In this film, we are shown that there are many factors that the food industry doesn’t want their consumers to see. One of these factors is the way our food is produced. Another factor is the origin of the food that is produced. The reason behind the concealment of these factors is the fear of boycott. Although some Americans know about these ill-founded practices, they still choose to eat the food. Why? Because it is cheaper. To put this into perspective, a pound of vegetables can run you upwards of 2-3$ per pound while a cheeseburger only costs about 0.99$. Now this is a result of manipulation and not coincidence.
This documentary was presented to us in a 3rd person point of view. We exhibited through the ghastly and unsanitary practices that these corporations utilized. Corporations nowadays value quantity or quality. Many of these companies refused to conduct interviews with the producers of this documentary when asked. All of this information was organized and separated into 3 segments. The first segment was based on the meat industry, the second segment on plant production, and the final segment is on the legal ramification on the first two segments. We were also shown the problems that come with the segment. One of the facts that stood out throughout the whole documentary was the fact that 4 corporations own over 80% of the meat industry. These corporations are Tyson, Swift, Cargill and Smithfield. Not only do they own 80% of the meat industry, they also possess 70% of the pork industry as well.in short, all the meat that you have seen at your local supermarket is owned by only 4 companies. Crazy isn’t it?
The meat industry is one of the most unsanitary and controversial industries around. The producers of the film visited and explored 2 chicken farms. Although they visited other chicken farms, the companies the farmers worked for interfered and refused the film producers to interview and film the farmers and the chicken farms. One of the chicken farm owners allowed the film producers to record on the inside of the chicken farm. The scenes were horrendous as there was manure everywhere and there were many dead chickens all over the floor. Her contract with her company was terminated after she refused to switch from traditional raising of the chickens to the modern way. This is one of the problems with the meat industry, but there is a far greater problem. In 2001, Kevin, a two-year-old boy, died of E-coli after consuming a burger with his parents while they were on vacation. This caused Kevin’s mother to advocate for what is now known as “Kevin’s law”. This law states “Requires the USDA to establish performance standards to reduce the presence of these pathogens in meat and poultry.”
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Overall, I really enjoyed this film and the amount of information that was given throughout these 3 segments. It also really showed us what the industries hid from us. The way this film correlates with the class is specifically with that one lesson about huge corporations owning a majority of one industry.
