Food, Inc. Essay

Food, Inc. broadens the consumers prospective on the production of foods such as chicken and cattle. The documentary was convincing in regards to showing the consumer what manufacturers are afraid to show us, consumers. Nowadays, there are approximately 47 thousand products in a grocery store. That of which four producers have 70% of the market. Food, Inc. had many facts and statistics telling the viewers of today’s farmers and other large corporations in the food industry. It used to be that it took three months to produce a chicken from when it hatched to the time it was ready to slaughter, now, it takes only 48 days. Farmers average a borrowing of $500,000 in which they only make $18,000 profit. Large producers are keeping farmers in debt. Rather than letting the plants and animals take the time they need to produce naturally companies are always thinking â€Å"faster, faster, bigger, bigger†. Candy, chips, pop, and hamburgers from McDonald’s are all examples of cheaper food than compared to vegetables or fruit. Although they are higher subsidized, they are low in cost. Food, Inc. could have overlooked the value some Americans have on these cheaper meals. A Hispanic family was shown on the documentary. This family was faced with having to choose between buying medication for their diabetic father or getting groceries. Him, as well as one and a half million other Mexican farmers lost their jobs due to larger corporations and with all the debt that is due, they don’t have a lot of money for the quality of food they may want. Food, Inc. however did overemphasize all the negative larger companies were doing to farmers, as well as animals. Some interesting facts are as follow: at a slaughter house located in Tar Heel, 32,000 pigs are slaughter a day; that’s 2,000 per hour. If a plant is always failing the USDA testing, they are said to be shut down. However, the law never took affect, instead, the plants took USDA to court. In 2008, 90% of soybeans did not have the original seed. Although documentaries are usually biased, there were many times throughout the film where a large corporations were asked to talk, however, they declined. Large corporations could have helped their side of view by taking time to conduct an interview with the Food, Inc. crew. Food, Inc.was very intriguing, although it could have furthered explained through a corporations prospective overall the documentary was successful. The harsh facts with the jaw dropping graphics were just a bonus on the heart touching stories all of the farmers told. The graphics of reality was most bothering. The fact that companies could get away with employing illegal immigrants than do nothing when they were arrested was annoying, as well as knowing that a company could sue anybody for anything even if they knew they would lose. Something that was realized as result from watching this piece, is that to eat well in this country you need money. Questions that could be asked are how can companies like Monsanto have all of one farmer’s bank accounts and check written from the last 10 years. How can this company sue farmers (and win) for the farmer’s crops being contaminated against their knowledge. Why did patenting a seed ever become acceptable when the seed needs to be grown and consumed by millions. And why can the FDA sell food without a GMO label.