Análisis de la película documental Food, Inc.

Food, Inc. is a documentary made by Robert Kenner and Eric Schlosser about the food industry in America. It focuses on the food industry as being a few big corporations who capitalize everything we consume on a daily basis. The film asks the question, “How much do you really know about the food you eat”? Food Inc. uses the opinions of many knowledgeable individuals, including the authors of several books about the food industry, food safety advocates, and farmers. The different views add perspective and each individual is experienced and credible. Their knowledge of the food industry and its inner workings are evident. This increases the likelihood of the audience believing everything said and shown in the film. Food Inc. reveals that companies only care about the profit, not the animals, consumers, workers, or environment.

First, the filmmakers talk about the negative impacts the food industry has on the animals. Companies don’t hesitate to ‘modify’ animals. For instance, not only are chickens genetically modified to grow twice as fast, but they also are genetically modified to have much larger breasts for white meat. The audience notices how unnatural this is and how the chickens can barely move. The viewers take notice of these inhumane conditions the chickens endure and develop emotions of sympathy and astonishment for the animals.

Next, Food Inc. shows how the consumers are affected by the food industry. People learns that corn is very cheap and bountiful, so the monopolistic companies substitute corn for various things to cut down on cost and production time. They use corn for many things such as feed for livestock instead of grass or wheat. This doesn’t seem like a big deal to the audience at first until the film explains that corn actually allows bacteria like E. coli to live inside the animal. When the animals is slaughtered and made into produce, the E. coli remains in the produce and then ingested by the consumer. The film uses this example of E. coli to scare the audience and hopefully get the audience to narrow the blame back to the super companies by explaining how deadly E. coli is and how the bacteria continues to spread in produce and kill innocent consumers. By using this evidence of more food recalls happening each year due to E. coli and other bacteria, the audience will also fear for their health and safety. The producers solidify this panic amongst the audience when they show statistics for FDA inspections across the screen stating, “ In 1972, there were 50,000 inspections per year. In 2006, there were only 9,164”. The audience can deduce that much of what they eat is not inspected, and could potentially be very dangerous. This will encourage them to either take action or change their diet before the unthinkable happens.

The filmmakers also trigger sympathy from the audience by explaining how mistreated the farmers are. It’s a known fact to the audience that farmers don’t make very much money doing what they love. The farmers interviewed give the audience a first hand account of how the animals are kept, fed, and treated. While some companies don’t even allow cameras inside of the farms

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