The documentary film Food Inc. was directed by Robert Kenner, released in 2008. It had an Oscar nomination and it is about the production of unhealthy food for mass consumption. The people directly involved in the business of producing this food are at risk as well as the whole environment and the animals. The film exposes the truth about food which is cheap but detrimental for health and it deals with the production of meat, vegetables and corn and with the distribution of such food. The purpose is to raise public awareness about the effects of processed food on their health.
Production of this kind of food is industrial and the conditions in which this is happening are not humane. The whole environment is at stake because of the unhealthy regulations. Food Inc. deals with the legal aspect of such production of food. The interest of the companies is to make money and they do not care if people’s health is at stake. Prior to the production of food becoming an industry, people used to grow healthy food and provide for their families or sell this food at local markets. However, the technological advancement made it possible for food to be produced for the masses. This idea is good but the outcome is that such food is extremely unhealthy. Animals are fed with corn while they should be eating healthy grass and this kind of meat production is not ethical because of the abuse of animals and because of the final product that corrupts health. In order to produce as much food as possible within a short deadline, companies resort to unethical behavior. The point is that this food is advertised as healthy and there is no information about it being hazardous for one’s health. Such advertising is unethical because it misleads people. The animals are abused and corn is used in a way that it makes more damage than good. Corn has been in use for a long time, but when animals are fed with it, this causes damage. The main problem is the excessive intake of corn by people because processed food contains it and animals are fed by corn as well. The companies are not concerned with this because they grow corn for these purposes specifically. The land where the corn is grown could be used for growing food that is healthy, but the companies are only interested in generating profit and ethical issues are not their concern. “Those who argue that GM food is natural and those who argue that it is unnatural both depend on the idea that the natural is good” (Portman 2).
When meat is produced for the market it has to serve the needs of the masses. Therefore, animals are fed with corn so that they would grow faster than usual. The only healthy way would be to kill animals for specific households, which was the only way in the past. The meat industry is controlled by great corporations which hire employers to work at farms to produce meat which is served in restaurants. This is mostly, but not only fast food and people cannot be protected from this process which is why this film has the purpose of making people aware of the hazards of eating unhealthy. Animals are bread in inhumane conditions in which they cannot move due to the lack of space. These animals have to eat food they are not supposed to eat including steroids so that they would grow bigger in a less amount of time. A good example of the mistreatment are enlarged chicken breasts and all of these animals are modified so that they are not in accordance with nature. Animals live in extremely bad conditions with no space to move covered in their own feces and surrounded by other animals which are dead. This was of producing food is unethical and it makes the meat unhealthy. In the process of producing so much food in so little time, dangerous chemicals are used as well. People will not die because of that, but they are not familiar with the fact that they are eating poison in small amounts in so many products. This whole process makes food cheaper, but at a great cost because health cannot be restored once it is ruined. Since people do not know that they are eating these chemicals there is the ethical problem of advertising which is misleading. People who consume food are also guilty because they are not informing themselves about the ingredients of food they eat. On the other hand, the companies advertise their products as healthy although they are aware that this is deceptive. Corporations make profit because of the population that is increasing. “From the sustainable agricultural point, concerns regarding farm security often trump those of food security, as the need for cheap food seems contradictory to the need for fair prices for farmers” (Hughes 31).
The film is rhetorically effective for mass audiences because it informs people about everything they should know about the food they eat. There is logos involved in this film because of the fact that facts are used as well as charts. Ethos is present in the way that the professionals are talking about the industrial food. Pathos can be seen from the fact that the scenes are explicitly describing the way that animals are grown. The treatment of chicken is very bad and the filmmakers accomplished their goal to make this food disgusting for the consumers. Another documentary film Baraka can be compared to this one because it describes how people let great corporations destroy the natural environment.
This film reinforced what I previously believed and it changed my eating habits in a way that I began to eat fast food less often. Now I look at the ingredients list before I purchase products. I decided to put much more effort in grocery shopping than before because I am worried about my health.
Works Cited
Kenner, Robert, dir. Food, Inc.. Magnolia Pictures. Film.
Portman, Anne. "Mother Nature has it Right: Local Food Advocacy and the Appeal to the “Natural”." Ethics and the Environment 19.1 (2014): 1-30. Print.
Hughes, Laura. "Conceptualizing Just Food in Alternative Agrifood Initiatives." Humboldt Journal of Social Relations 33.1/2 (2010): 30-63. Print.
