"I think it's one of the most important battles for consumers to fight: the right to know what's in their food, and how it was grown."
- Joel Salatin, farmer, lecturer, and author featured in Food, Inc.
In the documentary, Food, Inc., director Robert Kenner exposes the corporate-controlled food system in the United States. Although government regulatory agencies like the FDA and USDA are supposed to be ensuring the quality and safety of the food Americans are consuming, Kenner demonstrates that U.S. corporations seem to actually be in control of our food system. Food production in the U.S. has become highly industrialized. The government has subsidized corn and soy beans, which are found in over 90% of the products in our grocery stores - mainly in the unhealthy form of high-fructose corn syrup. While this has helped lower the price of many products, it has contributed to numerous problems, including the obesity epidemic, environmental pollution, and the devastation of American farmers due to corporate control. The director also looks at the mistreatment of animals due to factory farming practices, which involve the raising of thousands of animals in an incredibly confined space in order to maximize profit. This mistreatment also includes the use of steroids and antibiotics by meat companies in order to produce larger animals that can be processed at a much quicker rate than animals raised naturally.
