TOW #28: Food Inc. by Robert Kenner

Just the title alone is enough to show the problem. In Food Inc., Robert Kenner, who has produced films such as An Inconvenient Truth and America’s Endangered Species: Don’t Say Good-bye, calls on us consumers to look behind the walls of the chicken coop, the slaughterhouse, and the courtroom as he attempts to expose the atrocities and injustices that occur on a daily basis in the food industry. In this eye-opening documentary, Kenner gives his audience insight into the lives of the victims, from the antibiotic-juiced chickens whose legs can’t support their own weight, to the innocent farmers who have been crushed by corporate giants in unfair legal battles. The film culminates with a segment detailing the various ways an average citizen can support the cause, which becomes very meaningful as a result of Kenner’s effective use of rhetorical strategies to create concern over the issue.

             Kenner capitalizes on an appeal to pathos throughout this movie, drawing from the tough realities faced by both those in and outside the food industry. He gathers stories from a diverse array of people, including a lower class family struggling to afford anything but fast food due to the expensive medical bills brought on by diabetes, the mother of a deceased child that consumed tainted meat who has since become an advocate of increased regulation of food producers, and a farmer whose resistance to a large company caused the loss of his business. Kenner also presents the brighter side of the food industry, interviewing an independent farmer who refuses to feed his cattle corn or use growth hormones on his chickens, and the CEO of Stonybrook Farms, who sees great potential in the organic sector of the business. While this may seem like a lopsided and incomplete picture of the situation, Kenner substantiates his and the “victims’” claims by making it clear that each of the giant companies like Smithfield, Perdue, and Tyson declined to comment or interview at all. This format of presenting a heart-wrenching story and accompanying acknowledgement of the opposing side’s argument is mimicked throughout the film, as Kenner explored the different realms of the massive machine. At the end, the viewer gains a clear understanding of the situation in its entirety, and is therefore likely to listen to the request for action presented at the end.