Food Inc Movie review. FOOD, Inc discusses the downfall and degradation of Americas food industry.

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Geography Coursework 2011

Movie Review: FOOD, Inc

The pigs shift uncomfortably in the small, metal pen. They sniff each other with their snouts, snorting. They are not sure why they have been herded there.

For a moment there is a strange silence, broken only by the snorts of the pigs. Then, slowly increasing in volume, is a creaking, rumbling noise. Suddenly, a metal wall appears, and with a clean swipe pushes the pigs away, off the screen. The next scene shows the limp bodies of the pigs lying on a conveyor belt.

This is certainly not a pleasing image, but it shows the gritty reality of the food industry represented in FOOD, Inc, Emmy-award winning director Robert Kenner’s latest documentary. Released in 2008 at the Toronto International Film Festival and in 2009 in the United States of America and Singapore, this Magnolia Pictures and Participant Media production1 has been critically acclaimed across the world as a documentary which discusses and delves into the inside story of America’s food industry, scoring well on many movie review websites and having a rating of 96%2. It documents the food industry’s shortcomings and the harm and abuse it brings to the world—not just to animals but to humans and the environment as well3.

FOOD, Inc discusses the downfall and degradation of America’s food industry. It begins with the morphing of fast-food restaurants into a factory-based output system, and in the process introduces changes to the food production system. One of the issues raised is animal abuse: for example, chickens are inhumanely raised as factory “products”. We are also introduced to human abuse, where farmers raising chickens are forced to comply with multinational organisations to raise chickens or face huge debts, incurred from the buying of modern machinery which is enforced by multinational corporations.

Next, the film moves on to the production of corn. The American government subsidises corn production. In fact, corn is extremely cheap and scientists are coming up with many different uses for it. Corn is also found in many kinds of foodstuff.

Before the audience can wonder why the issue of corn is raised, the film reveals all this. One of the uses of cheap corn is in feeding cows. However, corn reacts in the stomach of a cow and causes the harmful mutation of a bacterium, which when eventually consumed, causes food poisoning. Here we are introduced to one of the “heroes” of this film: a mother who lost her child due to the food poisoning. Even though she complained to the company, it was about a week before the product that caused the food poisoning was taken down and stopped from being sold. This portion of the film also shows how food poisoning resulting from contaminated meat can be prevented by using chemicals.

Next, we are introduced to other health problems caused by the system. Unhealthy food is priced at a much lower price than healthy foods. Hence, poorer families who cannot afford healthy but expensive food have no choice but to eat unhealthy food. A poor family whose father suffers from diabetes is showcased in this segment to bring home the point. The film also claims that diabetes is becoming more widespread as a result of food pricing.

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The film then documents the abuse of workers in the food industry. It shows the dangerous life of a workman in the food industry. Despite having to work very hard, such workers are paid a meagre salary. Moreover, poor people from South America illegally immigrate to the United States to work. Food industries accept them but pay them a low salary. However, when these people are caught, food industries are not implicated. In fact, the rate of arresting these illegal immigrants is slow to enable the food industries to have sufficient workers at any one time.

Subsequently, the viewer ...

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