Food Inc Thesis

Words: 1140
Pages: 5

“The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000.” The once image of a farmer growing some cattle or corn on a small little farm is fading away. That image has been replaced with large corporations that have mass acres of corn, cattle, etc. The farming industry is controlled by very few people, with an extreme amount of power. When someone walks around a modern supermarket today there is an average of about 47,000 products. But somehow only a handful of food companies actually produces all of these products. The movie Food, INC., directed by Robert Kenner, gives an insight into what these food corporations aren’t telling the people about what’s in their products, as well as how they are actually made, and …show more content…
Kenner shows this in Food, Inc. multiple ways. One of them is Orozco family, a family of four that struggles economically. The Orozco’s are just one of many families that struggle with trying to eat healthy, but at the same time save money. The Orozco’s express that they know that fast food is unhealthy but it’s hard to not pass up on it when it is so cheap, and can be prepared so fast. With the father of the family needing multiple medications for is health that are beyond expensive, the family has to decide between eating healthy or medication. Michael Pollan then goes on to say, “The carrots can’t cost more than the chips.” Pollan is completely true by this statement, and he even backs it up, all of these snacks and fast food items are so cheap because of the ingredients in them: corn, wheat, etc. Which are heavily subsidized. It’s a problem that those who want to save money can’t eat healthy, a person should not have to spend an excess amount of money to eat healthy. Food, Inc., does a great job of using context in the film. Throughout the whole film, Kenner shows videos of cattle and chickens in awful conditions. Whether it be chickens stuffed together in dark houses, or cattle having to be picked up by a forklift because they are too sick to walk. Another instance of this is the secret video of a worker in the Smithfield slaughterhouse, and seeing the awful conditions the workers have to deal with. Videos like those appeals to viewer’s emotions. Many have no clue about the conditions of the raising of chickens and cattle, and even the working conditions at