Food Inc: a Reaction Paper

Food, Inc. is an American documentary film directed by Robert Kenner. The film is about corporate farming in the United States, concluding that agribusiness produces food that is unhealthy, in a way that is environmentally harmful and abusive of both animals and employees. The film is narrated by Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. The film opens with the sentence, “The way we eat has changed more dramatically in the past 50 years than in the previous 10,000 years.”, which immediately caught my attention. It led me to question where we get what we eat. As I pondered on this question, I realized that i don’t know what the answer is. This is exactly what the food companies want. Why, you might ask, well simply because these companies don’t want their consumers to know how get their products. This is what the film aims to do, to educate consumers on the food that they are buying, whether these foods are safe or not, genetically modified or not, organic or not and etc. I think the film has been successful in conveying its message to the viewers, because as of now people in the United States have voted for the food system they want. Which have gotten organic foods into Walmart.

The Americans were not the only one who got the message, I myself got it. Since watching the film, I’ve been more aware of the food that I eat every day, three times a day. I’ve become conscious of what food to take, whether they’re healthy or not. I realized that I should be support local food economies more rather than the international food economy. However if we want to change the system, we should all help to eradicate it. If all of us start supporting our local food economy then the demand will increase and increasing the demand will increase the supply which will help our local food suppliers. If the local food economy increases then the international food economy will decrease. So, what are we waiting for? Let’s all help eradicate the system. The Food Industry covers a wide range of production, processing, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, and marketing. Development of food products comes with the development of equipment used, production areas, and chemicals used. As these developments arise, new problems arise, too. In the documentary, Food Inc. these problems are elaborated.

Farmers of Tyson (international meat supplier), were asked for an interview. Many of them declined. They do not want to be in trouble because the company does not want them to talk. However, Carole Morison accepted the interview. She uses the old style of growing chickens (open windows). The company wants her to grow chickens in closed windows but this requires a lot of money. Farmers are in debt in banks their expenses are way too far from their income. An average farmer invests about 50,000 dollars a year for the production of chickens and earns only 18,000 dollars.

Another problem is the growing number of victims of food poisoning. This is caused by bacteria such as E-Coli and Salmonella. These are obtained because of chemicals that are either eaten by the animals or because of mishandling in the food processing area. These bacteria are unintentionally added but when eaten; they can cause illnesses and even death. This happened to a kid named Kevin. He was two years old when he died because of food poisoning.

Today, food companies are very influential in our society. Certain USA government officials came from the food industry. Some think that this is the reason why this industry is growing unusually rapid. It is true. However, due to the exploding number of the population, this growth is necessary.

This documentary helped us to know more about a few sides of the food industry. However, there are more than these. There are more sides to be investigated. There are more sides that we may not realize that really exist. There are more mysterious sides that we, normal people, would not know because of certain limits.