Barbara Kowalcyk Summary

Food Inc, produced by Robert Kenner is a documentary designed to expose big industry for corrupting our food system in order to sway the audience into supporting organics and small business. Throughout the film Keener effectively convinces his audience that large companies have indeed corrupted our food system by showing the viewer their role in the obesity epidemic along with exposing their mistreatment of animals and workers through the use of logos, pathos, and ethos rhetoric.

Summary After viewing the film “food Inc.” the way I now view the American food industry and our government has changed. I now see the food industry for what it really is, a corrupt business empire that is protected by government officials and policies. In the film it pinpoints many different areas where the food industry has become an injustice to the citizens of America, they have also been protected by laws and policies, and also have treated the cattle, chickens, and other farm animals with such cruelty for profitable gains. Some of the areas where the food industry has become an injustice to its citizens is in the processing of mass food products that are not healthy, the advertising of products to fit the description of farm grown food

American agriculture can produce more food on less land and at cheaper cost than any other nation. Did anyone ever wonder why or how? The documentary Food Inc., produced by Robert Kenner, is designed to put the spotlight on the unsafe preparation of food products, the inhuman treatment of animals being used, and the unethical treatment of workers in corporate farming. Robert Kenner uses multiple rhetorical analysis to get his aspect across to his viewers. Throughout the movie, there are several claims to appeal of ethos, pathos, and logos in order to uncover the true secrets of the American food during its journey to the table.

In the prestigious documentary film, Food Inc., produced by Robert Kenner and founded upon an Eric Schlosser’s book, Fast Food Nation, Mr. Kenner has an intriguing impact on the American consumers of many food products and industries. Throughout the film, viewers and everyday consumers of these various products, visualize what takes place behind the scenes in food factories, contrary to what they may see through forms of advertisement. The documentary generates an image of an “Agrarian America” in a naturalistic way to convey the message of what food production truly consists of. The film uses ethos, pathos, and logos as rhetorical devices to enhance the horrendousness of food production to its audience in multiple ways. Food Inc. provides not only a visual effect on the audience's emotion to portray its message, but uses a variety of commentary scenes from several experts and members within the food industry.

For example, the film presents the counterproductive result of feeding cows with contained brains of infected cows that spread a deadly disease through the cattle known as ‘the mad cow disease’. This type of intensive farming is characterized by its use of antibiotics and pesticides that cost higher prices for farmers. Some farmers turn into the industrial farming not always by choice but for companies that own or influence those intense farming practices. There is two agribusiness that has a monopoly the market by selling agricultural technologies to farmers such as pesticides, GMO, and fertilizers that often influence the public policy and farming practices. This system is unsustainable and produces cheap food products which cost is not included in the market but people end up paying for due to the externalities on health, social and environmental problems. As the documentary highly at the start, Americans hate the most the inconvenience of things and therefore some people take for granted their food and prefer to consumed processed products that are toxic, other people who live in food deserts do not have much choice to consumed these toxic products but is the system that limits their accessibility to affordable fresh

Interviews were used in the documentary to appeal to the credibility of the speaker, as well as to the logic of the viewer. One of the main interviews shown in the documentary was from a mother whose son, Kevin, died after eating a hamburger contaminated with E.coli. The mother tells of how hard it has been to live without her son, and how little the food industry has changed after the incident. During the interview, several news headlines are shown with similar titles of people dying after eating contaminated food. This makes the situation more urgent, as it shows that many people have been affected. The use of this particular interview supports the filmmakers’ message that our current food system is harming our health and does not work to protect us consumers to the level which we should be protected. By including a real testimony from a victim, viewers are greatly impacted because they realize that the same event could happen to them or to their family. Throughout the documentary, real farmers were interviewed. For example, Carole Morison, a chicken farmer for the major meat packing company Perdue tells her perspective on the food industry. Morison shows viewers the unsanitary and cramped conditions inside the chicken houses. She says that farmers have no other choice because the huge food industries control and exploit farmers

Food inc. is a successful, award-winning documentary with a strong message, released in 2009; Eric Scholesser and Michael Pollan bring a documentary packed full of trade secrets and insight into the real food industry, because behind all the images of farmers and pictures of green grass, there is a bloodthirsty corporation looking to make the processes faster, easier and more artificial than ever before. The documentary succeeds in persuading the audience to think about the sources of the food they eat through techniques like confronting imagery and archival footage.

The act of consuming food is one of the most intimate parts of the human experience. Humans eat for sustenance and pleasure, for better or for worse. The necessity of food is one of the unavoidable, unchangeable facts of life. Everyone eats; therefore no one is immune or exempt from the consequences of prioritizing cheapness and convenience over nutritional value and environmental impact. The 2008 documentary film, Food Inc., argues that in the last half century, the food industry has become increasingly corrupt and toxic. This industrial behemoth is underhandedly subsidized by the government and supported by largely ignorant, apathetic, and captive consumers. This culinary crisis, perpetuated and concealed by agribusiness monopolies, affects everyone. Specifically targeting average, supermarket frequenting, middle class, American consumers, this documentary scrutinizes corporate farming and concludes that the products of such an unwholesome process are undeniably unhealthy, and consuming them is not only harmful but also unethical. Filmmaker Robert Kenner contends that the methods currently in practice are dishonest, environmentally hazardous, and abusive to both animals and employees. The film effectively and engagingly utilizes the rhetorical strategies of pathos, logos, and ethos in the form of personal testimonies, manipulated cinematic effects such as lighting and music, and disturbing visuals to educate, disillusion, and galvanize

Food, Inc., a documentary film produced by Robert Kenner, is designed to inform the American people of the food industry’s darker side. The film shows the food industry in a more realistic light than the advertised and perceived image of a Farming America. Food, Inc. not only uses images, such as hundreds of baby chickens being raised in spaces no larger than a cabinet drawer, but also includes the stories and testimonies of farmers, businessmen, government officials, and victims of the food industry. As the film is being played, the audience sees the immorality of the food industry, feels disgust towards the unethical greed for wealth over the health of the customers, as well as feeling the helpless of the oppressed farmers, workers, and

Are people aware of the hidden things that go on in food processing factories or how the animals are treated? Probably not. The movie Food Inc. shows some of the truths of food processing. People need to learn more about what they are putting into their bodies every single day. Some of these products could actually hurt them, even up to the point of death.

When looking into the inner workings of the food industry one can establish a precedent centered around the idea that big business should make up the food industry. This notion is presented front and center through the use of the movie Food Inc.directed by Robert Kenner. Kenner establishes in the film that large multinational corporations control the food industry. They do it through force however, and place a cloak over what is truly happening. People as both the consumers but also the growers themselves are being covered and threatened by and from the truth. They work to establish the lack of stature these people can take against them using power as a means to succeed. The film itself uses a the structure of ethos, pathos, and lagos to establish the relevance this has on our daily lives. Ethos established in the film a sense of credibility to the message being pursued by the people pursuing it. Pathos works to bring in our emotions to establish a sense of everything from sadness towards the animals to the unfair treatment towards farmers. Lastly logos is established in the citing of defined facts as well as bringing in hard evidence to support

The complications of the U.S. food industry, the unethical approaches of the industry, and the indifference shown on the part of the industry’s leadership to address the unethical issues – all have constituted the basic subject matter of the documentary film. It must be noted that, on one hand the documentary is a critical commentary on the U.S. food industry and the American food culture, and on the other hand, it is a didactic movie in which the filmmaker has tried to make the American populace understand that, that people has the ability to change the system through ushering a change in their choice of foods and in the sphere of their food

Food Inc. : A Rhetorical Analysis Food Inc., a documentary film produced by Robert Kenner and based on Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation, is designed to inform the American people of the food industry’s sinister side. The film paints the food industry in a more realistic light than the advertised and perceived image of an “Agrarian America.” Food Inc. not only uses compelling images, such as hundreds of baby chickens being raised in spaces no larger than a desk drawer, but also includes the voices and stories of farmers, businessmen and women, government officials, and victims of the food industry. As the film is being played, the audience sees the horrors and immorality of the food industry, feels disgust towards the unethical greed for wealth over safety of customers, shares in the helplessness of oppressed farmers, workers, and animals, finally feeling a sense of hope at the end where the film tells the audience they can vote for safer, better foods with what they decide to buy. Food Inc. effectively intertwines visual elements along with commentary, forging an ominous and foreboding image of the food industry that is furthered by its audio track and expert testimonies, creating a potent warning to the American consumer of the darker side within the food industry. In the opening moments of the film, images of corn and wheat fields spanning acres of land, along with a cattle rancher riding his horse among a magnificent grassy landscape surrounded by trees, are

Food Inc., a documentary film produced by Robert Kenner that was based of Eric Schlosser book, Fast Food Nation and Michael Pollan book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, is designed to inform people by exposing the inhumane policies and techniques within the food industry. The documentary aims to bring spotlight on the reality of the food industry rather than what is portrayed through advertisement. In doing so, the film shows where it all begins in slaughterhouses as animals are raised only to be smash to death or processed in unsanitary conditions, while also including stories from farmers, government officials and victims who suffered from the food industry. The main intended audience is American people in general to warn them of the sinister side of the food industry.

Watching the documentary Food Inc, there were a few points that stood out most to me. I think one of the most important concerns that were brought up is the consumers not knowing the truth behind the food. Whether there is actual harm in our food or not, we still need to know what is going into our food. The harm that may actually be inside our food can be caused by how easy it is to produce crap food now days. Making mass produced food is a lot easier than it has been in the past because genetics have changed animals into growing faster and fatter. This causes harm to the environment by creating factories for these foods to be made, which causes pollution by emitting many CO2 gasses. However this isn’t a concern for the producer. The producer is mainly focused on money they receive even if it causes harm to the environment or the consumers. The use of pesticides and other substances are used in foods, whether it’s in the production of corn growing or in the food in general to help keep germs out. This also causes harm to the consumer and environment that we should be aware of.