Name:__________________
Food Inc. Chapter 1
Belenko Reading Questions
1. Would you consider Russia an under-developed country?
2. What was Viktor's reaction to the shopping center?
3. How would you react to a grocery store like the ones in Russia described in the account?
Food Inc. Discussion Questions
1. Food has changed more in the last _________ years than in the last _________years.
2. How many products are in your modern supermarket?
3. What rights should animals have?
4. Should different animals have different rights? Why or why not?
5. Who is responsible for overseeing/paying for the rights of those animals?
6. What ethical questions emerged from our discussion/the movie?
7. What have you taken away from this part of the movie? (What resonated?)
8. What did you not agree with from this part of the movie? Why?
Livestock and Aquaculture Notes:
Food Inc. Chapter 2
Subsidies:
Additives:
Commodities:
Gatorade and its “new ingredient”
1. Who initiated this change?
2. How did she inform people?
3. What is BVO?
4. What is BVO used for in drinks?
5. How do chemical companies cite BVO?
6. Do you think the other drinks should be forced to remove this ingredient? Why or Why not?
Food Inc. Discussion Questions
1. Who has the responsibility to inform us of what is in our food?
2. Do you read food labels? How do they influence your food choices?
3. How do you feel about subsidies? Are they good or bad? Why or why not?
4. Should we continue feeding our livestock corn?
Food Label Notes
Food Label Activity
Fill in the venn diagram below using the information from “A Brief History of Food and Nutrition
Labeling.” In each section you must have a least 3 distinct comments and they must be numbered. Then
using your venn diagram you will answer the questions that follow.
PAST
PRESENT
1. From a business perspective how can the increase standards for labeling be used to my
advantage?
2. From a business perspective how might the increase standards affect my marketing ability on
the shelf?
Food Inc. Chapter 3
The Farm Bill
1. Describe the Farm Bill.
2. How does the new legislation affect the meat packing industry?
3. How are conservation practices being promoted?
4. How is “virgin sod” being protected?
5. What are the most subsidized types of crops?
6. Why will more farmers consider planting sushi rice?
Who is looking out for your safety?
1. How many individuals contract some sort of food poisoning each year?
2. Who are the main players in food safety?
3. What is one government agency charged with protecting your food that you did not know about?
What do they do?
4. How does the USDA differ from the NOAA and NMFS?
Discussion Questions {Movie}
1. Who is responsible for Kevin’s death?
a. You
b. The salesperson at the restaurant
c. The federal government
d. The worker at the meat packing plant
2. You are a worker at the meatpacking plant whose job is to cut the carcass. You are a good
worker and follow the procedures set up by the plant. You did not intend to get Kevin sick-does
that get you off the hook?
3. Does this situation remind you of any other parallel situations where there are unintended
consequences?
4. Do we have the right to assume that our food is safe? If so who do you think should be
responsible for ensuring its safety?
5. What is Kevin’s Law?
6. Who pays for unhealthy eaters?
7. How do you think the way your grandparents used to eat differs from how you eat today?
8. Do you think healthy eating is a right, a responsibility, or a privilege?
Food Inc. Chapter 8
Oprah’s Battle with the Food Industry
1. Why was Oprah sued?
2. What law does this suit fall under?
3. What do the cattle producers claim?
Discussion Questions {Movie}
1. In the film, Noel Kramers of the California Farm Bureau says that the bureau is against labeling
because it creates “unnecessary fear in the consumer’s mind.” Do you agree with this reasoning? Why
or why not?
2. Can you name different consumer products that have warning labels about their safety? What impact,
if any, do you think these labels have on their use?
Food Inc. Chapter 4, 5, and 6
1. Why is junk food less expensive than fruits and vegetables?
2. Would it be okay with you if healthy food was only available to people who can afford it?
a. If so, what might be the consequences of that –both to individuals and the society?
3. How might we make healthy food available to everyone?
a. Who is responsible for ensuring this occurs as well as paying for this?
4. In the film, author Michael Pollan says, “we’ve skewed our food system to bad calories, and it’s not an
accident.”
a. What does he mean by this?
b. What message does this send to society?
5. Eduardo Peña says, “We want to pay the cheapest price for our food. We don’t understand that it
comes at a price.”
a. Do you believe this is how most of society thinks? Give examples to support your reasoning.
b. As you have watched this film do feel that you would be willing to pay more money for your
food? Why or why not?
c. Do you believe that EVERYONE should have to pay more to ensure food is safe?
6. Author Michael Pollan uses the phrase, “Vote with Your Fork.” What does this mean to you? How
would you work to help others “vote with their fork”?
7. Small companies and producers are often bought out or taken over by very big companies. Why might
corporations continue marketing the small companies’ products under their original labels, as we saw in
the film? Do you agree with that practice? Why or why not?
8. Farmer Joel Salatin in the film says, “We’re willing to subsidize the food system to create the mystique
of cheap food when actually its very expensive food.” What might he mean by that?
9. Yogurt company executive Gary Hirshberg said, “Walmart started selling organic yogurt not because
of a “moral enlightenment,” but for economic reasons. How would selling organic food help Walmart’s
sales?
Food Inc Chapter 7
1. What is a GMO? What are the pros/cons of GMOs?
2. Who is the Monsanto company? Why is the film so against them?
3. Name three products that Monsanto makes.
4. What happens if a farmer saves their seeds?
5. How many investigators does Monsanto have?
6. What does Moe Parr do for farmers?
7. Intellectual property can be defined as creations of the mine-such as music, art, writing, inventions,
symbols, images, designs, or names-that have commercial value. In our country, these things are legally
protected and cannot be sold or used without the permission of the owner. Do you think people should
be able to own an idea? Why or why not?
8. Should companies be able to own the DNA contained in plant seeds? Why or why not?
9. After reading about a positive impact we are making with GMOs as well as hearing some negative
information-do believe GMOs are a harm to society?
GMO Webquest
Go to the website: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/harvest/
SELECT: GUESS WHAT’S COMING TO DINNER?
When you click on each item on the dinner table, a short explanation on what new modifications are
being made with this item will be displayed. Click your way around the table to explore what is changing
on our dinner table!
1. What is changing with how we can cook French fries?
2. How would generating high performance cooking oils help humans?
3. Describe the work being done related to salmon.
4. What crop has the most filed applications regarding planting it in test fields?
5. Which food may one day replace getting a vaccine in the traditional form of a shot?
6. Where (in the world) will the vaccination technology be the most beneficial?
7. Into what three crops are we trying to add vitamins and minerals not normally found in the crop?
8. How would the change in coffee production be a benefit to the coffee producer?
9. What do petunias have to do with GMOs?
GO BACK AND SELECT: ENGINEER A CROP
First you must read the introduction paragraphs on the left side of the screen. This explains the
difference between selective breeding and transgenic breeding. There are two lab activities that you
will conduct.
First click on Selective Breeding
10. After reading the first slide, what trait are you trying to selectively breed for?
Click begin, and try to select the cob that will pass on the best genetics for the trait we are breeding for.
11. How many generations did it take before you got to the optimum crop?
12. What are the negatives for this type of plant breeding?
Click on Engineer a Crop again, and this time select Transgenic Manipulation
First you must read the introduction paragraphs on the left side of the screen.
13. What type of transgenic plant are you going to create in this lab?
14. What does Bt stand for? What does it do?
Click on Begin.
Step 1 Take the toxin gene from a stretch of Bt DNA and combine it with a vector.
15. What is a vector?
16. What gene besides Bt has been added to the vector?
Step 2 Add the vector to the bacterium.
17. Why do we put the vector into the bacterium?
Step 3 Move the bacteria to the growth medium.
18. How fast do bacteria grow?
19. In this case it’s a good thing, but in what cases can it be bad?
Step 4 Add pieces of the tomato plant’s leaf to the bacteria.
20. What genes are being added to the tomato leaf pieces?
21. What is the nucleus of a cell?
Step 5 Move the plant cells to the growth medium for plants.
22. Why did we move the plant cells to a different media?
Step 6 Spray herbicide on the plant cuttings.
23. Why do we spray the plant cells with herbicide? What are we left with?
Step 7 & 8 Transfer the plant to the growth chamber. Examine the plant to determine if it has the
desired trait.
24. How do we know if our plant has the Bt genes?
25. Describe what you have learned about GMOs through this webquest.
GMO and Pest Management Notes
Food Inc Chapter 9
1. How did the price of oil affect the price of food?
2. How can we vote for a better food system?
3. What are some ‘shocks” to the industrial food system?
4. In the film, famer Joel Salatin asks us to “imagine what if it would be if as a national policy we said we
would be only successful if we had fewer people going to the hospital next year than last year.” What
changes would need to happen for this to be a reality? What other goals might we have for our food
system?
5. Author Michael Pollan points out in the film that “to eat well in this country costs more than to eat
badly. It will take more money and some people simply don’t have it. And that is one of the reasons that
we need changes at the policy level so that the carrots are a better deal than the chips.” If healthful,
environmental sustainable food were to cost less than other food, do you think people would eat more
of it? What would their motivation be to eat it? Money? Health? Why do you think so?
6. Find a partner, write down six things you remember from the movie or learned from the movie.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Precautionary Principle:
"When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures
should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically. In this
context the proponent of an activity, rather than the public, should bear the burden of proof. The
process of applying the precautionary principle must be open, informed and democratic and must
include potentially affected parties. It must also involve an examination of the full range of alternatives,
including no action." - Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary Principle, Jan. 1998
1. The above quote describes the precautionary principle. After watching Food Inc. how do you feel
about the implementation of the precautionary principle? (1pt) Should the USA adopt this principle?
Why or why not? (2 pt) What would some of the ramifications of your decision be? (2 pt)