Essay on Food Inc - Rhetorical Analysis

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

Marion Nestle, an author with a couple of published books and a teacher at New York University, dives into the how supermarkets encourage shoppers to buy more than they need in an essay taken from her 2006 book “What to Eat: An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating.” Nestle informs her audience of general shoppers on the topic of how supermarkets are prime real estate so that she can convince the audience that supermarkets do things to make more money by getting people to buy more. Nestle uses rhetorical strategies of having pathos, examples, and facts. Nestle begins her essay by utilizing pathos. She attends to the audience’s emotions by describing the mass amounts of choices shoppers must make when they shop and the stress that comes with shopping.

As much as Pollan might wish to trace George Naylor’s corn to its final destination, it is mixed with corn from numerous other farmers, each of whom may have a uniquely created strand of corn, at the elevator before it is shipped to a variety of locations. In Chapter 4, Pollan’s journey leads him to Garden City, Kansas, in a feedlot. Pollan makes several contrasts between systems that produce food without problems and systems that produce food problematically. In each case, he concludes that the feedlot has produced more problems than solutions. Pollan attempts to track down what happens to the corn that is not sent to the feedlot. He discovers that much of it goes to the processing plants. Pollan diferrentiates between traditional mills, wet mills, and steel tanks. The wet mills are like artificial digestive systems that break corn down into molecular parts so it can be used to produce high-fructose corn syrup. He explains that once corn is broken down into component parts, food scientists can process it to create nearly anything.

Have you ever been in a rush, low on cash, and looking for something to eat so you didn’t really have a choice but to grab a burger with fries at your local fast food place? Have you ever paused or stopped to think about where the burger really came from, or the process that went in to be made? The Food Inc documentary investigates and exposes the American industrial production of meat, grains, and vegetables. Robert Kenner the producer of the film makes allegations in this film and he explores how food industries are deliberately hiding how and where it is our food is coming from. He emphasizes that we should find out where our food comes from and why is it that the food industry does not want us to know. Food Inc. does not only uses compelling images, such as hundreds of baby chickens being raised in spaces where they do not see an inch of sunlight, it also includes the speeches and stories of farmers, families, government officials, and victims of the food industry. The four current problems facing today’s food industry are the reformed usage of the false advertisement within the labeling of products , mistreatment of farmed animals, and the harmful chemical in our meats. The documentary Food Inc uses very persuasive tactics that demonstrates strong elements of pathos, ethos, and logos make an effective appeal, while uncovering the dark side of the food industry.

Pollan argues that “... taxpayers will pay farmers $4 billion a year to grow ever more corn, this despite the fact that we struggle to get rid of the surplus the plant already produces” (para. 4). This explains that many of the farmers are getting paid more to just grow corn and to over grow them. Pollan vocalizes that “America's corn crop might look like a sustainable, solar-powered system for producing food, but it is actually a huge, inefficient, polluting machine that guzzles fossil fuel..”(Para 12). The corn needs a lot of gas to keep the production going which cause a lot of pollution in the world and, also globe warning. Consumer don't know what type of food or beverages have corn in them most of them don’t even know where their meat or what the animals are being feed because the government is hiding that away from them. Overall, this causes a lot of problems to the next generation and the government still only wants to make money out of the over growing of

Pollan believes that within the industrial food chain, there are a lot of things that happen that people should be more aware and cautious of. Many americans have no clue how the meat they’re eating was produced and how it came to be. Pollan states, “These animals have evolved to eat grass. But in a CAFO they are forced to eat corn- at considerable cost to their health, to the health of the land, and ultimately, to the health of us, their eaters,” (49) Cattle in CAFOs are being force-fed corn, which is unnatural. They use it to fasten the process of growth, and a lot of people think the meat they’re eating is natural and safe, when it most likely isn’t. Also used in Pollan’s point of view, “To the industrial food chain, cattle are just machines

While I was younger me and my family worked on a farm and eventually as I grew up I worked at Hy-Vee in produce and worked my way up to the assistant manager for produce. I was given a great opportunity to learn about organic foods and about the Green Revolution (research, development, and technology that increased agricultural production worldwide). Today though, most grade school students know about organic foods but almost all of them know about world hunger but do not know the extent of how bad it is. As students go to college, they start to learn more about how bad world hunger is, but some are taught that the Green Revolution is not

In the documentary, Food Inc., we get an inside look at the secrets and horrors of the food industry. The director, Robert Kenner, argues that most Americans have no idea where their food comes from or what happens to it before they put it in their bodies. To him, this is a major issue and a great danger to society as a whole. One of the conclusions of this documentary is that we should not blindly trust the food companies, and we should ultimately be more concerned with what we are eating and feeding to our children. Through his investigations, he hopes to lift the veil from the hidden world of food.

The film Food Inc., like many other films of its category is not so much of an informative documentary, rather more of a slanderous exposé which blows the lid off of the food industry and its operations. To say that the film is neutral and tends towards more of an educative approach would be a misinterpretation to say the least. Throughout the entire movie it is always evident that the movie aims not solely to educate its audience about the truth of their food, but to convert the misinformed and inspire a rebellion against food industry practices. The movie does this through a tactful approach of bombarding its audience with gruesome clips, facts and testimonial story lines. The film asserts it claim through a thrilling critique of the horrific meat production process which is most prevalent in the U.S food industry and its impact on humans and the environment, while extoling alternative practices which seem to be more sustainable and humane, yet are underutilized. The film goes on to highlight the different players in the food politics arena, emphasizing the role that government agencies play. Also the film divulges the reality that is the monopolization of the food industry by big multinational corporations such as Monsanto Company, Tyson Food, Perdue Farms, Smithfield Foods, etc.

The documentary ‘’Food Inc’’ gives a look into how the food system in America is run. Eric Schlosser a person in the documentary describes the American food system as ‘’ the world deliberately hidden from us.’’ As I watched the documentary called ‘’Food Inc’’ that statement became more and more apparent to me. Big name companies are constantly trying to hide to the consumers on the unruly truth about what we are putting into our food on a daily basis. The companies hide how the animals are not only treated but how they get to our plates. The companies also exaggerate the health level in which we retrieve the food. The American food system is ‘’the world deliberately hidden from us.’’

In “All Flesh Is Grass,” Michael Pollan investigates the alternative models of producing food. To study the agricultural food chain, Pollan begins his journey in chapter 8 at Joel Salatin’s Polyface farm in Virginia, helping to make hay. Polyface farm is home to a wide variety of crops and livestock: chicken, beef, turkeys, eggs, rabbits, pigs, tomatoes, sweet corn and berries. Salatin calls himself “a grass farmer.” He takes into a deeper analysis on “organic” food, one of the most rapidly expanding product lines in America’s supermarket. There Michael gets to see the symbiotic relationship between animals and grass in action. Michael Pollan talks about an alternative method of producing food that is being overshadowed by the big, industrial system. Salatin's 100 acre Farm produces 25,000 pounds of beef, 50,000 pounds of pork, 30,000 dozen eggs, etc.

They say if you don’t like heights but enjoy the thrill, don’t look down. This is the same mentality that director Robert Kenner tries to prevent in his film Food Inc., where he sheds light on the corporations that control the way our food is being grown, processed and sold to the American people. With the help of Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, and Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore 's Dilemma, Robert takes a shot at all corners of the food industry from meat packaging, to corn reprocessing, even Monsanto’s seed copyrights. While Kenner’s goals for change certainly lead to a better America, they tend to lean on the side of unrealistic.

Thanks to MacDonald’s and all the other fast food restaurants their greed for money have lead us into as serious as an issue of death. This problem seems endless however, there are many ways to fix the problem, by choosing not to go to fast food restaurants and eating healthy instead. What Scurlock tried to express through his documentary was that its either us or its them, that we should kill Macdonald’s before Macdonald’s kills us. Directors message is quite worth the loss of your appetite. Morgan Spurlock took one for the team with this film; he suffered so that we may learn from his

Alternative movements, such as eating organic, also become “performative of an elite sensibility” (Guthman 2003, 52), as food is used as a symbol of certain social and environmental values, while the consumption of this food bolsters a sense of heightened moral superiority. Product manufacturers have been particularly astute in rebranding even the most unhealthy of foods, such as sugar, by ‘re-enchanting’ foods, projecting ‘holistic’ notions such as the family farm across their plastic packaging. These “supermarket narratives” play into consumer desires for ‘healthy’ foods by emphasizing ‘freshness’ and ‘sustainability’ (Reisch 2003), ideas which complement the ‘white’ ideology of food. In consuming these ‘healthier’ foods, the white middle class consumer often separates themselves from fast food eaters, who are viewed as mindless fools (Guthman 2003, 55).

Corn is the number one grain used to feed animals for slaughter. Feeding cows corn instead of their natural diet lead to the unintentional creation of 157H7 E. coli, a deadly bacteria that can kill. The film reveals how food standards have dropped, with only 9,164 safety inspections from the FDA each year as compared to over 50,000 in 1972. The food industry has become consolidated to the point of a few companies having a great deal of power and influence via the government. The USDA is no longer able to shutdown plants with contaminated meat. A bill titled “Kevin’s Law” had the intent of changing that, but, after 6 years, the bill still has not been passed. Food companies have made some attempts to reduce E. coli by cleaning their meats in an ammonia solution. However, unhealthy food is being subsidized and contributing to American obesity and the rise of type 2 diabetes in adolescents.