Sociology

The film that I chose to analyze was the 2009 release, Food, Inc. The film is a documentary that examines the way that food is farmed, manufactured, sold and consumed in America. It looks at the trends in both manufacturing and consuming, methods that large corporations are using to influence and profit from these trends, and issues in health and public safety that have arisen from some current food industry methods of operation. The film was directed by Robert Kenner and produced by Kenner, and Elise Pearlstein. It was nominated for an Oscar, an American Cinema Editors Award, and a Directors Guild of America Award all in the Best Documentary category. The film won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Documentary Feature and a Gotham Award, Southeastern Film Critics Association Award, and Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Documentary. Clearly, the message in Food, Inc is one that critics felt was well-represented and important.

One of the recurring sentiments expressed in the film is introduced early in the film by director Robert Kenner, who explains during the films credits that food is being produced by factories and multinational corporations instead of farms. He explains that methods of production are usually hidden from consumers by clever packaging and imagery of agrarian America and a pastoral fantasy that is supposed to make the average American shopper believe that their food is still grown on independent farms by hardworking farmers. From a sociological perspective, Kenners message seems to be that food manufacturers are manipulating the general consumer into buying into a fantasy of purity via farm life that doesnt actually exist. The food shopper in the average American grocery store is being manipulated into buying into a dream that doesnt exist, while having the truth about where their food actually comes from or how its made being hidden from them. This causes a general lack of knowledge not necessarily because people dont care, but because they believe that they know enough about their food to feel safe and satisfied buying it. By presenting the consumer with imagery of wholesome farm growing, the manufacturers are making it easier for the consumer to pretend that they know everything they need to know about the food theyre eating. In reality, the consumer is being given less and less information about what theyre consuming and moving further and further away from the origin of their food. It made me feel like I need to pay more attention to where the food Im eating comes from and what has been done to produce the meat and fresh fruits and vegetables I buy instead of just looking for sales and what tastes good.

Food safety is another major issue addressed in the documentary. The viewer is introduced to a private citizen that has become a food safety advocate after her young son died from eating hamburger meat contaminated with E Coli. It has become almost commonplace to hear about E Coli outbreaks in plants and fast food chains and see meat recall notices on the nightly news, so hearing about the effects of these recalls from the perspective of a grieving mother made the situation more relatable. Its easy to ignore these outbreaks when theyre just statistics, but when the life-changing effects of contaminated meat are represented in the smiling face of a young boy that died because of a contaminated hamburger, its impossible to ignore. It was shocking to see that some meat manufacturers deal with the potential problem of meat contamination by treating the meat with ammonia before packing and shipping it. Ammonia is commonly thought of as a household cleaner and something used to disinfect dirty surfaces. The realization that the treatment of meat sold for human consumption with this chemical was appalling. Americans are becoming more aware of the fat and calorie content in fast food, but I dont think most of us think about where the food we buy in the drive-thru is actually coming from or how its been treated. Fast food tastes good and can be bought cheaply, but I think its also important to pay attention to what the consequences of that convenience will be. I also feel after watching the struggle of the grieving mother that I need to become more knowledgeable about the laws and regulations that govern this kind of food and the issue of food recalls or contamination control.
 
The treatment of food industry workers, especially migrant workers, is also addressed in the film. It is interesting to learn that many of the migrant workers currently employed in American meat-packing plants are former corn farmers from Mexico, and that many meat-packing plants actively recruited Mexican workers from areas that were strongly affected by the corn commodities rush in the United States. Its almost as if the effect on Mexican farmers was planned to ensure a steady supply of cheap labor to work in the meat industry. Immigration control is a huge government issue in the United States right now, but I dont think the majority of us know that the manufacturers of the meat were eating are bussing immigrants across the border just to use them for cheap, expendable labor. Many of these immigrant workers, along with the low-income residents of the poor communities where the plants are located, seem to be working in dangerous, unhealthy working conditions because they have no choice. The meat-packing plant jobs are the only ones available, so they are forced to work long hours, risk illness and infection and perform dangerous jobs just to get paid. There was also documentation of a raid on immigrant workers that seemed to be set up by the meat manufacturers. They work with the immigration officials and allow them to deport a small percentage of their workers to avoid large raids that would upset production. This made the meat manufacturers seem even less humane and emphasized the unfair conditions that many immigrant workers are forced to deal with. They are considered expendable and replaceable, just like the hogs they slaughter.

The film presents its issues in such a way that the inner workings of a large plant are juxtaposed with that of some of the few remaining independent farmers, organic food producers and private citizens working for action. This representation allowed the subject matter to be more real and made the viewer realize that issues of food safety and production affect everyone. It is the right and responsibility of every consumer to know what they are consuming, what its made of and where its coming from, and this documentary helped the average consumer gain a little more knowledge about who and what is involved in every item they buy when they go grocery shopping.