Food, Inc.
Perhaps the definitive cinematic investigation of the modern American food industry, the Oscar-nominated documentary Food, Inc. exposes a system rife with corruptive, secretive and abusive practices, and whose products contribute to the rising epidemic of obesity and all the deadly diseases that result.
The reality of agriculture in America is no longer the romantic farmer with the white picket fence and the sputtering tractor. Food production has become entirely corporatized, and it operates with limited regulations and absolute impunity. The demands of mass production have led to disastrously diminished quality standards, and have placed the health of all consumers in peril.
For the most part, the farmers themselves remain hesitant to speak out in fear of the overly litigious corporations that employ them. But in one of the film's most revealing segments, a chicken farmer does comes forward, and sheds light on some of the most egregious demands placed upon her by the industry. Her coops are overcrowded with forcibly fattened chickens who exist in extremely unsanitary conditions. Many of them are sick, and have developed immunity to their steady diet of antibiotics. The industry utilizes a cheap labor force, much of which consists of illegal immigrants, to load and transport the chickens.
From grain to poultry to vegetables, less than a handful of companies control the production of the foods we eat. Their too-big-to-fail monopoly comes at a disastrous price. The film delves into big agriculture's operational practices, reliance on dangerous pesticides and other chemicals, cost-cutting measures, unprecedented legal and political lobbying power, and insidious marketing tactics. Industry insiders and assorted food advocates testify to the changing nature of food consumption. We're also presented with the intimate stories of several ordinary citizens who have suffered under the industry's reign, including a grieving mother whose son died after eating a hamburger infected with E. coli.
The filmmakers don't let consumers off the hook, however. After all, the industry is only responding to the public's insatiable cravings for more food at cheaper costs. Many aren't aware of the consequences exposed in the film. That's just one reason why Food, Inc. is required viewing.
I watch my hip when eating.
What's eerie how this food standard in this film, reflects Codex Alimentarius, a global food standard. Codex was implemented into the U.S. Food Safety laws just a few years ago. In my opinion, it's important to reduce consumption of toxic foods, but it takes eliminating certain foods from your diet, and increasing nutrition (which is severely lacking). After watching this movie, I didn't eat meat for a month. What i found, that by the time i started eating meat again, my body would reject industrialized meats. Look for labels: Grass Fed Beef, Hormone free chickens, eggs and milk. Corn corn, everywhere gmo corn - which heavily used in our food system. For me it meant cooking meals from scratch, reducing meat intake and increasing produce consumption. Due to financial restrictions, sadly, it is like 'pick your poison' at times now. :(
Now with Monsanto at the helm of the FDA, i guarantee those standards are worse, than since this movie was made. Find safe seeds (heirloom), find farmers markets in your area, grow your own food. Sorry so long, watching this film was a rude awakening for me, but in the end - it forced me to eat differently, for me and my family's sake and we are healthier because of it.
This video helped me understand just how controlling the food industry is. It was very impactful and made me want to change. That the food industry could have so much control over everything and how ruthless they are against anyone who speaks out. We are really blind to what we eat and whats in our food. This video really opens my eyes.
Does anyone know all the different names that has corn that is modified. After watching this and connecting my own sons ecoli scare, and how it all connects to CORN. I do not want my family to eat anything that had corn.
I used to eat two burgers a week, i can barely stand to look at them now!
Amazing work, thank you so very much!
this movie changed my entire life style. i love it, a must see!
I will not trust the corporations that tell me that nitrites and phosphates are not harmful when used as a preservative. Forget trying to convince me I will not hear or read what you say or write. Phosphates were removed from soap detergents four decades ago because city water systems could not remove them from drinking water. Phosphates and nitrites are a source of free radicals in the human body. I think that I will cut my own lunch meat. I will boycott Stauffers, Nestles' and Marie Calendar for the phosphates they put in food.
The food industry can complain until the end of time, I will not read or listen to any evidence that some m*ron who writes or says that nitrites or phosphates are in small and non-harmful amounts as preservatives. I will never except that statement as an honest evaluation, if I have to become a vegetarian. I will not hear you. I will not trust you. I will not purchase your product. The truth in labeling laws will be altered soon, you can bet your life on it. The food industry is too rich to tell the truth. I am not a political liberal. I do not trust corporations.
Where to begin? How about acknowledging that we all need to take a closer look at 'where' we buy our food. Where I live in New England we have access to an increasing number of local growers and farmers for both meat and produce.
I'm not against vegetarians. Each to his own. However you might want to open your mind and read NY Times author Gary Taubes: "Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It."
He goes to great lengths exposing a number of food myths, including the fact that the food pyramid is completely wrong. But he uses science to reveal why the FDA and USDA have it all wrong.
Americans eat WAY TOO MUCH SUGAR & WAY TOO MANY CARBS> We also have the highest obesity and cancer rates. We eat far too little protein and fat. That's right. The FDA has convinced Americans that every package screaming 'FatFree' equates to healthy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Diabetes is another disease that we Americans have a strangle hold on. As do other cultures who eat a similar diet to ours..better known as a 'western' diet....
The best thing about Taubes book is the science is irrefutable. In other words it's not just his opinion, or the opinion of some fad diet doctor. His conclusions come from studying the science... something the FDA knows little about..or chooses to ignore.
Homo Sapiens have been roaming the earth for over a 100,000 years. During that period. For all but the last 100 years, Man has been a MEAT eater. Our bodies have evolved to function best eating a high protein, high fat diet. People in cold weather climates didn't have access to warm weather fruits or vegetables..but they did have access to meat, fish and fowl.
But don't take my word for it. Read Taubes book and see if you can refute what he scientifically shows to be true. If after reading his book you still want to eat only vegetables...good for you. But as an active, healthy and fit 60 year old, I'll keep eating my grass fed protein and fat.
Documentary Addict has full version.
Just a heads up that this movie is now available streaming on Netflix. I'd rather watch it through TDC of course, but this film is important enough that I want to encourage everyone to watch it.
I was a vegetarian before I saw this video and yet I am still soooo thankful for a video like this to exist. I have made it my business to spread the information I have learned with any and everyone. I find it sad and confusing to think about how little control I have over how the FDA regulates what can and cannot be sold/ eaten by the public. America is said to be the land of the free...if this is so I would love to show this documentary on the sides of buildings, in schools, and clips inbetween McDonald's commercials and then vote on the laws that regulate the food indusrtry. I am not saying that all people should stop eating meat, it would just be nice to see the public ask more questions about where it comes from and push for more affordable organic options. I truly believe that this documentary saved lives and for having the courage to make it I want to say thank you.
GO VEGAN, end of story
Thank you all for putting up an amazing film!
My name is Clarion - I go by many names for different fields of life, but for film-making, I like to ring true with new ways of accomplishing tasks - I filmwalk like a pro from doing Qi Gong...
Call me on team for next features up!
Peace be, I'm a dude who can fly with it - in humor I like to roll the beats backward and forward, beatbox while I work even sometimes - make music videos all from scratch of nothing at all, or everything at once.
Freestyle my lyrics and go on & on on the dancefloor of life, making cinema all the while. Here I be for it - call me on team to make romance of films, together with the universe of us all making teamwork occur - I'll show you how I work, put things together fast.
Keep it in motion with the Qi Gong level of Cinema, arts of the world combined into one ritual of life, making happenings converge - call me on for cinema basics of mastery from a new profound movement - discourse of arts combined... I'll show you how I work, again I say it - I'm a dude who can roll films all night and not get tired, Qi Gong wunderkind I be - making art out of everything I see in front of my eyes - I hold to on it and pull forward with new feet maneuvers, keep it coming on page with the universe to get guidance and do things backwards and forwards a bit differently with the timing on things - here we be for more later... Peace!
why is this site not showing the entire documentary? it is available for free on other sites...and people need to see it. Why are you showing just the trailer???
Watched the film on PBS last night, very frighting.
Does anybody know how that Hog killing machine works ? It looks like a trash compactor
I saw this full dvd as a college student in Ireland only too look at the history of food and how it has changed in the last couple of years... I'm horrified!
The standard of care in slaughter houses is so bad that if that was in Ireland, the place would have already closed down, heavy fines and even criminal charges due to incompetence and total disregard for human life. When people... especially children end up with food poisoning because of something so small all that meat is recalled in the next couple of weeks if not the week of the occurring incident.
There is a vet to make sure that the animals can walk properly, that they are healthy and clean as they come into the slaughter houses. Weekly visits from the Health officers and sanitized (not just clean) equipment in all areas is pretty much basic.
We can trace our meat and in fact most whole organic foods back to the farm it came from because its printed and recorded down by the supermarkets.
It's kind of ironic when you think that we took our standards from NASA and adapted it to the food industry, isn't NASA based in America?
Much love Kaspar. I've been wanting to see this badly... Thanks for keeping the information flowing. Believe me, it's much needed when people become so disassociated from the source of their food as we, the "modern" society have.
After I saw the movie, I could not eat any meat for 3 weeks...after 6 months I'm sort of back to "normal"...I think, we should see this movie every 3 months....
Tha documentary FOOD.INC was on detroit public late last night. What an amazing documentary. This should be on at a time suitable to the mass being able to view it, if it has not already. Kudos to the entire crew for producing such a powerful documentary making so many facts public. I was horrified at what is going down by all parties involved. Keep up the excellent work and hopefully you will have the same effect on others as you did on me. Thank you for your dedication, your honesty, your loyalty to mankind. Unfortunately businesses control government throughout the world and it will be the demise of the human race. Bin Laden is not the major concern we north americans think he is. Our own government is allowing our businesses to destroy us a bit at a time!!!!!
"harried workers who don’t have the time or income to read every book and eat non-genetically modified produce every day."
so is it the ideal meal for "most" or is it a matter of convenience
take away the fertilizer and technology and we can watch documentaries about starvation.
This could be the most important documentary on this site. I'm not much for conspiracy theories but this is something that has to change. We like that we can buy cheap food so we don't pay much attention to how it gets to the supermarket. I grew up on a farm and I can tell you that the family farm that I knew is almost gone in North America. Agri-business is now the new farm economy. The control of our food is quickly going into the hands of an elite few. This elite few are trying to legislate the remaining control into their hands. When they get this control they can now plan for the supply and demand market. Food availability and prices can be set artificially the same way Debeers controls diamond prices. The problem is when you use a just in time inventory system for the nations food supply you can't increase productivity by asking people to work harder and overtime when there is a crop failure or drought. You have to wait for the next crop to mature. If our seeds are owned by a corporation then we have to go to them to grow our own foods. It is a recipe for disaster.
Economies of scale make the more common food more affordable. Part of the reason those burgers corn products etc are so cheap is also due to their more common use. Like anything else, price should come down with wider adoption. Of course it's a bit of a catch 22
I want to see some real solutions for people who are uneducated and poor. How am I supposed to go out and buy all of these expensive organic fruits and vegetables? Not to mention the vitamin supplements? Do you have any idea how much it costs to buy a bottle of spirulina or a bag of chia seeds?
I cant afford it and neither can a whole lot of other poor people. So tell me what am I supposed to do to stay healthy? Why is it that all of these things that are apparently so abundant are so expensive? What kind of help is it to me if i cant have it to better my health.
Bliss really is ignorance, if i wasnt aware that every single day of my life others are literally trying to limit access of nutritionally sound food to me and others, i wouldn't be so f@#$%^& enraged right now. I suggest you all watch Food Matters as well, an excellent documentary. Guess ill start having to steal to be healthy, i dont really see any other alternative.
Watson (to whom it may regard),
Well stated, though major media outlets are seldom the place for quality, complete information -- especially in times like these, the czars of these outlets will inadvertently dabble with the bias of their distributed news to fit their own ends, usually by the "Don't bite the hand of your feeder" rule.
A chief example of this is Jeffrey Zucker, who was recently fired from his position as President of NBC Universal -- though he had biases of his own, NBC Universal had 51% of its stock purchased by Comcast Corps. and gave its respective President (Stephen Burke) the chance to kick Zucker from his position. Stephen Burke is the Director of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., as well as Berkshire Hathaway, Incorporated. Burke's direct affiliation with the U.S. financial sector probably provoked him to kick Zucker from his position because under Zucker was allowed a wide-angled, hostile view toward banks and their investments -- exemplified, in fact, in many interviews with former bank directors, coordinated by none other than Tom Brokaw of NBC Nightly News. Burke's bias would and likely will lead to a lighter temperament toward banks nationwide as an effect, because Brokaw, his writers and reporters would not want to risk their employment with NBC.
Another such politically-slanted bias found in major news outlets as a reaction to this biting rule is found with media mogul Rupert Murdoch. FOX News (and a number of its subsidiaries) is owned by News Corporation, whose Chairman and CEO is capitalist czar Rupert Murdoch. Ever wonder why Glenn Beck is on FOX News? It's because he's a Conservative Christian. Ever wonder why FOX News is Conservative and pro-Christian? Because its founder and CEO is Murdoch, a Conservative Christian. This same trickle effect of bias to appease the boss is found in every major news source, from News Corporation affiliates to Viacom's.
Perhaps it was enlightening, or perhaps you haven't so much as read this far. But the underlying point to all of this is to avoid trusting such sources as Tom Brochaw. Even though it's seldom their fault, the fullness and validity of their information, as well as how they go about examining it, is profoundly biased. Instead, one might consider taking the time to shovel deeper into a relevant subject such as this for a stronger opinion on it than just the evidence of Tom Brochaw of NBC Nightly News not addressing it.
Elementary, Dear Watson,
C.S.