Food, Inc
Fast Food to All Food
1. What were the advantages
of the McDonalds restaurant switching to an assembly-line type operation?
2. About 80% of the beef
supply is controlled by only four companies.
List them.
3. How are the names of
brands and labels placed on meat and dairy products in the supermarket
misleading?
4. List two ways that
chickens are physically different now than in the 1950s, before the green
revolution.
5. Vince Edwards, the
chicken grower working for Tyson, was not given permission to allow the
filmmakers inside his chicken coops. Speculate to the reason for this, after
watching the segment with Carole Morison, the Purdue grower.
6. What are some of the
health issues faced by the chickens as a result of their accelerated growth and
confined living conditions? What does
Carole do to try to mitigate these health problems?
7. Explain why farmers are
economically bound to the large meat companies.
A CORNucopia of Choices
8. About 30% of the United
States land mass is used to grow corn.
Explain the role that government policy plays in making corn such a
dominant crop.
9. Why would the large meat
suppliers be interested in lobbying the government for subsidies for corn?
10. List three products that
are partially made of corn.
11. What is a CAFO?
12. Cattle and other
ruminants have evolved to eat grass. What
problem has emerged as a result of feeding corn to cattle instead?
Unintended Consequences
13. There has been a
noticeable increase in the frequency of food recalls in the last several
years. Describe how both the
industrialized food system and the government regulatory agencies are behind
this problem.
14. Kevin Kowalcyk died in
2001 of hemolytic-uremic syndrome caused by eating ground beef contaminated
with E. coli O157:H7. What regulatory
shortcomings that contributed to his death are his mom working to raise
awareness of?
15. What change would
Kevin’s Law, if passed, make to the meat processing industry?
16. What additive is used in
some meat fillers to prevent E. coli contamination?
The Dollar Menu
17. What kinds of foods are
the cheapest? Why?
18. Explain how obesity,
diabetes, and poverty are linked.
19. What is the expected
rate of Type II Diabetes in people born after the year 2000? In minorities?
In The Grass
20. According to the USDA,
Joel Salatin’s farm is “unsanitary.”
What was the basis of this opinion?
What were the results of the bacterial contamination tests that were
performed as comparison?
21. How many hogs are
slaughtered per year in the Smithfield processing plant in Tar Heel, NC?
22. Where do the large meat
packing plants get most of their workers?
Hidden Costs
23. How is the cheap cost of
industrial food “dishonest” or misleading?
24. Many of the smaller
companies that produced organic and healthier foods have been acquired by
larger conglomerate-type companies.
Organic food produces are becoming available in places like
Wal-Mart. Explain whether this is a good
or bad thing.
From Seed to the Supermarket
25. What is Roundup, and what are Roundup-Ready soybeans?
26. Since the Roundup-Ready
crop seeds are patented by Monsanto, what happens when a farmer attempts to
save his seeds at the end of the season?
27. If pollen from a GMO
field blows into and pollinates a non-GMO field, does Monsanto have a legal
claim?
The Veil
28. There has been little
debate over the idea of patenting and controlling specific strains of food
crops. What does the documentary
attribute this to?
29. What are “Veggie Libel”
laws?
Shocks to the System
30. What kind of changes can
have huge effects on the food system?
31. Explain how consumers
can “vote with their wallet” on issues raised in this documentary.
Post-Movie Discussion
During
the documentary, the farmer Joel Salatin said,
“If we put glass walls on all the
mega-processing facilities, we would have a different food system in this
country.”
What
does he mean by this? Do you think this
is an accurate statement? What specific
changes do you think would happen if there was a greater amount of transparency
within our food system?
