Anthropology of Food

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Starring: Eric Schlosser
Director: Robert Kenner

(93 min., DVD 2123, 2009)

Food Inc.

(93 min.; 2008 [2021 YouTube])

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Wikipedia:
Food, Inc. (film)

search "Food, Inc." on JSTOR

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In the News . . .

• Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime -- Richard A. Oppel, Jr., New York Times (06 April 2013)

Scenes

1. Introduction
2. Fast Food to All Food
3. A Cornucopia of Choices
4. Unintended Consequences
5. The Dollar Menu
6. In the Grass
7. Hidden Costs
8. From Seed to Supermarket
9. The Veil
10. Shocks to the System
11. Power of the Consumer
12. Credits

Amazon.com

"For most Americans, the ideal meal is fast, cheap, and tasty. Food, Inc. examines the costs of putting value and convenience over nutrition and environmental impact. Director Robert Kenner explores the subject from all angles, talking to authors, advocates, farmers, and CEOs, like co-producer Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma), Gary Hirschberg (Stonyfield Farms), and Barbara Kowalcyk, who's been lobbying for more rigorous standards since E. coli claimed the life of her two-year-old son. The filmmaker takes his camera into slaughterhouses and factory farms where chickens grow too fast to walk properly, cows eat feed pumped with toxic chemicals, and illegal immigrants risk life and limb to bring these products to market at an affordable cost. If eco-docs tends to preach to the converted, Kenner presents his findings in such an engaging fashion that Food, Inc. may well reach the very viewers who could benefit from it the most: harried workers who don't have the time or income to read every book and eat non-genetically modified produce every day. Though he covers some of the same ground as Super-Size Me and King Korn, Food Inc. presents a broader picture of the problem, and if Kenner takes an understandably tough stance on particular politicians and corporations, he's just as quick to praise those who are trying to be responsible--even Wal-Mart, which now carries organic products. That development may have more to do with economics than empathy, but the consumer still benefits, and every little bit counts." -- Kathleen C. Fennessy

Description

"In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of e coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually."

"We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults."

"Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farms' Gary Hirschberg and Polyface Farms' Joe Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here."

• California Center for Ecoliteracy
  • Food, Inc. Discussion Guide
    
    
• Food, Inc.: The inside secrets giant food companies don't want you to know. NOW on PBS (2009-06-05) -- David Brancaccio talks with filmmaker Robert Kenner, the director of "Food, Inc.," which takes a hard look at the secretive and surprising journey food takes on the way from processing plants to our dinner tables. The two discuss why contemporary food processing secrets are so closely guarded, their impact on our health, and another surprising fact: how consumers are actually empowered to make a difference.
  
  
• "Food, Inc.": Attention Must Be Paid To Food Supply -- Michael Pollan. The new movie Food Inc. takes aim at corporate giants behind the U.S. food supply. It makes a fierce argument for Americans to pay attention to where their food really comes from. Director Robert Kenner and food advocate and author Michael Pollan discuss the film with Steve Inskeep. NPR (12 June 2009) (Listen Now [7 min 47 sec]).
  
  
• Michael Pollan. Bill Moyer's Journal. PBS (28 November 2008). (Watch Video; Read Transcrip) -- Few people reflect and report more astutely on the state of American food production and consumption than Michael Pollan. Beginning with his fascination in plant cultivation, THE BOTANY OF DESIRE, Pollan has become a mixture of reporter and prophet, documenting the state of American food and warning of the consequences if we don't change our ways.
  
  
• Nestle, Marion. Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition, Revised and Expanded Edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
  
  
• Participant Media
  
  
• Polyface Farms
  
  
• POV: Food, Inc. -- PBS
  • Film Description
  • Film Update
  • Additional Video
    
    
• Pringle, Peter. Food, Inc.: Mendel to Monsanto--The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest. NY: Simon & Schuster, 2005.
  
  
• Weber, Karl, ed. Food, Inc.: A Participant Guide: How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer-And What You Can Do About It. NY: PublicAffairs, 2009.

Video Gallery -- Official Homepage

• Chat with Stonyfield and National Family Farm Coalition
• Visit with Joel Salatin
• Child Nutrition Act
• Ingredients
• Alyssa Milano
• John Salley
• Anthony and Gia LaPaglia
• Martin Sheen
• Kelly Preston

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