Chris Dallof

Kohl

Nutrition 1020

12/4/19

Nutrition Perspectives: Food Inc.

We don’t know where our food comes from. That is the main reason why Food Inc. was

created. This short film digs deeper into the sources of where every day food comes from and

how far the food industry goes to produce it. The documentary has a few main sections

throughout it that break down various areas of the food industry. The first main area is chicken.

A farmer explains that the desire for profit is what makes the farmers do what they do with their

chickens. They were engineered to grow more quickly and to have bigger breasts to provide

more food per chicken to those who buy it. The farmer explained that the faster he can get the

chickens to grow, the more money he will make from it. When asked to show the inside of the

chicken coop, he declined and so did a dozen other farmers. One, however, decided to show the

inside of hers. She wore a mask to keep herself safe and explained that the chickens were

growing too fast for themselves and were unable to walk. They were constantly coated with dust

and walked in their own feces every day. The reason the farmers were willing to do this is

because the buyers (such as Tyson) were in control of the pay for the farmers and they could

easily hurt the farmers financially. The next main topic was that of corn. The documentary

explains that corn is one of the most sought out by large corporations because of its versatility. It

has evolved over the course of humanity and is now grown very easily. It also is used for many

processed foods and can be used to manufacture xanthan gum and other food additives. Corn can
 Dallof 2

also be fed to livestock which makes them fatter. Food Inc. specifically follows cows and

explains that the conditions of living for the cows and the corn can lead to E Coli being mutated

by adaptation. The cows stand shoulder to shoulder and stand knee deep in their own manure

every single day. This newly formed version of E Coli was then being spread from cow to cow

and then sold across the nation in the form of hamburgers and other cow products. One mother’s

child died from E Coli contracted through the consumption of a hamburger. She worked to have

more regulations put in place so more testing would be done in the factories to prevent the spread

of deadly viruses and bacteria. The cost of food is the next section talked about in this film. The

cost of eating unhealthy, fatty, sugary, and salty foods is much cheaper and faster than buying

healthy food. Fast food is available at every corner. Foods are being manufactured to be sugary

and sweet and salty and so it they are much more available to the everyday consumer. Part of the

reason for the cheap cost of these foods is because of the workers hired for these jobs. They are

often undocumented people who are desperate for work. They are often treated like the animals

and the big companies who hire them don’t see them as anything but a number.

The reason I chose this documentary is because I’ve heard about it before and I thought it

would be interesting. The film is directed by Robert Kenner, who is best known for his social

and environmental-based documentaries. Kenner doesn’t have a very deep nutritional

background. So while he might not have the most knowledge about the topic, he was able to

provide professionals in the film who did know who they were talking about. He included

farmers, nutrition experts, workers, and other people specialized in their fields of nutrition. He

produced the film in 2008. Many of the ideas expressed in Food Inc. are still very applicable

today. There are still farms all over the country who are mass-producing foods in all ways.
 Dallof 3

This documentary has a few themes that can be compared with Wardlaw’s Contemporary

Nutrition. The first is the idea of nutrient density. In the book, it is stated that eating foods dense

in nutrients can help to manage calories while allowing consumers to reach their full dietary

needs. Food Inc. describes ways in which the industry has done that. They have used corn to

fatten up cows and biochemically engineered chickens and plants to grow bigger, faster. On the

surface, this seems like a good way to make foods more nutrient dense. However, this film

breaks down the ways that these methods may be unethical. The facilities in which those animals

are kept are often very dirty. These animals are constantly walking around in their own feces and

stay in housing that is much too small for them. The ability for diseases to be spread and come

about is greater in these facilities for those reasons. Eventually the food that people eat are

contaminated with those diseases.

Another concept discussed was the cost of food. Fast food tends to be much more

accessible and cheaper. This makes it harder for people to eat healthy, especially those who don’t

make as much money. It is a lot easier for them to go to a McDonald’s around the corner and

order 5 things off the dollar menu than it is to buy enough healthy food from a grocery store and

then go home and cook it. Food Inc. mentions this as one of the main reasons why obesity

correlates with poverty.

Along these ideas, Smith et al. mention that one way to combat both things is to eat local

food. People today eat local food because they know where it comes from, it helps maintain the

local economy, and supports small businesses. While it can be more expensive, often these foods

aren’t laced with as many pesticides or hormones as those produced by large food corporations.

At least, that’s what people think. There isn’t very any evidence showing local foods are “safer”

than outside sources. There is data showing that students who eat food produced alternatively
 Dallof 4

tend to have healthier diets. That study was done in Minnesota and so it would be interesting to

see a larger study done along this subject.

This film helped me see where my food comes from. Parts of it weren’t surprising, but

some were. I knew the conditions in which the animals lived in wasn’t great, but I didn’t imagine

it to be that bad. Also, the negative effects that biochemically engineering the animals was not

right. The chickens couldn’t even walk. While I don’t agree completely with altering animals, I

think it is acceptable to a point. My criteria for ethical engineering are that the animals can live

their lives as if they were still in the wild, they are fed natural food, and they are slaughtered in

humane ways. This way, they wouldn’t outgrow themselves and they would be kept in tiny

warehouses and forced to live shoulder to shoulder in their own feces. The nutrients they provide

are naturally derived and aren’t as risky for generating diseases. By being killed humanely, I

mean they will be taken care of before their death and their deaths will be quick and pain-free.

This documentary makes me want to be more aware of where my food is coming from and how

it is created.
 Dallof 5

Works Cited

Kenner, Robert, director. Food Inc. Daily Motion, 2015

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3q2mz7

Smith, Anne M, et al. Wardlaw's Contemporary Nutrition: A Functional Approach. 5th ed.,

McGraw-Hill Education, 2018.