Video Worksheet Name:_____________________

Food, Inc. (1:31)

Use the word bank below to complete the statements. Consider this page your “notes” on the video.

4 fantasy produced Wages

80 fast food replaceable
Factories food suppliers

INTRODUCTION

1. The imagery used to sell food depicts agrarian America; farmers, silos, 1930s farmhouses, barns and silos,
cowboys. It is a pastoral _______________.

2. The reality is that much food sold today does not come from picturesque family farms; it comes from food
_______________.

3. A small group of multinational corporations controls the entire _________________ system; from seed to the
supermarket.

FAST FOOD TO ALL FOOD (4:06)

4. The industrial food system began with ___________________.

5. McDonald’s brought the factory system to the restaurant kitchen; each worker was trained to do just one task,
repeatedly. Workers were paid low ________ and were easily ___________________.

6. Large purchasers of food products have the ability to change which products are produced, and how the products
are _________________.

7. To maintain uniformity of products; big fast food chains want big ________________.

8. Today, the top _____ beef packers [Tyson, Swift, Cargill, National Beef] control over ________% of the market.
This is also true for pork [Tyson, Swift, Cargill, Smithfield].

20 contracts government Mechanized

200 control half Resistant
30 corn illusion Twice
Antibiotics dark intensive Tyson
Chicken debt meat Walk

9. Even if you do not eat in a fast food restaurant, you are eating _____________ that is being produced by this
system. Just 3-4 companies control the meat.

10. ________________ is the biggest meat packing company in the history of the world.

11. The industry has changed the entire way that ______________ are raised. Birds are now raised and slaughtered
in __________ the time that they were 50 years ago, and they are ______________ as big.

12. Chicken production is now highly ___________________; so all the birds need be almost the same size.

13. __________________ production methods produce a large amount of food on a small amount of land at an
affordable price.
14. In newer chicken houses, there are no open windows; the birds are kept in the _____________ most of the time.

15. It takes about 7-8 weeks to produce a 5 ½ pound chicken; but some of them can barely ______________. Factory
farmed chicken are given _______________ in their feed.

16. Chicken are harvested at night because they are calmer and less _________________.

17. Many chicken farmers are in ________________. They need to comply with the demands of the large
corporations or they lose their __________________. Chicken farmers no longer _____________________ their
own businesses.

A CORNUCOPIA OF CHOICES (17:02)

18. Supermarkets create an _________________ of diversity; there are only a few companies involved and only a
few crops involved.

19. Much of our industrialized food turns out to be clever rearrangements of _________.

20. 100 years ago, a farmer could grow ____________ bushels of corn per acre. Today it is more like
_________________ bushels.

21. In the U.S. today, _______________ % of farmland is planted in corn. This is driven by
_________________________ policy that allows farmers to produce corn below the actual cost of production.
90 E. coli grass Runoff
CAFO engineered grow safety
companies Farm Bill manure Stored
corn syrup fat meat
corporations feed rumen

22. One reason that corn is federally subsidized it that large multinational _____________ [Cargill, ADM, Tyson,
Smithfield] are interested in purchasing cheap corn. These companies are active lobbyists.

23. The “rules” of the food economy are made law in the __________________________. Farm policy is usually
focused on commodity crops because they can be __________.

24. Processed foods today are “_________________________”. One of the biggest “advances” in recent years was
the development of high-fructose ________________.

25. Probably ____ % of foods on supermarket shelves contain a corn or soybean ingredient – most of the time they
contain both.

26. Whether it is for chicken, hogs, cows, and increasingly, fish - corn is now the main component in animal _____.
Cheap corn has helped drive down the cost of ______.

27. Feedlot operators can buy corn at a fraction what is actually cost to ____________ it. Another name for a feed lot
is a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, or ______.

28. Cows are designed by evolution to eat ________________, not corn. We feed cows corn because it is cheap and
because it makes them _______ quickly.

29. The first compartment of a cow’s stomach is called the _____________; it contains bacteria. Some research has
shown that in cow’s fed a high corn diet there are higher levels of harmful ____________________ bacteria. One
example of this is the mutated E. coli 157H7 strain. E. coli is present in ________________ - and can sometimes
get into meat and into the food system.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES (24:57)

30. E. coli is not just found in ground beef….it has been found in spinach, and even apple juice. This is because of
____________________ from factory farms.

31. In Washington, regulatory agencies such as the USDA, are sometimes headed by former employees from the
_______________that they are supposed to be regulating

32. Over the past 30 years, the number of FDA __________________ inspections has declined dramatically.

ammonia Cook pathogens Responsibility

authority Fresh policing shutting down
bad income policy Subsidized
cheap Kevin’s Law problems Thousands
commodity

33. As food processing plants have increased in size, there is an increasing chance of spreading harmful
_______________ across a wide area. As there are now relatively few slaughterhouses, a hamburger patty may
have pieces of ____________ of different cattle ground up in it.

34. After food standards were established, funding for FDA inspections has been reduced. The food industry has
relied more heavily on self-_______________.

35. In 1998 The USDA instituted testing procedures for Salmonella and the E. coli 157H7 strain – with the goal of
______________________ processing plants that frequently failed the tests. The courts ruled that the USDA did
not have the ___________________ to do this. .

36. In response to this, “______________________”, was introduced – this law would give back to the USDA the
power to shut down plants that repeatedly produce contaminated meat. To date, six years later, the law still has
not passed.

37. The industrial food system is always looking for greater efficiency; but each new step towards efficiency leads to
_________________.

38. On new approach to the E. coli 157H7 problem is being tried at Beef Products, Inc. (BPI). They are now using
________________ to cleanse hamburger meat to kill the E. coli. This “cleansed” meat is in 70% of hamburgers
today.

THE DOLLAR MENU (38:51)

39. Many Americans eat fast food because it is ________________ and because they do not have time to
_______________.

40. The fast food is less expensive than the __________________ food.

41. These days, the American food system favors the ______________ calories. This is because these foods are
heavily ______________________. This is related to American agriculture and farm ________________.

42. Snack food calories come from ________________ crops; wheat, corn, and soybeans.

43. These days, the biggest predictor of obesity is ___________________ level. The food industry blames obesity on
a crisis of personal _______________________.
2 Corn exploited labor unions
3 Cost faster Mexico
afford dangerous hire Slaughterhouse
boardrooms depressed injuries Tasks
cheaper diabetes insulin Wages

44. A diet that is high in high fructose corn syrup and refined carbohydrates leads to spikes of
_____________________ and wearing down of our system for metabolizing sugar. Eventually, this can lead to
Type-2 _______________.

45. 1 in ____Americans born after 2000 will contract early onset diabetes. Among minorities, the rate will be 1 in
_____________.

IN THE GRASS (44:18)

46. Modern industrial agriculture is about growing food ______________, fatter, bigger, ______________. Decision
making about agriculture is now made in corporate ____________________, far removed from the fields.

47. The Smithfield Hog Processing Plant, in Tar Heel, NC, is the largest __________________ in the world. The area
where is plant is located is economically __________________ and some feel that the workers are
_______________.

48. Meat packers are subject to infections, repetitive movement and other __________________. Many workers
can’t _________________ to move away.

49. After Upton Sinclair wrote, The Jungle in 1906, conditions in the meat packing industry slowly began to improve.
President Teddy Roosevelt got involved and _______________________ organized.

50. By the 1950s, meat packing was one of the best industrial jobs in the U.S.; these jobs offered good
_______________, benefits and pensions. Since then, the companies have gotten bigger, cut wages, prevented
unions, sped up production, and required workers to perform the same repetitive ____________. Now meat
packing is one of the most ____________________ jobs in the U.S.

51. Now, many employees in the meatpacking industry are illegal or recent emigrants from __________________.
Many of these workers used to be ____________ farmers.

52. Currently, the government appears to be taking actions against illegal workers, but not against the companies that
_____________ them.

53. In America, the cheap price that we pay for our food comes at a ____________; sometimes this involves labor
practices that exploit workers.

126 Food Monsanto Seeds

15 invisible organic Soybeans
6-8 Large profitable Wal-Mart
expensive Life Roundup

HIDDEN COSTS (58:01)

54. When you add up the environmental, societal, and health costs, cheap food turns out to be very
___________________.

55. __________________ food is one of the fastest growing segments in the food industry.

56. To succeed, organic producers need to be ____________________.

57. One of things that has happened in the organic foods industry is that successful small companies have been
gradually acquired by the __________________ industrial food giants [such as Kraft, Coke, General Mills, Pepsi,
Kellogg’s, Colgate].

58. One large corporation that now markets organic foods is __________________. Wal-Mart entered into the
organic area because it saw a customer need.

59. At the turn of the 19th century, the average farmer could feed _____________ people; now the average American
farmer can feed ________________ people. Agriculture has seen momentous and radical changes that have
resulted in increasing productivity. These changes have been _____________________ to most of us.

FROM SEED TO SUPERMARKET (1:06:04)

60. 10,000 years ago, farmers started saving their best _____________ to plant again the following year. This is how
seeds and plants were developed.

61. It was not until the 1980s, that corporations began to own ___________ crops. At this point, the Supreme Court
ruled that ______________ could be patented.

62. _______________________ is chemical company. They produced DDT and Agent Orange (used in Viet Nam) –
and developed ___________________, a nonselective herbicide.

63. Following the development of Roundup, Monsanto developed GM crops, such as ____________________, that
were able to resist the Roundup herbicide.

64. In less than __________________ years since it was introduced, now over 90% of the soybeans planted in the
U.S. contain Monsanto’s patented gene.

accountable Fear lawsuits Prohibit

breeding genetic meat Prohibited
calorie industries own Supermarket
contaminated labeled patent Veggie
farmers Land Grant profit

65. Now, many farmers are ___________________ from saving their own seeds – because, in effect, Monsanto owns
the seeds. Anyone caught saving seeds can be investigated for ____________________ infringement.

66. Even when farmers don’t plant GMOs; their fields can still be ____________________ by them. Even when the
accidental contamination takes place by the spread of pollen by the wind; the farmer can be held
__________________.

67. These days, when you genetically modify a crop, you _____________ it.

68. Historically, new varieties of “public seed” were developed by ______________ Universities. The breeding was
done in labs at educational institutions. Now, public plant ___________________ is a thing of the past; there are
no public seeds anymore.

69. It is very costly for farmers to fight ______________ with Monsanto. In many cases, it is cheaper to pay the fine,
rather than fighting the suit.

70. Monsanto owns the soybean; they control that product from the seed to the _______________________.
THE VEIL (1:16:08)

71. Over the past 25 years, our government has been dominated by the ______________ it was meant to be
regulating. Unfortunately, it appears that the workers, the ____________, and the consumers are the ones whose
interests are not being served.

72. In America, genetically modified foods and cloned animals do not have to be ____________________. One
argument against labeling these foods is that it might create _______________ in the minds of consumers.
l
73. Many food companies fight against appropriate consumer labeling. Fast food companies, for example, fought
against _______________ information, and labeling trans fats.

74. These days, about 70% of processed food sold in supermarkets contains some soft of __________________
modified ingredient.

75. The food industry has laws that ___________________ people from criticizing their products. Oprah Winfrey
was sued by the ___________ industry for something she said on her show. The lawsuit was for disparaging a
food product and for loss of __________________. These are called the “______________” libel laws.

bite marketplace policy Subsidizes

crops more powerful Tobacco
efficiency petroleum preferences Vote
food

SHOCKS TO THE SYSTEM (1:24:14)

76. Our industrial food system is dedicated to ____________________. These days, we grow a relatively small
number of __________________, and have only a small number of companies.

77. Modern production agriculture is dependent on large amounts of ________________.

78. When the U.S. ___________________ its grain crops, it makes it hard for farmers around the world to compete.

POWER OF THE CONSUMER (1:26:36-1:31:30)

79. The average consumer does not feel very ____________________. Actually, every single purchase at the
supermarket is like a __________________.

80. Even large corporations, such as Wal-Mart, make purchasing decisions based on consumer
___________________.

81. To eat well in America costs _________________ than to eat badly. This is why we need changes at the
_______________ level. The carrots should be a better deal than the chips.

82. The _____________________ industry presents an example of how the irresponsible behavior of an industry can
be changed.

83. Farmers will produce and deliver what the ___________________ demands.

84. People need to start demanding good, wholesome ______________________. You can change the world with
every ____________________.
Video Worksheet ANSWER SHEET

Food, Inc. (1:31)

Use the word bank below to complete the statements. Consider this page your “notes” on the video.

4 fantasy produced Wages

80 fast food replaceable
factories food suppliers

INTRODUCTION

1. The imagery used to sell food depicts agrarian America; farmers, silos, 1930s farmhouses, barns and silos,
cowboys. It is a pastoral fantasy.

2. The reality is that much food sold today does not come from picturesque family farms; it comes from food
factories.

3. A small group of multinational corporations controls the entire food system; from seed to the supermarket.

FAST FOOD TO ALL FOOD (4:06)

4. The industrial food system began with fast food.

5. McDonald’s brought the factory system to the restaurant kitchen; each worker was trained to do just one task,
repeatedly. Workers were paid low wages and were easily replaceable.

6. Large purchasers of food products have the ability to change which products are produced, and how the products
are produced.

7. To maintain uniformity of products; big fast food chains want big suppliers.

8. Today, the top 4 beef packers [Tyson, Swift, Cargill, National Beef] control over 80% of the market. This is also
true for pork [Tyson, Swift, Cargill, Smithfield].

20 contracts government Mechanized

200 control half Resistant
30 corn illusion Twice
antibiotics dark intensive Tyson
chicken debt meat Walk

9. Even if you do not eat in a fast food restaurant, you are eating meat that is being produced by this system. Just 3-
4 companies control the meat.

10. Tyson is the biggest meat packing company in the history of the world.

11. The industry has changed the entire way that chicken are raised. Birds are now raised and slaughtered in half the
time that they were 50 years ago, and they are twice as big.

12. Chicken production is now highly mechanized; so all the birds need be almost the same size.
13. Intensive production methods produce a large amount of food on a small amount of land at an affordable price.

14. In newer chicken houses, there are no open windows; the birds are kept in the dark most of the time.

15. It takes about 7-8 weeks to produce a 5 ½ pound chicken; but some of them can barely walk. Factory farmed
chicken are given antibiotics in their feed.

16. Chicken are harvested at night because they are calmer and less resistant.

17. Many chicken farmers are in debt. They need to comply with the demands of the large corporations or they lose
their contracts. Chicken farmers no longer control their own businesses.

A CORNUCOPIA OF CHOICES (17:02)

18. Supermarkets create an illusion of diversity; there are only a few companies involved and only a few crops
involved.

19. Much of our industrialized food turns out to be clever rearrangements of corn.

20. 100 years ago, a farmer could grow 20 bushels of corn per acre. Today it is more like 200 bushels.

21. In the U.S. today, 30 % of farmland is planted in corn. This is driven by government policy that allows farmers to
produce corn below the actual cost of production.

90 E. coli grass runoff

CAFO engineered grow safety
companies Farm Bill manure stored
corn syrup fat meat
corporations feed rumen

22. One reason that corn is federally subsidized it that large multinational corporations [Cargill, ADM, Tyson,
Smithfield] are interested in purchasing cheap corn. These companies are active lobbyists.

23. The “rules” of the food economy are made law in the Farm Bill. Farm policy is usually focused on commodity
crops because they can be stored.

24. Processed foods today are “engineered”. One of the biggest “advances” in recent years was the development of
high-fructose corn syrup.

25. Probably 90 % of foods on supermarket shelves contain a corn or soybean ingredient – most of the time they
contain both.

26. Whether it is for chicken, hogs, cows, and increasingly, fish - corn is now the main component in animal feed.
Cheap corn has helped drive down the cost of meat.

27. Feedlot operators can buy corn at a fraction what is actually cost to grow it. Another name for a feed lot is a
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, or CAFO.

28. Cows are designed by evolution to eat grass, not corn. We feed cows corn because it is cheap and because it
makes them fat quickly.

29. The first compartment of a cow’s stomach is called the rumen; it contains bacteria. Some research has shown that
in cow’s fed a high corn diet there are higher levels of harmful E. coli bacteria. One example of this is the
 mutated E. coli 157H7 strain. E. coli is present in manure - and can sometimes get into meat and into the food
system.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES (24:57)

30. E. coli is not just found in ground beef….it has been found in spinach, and even apple juice. This is because of
runoff from factory farms.

31. In Washington, regulatory agencies such as the USDA, are sometimes headed by former employees from the
companies that they are supposed to be regulating

32. Over the past 30 years, the number of FDA safety inspections has declined dramatically.

ammonia cook pathogens Responsibility

authority fresh policing shutting down
bad income policy Subsidized
cheap Kevin’s Law problems Thousands
commodity

33. As food processing plants have increased in size, there is an increasing chance of spreading harmful pathogens
across a wide area. As there are now relatively few slaughterhouses, a hamburger patty may have pieces of
thousands of different cattle ground up in it.

34. After food standards were established, funding for FDA inspections has been reduced. The food industry has
relied more heavily on self-policing.

35. In 1998 The USDA instituted testing procedures for Salmonella and the E. coli 157H7 strain – with the goal of
shutting down processing plants that frequently failed the tests. The courts ruled that the USDA did not have the
authority to do this.

36. In response to this, “Kevin’s Law”, was introduced – this law would give back to the USDA the power to shut
down plants that repeatedly produce contaminated meat. To date, six years later, the law still has not passed.

37. The industrial food system is always looking for greater efficiency; but each new step towards efficiency leads to
problems.

38. On new approach to the E. coli 157H7 problem is being tried at Beef Products, Inc. (BPI). They are now using
ammonia to cleanse hamburger meat to kill the E. coli. This “cleansed” meat is in 70% of hamburgers today.

THE DOLLAR MENU (38:51)

39. Many Americans eat fast food because it is cheap and because they do not have time to cook.

40. The fast food is less expensive than the fresh food.

41. These days, the American food system favors the bad calories. This is because these foods are heavily subsidized.
This is related to American agriculture and farm policy.

42. Snack food calories come from commodity crops; wheat, corn, and soybeans.

43. These days, the biggest predictor of obesity is income level. The food industry blames obesity on a crisis of
personal responsibility.
2 corn Exploited labor unions
3 cost Faster Mexico
afford dangerous Hire Slaughterhouse
boardrooms depressed Injuries Tasks
cheaper diabetes Insulin Wages

44. A diet that is high in high fructose corn syrup and refined carbohydrates leads to spikes of insulin and wearing
down of our system for metabolizing sugar. Eventually, this can lead to Type-2 diabetes.

45. 1 in 3 Americans born after 2000 will contract early onset diabetes. Among minorities, the rate will be 1 in 2.

IN THE GRASS (44:18)

46. Modern industrial agriculture is about growing food faster, fatter, bigger, cheaper. Decision making about
agriculture is now made in corporate boardrooms, far removed from the fields.

47. The Smithfield Hog Processing Plant, in Tar Heel, NC, is the largest slaughterhouse in the world. The area where
is plant is located is economically depressed, and some feel that the workers are exploited.

48. Meat packers are subject to infections, repetitive movement and other injuries. Many workers can’t afford to
move away.

49. After Upton Sinclair wrote, The Jungle in 1906, conditions in the meat packing industry slowly began to improve.
President Teddy Roosevelt got involved and labor unions organized.

50. By the 1950s, meat packing was one of the best industrial jobs in the U.S.; these jobs offered good wages,
benefits and pensions. Since then, the companies have gotten bigger, cut wages, prevented unions, sped up
production, and required workers to perform the same repetitive tasks. Now meat packing is one of the most
dangerous jobs in the U.S.

51. Now, many employees in the meatpacking industry are illegal or recent emigrants from Mexico. Many of these
workers used to be corn farmers.

52. Currently, the government appears to be taking actions against illegal workers, but not against the companies that
hire them.

53. In America, the cheap price that we pay for our food comes at a cost; sometimes this involves labor practices that
exploit workers.

126 food Monsanto Seeds

15 invisible organic Soybeans
6-8 large profitable Wal-Mart
expensive life Roundup

HIDDEN COSTS (58:01)

54. When you add up the environmental, societal, and health costs, cheap food turns out to be very expensive.

55. Organic food is one of the fastest growing segments in the food industry.

56. To succeed, organic producers need to be profitable.

57. One of things that has happened in the organic foods industry is that successful small companies have been
gradually acquired by the large industrial food giants [such as Kraft, Coke, General Mills, Pepsi, Kellogg’s,
Colgate].

58. One large corporation that now markets organic foods is Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart entered into the organic area
because it saw a customer need.

59. At the turn of the 19th century, the average farmer could feed 6-8 people; now the average American farmer can
feed 126 people. Agriculture has seen momentous and radical changes that have resulted in increasing
productivity. These changes have been invisible to most of us.

FROM SEED TO SUPERMARKET (1:06:04)

60. 10,000 years ago, farmers started saving their best seeds to plant again the following year. This is how seeds and
plants were developed.

61. It was not until the 1980s, that corporations began to own food crops. At this point, the Supreme Court ruled that
life could be patented.

62. Monsanto is chemical company. They produced DDT and Agent Orange (used in Viet Nam) – and developed
Roundup, a nonselective herbicide.

63. Following the development of Roundup, Monsanto developed GM crops, such as soybeans that were able to resist
the Roundup herbicide.

64. In less than 15 years since it was introduced, now over 90% of the soybeans planted in the U.S. contain
Monsanto’s patented gene.

accountable fear lawsuits Prohibit

breeding genetic meat Prohibited
calorie industries own Supermarket
contaminated labeled patent Veggie
farmers Land Grant profit

65. Now, many farmers are prohibited from saving their own seeds – because, in effect, Monsanto owns the seeds.
Anyone caught saving seeds can be investigated for patent infringement.

66. Even when farmers don’t plant GMOs; their fields can still be contaminated by them. Even when the accidental
contamination takes place by the spread of pollen by the wind; the farmer can be held accountable.

67. These days, when you genetically modify a crop, you own it.

68. Historically, new varieties of “public seed” were developed by Land Grant Universities. The breeding was done in
labs at educational institutions. Now, public plant breeding is a thing of the past; there are no public seeds
anymore.

69. It is very costly for farmers to fight lawsuits with Monsanto. In many cases, it is cheaper to pay the fine, rather
than fighting the suit.

70. Monsanto owns the soybean; they control that product from the seed to the supermarket.
THE VEIL (1:16:08)

71. Over the past 25 years, our government has been dominated by the industries it was meant to be regulating.
Unfortunately, it appears that the workers, the farmers, and the consumers are the ones whose interests are not
being served.

72. In America, genetically modified foods and cloned animals do not have to be labeled. One argument against
labeling these foods is that it might create fear in the minds of consumers.

73. Many food companies fight against appropriate consumer labeling. Fast food companies, for example, fought
against calorie information, and labeling trans fats.

74. These days, about 70% of processed food sold in supermarkets contains some soft of genetically modified
ingredient.

75. The food industry has laws that prohibit people from criticizing their products. Oprah Winfrey was sued by the
meat industry for something she said on her show. The lawsuit was for disparaging a food product and for loss of
profit. These are called the “veggie” libel laws.

bite marketplace policy Subsidizes

crops more powerful Tobacco
efficiency petroleum preferences Vote
food

SHOCKS TO THE SYSTEM (1:24:14)

76. Our industrial food system is dedicated to efficiency. These days, we grow a relatively small number of crops,
and have only a small number of companies.

77. Modern production agriculture is dependent on large amounts of petroleum.

78. When the U.S. subsidizes its grain crops, it makes it hard for farmers around the world to compete.

POWER OF THE CONSUMER (1:26:36-1:31:30)

79. The average consumer does not feel very powerful. Actually, every single purchase at the supermarket is like a
vote.

80. Even large corporations, such as Wal-Mart, make purchasing decisions based on consumer preferences.

81. To eat well in America costs more than to eat badly. This is why we need changes at the policy level. The carrots
should be a better deal than the chips.

82. The tobacco industry presents an example of how the irresponsible behavior of an industry can be changed.

83. Farmers will produce and deliver what the marketplace demands.

84. People need to start demanding good, wholesome food. You can change the world with every bite.