Michelle Barbeau
MENU: Cute cow (pathos), bar code on cow “money maker,” blinking and moving tail
Clouds moving forward, cow looking backward
Title: commodification of natural products, corporations
Music very ominous, spooky, supernatural
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First Scene
-feels like you’re flying
-still agrarian images, pastoral fantasy
-you’re the shopper behind the cart
-no seasons in the American market, etholene gas to ripen tomatoes
-Product crews names planted in store…why? blurs line between two?
-veil between us and how it’s made
-animals and workers being abused (pathos)
-nature vs. technology
-oxymoronic scene: sun going down, business executives walking toward factory in dead grass, mountains covered by factory, business people don’t even work there, two colors on screen, darker side = the future, pollution/smoke
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Fast Food to all Food
ethos, author of Fast Food nation, ordering at all-American diner, prolepsis right away, he still eats hamburgers
-back to McDonalds/1950s/first drive in
-idea of efficiency and conformity black and white
-animals shoved all together and fruit shoved all together

-“There are just a handful of companies controlling our food system” Tyson
-using cow and pig for pie chart
-ethos: Richard Lobb, National Chicken Council, PowerPoint in background that says
“environmental considerations” on it--foreshadowing
-“we’re not producing chickens, we’re producing food”
-“a lot of food, on a small amount of land, at an affordable price”
-prolepsis, chicken farms have helped economy of community, guy driving to farms in his military outfit
- text on the screen, silent narrator (like telling secrets)
-Tyson declined to be interviewed for this film, along with 11 others
-“Something has to be said” Carol still uses old-style houses
-shows dying chicken on ground taking last breaths, pile of dead ones
-antibiotics, she’s allergic to them
-Hidden camera in black and white when catchers pick up chickens, many Latino, undocumented workers who won’t complain, highest risk of injury on the job
-Farmers in debt so they have to comply with corporations, debt keeps building to keep facility up to par and updates… “It’s like being a slave to this company”
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Scene Three: A Cornucopia of Choices
-back walking through grocery store…the end of the road
-flying over fields of corn and into tractor
-money they make used to lobby congress
-farming focused on commodity crops because you can store them
-Larry Johnson, Center for Crop Utilization, engineer new foods (scene in lab)
-List of food that contain corn go on screen….high fructose corn syrup and soybean
-colorful graphic/cartoon-like advertisement…big weird words show up everywhere
-200 lbs. of meat per person per year (stats)
-CAFO: definition
-Author of the Omnivore’s Dilemma

-Nutrition Expert
-cut hole in side of cow, checks out stomach for ecoli gets it, they all get it” stand in manure “if one cow
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Unintended Consequences (letters fall)
-news clips of people getting E. coli…little boy that died (pathos) Jack N the Box
-pictures of FDA people with nasty looks on their faces
-The odds increase for a dangerous pathogen when your meat comes from several different cows
-DC – USDA building, Food Safety Advocates
-Republican, works with mom, her son died of E. coli in 2001
-family video of them at river…zeroed in on boy, not whole screen, blood in his diarrhea
-creepy music again from beginning
-Kevin’s Law: plants would have to shut down if they repeatedly produce bad meat
-shows them looking up new outbreaks online
-black outs every now and then
-consistently returns back to Omnivore Dilemma author
-machines in factory with creepy music
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The Dollar Menu
-Oprah did an episode on cheap meals
-Hispanics have highest rate of diabetes than any other population
-Ali thinks it’s child abuse to teach your kids these habits, DEBATE: If you knew a product could cause your children to develop a debilitating disease, would you still give it to your child?
-Follows Hispanic family trying to eat cheap
-metamorphosis/evolution cartoon up to fatty
-shows advertisements back to back, black on sides (makes it stand out)
-Teen health advocacy group scene minorities (1 in 2 have diabetes)

-pathos: now diabetes is effecting children in epidemic proportions
-goes all over country, factories in LA
-at natural farm now, everything is grass fed, farmers wearing cowboy hat and green shirt that says “grass fed”, chickens killed in most humane way and we at least have a connection to that animal..like Native Americans..they use every part of the animal, 3 guys doing it, 180 vs.
3600 markers of bacteria
-counterargument: we shouldn’t eat meat at all
-they show “hick” farmer treating pigs like pets “hey pigs”
-This stereotypical “red neck” uses big words and seems very smart and caring, in comparison to portrayal of executives as dumb and uncaring
-rural folksie music in this scene.
-Union Organizer: ethos
-Voices of Smithfield workers
-32,000 hogs slaughtered there a day (pathos)
-black and white photo to 100 years ago, Upton Sinclair “The Jungle” best industrial job in the U.S. working for meat-packing company
-Mexican farmers put out of work when cheap American corn came in, so IBP and other
U.S. companies brought Mexicans in to get in here, but they don’t crack down on companies and turn their head (job ads on screen)
-people talking in dark, undercover
-smaller raids for illegal aliens by ICE so it doesn’t disrupt production (they get picked up like they’re criminals, but they were recruited by companies
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Hidden Costs
-environmental costs, societal costs, health costs, it’s not honest food “There’s nothing honest about that food.”
-same red neck farmer sitting in bushes, at one with nature and his pigs in his overalls
-“I have no desire to be a Wal-Mart.” Ones on east coast are like grocery stores
-Organic has been growing 20% annually but “We’re not gonna get rid of capitalism. We need to be much more urgent”
-Gary from Stonyfield Farms shows video of him in college preaching new “religion”

-goes through convention of organic foods
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From the Seed to the Supermarket
-10,000 years ago saving seeds and replanting
-new idea that corporation can own a food crop…happened in 1980
-statistics on screen “By 2009, over 90% of soybeans in the U.S. contained Monsanto’s patented gene.”
-Government allowed patents on seeds: “Anyone caught saving seeds can be investigated for patent infringement.” ex. Monsanto has patent
-investigators were on the road following him…ex police or military…talking in dark room…maybe neighbors turned me in?
-Moe has seed cleaner machine, he stayed with conventional soybeans
-But his fields have been contaminated by genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by
Monsanto
-Monsanto is like Microsoft...they own intellectual property behind most of the food in
America
-blacklist printed out…discussing at dinner table
-close up of clock ticking in house, has lost friends over dispute with Monsanto that he is influencing others to use seed cleaners and violating contract, he can’t talk publicly about it, cheaper to pay fine than fight it
-messed up justice system—how does farmer defend himself against a corporation? more money and power = a win
-fast-forwarding of cloud movement, things moving quicker than we can catch up
-“Monsanto declined to be interviewed for this film”
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The Veil
-Clarence Thomas and other politicians business cards flash on screen with computer graphic grass, etc. close ties to Monsanto..and Bush had ties to Monsanto too
-Capitol in background

-Governor Shawzeneggar vetoed bill
-fought against giving calories, trans fat information, labeling generally modified foods
-against the law to criticize their products
-Mom can’t say how she eats now won
-Oprah clip from like 80s for mad cow disease..she was sued for something she said…she
-can’t take photo of factory, “cheeseburger laws”
-shows court case between Moe and Monsanto and his interrogation of several hours, time changes on bottom of screen for dramatic effect
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Shocks to the System
-tractors coming at you like front lines of war, all identical red ones
-“modern production agriculture” they eat a lot of oil without knowing it…fuel cost spikes heavily affect them
-“peeling back the curtain/veil” motif
-back to grocery store….shopping is like voting
-analogy to tobacco industry…perfect model of how an industries irresponsible behavior can be changed
-shows red neck farmer eating diner with friends and family in his backyard
-noble goal: lets make people healthier
-pathos: letting balloons goal (ironic: polluting environment!)
-country version of “This land was made for you and me.” (ending patriotic song)
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