Food Inc.

Last semester, I was sitting in my introduction to agricultural journalism class as my professor announced we would be watching a video. The title of the video was announced there were a few angry looks and mutterings from my classmates and in my case, confusion. What was so wrong with a movie called Food Inc.?

Minutes into the video, I had some concerns. It turns out, Food Inc. was not a scripted movie just about “food”. Produced by Robert Kenner, Food Inc. is shot in documentary style, and attempted to portray the American food system, producers and products to consumers. I did not find many sources in the movie credible and questioned the motive of several of their “experts.” I felt as though the views in Food Inc. were skewed and at times inaccurate.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a proponent of food safety and education. I believe that consumers are entitled to a secure food supply. Because after all, I consume food like every other person. I also spent a summer working for the food service industry. As a Sonic Car-Hop I watched safety videos over food contamination prevention. Food safety was an essential aspect of my job. But, Food Inc. categorized many restaurants and food producers into a category of negligent food practices.

Food Inc. highlighted the consequences of food contamination through the Jack in  the Box fast food chain’s 1993 E-Coli break out. They focused on minimal national food contamination situations when in fact the outbreaks are rare.

This segment of the movie struck a personnel note with me. One of my best friend’s family members had contracted E-Coli several years ago. The young girl was hospitalized for a significant amount of time because of E-Coli complications, but is living a healthy life today.

She represents one of the 2,000 individuals in the U.S. that contract the virus yearly. With a national population of 311 million, the U.S. food consumers that contract

E-Coli is relatively marginal. Foodborne Illness

I live in a country with one of the world’s safest food supplies. I grew up in a community where food producers were my neighbors, and I trust the products they yield. Yet, I have also seen the consequences of food negligence. However, no industry is perfect and the reality is that there will always be members of any industry that do not follow the rules. Food Inc. seemed to highlight the minority of bad producers in an industry filled with honest ones.

The day I saw Food Inc. there were many emotions in my classroom. Onscreen you glimpsed a frustrated consumer, passionate animal activist and animated yet misinformed organic producer. In the classroom, you could see anger, hurt and resentment portrayed on the faces of agriculturists.

Many of my fellow students grew up on farms and are involved with food production. I also saw another emotion on their faces; understanding. We may be young, but my peers and I understood that propaganda such as Food Inc. misbrands our industry. If we are to continue our careers in agriculture we must know the myths we have to overcome, such as the misinformation about E-Coli, food safety and producer motives.

I am grateful that my professor chose to show our class the video Food Inc. As agriculturalists and future professional agriculture communicators it was essential that our class view Food Inc.

After watching Food Inc. I was encouraged to further research the food industry and Food Inc. itself. This movie does not end on your television screen. The website Food Inc. offers resources for teachers and news of future food documentaries. Food Inc. has 442,480 likes on Facebook. Clearly, this movie has had an impact. The website also has over 13 alliance partners, including the Humane Society of the United States. Images of cattle with bar codes adorn the homepage and create a questionable view of agriculture.

As agriculturists we have the power to spread an accurate message about food production. Food Inc. focused on the negative aspects of the American food system. It is time for honest producers to tell their story.

I am now in my second semester of college, and I found myself sitting in my cross culture journalism class the other day. Our professor was showing our class a familiar clip of a video: Food Inc.  This time, I was in a lecture hall with hundreds of prominently urban students. I was not in my agriculture journalism class of 13 students. However, sitting beside me were the other two agricultural journalism students in the class. As the professor asked the class’s opinion on the video, our hands were raised. We might have been outnumbered, but we made sure agriculture’s voice was heard.