material since it can be reassembled and created into a totally new food product. Corn not only can be used to create food, but it can also be fed to animals. It is so cheap to produce corn that companies rather give it to animals like cattle, chickens, and hog. Since corn is cheap to feed to these animals the price of the meat also becomes cheaper. It may seem as if corn is a positive ingredient to the industrial food production, but in reality it harms cattle. Yes, corn is cheaper to feed cattle and it makes them fat, but they are supposed to eat grass in order to be healthy. Allen Trenkle, a ruminant nutrition expert, examines a cattle’s stomach and states, “there is microorganisms, bacteria millions of them.” Trenkle goes on to claim that “high corn diet results in E.coli that are acid resistant, these would be the most harmful E.coli.” The way cattle are kept in industrial owned farms makes it possible for more cattle to become infected with E.coli. Cattle are standing in their own manure and covered in it, and at the same time closely interacting with all the other cattle. So if one cow had E.coli the others become

infected too. The documentary shows how cattle are still sent to the slaughter house with manure on their hides. There are so many animals slaughtered each hour, which makes it hard to keep the manure out of the meat, which in return allows E.coli to become a part of the food system. Again, the focus on creating something cheaper and faster has in turn created negative consequences.(Robert Kenner, 2008)

An American family was broken forever as a result of the careless acts of industrial production.

Barbara Kowalcyk, a food safety advocate, became involved in the fight to regulate safety in the food system after her two year old child died in 2001. Kevin, Barbara Kowalcyk son, was diagnosed with E.coli after eating three hamburgers from a fast food restaurant. His kidneys quickly started to fail after the incident. Kevin died in twelve days, it took that one time after eating a hamburger to end a precious child’s life. Because of cases like these some meat plants have to put their meat into ammonia in order to keep the bacteria off. Another problem that American families face is the growth of fast food consumption. The documentary presents a family who challenges with this problem. They rather go to a fast food place and spend a few dollars, than have to spend more time and money in making homemade food. The increasing consumption of fast food not only encourages the mass production of industrial food, but also increases the risk of American deaths. When the American Family in the documentary goes to the supermarket they realize that a hamburger is cheaper than buying a couple of fruits and vegetables. The food system has leaned towards the bad calories, since those are the ones that are being produced extensively. The mass production of industrial food creates cheaper prices, which in turn encourages people to buy these unhealthy

products.

On the other hand, there are still farmers who run their farms like the old times and do not abide to the mainstream industrial farming. A farmer, introduced in the film, is Joel Salatin from Virginia. Joel goes on to say that industries only focus on growing food “Faster, Fatter, Bigger, Cheaper” and not the consequences of the food in human health. Joel feeds his cattle grass, not corn like the industrial farmer is forced to. The advantage of feeding cattle grass is that they become healthier which results in healthier meat for consumers. Joel also owns chickens that he raises and slaughters all in his own farm. His chicken is not transported to a meat plant or bathed in chlorine like modern industrial food companies. Joel’s farm was going to be closed down by the USDA because it was considered unsanitary. After doing results that compared his chicken to the ones in the store his chicken was less contaminated with bacteria. Chicken produced from industrial companies are put into chlorine to clean bacteria off and still Joel’s chicken that was slaughtered out in the open was healthier. It is the fact that he feeds the animals what they are supposed to consume that makes his food not contaminated, unlike industrial companies who feed the animals something that only makes them fat. Yes, Joel’s production may take a longer time and cost more than the food sold in stores, but as a result of his farming strategies the food produced by him is healthier. (Robert Kenner, 2008)

Finally, an idea to expand the argument the documentary is making is to put the dangers of industrial farming of fruit and vegetables. Food Inc. focuses mainly on the dangers of meat production present today, but not much is explained of the risk industrial fruit and vegetables has on human health. Although fruits and vegetables are considered healthy, the mass production of this food promotes carelessness by industrial food companies. Fertilizers and pesticides are used that can be harmful to the well-being of consumers. Adding more information about fruits and vegetables being dangerous would encourage people to become more aware of what they eat. Adding the negative impact that mass production has in fruits and vegetables would emphasize the consequences that the food industry has created. The industrial food system has been focused on producing bigger and faster food without realizing the results that come from it. While more food is being produced more problems for the human health are being made.