Name ____________________________

Food, Inc.
Where our food comes from; a world deliberately hidden from consumers
Introduction:
Food production has changed more in the last ____years than in the preceding 10,000.

Images of agrarian (farm) society in the consumer’s mind include:

a.
b.
c.

The average supermarket contains _____________ (how many?) items.

Fast Food to All Food

The 1930s Drive In was replaced by ______________________

McDonald’s brought the _______________________ to food service. This meant that

one worker did ____________________________. Therefore, this worker was

____________________ and could be paid _______________________.

Because fast food corporations are the largest customers of _________________,

________________, __________________, _________________, _________________,
they require a ______________ supplier, thus cutting out contracts with small farmers.

In 1970, the top 5 meat packers controlled _____% of the market;

in 2008, just 4 packing companies control ______% of the market.

___________ is the largest poultry meat packer.

Chicken used to take ______days to be market weight; today, a bird is ready in _____
days. Mechanization in the packing house requires birds to be ______________________.

U.S. agriculture produces a _______amount of food on a _____ amount of land for

____dollars.

Poultry houses cost __________to build, plus the cost of upgrades, as required by
contract.

_____________ owns the birds. A farmer comments about that this is not farming; this
is _______________________. Does the farmer have any say in how the birds are
raised? Y N
 The average poultry farmer is in debt ____________ and earns
______________annually.

A CORNucopia of Choices
A supermarket presents the illusion of _____________; actually ______% of packaged
food contains two crops: ___________ and/or ___________because of food engineering.

Formerly ______ bushels of corn/acre was good yield; today, ______ bushels/acre is
average.

_______% of America’s farm base in planted in ________.

Government ______________ pay farmers to over-produce; ___________ crops can be

stored.

_______ is the main ingredient in _________ for animals, even for farmed fish such as
tilapia.

_______ drives down the price of meat. An average American consumes _____# of
meat/year.

Cows, by nature, are ______________ and eat ____________. Feeding a cow ________
fattens

the animal faster, at the expense of its health.

Feeding steers a corn diet in the feed lot has produced acid-resistant strains of
___________.

Unintended Consequences: food contamination

Food recalls because of __________ have been traced to
_____________________________.

Ironically, government regulatory agencies are controlled by

__________________________.

In the 1970s, slaughter houses numbered _________; today there are ___________.

_______ steers per hour are processed; today’s meat may carry feces from
________animals.

Research has found that feeding steers ________for 2 weeks before slaughter will
reduce contamination by ______%. Industry’s solution has been to “cleanse” the meat with
____________.

BPI, initials that stand for ________ __________ __________, processes ____% of beef
that becomes hamburger patties for the industry. They intend to increase that to
____%.
What would Kevin’s Law do?

The Dollar Menu

Buying fast food is too often ___________ than buying ______________. The least
expensive foods tend to be things like _________, __________, ____________ because they
contain _________.

American farm policy has skewed the food system toward ________ calories because of
___________.

___________ __________ often accurately predicts obesity.

_______, ________, and ______ are rare in nature, but have become common in
________________.

_____ American in _____ born after the year 2000 will develop __________________
because of the abundance of _____________________.

In the Grass
Joel Saladin comments that autonomous farmer’s decisions are being made in
______________.

He also comments that we are being successful at hitting the bullseye at the wrong
target. He is referring to the fact that we grow a lot of ________ without asking _______.
Technology provides the _______, but not considering _____________ is disrespectful of the
land, animals, and the farmer.

The world’s largest slaughterhouse is _______________________.

In order to run their operation they require _____________________.

A Labor Organizer comments that the processor has the same attitude toward the
__________ as the ___________; everything has a(n) _________.

______________ hogs are slaughtered daily; ___________per hour.

Workers suffer from ___________________ and __________________.

As meat packers got bigger, ______________ lost rights.

_________ _________ is one of the most dangerous jobs today.

_________ flooded Mexico with cheap corn; ___________ farm workers lost jobs in
Mexico.

Many of these displaced workers were hired to

______________________________.
 Immigration officials arrest _______ per day, not enough to affect production; the
________________has never been confronted about the practice of
hiring illegal labor.

____________ food comes at a _________.

Costs
The mystique of cheap food does not consider ____________, ___________, or
____________costs.

As an industry grows, it views the ___________, the ____________, and the ___________
differently.

The organic segment of the food industry has been growing at the rate of _____% annually.

Many large corporations have acquired ____________________, based on what customers

want.

Consider what one order for an organic product from Walmart saves in environmental terms:
less____________, less _____________, less _______________, and better
____________________.

From Seed to the Supermarket

Traditionally, seed was annually __________ to use for next year’s planting.
____________________seed is a new concept.

In 1996, ______ of Monsanto-owned Round Up Ready seed was in use.

In 2008, ______ of the seed is supplied by Monsanto.

Monsanto has a staff of _____ investigators to monitor farmers who may have saved
seed.

Saving seed is prosecuted as ___________________________ by the company.

Monsanto is putting _________________ out of business; maybe only 5-6 still in Indiana
today.

The field of a farmer NOT using GMO seed may become contaminated
by__________________.

“How can a farmer defend himself against a big, multinational conglomerate?” Such companies
are controlling the product from the _____________ to the _______________.

The Veil
Close ties between the _______________ and the _________________ have centralized power.
____________ are being kept ignorant about where food comes from and the processing
involved.

For example, _________% of processed food contain GMO’s.

Efforts are being made to pass laws to make it illegal to ______________ the food industry.

Shocks to the System

The small number of __________, _____________, and _______________ is a recipe for
disaster.

Farming today depends on large amounts of ____________ and lacks the resilience to deal with
spikes in the system because of price increases or shortages.

The farmer will deliver what ____________demand. Average person expresses power by
__________.

Buy foods ____ __________ from _________ sources; __________ grown; read __________;

plant ____________; _______ a meal with your family and _______ together.

_______________ has a right to food that keeps us and the ___________ healthy.

Change will take place _____ bite at a time. Aren’t you hungry for change?