Kasuba Chabala
Michael Holladay
ENG 108
6 February 2018
Food Inc
Why are Americans getting fatter? Well, a lot of it has to do with giant corporations controlling the growth, processing and sale of food in this country. Reality is, we don’t always have the time to stop and notice what we ingest. In the short term these things don’t affect us, but in the long run what we consider minor and insignificant can come to ruin our health for good. Nonetheless, Food Inc is a standard -length documentary film directed by Robert Kenner, which explores the repulsive nature of the food industry in the United States. This documentary is a powerful, stunning imputation on commercial food production, exposing the truth about what we eat, how it is manufactured,
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Ideally, the director argues that the general public have no clue where and how our food is produced. To him, this is a major issue and enormous risk to the society as a whole. Moreover, this documentary concentrates on the multinational corporations such as Monsanto, Smithfield foods, Tyson and Perdue as the most influential corporations in the food and agriculture industry. In light of this, the main part of Kenner’s claim is that these multinational corporations care more about money, how to produce commodities quickly, effective and cost efficient. Nevertheless, the documentary uses the concept of pathos by highlighting the …show more content…
They are paid less than required despite the meat industry being one of the most perilous jobs in the United States. These corporations do not care if workers get infections from handling animal guts, which gets underneath their fingernails and spreading of uncontrollable diseases. Not only that, many individuals who work in factories are poor people anyway, so they are more compliant to work under terrible conditions. For instance, many are aliens or undocumented individual desperate for employment; thus, they have no assertions to any rights or employee benefits. In addition to the $300,000 loans poultry farm owners spend on chicken coups, these multinational companies such as Perdue and Tyson manipulate them into upgrading their chicken coups, pushing them into further debt, since they only make $20,000 a year. Another reason we should become bigger skeptics of these corporations producing our food is that they meaningfully allow our meat and water to become contaminated with E. coli. However, E. Coli is a bacterium usually found in the intestines of humans and other animals, and if administered through the mouth, it causes severe poisoning. Nonetheless, its dissemination has to do with corn, which is the predominant sweetener in every American meal. In that regard, cows are fed corn because it makes them develop much larger than nature intended them to, instead of green pastures, which are much healthier for them. Thus, by
Kingsolver asserts that this lack of a food culture is the cause of America’s obesity epidemic, supporting her assertion with statistics that state that we produce twice as many calories as we need. Kingsolver also describes the process by which almost all of the produce, such as corn and soy, are turned into oils or fed to livestock in factory farms. Those high calorie oils make their way into all of our foods, especially into junk foods. Junk food ads specifically target children, and yet when the children become obese, it is portrayed as a “failure of personal resolve”, leaving the companies producing the
Fast food, while a quick alternative to cooking, has always been known to be less healthy than traditional preparations, but the extent of its health benefits or detriments was not known until a lawsuit came out which inspired documentarian Morgan Spurlock to engage in a 30 day experiment. The resultant documentary specifically targeted McDonald’s, the largest fast food chain in the world, which also happens to be a major recipient of lawsuits linking obesity and their food. Spurlock endeavored to spend a thirty day period eating nothing but food that came from the golden arches, with the rules that he would supersize only when asked, and every time he was asked, and that he would have everything from the menu at least once. In the 2004 film Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock explores the concept that McDonald’s contributes to the nation’s obesity problem through the utilization of statistics and scientific evidence as a logical appeal, comedy and repulsive qualities as an emotional appeal, and s...
One subject that came up in this documentary was that of Broiler Chicken houses. Food.Inc made it seem as if these houses were cruel, and were bad for the chickens. The one chicken house owner they did interview, made it seem as if this job were terrible and that the regulations that they had were causing harm to the chickens. When they videoed them taking the chickens away to get processed, they made it seem as if they were abusing the chickens.
One issue the documentary highlights is the abuse of animals and workers by the food companies, in order to reveal how the companies hide the dark side of the food world from the public. In several instances, we see animals being treated cruelly. The workers have little regard for the lives of the animals since they are going to die anyways. Chickens are grabbed and thrown into truck beds like objects, regulation chicken coups allow for no light the entire lives of the chickens, and cows are pushed around with fork lifts to take to slaughter. Many chickens are even bred to have such large breasts that their bones and organs cannot support their bodies. These chickens cannot walk and they even wheeze in pain for the cameras. The film is clearly using the unacceptable premise fallacy of appeal to emotion in this instance, because the viewer is meant to feel pity at the sight of the abused animals. This supports their conclusion, because many American’s imagine their food coming from a happy, country farm and would be horrified to know the truth.
Section 1: Typically, we need a well-balanced meal to give us the energy to do day-to-day tasks and sometimes we aren’t able to get home cooked meals that are healthy and nutritious on a daily basis, due to the reasons of perhaps low income or your mom not being able to have the time to cook. People rely on fast food, because it’s quicker and always very convenient for full-time workers or anyone in general who just want a quick meal. Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation argues that Americans should change their nutritional behaviors. In his book, Schlosser inspects the social and economic penalties of the processes of one specific section of the American food system: the fast food industry. Schlosser details the stages of the fast food production process, like the farms, the slaughterhouse and processing plant, and the fast food franchise itself. Schlosser uses his skill as a journalist to bring together appropriate historical developments and trends, illustrative statistics, and telling stories about the lives of industry participants. Schlosser is troubled by our nation’s fast-food habit and the reasons Schlosser sees fast food as a national plague have more to do with the pure presence of the stuff — the way it has penetrated almost every feature of our culture, altering “not only the American food, but also our landscape, economy, staff, and popular culture. This book is about fast food, the values it represents, and the world it has made," writes Eric Schlosser in the introduction of his book. His argument against fast food is based on the evidence that "the real price never appears on the menu." The "real price," according to Schlosser, varieties from destroying small business, scattering pathogenic germs, abusing wor...
In a society that is facing numerous problems, such as economic devastation, one major problem is often disregarded, growing obesity. As the American society keeps growing, so does growth of the fast food industry and the epidemic of obesity. In order to further investigate the main cause of obesity, Morgan Spurlock, the film director and main character, decides to criticize the fast food industry for its connection with obesity in America. In his documentary Spurlock performs a radical experiment that drives him to eat only from McDonald's and order a super-sized meal whenever he is asked. By including visual and textual techniques, rhetorical appeals, and argumentative evidences, Morgan Spurlock was able to help viewers know the risks of fast food and how it has caused America to be the world's “fattest country”.
Hungry for Change is a thought provoking documentary produced by James Colquhoun and Laurentine ten Bosch that delves into the implications of eating a modern diet. Using pathos, facts and figures, and association, Hungry for Change delivers a meritorious performance that engages viewers and leaves them questioning their own diet and lifestyle choices. The film’s use of rhetorical and advertising strategies and its ability to captivate viewers make this an effective, life changing documentary.
The United States of America has long been considered a “big nation”, whether is has the biggest cities, houses, and on a negative note, biggest people. In 2003, Morgan Spurlock, a healthy-bodied film director, set on a quest to show America the detrimental effects of the fast food industry and raise awareness on the controversial issue. He produced the documentary “Supersize Me”, where McDonald’s meals were consumed for every meal of the day for thirty days. His film was released to movie theatres so that people could understand the devastating effects of McDonald’s on his body in a very short time span. At the end of his experiment, Morgan gained twenty-five pounds, developed a thirteen percent body mass increase, cholesterol skyrocketed immensely, and fat accumulation in his liver rose to. He became depressed and he only felt happy and in no pain when he was eating the fast food. By using ethos, logos, and pathos, “Supersize Me” became one of the most watched documentaries in the United States. Without these appeals, this documentary would not have developed the effect that it did.
Our current system of corporate-dominated, industrial-style farming might not resemble the old-fashioned farms of yore, but the modern method of raising food has been a surprisingly long time in the making. That's one of the astonishing revelations found in Christopher D. Cook's "Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business and the Coming Food Crisis" (2004, 2006, The New Press), which explores in great detail the often unappealing, yet largely unseen, underbelly of today's food production and processing machine. While some of the material will be familiar to those who've read Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" or Eric Schlosser's "Fast-Food Nation," Cook's work provides many new insights for anyone who's concerned about how and what we eat,
One example of how the food industry is ruthless is when one of the CEOs of a fast-food chain states they are part of the problem is hired immediately. Though I don’t not find this wrong because if I was a stock-holder with my life savings invested within his company I would without a doubt have him fired for placing my money at risk. That is the harsh reality of economics, you cannot place you company in shock by either a damaging statement or bad executive move. I found most disturbing about the movie was how a case was being made against McDonalds that two obese teens did not know fast-food was unhealthy (Spurlock). Regardless of how they lived word of mouth had to have taught them fast food is not healthy, and if that didn’t health education has been in place for years now teaching us
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity now ranks as the 10th most important health problem in the world (“Obesity Seen as a Global Problem”). Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Centers for Disease Control and Protection estimates that obesity contributed to the deaths of 112,000 Americans in 2000 (“Obesity in the U.S. Fast”). It is estimated that annual medical care cost of obesity are as high as $147 billion (“Obesity in the U.S. Fast”). Government-provided food stamps are often expended on junk or fast food, because it tends to be less expensive than fresh or cook food. Governments fund producers of meat and dairy products to keep prices low. For now, governments are taking a smarter and more productive approach through regulation, and by working with manufacturers.
First, my personal reaction to this is documentary is an eye opener. I knew McDonalds was more harmful to than other fast food places, but I never knew about the lawsuit between McDonalds and it consumers. I never saw McDonalds as having big impact on my life; this is probably because the McDonald’s in my hometown never had a super-size option. In the video, Spurlock conducted interviews to gain ...
This book is a life changing book. It was inspirational, informative and gave you insight about the things we do not know about the food we eat. The documentary was graphic and detailed, informing you of the process from the farm or the fields, to the manufactures, to the labeling and packaging companies. It informed me, about the school lunches, how some of the meals at school are made, to the politics behind it. This book is also a collectible.
Millionaire food companies compel and attract customers through advertisements. Wonderful presentations and happy actors on TV are strategically used to state the normality to eat a tempting 2000 calories packed burger. The Advertisements is the secret weapon of the monopoly of these companies. “The processed-food industry should be seen as a public health menace” views by Kelly Brownell, from a Yale University professor of psychology and public health (Moss 3). Today, tobacco advertisements upset the parents of children, but poor diet advertisements are primarily ignored. (Moss
It has become common today to dismiss the topic of obesity due to the fast food diets. In discussions about obesity, one controversial issue has been the effect fast food restaurants have on health. Many people today do not want to realize how badly fast food affects the human body. They also do not want to accept the fact that obesity has become such a major problem in today’s world. “Today, one in three adults is considered clinically obese, along with one in five kids, and 24 million Americans are afflicted by type 2 diabetes, often caused by poor diet”(Moss 477). On the other hand, companies president 's argue that it’s not their fault that people are becoming obese and developing other health issues due to their products. These companies