Austin Jaeger

HLTH 1020
Nutrition Perspectives Paper
04/09/2017

Through my research I learned about the author, the documentary Food Inc, the way the

documentary relates to my studies in the nutrition text book, and many new things relating to

nutrition in my own life. For my paper I chose the documentary Food, Inc. I chose this

documentary because I like the ideas the documentary is trying to prove, that large multi national

companies, governmental policies and money are what control every single process of our food,

the way its produced and the way it is distributed to us. The author of this documentary is Robert

Kenner, though he has produced many great documentaries he does not have much of a history in

nutrition. This is why he has teamed up with people like Eric Schlosser who is the author of the

book Fast Food Nation as well as Michael Pollan a celebrated author who has devoted his life

to writing books about where nature and culture intersect when it comes to the food we as

humans consume, he also wrote the book Omnivores Dilemma. The ninety four minute

documentary Food Inc. was produced in 2008 and was officially released in the United States

on June 12th 2009 commercially. I believe that even though this movie was released almost 9

years ago, the ideas the documentary tries to portray to watcher are still very much so applicable

in todays society. Even though people have grown much more aware of the dangers that can

come from eating processed foods or food that has been genetically modified, a large majority of

the country still continues to support the cheap food these massive multi national companies

continue to push on the consumer by offering their products at extremely low prices so that the

buyer is blind to all the other harmful impacts that food product may have on their body or on the

environment during the creation of the product.

 Food Inc. is a documentary that is broken down into three major components. The first is

focused on the industrialization of the meat production industries and how 4 major companies

now control over 90 percent of all meat processed for consumption in the United States. Food

Inc. explains that McDonalds is the largest purchaser of beef, pork, and chicken in the United

States which further drives the meat industry to produce the same product every single time that

way McDonalds maintains its consistency and then whatever is left for everyone else is basically

the exact same meat that McDonalds will be using in their restaurants. The documentary points

out how inhumane these animals are treated and how they are simply just part of the system that

puts food on the table of millions of Americans. The documentary also points out the absolutely

atrocious environmental impacts the farming of these animals has on the Earth because of the

massive use of land and the outfall that comes from all the animal waste that is not properly

disposed of, often times these animals spending their wholes lives standing in their own feces.

The second major portion of the documentary focuses on the industrial production of grains and

vegetables but spends most of the time talking about the two major crops of America today

which are corn and soy beans. According to the documentary over 30 percent of our land is used

to grow corn, and this is thanks to government policy that gives benefits to farmers to over

produce this product. It is estimated that over 90 percent of processed foods in America contain

some form of high fructose corn syrup. Not only is this over produced corn being used to create

things like high fructose corn syrup, it is being used to feed the animals which are being raised to

be slaughtered for meat, the documentary points out that this is a major problem and is creating

diseases in these animals that have never been seen before, it also points out that this is how the

virus known as E-coli came to be. The next piece of this second section speaks very in depth

about the farming practices of the soy bean and how it has so drastically changed due to the huge
corporation known as Monsanto. Monsanto has created genetically modified soy beans and have

essentially cornered the market by creating a soy bean that can be sprayed with their own

companies weed and pest killer and not be harmed itself. Monsanto charges farmers to use their

soy beans and finds ways to take farmers to court if they dont use their beans. The third and

final segment of Food Inc. focuses on the legal and economic power of the multi-national

companies that control most of all the food products that we consume. The documentary points

out how the government is dominated by the industries that they are supposed to be regulating

because of the many former execs who have found their way into seats of power within the

government. It took a very long time for the GMO food labeling debate to be settled and that is

because of the massive amount of money and power these companies have, over 70 percent of

the food Americans eat has some form of genetically modified organism in it. Thanks to the

massive power of these companies there is such a thing as the veggie libel laws which

basically state that it is against the law to make any discriminatory remarks towards food. I

thought there was supposed to be free speech in this country? The documentary ultimately leaves

it up to the viewer to make a change in the way the food industry has became. You make a

choice three times a day the movie says.

In chapter 17 of our text book it talks about the safety of our food supply, and even

though it states that Americans traditionally enjoy a rather safe food supply compared to the rest

of the world it does point the outbreaks of viruses we have had due to E-coli. The documentary

points out how E-coli came to be and the textbook points out that we have had several multistate

outbreaks of this disease in the past few years. One thing the documentary really likes to point

out is how helpful it could be to purchase meats from farmers markets rather than super markets.

What the documentary does not point out that the text book does shine some light on is the rather
recent outbreak of poisoning due to salmonella that was caught from the purchase of poultry

from local feed stores that had been inappropriately handled.

I learned quite a bit about nutrition through the completion of this paper on this very

interesting documentary, but the one thing that truly stood out to me the most was the impact that

money and multi national corporations have and continue to have on the furthering of the

epidemic of obesity that we are having in this country. By making food to fast and efficiently we

have made extremely unhealthy foods too cheap for most to pass up. A new view point that I

learned about is seeing the world through a lower income familys eyes, I understand why people

with less financial stability tend to be of higher weight and have more health problems, maybe its

not that they cant afford to eat healthy, but because the food industry wants them to know they

have significantly cheaper options that may not be as nutritious, will provide them with a greater

quantity of food. At the end of the documentary the producer does a great job of leaving it up to

the audience to help create this necessary change in our food production systems, the one idea

that I will take with me and change in my own life to make my difference is to be more

conscious of where my food has been sourced from. I will purchase better meats, being mindful

of how and who was raising these animals.

Reference Page

1. Website Kristina, Amy Taylor (comment Moderator), Parker,

Elizabeth, Jason Leake with 100 Days of Real Food, Dona, Aaliyah,

Thomas, Barrie, and Laura. "Some Highlights from the Food, Inc.

Documentary." 100 Days of Real Food. N.p., 15 Jan. 2015. Web. 11

Apr. 2017.

2. Website "Food, Inc." TakePart. N.p., 22 Jan. 2015. Web. 11 Apr.

2017.

3. Documentary Food, Inc. By Robert Kenner, Richard Pearce, Eric

Schlosser, Melissa Robledo, William Pohlad, Jeff Skoll, Robin
Schorr, Diane Weyermann, Elise Pearlstein, Kim Roberts, Michael
Pollan, Gary Hirshberg, Joel Salatin, and Mark Adler. Dir. Richard
Pearce. N.d.
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