Day 3 Lesson Plan
Food, INC.
Standards
USH.3.6
Identify the contributions to American culture made by individuals and groups.
(Individuals, Society and Culture)
Example: Frederick Law Olmsted (landscape architect – Central Park), Frances
Willard (educator, women’s suffrage movement), Booker T. Washington
(African-American educator, Tuskegee Institute), W.E.B. DuBois (early civil
rights activist), Muckrakers (journalists such as Lincoln Steffens, Jacob Riis and
Upton Sinclair), Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
USH.3.7
Explain the impact of immigration, industrialization and urbanization in
promoting economic growth. (Economics, Geography)
Context of the lesson
This lesson comes on day three of the unit after the class has covered muckrakers during
the Progressive Movement. Students will be briefly reviewing in what they have learned from
the past class and then applying those ideas to more contemporary version of muckraking in the
documentary. Students will be using a guided notes worksheet with the video that will help them
collect and organize their ideas. The documentary will be stopped several times in order for
students to review what they have just learned and discuss their ideas as a class. It will be at this
time that they will record their findings in the guided notes worksheet. This lesson also sets up
the unit project that students will be asked to create on contemporary muckraking.
Essential Understandings
1. The formation of fast food chains has changed the meat packing industry.
2. The industrialization and monopolization of the meat packing industry has led to possibly
dangerous and unhealthy food.
3. Conditions for immigrant meat packing workers have become increasingly worse.
4. Documentaries like Food, Inc. are contemporary versions of muckraking and are
comparable to Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”.
Essential Questions
1. How has the formation of fast food chains changed the meat packing industry?
2. How has the industrialization and monopolization of the meat packing industry led to
possibly dangerous and unhealthy food.
3. How have conditions for immigrant meat packing workers become increasingly worse.
4. How is Food, Inc. a contemporary version of muckraking and comparable to Upton
Sinclair’s “The Jungle”.
Knowledge and Skill Objectives
1. Students will know how the formation of fast food chains has changed the meat packing
industry.
a. Identify
i. How much of the meat packing industry major business owned in the
1970s
ii. How much of the industry major business owns today.
b. Explain how
i. Most meat is produced by the same companies
ii. Even meat not at a fast food chain is produced for the system
2. Students will know how the industrialization and monopolization of the meat packing
industry is producing possibly dangerous and unhealthy food.
a. Define
i. Monopolization
ii. Industrialization
b. Explain how
i. Major companies now control most of the market
ii. Different brands of meat are made virtually by the same company
iii. Industrialization of meatpacking has changed the way we produce beef,
poultry, and pork.
iv. Producing chickens has changed and become less humane
v. Corn diets for cows can produce major problems
c. Identify how
i. How these new methods have made unhealthy food
ii. Contributed to poor conditions for animals
iii. These conditions have produced unsafe meat
3. Students will understand how conditions for meat packing workers have become
increasingly worse.
a. Identify how
i. Companies like Smithfield target immigrant workers for cheap labor
ii. Companies work through immigrant labor forces by contacting
immigration authorities
b. Describe
i. The conditions meat packers work under
ii. The dangers and disease that are prevalent in meat packing factories
c. Compare
i. How these conditions are similar to the conditions immigrants faced in the
nearly 1800s.
ii. How the labor practices are similar to those in the early 1900s
4. Students will understand how Food, INC. is a contemporary version of muckraking and
comparable to Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”.
a. Describe
i. The conditions and unsanitary practices of the meat packing industry
described in excerpts from Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”.
ii. How conditions have changed and evolved in today’s meat packing
industry.
b. Define
i. Kevin’s Law
ii. Pure Food and Drug Act
iii. Meat Inspection Act
c. Compare
i. The Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act to Kevin’s Law
ii. Federal Response of Teddy Roosevelt to the meat packing industry and
the steps that are being taken today
d. Explain how
i. Documentaries compare to old forms of muckraking
Instructional Method
For this lesson I will be using parts of the Food, INC. video to go along with lecture
PowerPoint slides and group discussion. Students will have a worksheet with guided notes that
they will fill out as the lesson goes along.
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Start off the lesson by asking students what they recall from the previous lessons on
muckrakers and reforms in the meat packing industry during the Progressive Movement.
Student should write three of these ideas down on a piece of paper and then Think, Pair,
Share with the people around them before presenting the three most important ideas to
the class.
Next use review PowerPoint slides with information on muckrakers and then move to
points from Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”. This should be information from prior
lessons, but it will help to frame the contemporary example of Food Inc.
Ask students what they think conditions in these industries are like today.
Show the first 8 minutes of Food, INC. that explains how the development of the fast
food industry has changed the meat packing industry.
Stop the video and ask students how major companies have changed the industry? These
answers and ideas should have a place to be recorded on the guided practice sheet.
Next show the two segments of the documentary that look at how chicken farming has
drastically changed and the diet of corn for cows has caused potentially dangerous
diseases.
Ask students to reiterate how chicken farming has changed? This should be recorded on
the guided practice sheet.
Next ask students why corn is an unhealthy diet for cows and can cause disease and other
complications?
Have students record and describe the hard conditions for animals.
Show the section of the documentary that follows the story of Kevin’s mother who lost
her son to an Ecoli virus and now is an active lobbyist for federal intervention in the meat
packing industry.
Have students indentify how these diseases are caused in meat packing facilities and how
they can spread.
Have students identify Kevin’s Law by defining it.
Bring up PowerPoint slides on reforms such as the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat
Inspection Act. Ask students to compare them to Kevin’s Law and record these findings
on their guided practice.
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Play the part of the documentary that looks at working conditions and immigrant labor in
the meat packing industry.
After the documentary section, have the class read an excerpt from Upton Sinclair’s “The
Jungle” on harsh working conditions in the Chicago Meat Packing industry.
Have students compare today’s industry to that of Sinclair’s time and record them in their
guided practice.
Ask students how major companies like Smithfield are using immigrant workers and how
they are being treated unfairly.
Finally play the last part of the documentary that looks at how organic food companies
are working to change the meat packing industry by promoting their products as a healthy
and safe alternative.
Have students record their thoughts and ideas in their guided practice.
Assessments
Formative
The formative assessments I am using throughout the lesson by stopping the documentary
and asking students questions about what they are watching. Students are making comparisons to
previous lesson on muckraking and recording information in a guided practice. This also helps to
keep students focused and engaged by breaking the documentary up into its integral parts.
Students are answering these questions in a class discussion format, talking amongst their peers,
and recording information on their guided practice sheet.
Summative
In groups students will research one of the major meatpacking companies and present
their findings to the class. Their research should include what types of food they produce and for
what companies. What major fast food or restaurant chains do they supply? Where are there
main meat packing plants and on average how much product do they produce in a standard time
period? Students should then search for news articles or cases brought against the company
based on unfair conditions for workers, unsanitary animal conditions, or contaminated food
products. The presentation should conclude with information on how the company is trying to
alleviate these problems and a short description of an organic food company that is using
different methods from one of the major companies to ensure healthy and safe products.