All language subtitles for Food.Inc

MICHAEL POLLAN: The way we eat has
changed more in the last 50 years

than in the previous 10,000.

But the image that's
used to sell the food,

it is still the imagery
of agrarian America.

You go into the supermarket and
you see pictures of farmers,

the picket fence, the silo,

the '30s farmhouse
and the green grass.

It's the spinning of
this pastoral fantasy.

The modern American
supermarket

has on average
47,000 products.

There are no seasons in
the American supermarket.

Now there are tomatoes
all year round,

grown halfway around the world,
picked when it was green,

and ripened with ethylene gas.

Although it looks
like a tomato,

it's kind of a
notional tomato.

I mean, it's the
idea of a tomato.

In the meat aisle, there
are no bones anymore.

ERIC SCHLOSSER: There is
this deliberate veil,

this curtain, that's
dropped between us

and where our food
is coming from.

The industry doesn't want
you to know the truth

about what you're eating,

because if you knew, you
might not want to eat it.

POLLAN: If you follow
the food chain back

from those shrink-wrapped
packages of meat,

you find a very
different reality.

The reality is a factory.

It's not a farm.
It's a factory.

That meat is being processed

by huge multinational
corporations

that have very little to do
with ranches and farmers.

SCHLOSSER: Now our food is coming
from enormous assembly lines

where the animals and the
workers are being abused.

And the food has become
much more dangerous

in ways that are being
deliberately hidden from us.

TROY ROUSH: You've got a small group
of multinational corporations

who control the
entire food system.

From seed to the supermarket,

they're gaining
control of food.

SCHLOSSER: This isn't just
about what we're eating.

This is about what
we're allowed to say,

what we're allowed to know.

It's not just our
health that's at risk.

CAROLE MORISON: The companies
don't want farmers talking.

They don't want
this story told.

How about a nice chicken club sandwich
made with fresh cooked chicken?

You know, that's a nice idea,

but I think what
I'd really like

- is a burger.
- All right.

SCHLOSSER'S VOICE: My
favorite meal to this day

remains a hamburger
and french fries.

I had no idea that a
handful of companies

had changed what we eat
and how we make our food.

I've been eating this
food all my life

without having any idea
where it comes from,

any idea how powerful
this industry is.

And it was the idea

of this world deliberately
hidden from us.

I think that's one
of the reasons why

I became an
investigative reporter,

was to take the veil...
lift the veil away

from important subjects
that are being hidden.

(FILM PROJECTOR CLICKING)

SCHLOSSER: The whole
industrial food system

really began with fast food.

In the 1930s,

a new form of restaurant arose

and it was called
the drive-in.

The McDonald brothers had a
very successful drive-in,

but they decided to cut
costs and simplify.

So they fired all
their carhops,

they got rid of most of
the things on the menu

and they created a
revolutionary idea

to how to run a restaurant.

They basically brought
the factory system

to the back of the
restaurant kitchen.

They trained each worker
to just do one thing

again and again and again.

By having workers who
only had to do one thing,

they could pay them a low wage

and it was very easy to find
someone to replace them.

It was inexpensive
food, it tasted good

and this McDonald's
fast food restaurant

was a huge huge success.

That mentality of uniformity,

conformity and cheapness

applied widely and
on a large scale

has all kinds of
unintended consequences.

(MOOING)

When McDonald's is the
largest purchaser

of ground beef in
the United States

and they want their hamburgers

to taste, everywhere,
exactly the same,

they change how ground
beef is produced.

The McDonald's corporation

is the largest
purchaser of potatoes

and one of the largest
purchasers of pork,

chicken, tomatoes,
lettuce, even apples.

These big big fast food chains

want big suppliers.

And now there are essentially
a handful of companies

controlling our food system.

In the 1970s, the top
five beef-packers

controlled only about
25% of the market.

Today, the top four

control more than
80% of the market.

You see the same thing
happening now in pork.

Even if you don't eat at
a fast food restaurant,

you're now eating meat
that's being produced

by this system.

You look at the labels

and you see Farmer
this, Farmer that...

it's really just three
or four companies

that are controlling the meat.

We've never had food
companies this big

and this powerful
in our history.

Tyson, for example,

is the biggest meat-packing company
in the history of the world.

The industry changed the entire
way that chicken are raised.

Birds are now raised
and slaughtered

in half the time they
were 50 years ago,

but now they're twice as big.

People like to eat white meat,

so they redesigned the chicken

to have large breasts.

- (CHEEPING) - They not
only changed the chicken,

they changed the farmer.

Today, chicken farmers no
longer control their birds.

(THUDDING)

A company like Tyson

owns the birds from the
day they're dropped off

until the day that
they're slaughtered.

(BUZZES)

Let me go to the top.

- Man: This is the Chicken...
- National Chicken Council.

The chicken industry
has really set a model

for the integration of
production, processing

and marketing of the products

that other industries
are now following

because they see that we have
achieved tremendous economies.

In a way, we're not
producing chickens;

We're producing food.

It's all highly mechanized.

So all the birds
coming off those farms

have to be almost
exactly the same size.

What the system of intensive
production accomplishes

is to produce a lot of food

on a small amount of land

at a very affordable price.

Now somebody explain to me
what's wrong with that.

(SNIFFS) Smells
like money to me.

(CHUCKLES)

16 chicken houses sit here.

And Chuck's son has four
over the top of this hill.

The chicken industry
came in here

and it's helped this
whole community out.

Here's my chicken houses here.

I have about 300,000 chickens.

(BARKS)

- What do you want?
- (BARKS)

We have a contract with Tyson.

They've been growing chickens
for many many years.

It's all a science. They
got it figured out.

If you can grow a
chicken in 49 days,

why would you want one you
gotta grow in three months?

More money in your pocket.

(CHICKENS CLUCKING)

These chickens never
see sunlight.

They're pretty much in
the dark all the time.

MAN: So you think they
just want to keep us out?

I don't know.

If I knew, I'd tell you.

It would be nice if y'all
could see what we really do,

but as far as y'all going in,

we can't let you do that.

I understand why farmers
don't want to talk...

because the company can
do what it wants to do

as far as pay goes since
they control everything.

But it's just
gotten to the point

that it's not right
what's going on

and I've just made up my mind.

I'm gonna say what
I have to say.

I understand why others
don't want to do it.

And I'm just to a point

that it doesn't
matter anymore.

Something has to be said.

(LOUD CLUCKING)

It is nasty in here.

There's dust
flying everywhere.

There's feces everywhere.

This isn't farming.

This is just mass production,

like an assembly
line in a factory.

(FANS WHIRRING)

When they grow from a chick

and in seven weeks you've got a
five-and-a-half-pound chicken,

their bones and their
internal organs

can't keep up with
the rapid growth.

A lot of these chickens here,
they can take a few steps

and then they plop down.
It's because they can't

keep up all the weight
that they're carrying.

(WHEEZES)

That's normal.

There's antibiotics
that's put into the feed

and of course that passes
through the chicken.

The bacteria builds
up a resistance,

so antibiotics aren't
working anymore.

I have become allergic
to all antibiotics

and can't take 'em.

(CLUCKING)

MORISON: When it's dark
inside the houses,

the chickens lay down.
It's less resistance

when they're being caught.

Traditionally, it's been
African-American men.

Now we're seeing more and
more Latino catchers...

undocumented workers.

From their point of view,
they don't have any rights

and they're just not
gonna complain.

The companies like
these kind of workers.

It doesn't matter if
the chickens get sick.

All of the chickens
will go to the plant

for processing.

The companies keep the
farmers under their thumb

because of the debt
that the farmers have.

To build one poultry house

is anywhere from $280,000
to $300,000 per house.

And once you make your
initial investment,

the companies
constantly come back

with demands of upgrades

for new equipment,

and the grower has no choice.

They have to do it

or you're threatened
with loss of a contract.

This is how they keep the
farmers under control.

It's how they keep
them spending money,

going to the bank and
borrowing more money.

The debt just keeps building.

To have no say in
your business,

it's degrading.

It's like being a
slave to the company.

POLLAN: The idea that you
would need to write a book

telling people where
their food came from

is just a sign of how far
removed we've become.

It seems to me that we're entitled
to know about our food...

"Who owns it? How
are they making it?

Can I have a look
in the kitchen?"

When I wanted to understand
the industrial food system,

what I set about doing
was very simple.

I wanted to trace the
source of my food.

When you go through
the supermarket,

what looks like this cornucopia
of variety and choice is not.

There is an illusion
of diversity.

There are only a few
companies involved

and there're only a
few crops involved.

What really surprised me most

as I followed that food
back to its source,

I kept ending up
in the same place,

and that was a
cornfield in Iowa.

So much of our industrial food

turns out to be clever
rearrangements of corn.

Corn has conquered the
world in a lot of ways.

It is a remarkable plant.

100 years ago, a
farmer in America

could grow maybe 20 bushels
of corn on an acre.

Today, 200 bushels
is no problem.

That's an astonishing
achievement

for which breeders
deserve credit,

for which fertilizer
makers deserve credit,

for which pesticide makers
all deserve credit.

ROUSH: In the United
States today,

30% of our land base is
being planted to corn.

That's largely driven
by government policy,

government policy
that, in effect,

allows us to produce corn
below the cost of production.

The truth of the matter is
we're paid to overproduce,

and it was caused by

these large multinational
interests.

The reason our government's
promoting corn...

the Cargills, the ADMs,
Tyson, Smithfield...

they have an interest in purchasing
corn below the cost of production.

They use that interest and that
extensive amount of money they have

to lobby Congress to give us the
kind of farm bills we now have.

POLLAN: A "farm bill,"

which should really be
called a "food bill,"

codifies the rules of the
entire food economy.

Farm policy is always focused
on these commodity crops

because you can store them.

We encourage farmers to grow
as much corn as they can grow,

to get big, to consolidate.

We subsidize farmers
by the bushel.

ROUSH: We produced
a lot of corn

and they came up
with uses for it.

LARRY JOHNSON: We are now
engineering our foods.

We know where to turn
to for certain traits

like mouth feel and flavor.

And we bring all of
these pieces together

and engineer new foods

that don't stale in
the refrigerator,

don't develop rancidity.

Of course the biggest
advance in recent years

was high-fructose corn syrup.

You know, I would
venture to guess

if you go and look on
the supermarket shelf,

I'll bet you 90% of them

would contain either a corn
or soybean ingredient,

and most of the time
will contain both.

POLLAN: Corn is the
great raw material.

You get that big fat
kernel of starch

and you can break that
down and reassemble it.

You can make high-fructose
corn syrup.

You can make maltodextrin

and diglycerides
and xanthan gum

and ascorbic acid.

All those obscure ingredients
on the processed food...

it's remarkable how many of
them can be made from corn.

Plus, you can feed
it to animals.

ROUSH: Corn is the main
component in feed ingredients

whether it's chicken, hogs,
cattle... you name it.

POLLAN: Increasingly, we're
feeding the corn to the fish

whether we're eating the
tilapia or the farmed salmon.

We're teaching fish
how to eat corn.

The fact that we had
so much cheap corn

really allowed us to drive
down the price of meat.

I mean, the average American
is eating over 200 lbs

of meat per person per year.

That wouldn't be possible

had we not fed them this
diet of cheap grain.

Since you're selling corn at
below the price of production,

the feedlot operator
can buy corn

at a fraction of what
it costs to grow,

so that all the animals
are sucked off

of all the farms
in the Midwest.

There is a spiderweb

of roads and train tracks

all around the
country moving corn

from where it's being
grown to these CAFOs.

Cows are not designed by
evolution to eat corn.

They're designed by
evolution to eat grass.

And the only reason
we feed them corn

is because corn
is really cheap

and corn makes
them fat quickly.

(COW MOOS)

MAN: Where are you
putting your hand?

I'm actually inside
the rumen...

that first compartment
of the stomach.

And it's...

it's not...

it's kind of hard to see.

You can see the
liquid part here.

MAN: Wow.

- Does that hurt the cow?
- No.

There's microorganisms...

bacteria in the rumen,
millions of 'em.

The animals evolved

on consuming grass.

There's some research
that indicates

that a high-corn
diet results in.

E. Coli that are
acid-resistant.

And these would be the
more harmful E. Coli.

POLLAN: So you feed
corn to cattle

and E. Coli, which is a
very common bug, evolves,

a certain mutation occurs

and a strain called the "E.
COLI 0157:H7"

appears on the world stage.

And it's a product of the diet
we're feeding cattle on feedlots

and it's a product
of feedlot life.

The animals stand ankle deep

in their manure all day long.

So if one cow has it,

the other cows will get it.

When they get to the
slaughterhouse,

their hides are
caked with manure.

And if the slaughterhouse
is slaughtering

400 animals an hour,

how do you keep that manure

from getting onto
those carcasses?

And that's how the
manure gets in the meat.

And now this thing that
wasn't in the world

is in the food system.

A fast-food nightmare
may be getting worse.

A two-year-old child
died today in Seattle.

And the killer? Tainted meat
from Jack In The Box hamburgers.

A nationwide recall today

for more than 140
tons of ground beef.

MAN: A half a million
pounds of ground beef...

MAN #2: Today, nationwide recalls
of Con Agra ground beef.

SCHLOSSER: E. Coli isn't
just in ground beef now...

it's been found in
spinach, apple juice...

and this is really because of the
runoff from our factory farms.

90 confirmed cases of E.
Coli poisoning.

Central to it all...
raw, bagged spinach.

MAN #3: This is the 20th E.
Coli outbreak with leafy Greens

in just the last decade.

SCHLOSSER: For years during
the Bush administration,

the Chief of staff at the USDA

was the former Chief lobbyist

to the beef industry
in Washington;

The head of the F.D.A. was the
former executive vice president

of the National Food
Processors Association.

These regulatory agencies

are being controlled
by the very companies

that they're supposed
to be scrutinizing.

WOMAN: ConAgra, which recently
recalled peanut butter

contaminated with salmonella,

was aware of problems in
its plant two years ago.

SCHLOSSER: There's always
been food poisoning.

As more and more technology

is being applied to the
production of food,

you would think it would
be getting safer,

not more contaminated.

But the processing plants have
gotten bigger and bigger.

It's just perfect for
taking bad pathogens

and spreading them
far and wide.

WOMAN: The recall of frozen
hamburger now includes

22 million pounds.

Enough meat to make a
fast-food hamburger

for every adult in America
is being recalled.

SCHLOSSER: In the 1970s, there
were literally thousands

of slaughterhouses in
the United States.

Today we have 13
slaughterhouses

that process the
majority of beef

that is sold in the
United States.

The hamburger of today,

it has pieces of thousands
of different cattle

ground up in that one
hamburger Patty.

The odds increase exponentially
that one of those animals

was carrying a
dangerous pathogen.

It's remarkable how toothless

our regulatory agencies are
when you look closely at it,

and that's how the
industry wants it.

PATRICIA BUCK: This is the
USDA building up here.

Did Josh say how much
time he thought we'd get?

- Five minutes.
- Five minutes.

Well, maybe as much as 15. Got
to be on time for that meeting.

- It starts a 4:00.
- Okay.

So if I start going like that

- or start shuffling papers,
it's time. - I know, it's time.

Thank you! Thank you.

KOWALCYK: I'm a
registered Republican.

I've always been
fairly conservative.

I never thought I
would be doing this

and I certainly never
thought I would be

working so closely
with my mom.

- We go this way? Okay.
- Yes, we go this way.

Made a mistake... I think
that's the way we want to go.

KOWALCYK: My mom and I,
our relationship has

taken on a whole
new dimension.

2421? 2421.

Here we are.

- Hi.
- Hello.

- How are you?
- I'm Pat.

- Hi, Pat.
- Barb Kowalcyk.

- Hi, Barb. - DeGette:
After the first big push

to establish food standards,
people just got complacent.

We reduced funding
for the FDA.

We've relied increasingly

on self-policing for all
of these industries.

And now we just have, really,

lost our system.

You're really one of the
champions on the hill

for food safety and it's
a very important 'cause.

It's very personal
to me and my family.

Our food safety advocacy
work started six years ago

when my two-and-
a-half-year-old son Kevin

was stricken with E.
COLI 0157:H7

and went from being
a perfectly healthy

beautiful little boy...

and I have a small
picture with me today

that was taken two weeks
before he got sick.

He went from that to
being dead in 12 days.

In July 2001,

our family took a vacation.

Had we known what was
in store for us,

we would have never gone home.

We ended up eating three
hamburgers before he got sick.

We started to see blood
in Kevin's diarrhea,

so we took him to
the emergency room.

And they said, "We've gotten"

the culture back
from Kevin's stool,

"and he has hemorrhagic E.
Coli."

They came in and informed us

that Kevin's kidneys
were starting to fail.

Kevin received his first
dialysis treatment.

He was not allowed to
really drink water.

We had these little sponges

and we were allowed to dip
that into a cup of water

and then give him that.

He bit the head off
of one of them.

You've never seen someone beg.

He begged for water. It was
all he could talk about.

They wouldn't let anybody bring
any beverage into the room

because... I mean, it was
all he would talk about,

was... water.

(WAVES LAPPING)

I don't know if he knew what
was happening to him...

and I hope... I don't know.

To watch this
beautiful child go

from being perfectly healthy
to dead in 12 days...

it was just unbelievable

that this could happen
from eating food.

What was kind of adding
more insult to injury...

it took us almost
two or three years

and hiring a private attorney

to actually find out that
we matched a meat recall.

On August 1st, my son was
already in the hospital.

They did an E. Coli test at
the plant that was positive.

They didn't end up
recalling that meat

until August 27th,

16 days after he died.

If we have some more hearings...
which I'm sure we will...

I'd love to have you
come and testify.

- Keep fighting.
- Thank you. You too.

KOWALCYK: You never get over
the death of your child.

You find a new normal.

- Buck: This way?
- Yes.

- We're going this way?
- Mm-hmm.

KOWALCYK: We put faith
in our government

to protect us,

and we're not being protected

at a most basic level.

In 1998, the USDA implemented
microbial testing

for salmonella and E.
COLI 0157:H7.

The idea was that if a plant
repeatedly failed these tests,

that the USDA would
shut the plant down

because they obviously had an
ongoing contamination problem.

The meat and poultry
associations

immediately took
the USDA to court.

The courts basically said

the USDA didn't
have the authority

to shut down the plants.

What it meant was that

you could have a pound of
meat or poultry products

that is a petri
dish of salmonella

and the USDA really can't
do anything about it.

A new law was introduced
in direct response

and this law became
known as Kevin's Law.

It seems like such a clear-cut,
common sense type thing.

- How are things going?
- Fine fine.

KOWALCYK: We've been
working for six years

and it still hasn't passed.

I sense that there may be

an opportunity... an
enhanced opportunity...

to get this signed
into law this time.

I think that from the
standpoint of the consumer,

a lot of people would
support the idea

of paying a little more if
they could be guaranteed

a higher standard of safety.

- Kowalcyk: Yeah.
- But I also know

that there are other players

- in the food production
chain... - Kowalcyk: We know.

...that tend to
worry about that,

because it's gonna be seen
as an add-on to their costs.

I think the advantage
here is...

KOWALCYK: Sometimes
it does feel like

industry was more
protected than my son.

That's what motivated me
to become an advocate.

In the past year
alone, there have been

a multitude of food-borne
illness outbreaks

which have resulted in
significant losses.

Clearly our current approach

to food oversight
and protection

is not meeting the needs
of American families.

It's really hard for me
to tell Kevin's story.

But the only way I'm
going to be able

to prevent it from
happening to other people

is to go out there
and speak about it.

Yeah.

Six are elementary school
students, one is a sibling,

and there's another
one in another county

in Kentucky, so...

KOWALCYK: It will
be seven years

since my son died.

All I wanted the company to do

was say "We're sorry."

We produced this
defective product

that killed your child,
and this is what

"we're going to do to make
sure it doesn't happen again."

That's all we wanted,

and they couldn't
give us that.

POLLAN: The industrial food
system is always looking

for greater efficiency, but
each new step in efficiency

leads to problems.

If you take feedlot cattle
off of their corn diet,

give them grass for five days,

they will shed 80% of the E.
Coli in their gut.

But of course that's not
what the industry does.

The industry's approach is...

when it has a systematic
problem like that...

is not to go back and see
what's wrong with the system,

it's to come up some high-tech fixes
that allow the system to survive.

MAN: The 5x5 product
surge tank...

low level. Low level.

(MAN SPEAKS OVER RADIO)

ELDON ROTH: This is our
operations center.

We control all of our
plants from here.

Where's Chicago?
Here's Chicago,

Georgia, Utah, Kansas,

Nebraska, Texas, L.A., Ohio.

We control all levels
of the gearboxes,

the speed of motors...

we can change those
all from here.

We built something that...

from a food-safety standpoint,

we think we're ahead
of everybody.

We think we can
lessen the incidents

of E. COLI 0157:H7.

(BEEPS)

But I just started
working with ammonia

and ammonia hydroxide.

Ammonia kills bacteria,

so it became a
processing tool.

I'm really a mechanic.

That's really what I am.

We design our own machinery.

(WHIRRING)

ROTH: This is our
finished product.

MAN: Is your meat in most of
the hamburgers in the country?

ROTH: 70%.

In five years, we think
we'll be in 100%.

We do have some competitors.

I think we're gonna beat them.

- (BUZZES)
- Roth: Again, it's a marriage

of science and technology.

(MAN SPEAKING OVER RADIO)

I want dollar meal...

- five rodeo cheeseburgers...
- Woman: Five rodeos. Okay.

...two chicken sandwich.

- Woman: Anything else?
- Man: Two small drinks,

and give me a
large Dr. Pepper.

- $11.48.
- Thank you.

First window. Thank you.

MARIA GONZALEZ: We didn't even
think about healthy eating

because we used to think
everything was healthy.

- Here you go.
- Thank you.

- Have a nice day.
- You too. Thank you very much.

MARIA: Now that I
know that the food is

really unhealthy for us,

I feel guilty giving
it to my kids.

But we don't have time to cook
because we leave at 6:00.

We don't get home until
9:00, 10:00 at night.

When you have only
a dollar to spend

and you have two kids to feed,

either you go to the market

and try to find
something that's cheap

or just go straight
through a drive-thru

and get two small
hamburgers for them

and "Okay, here. Eat them."

This is what's
gonna fill her up,

not that one single
item at the market.

Look at the broccoli.

It's too expensive, man.

- What do you want to eat then?
- Mama.

First check to see how many
are there for a pound.

- Uh, we're not getting it.
- Why not?

You'd only get two or three.

- No. Come on.
- Aww!

MARIA: We can find
candy that's cheaper.

We can find chips
that are cheaper.

The sodas are really cheap.

Sometimes you look at
a vegetable and say.

"Okay, we can get two
hamburgers over here

for the same amount of price."

POLLAN: Why is it
that you can buy

a double-cheeseburger
at McDonald's for 99¢,

and you can't even get a
head of broccoli for 99¢?

- You want the small one?
- We've skewed our food system

to the bad calories

and it's not an accident.

I mean, the reasons that those
calories are cheaper is

because those are the ones
we're heavily subsidizing.

And this is directly tied
to the kind of agriculture

that we're practicing

and the kind of farm
policies we have.

All those snack-food
calories are

the ones that come from
the commodity crops...

from the wheat, from the corn

and from the soybeans.

By making those
calories really cheap,

that's one of the reasons
that the biggest predictor

of obesity is income level.

Over the course
of human history,

we were struggling
to make sure we had

enough food and
enough calories

for a sizable percentage
of the human race.

Now the problem is
too many calories.

The industry blames obesity

on a crisis of personal
responsibility.

But when you're
engineering foods

you are pressing our
evolutionary buttons.

The fact is we're hardwired

to go for three tastes...

salt, fat and sugar.

These things are
very rare in nature.

Now sugar is available 24/7

in tremendous quantities.

We're eating hundreds of
pounds of the stuff a year.

This diet of
high-fructose corn syrup

and refined carbohydrates

leads to these
spikes of Insulin

and, gradually, a wearing
down of the system

by which our body
metabolizes sugar.

MARIA: My husband's diabetic.

One of my main concerns is

he could lose his sight.

He does get into...
sometimes he's shaking,

so I'm afraid that he's gonna
start not being able to drive,

'cause that's what he
does for a profession.

We have to consider
his medicine.

What is it, $70?

50 pills costs me about $130.

MARIA: But he's on two
different types of pills.

$100-and-something
for one pill

and then $100-
and-something for another.

That takes a lot of
our income away.

We're really tight from either

paying for his
medicine to be healthy

or buying vegetables
to be healthy.

So which one should we do?

It's hard to see my dad
suffer with diabetes

and stuff like that.

And it's really sad to see
that my sister might have it.

There's something
that's going on

in the way that we
live our lives,

where we play, where
we buy our food

and the types of food
that we're able to buy

that is causing this epidemic.

It's not just our community.

It's not just Baldwin Park.
It's everywhere.

How many of us know one person

in our family with diabetes?

How about two?

Three? Keep your hand...

It used to be that
type 2 diabetes

only affected adults.

And now it's affecting children
at epidemic proportions.

(KIDS LAUGHING)

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

(CHICKENS CLUCKING)

JOEL SALATIN:
Everything we've done

in modern industrial
agriculture

is to grow it faster,
fatter, bigger, cheaper.

Nobody's thinking about E.
Coli,

type 2 diabetes and
the ecological health

of the whole system.

We're outsourcing

autonomous farmer
decision making...

we're outsourcing that
to corporate boardrooms

in big cities 1,000 miles away

where people make
decisions and don't live

with the consequences
of those decisions.

(COWS MOOING)

Everything is grass based.

You know, they don't
eat corn, dead cows

or chicken manure like they feed
right here in the valley...

or dead chickens.

They actually eat
grass, forage...

you know, clover,
grass, herbs.

They're herbivores.

If they were eating corn,

you're gonna have to harvest
that corn, transport that corn,

then you're gonna have to haul
all that manure somewhere

that comes out the back end.

Here... it's...

there... there is
the whole thing.

I mean the cow is...
she's fertilizing.

She's mowing. We don't
have to spread any manure.

We don't have to harvest it...
she's harvesting it.

It's all real time...
real solar dollars.

The industrial food system

gradually became
so noisy, smelly,

not a person-friendly place,

that the people who
operate those plants

don't want anybody
to go there,

because then people would
see the ugly truth.

When that occurred,

then we lost all the integrity

and all the accountability
in the food system.

If we put glass walls

on all the megaprocessing
facilities,

we would have a different
food system in this country.

(KNIFE ZINGING)

- (CLUCKING)
- (PEOPLE CHATTING)

SALATIN: We have
allowed ourselves

to become so disconnected
and ignorant

- about something that is
as intimate... - (WHIRRING)

- ...as the food that we eat.
- (BUBBLING)

What a difference this
is to be out here

in the fresh air, sunshine,

birds singing in the
trees, you know?

But you see, according
to the U.S.D.A,

this is unsanitary

because it's open to the air.

They tried to close us down.

One of the biggest
showdowns we had was

when they tried
to close us down

because this was unsanitary.

Can you imagine?

So we had them cultured at
a local microbiology lab.

Ours averaged 133 C.F.U.

and the ones from the store

averaged 3600.

Of course, those have been
through 40 trillion baths.

Ours haven't seen
any chlorine.

A lot of people
wonder "Is this real?"

I mean, can you really
feed the world?"

That whole thing is such
a specious argument

because, yes,

we're every bit as efficient,

especially if you plug in

all of the inefficiencies
of the industrial system.

I've had people come
up at farmer's markets

and say "What? $3 a
dozen for eggs?"

And they're drinking
a 75¢ can of soda.

Hey, pig. Hey, piggies.

(SNORTING)

Hey, pigs.

I'm always struck by how
successful we have been

at hitting the bull's-eye
of the wrong target.

I mean we have learned...
for example,

in cattle we have
learned how to...

how to plant,

fertilize and harvest corn

using global positioning
satellite technology,

and nobody sits back and asks.

"But should we be
feeding cows corn?"

We've become a culture
of technicians.

We're all into...

we're all into the how of it

and nobody's stepping back

and saying "But why?"

(LAUGHS)

I mean, a culture
that just views a pig

as a pile of protoplasmic
inanimate structure

to be manipulated by
whatever creative design

that humans can foist
on that critter

will probably view

individuals within
its community

and other cultures in the
community of nations

with the same type of disdain,

disrespect

and controlling-type
mentality.

(SNORTING)

EDUARDO PEÑA: The town
where the plant is located

is a small town
called Tar Heel

in the middle of a very
economically-depressed area.

Smithfield has mastered

the art of picking
and choosing

a workforce that
they can exploit,

initially from the
local workforce...

the poor whites,
the poor black.

They went through that
workforce very quickly.

Now they have to
bus their workers

all the way from Dentsville,
South Carolina,

to Clinton, North Carolina.

You have to draw a circle
100 miles in diameter,

and that's where all of your
workers are coming from.

(PEOPLE CHATTING)

MAN: They have the same
mentality towards workers

as they do towards the hogs.

(SQUEALING)

MAN: You know, the hog, they don't
really have to worry about their comfort

because they're temporary.
They're gonna be killed.

And they have the same
viewpoint to the worker.

You're not worried about the
longevity of the worker

because, to them,
everything has an end.

- (CLICKS, WHIRRING)
- (SQUEALING)

MAN: When you've got 2000
hogs an hour going through

employees, because they're
handling these guts so much,

they get infections in
their fingernails and all.

All their fingernails
separate from their fingers.

MAN #2: You're covered
with blood, feces, urine.

It's easy to get
hurt down there.

MAN: You're doing
that same movement

for that same piece of the hog

and it's nonstop, you know.

Basically you're treated
as a human machine.

MAN #3: You get people
that can't afford

to leave from out there,
and Smithfield knows this.

And that's what
they hold over you.

SCHLOSSER: 100 years ago

when Upton Sinclair
wrote "The Jungle"

there was a beef trust that
wielded enormous power.

Immigrants from Eastern
Europe were being abused

in the absence of any kind
of government regulation.

There were horrible
disfiguring injuries

and even deaths.

POLLAN: Things got better.
They slowly got better.

SCHLOSSER: Teddy Roosevelt
took on the beef trust.

Labor unions slowly organized
meatpacking workers

and turned it into one of
the best industrial jobs

in the United States.

By the 1950s to be a
meatpacking worker

was like being an auto worker

who has a good wage,
good benefits, pension.

And then what happened?

Well, the meat-packing
companies got bigger

in order to serve the needs
of the fast-food industry,

which was its
biggest customer.

Some of the meat-packing
companies like IBP

borrowed the same sort
of labor practices

from the fast food industry...

cutting wages, making sure
there were no unions,

speeding up production,

and having the worker
do the same task

again and again and again.

And meat-packing is now

one of the most dangerous
jobs in the United States.

The meat-packing
industry also recruited

a new set of immigrants...
illegal immigrants

and recent immigrants
from Mexico.

Many of the illegal
immigrants coming to America

were corn farmers in Mexico.

NAFTA led to a flooding
of the Mexican market

with cheap American corn.

It's put more than a million and a
half Mexican farmers out of work.

They couldn't compete with this
cheap corn coming from America.

(YELLING)

POLLAN: So what happens to those
million and a half Mexican farmers?

SCHLOSSER: Meat
packers like IBP,

National Beef and Monfort

began actively
recruiting in Mexico.

Companies advertised
on the radio

and in newspapers.

IBP set up a bus service

in Mexico to bring workers
into the United States.

For years the government
turned a blind eye

to the recruitment
of immigrants

by the meat-packing industry.

But now, when there's an
anti-immigrant movement,

they're cracking down
all of a sudden,

but they're not cracking
down on these companies.

The government's cracking
down on the workers.

(CLEARS THROAT)

PEÑA: Immigration agents are
arresting Smithfield workers

- at this trailer park.
- (PEOPLE CHATTING)

PEÑA: This is an agreement

between Smithfield and
Immigrations authorities.

They get rid of 15
workers per day,

but you don't see
any massive raids.

That way it doesn't affect
the production line.

- (DOOR CLOSES)
- (ENGINE STARTS)

- (PEÑA SPEAKING SPANISH)
- (CAR HONKING)

- Sir, we are trying...
- She asked me a question.

She is asking us
questions, not you.

I don't see anybody arresting
no Smithfield managers.

Nobody in the plant
that had anything to do

with the fact that those
workers were hired

is being arrested.

What we see today is workers

who were producing for this
company and working hard...

those are the people
who get arrested.

(MAN YELLING IN SPANISH)

PEÑA: We want to pay the
cheapest price for our food.

We don't understand that
that comes at a price.

These workers, they've
been here for 10, 15 years

processing your bacon,
your holiday ham

and now they're getting picked
up like they're criminals.

(CAR STARTS)

And these companies are
making billions of dollars.

SALATIN: Is cheapness
everything that there is?

Who wants to buy
the cheapest car?

We're willing to subsidize

the food system to
create the "mystique"

of cheap food,

when actually it's
very expensive food

when you add up the
environmental costs

societal costs, health costs.

The industrial food
is not honest food.

It's not priced honestly.
It's not produced honestly.

It's not processed honestly.

There's nothing honest
about that food.

I can't think of a better
use for a Smithfield box.

MAN: It was about
a five-hour drive

maybe 300, 400 miles.

So yeah.

It's worth it.

SALATIN: I have no desire
to scale up or get bigger.

My desire is to produce the
best food in the world

and heal.

And if in doing so

more people come to our
corner and want stuff,

then heaven help me figure
out how to meet the need

without compromising
the integrity.

That... that's where I am.

I have absolutely no desire

to be at Wal-Mart.

As soon as you grasp
for that growth,

you're gonna view your
customer differently,

you're gonna view your
product differently,

you're gonna view your
business differently.

You're gonna view everything
that is the most important...

you're gonna view
that differently.

(SNORTING)

(PEOPLE CHATTING)

This is our new organic
line of popcorn.

This is Vitasoy soy milk,

the best soy milk in
the entire world.

This entire show when
it first started

was the size of this
column right here.

MAN: Uh-huh.

Several of us were
sleeping in our booths.

We couldn't afford
hotel rooms.

Organic's been growing
over 20% annually.

It's one of the fastest-growing
segments in the food industry.

My God! Ah!

We're not gonna get
rid of capitalism.

Certainly we're not
gonna get rid of it

in the time that we need
to arrest global warming

and reverse the toxification

of our air, our
food and our water.

We need to be
much more urgent.

If we attempt to make perfect
the enemy of the good

and say we're only
going to buy food

from the most-perfect system

within 100 miles of us, we're
never gonna get there.

As an environmentalist,
it was pretty clear to me

that business was the source
of all the pollution,

business was the source of
basically all the things

that were destroying
this world.

In college I came across
this little institute

called New Alchemy Institute,

which was a group of
renegade biologists.

My hope is to give you...

HIRSHBERG: We were preaching
a kind of a new religion,

trying to develop food and
waste-treatment alternatives,

but we were preaching
to the convinced.

We were depending on sources
of support that were dried up

and we weren't
reaching the audience

that really needed
these messages.

I realized we need
to not be David

up against Goliath. We
need to be Goliath.

(CLACKING)

HIRSHBERG: When we started
out, we were a seven-cow farm.

We wanted to prove that business
could be part of the solution

to the globe's
environmental problems.

At the same time
we had to prove

that we could be
highly profitable.

Today in 2008, not only are

we the #3 yogurt
brand in America,

but we're among the
most profitable.

See, this is the
interesting thing.

A little company like
this is now Kraft,

but you don't have any
idea that it's Kraft.

This is now Pepsi.
That's now Kellogg's.

- Man: Kashi is Kellogg's?
- Yeah.

- This is Colgate now.
- Oh, is it?

Yeah, this is one of those
companies that started like us.

- Well, it's...
- Make them different?

Make them successful,
basically.

The jury is out. I have
to put it that way.

HIRSHBERG: These large companies
don't grow organically.

They grow by acquisition.

Coke, Pepsi, Kellogg's,
General Mills...

all of them are running,

not walking, into the
organic food business.

HIRSHBERG: For me, when a Wal-Mart
enters the organic space,

I'm thrilled. It's absolutely one
of the most exciting things.

I have dreamed of the day

when I could sit with
corporate titans

and have conversations

about organics and
sustainability.

- This is Amanda. This is Rand.
- Hi Amanda. I'm Rand.

- Rand, nice to meet you.
- Tony.

- Tony. Great.
- Nice to meet you.

Okay, help me
figure out where...

- We both work for Wal-Mart.
- You're with Wal-Mart.

Yup.

Do you know that we
don't go to Wal-Mart?

- We've never been.
- Rand: Oh yeah.

- Isn't that amazing?
- So we had to come to you.

Yeah, we've never been.

We just started boycotting
a long time ago

and we just kept
riding on that.

HIRSHBERG: Wal-Mart
is terribly sensitive

to their reputation.

They've obviously
been vilified,

probably more
than any retailer

in our current economy.

Actually, it's a
pretty easy decision

to try to support things like
organic, or whatever it might be,

based on what the
customer wants.

We see that and react to it.

So if it's clear the
customer wants it,

it's really easy
to get behind it,

to push forward and try
to make that happen.

HIRSHBERG: When I run into my
old environmental friends,

many are initially horrified

by the kinds of company that
I'm keeping these days.

But when I then
go on to explain

what the impact of one purchase
order from Wal-Mart is,

in terms of not pounds
but tons of pesticide,

tons of herbicide, tons
of chemical fertilizer,

the discussion... we get
away from the emotion

and we get down to the facts.

This is really key, though,
what you guys are doing here.

I have no illusions
about this.

I don't believe that
Wal-Mart has come here

because they've suddenly
had a moral enlightenment.

It's because of economics.

I can debate with my radical
friends all day long,

but nobody can
challenge the fact

that a sale of another
million dollars to Wal-Mart

helps to save the world.

POLLAN: Back around the
turn of the last century,

the average farmer could
feed six or eight people.

Now the average
American farmer

can feed 126 people, okay?

These are the most productive
humans that have ever lived.

The changes down on
the farm have been

momentous and radical but
invisible to most of us,

'cause who knows a
farmer anymore?

But their way of life

has been revolutionized.

ROUSH: 10,000 years ago,

farmers started saving
their best seeds

and planted again in
the following year.

That's how seeds
have been developed.

That's how corn was developed

from a useless grass
for the most part

to the extremely productive
plant it is today.

POLLAN: The idea that any
corporation could own a food crop

is a very new idea. It
wasn't until the 1980s

that the Supreme Court said
you could patent life.

And that opened
the floodgates...

efforts to patent the most
valuable parts of life,

which is to say the crops
on which we depend.

ROUSH: Monsanto is a
chemical company.

They produced DDT, Agent
Orange in Vietnam,

and then they developed a
product called "Roundup."

We started hearing rumblings about
genetically-engineered soybeans

that could resist the
application of Roundup.

When the Roundup was
sprayed over top of it,

it killed every weed out there

except for this Roundup
Ready soybean.

ROUSH: I can remember when
the first prohibition

against seed saving
came into being.

Most farmers were just

absolutely disgusted
with the whole concept.

It's been interesting
over the course

of 11 years to watch us go

from utter contempt
for the notion

that we can't
save our own seed

to acceptance.

MAN: What happens if a farmer

saves the seeds?

(CHUCKLES)

Well, you know, really there's

only one company
involved in this now

and that's Monsanto.

Monsanto is...

They've got a team of
private investigators

that kind of roam the country

and they've got a
little 1-800 hotline

they take calls on.
If they get a call

and somebody alleges that
somebody saved seed,

they'll send an investigator
out to look into the matter.

If you save your own seed,
you're gonna get a call

from somebody from Monsanto.

DAVID RUNYON: Two men
drove in my driveway

at 7:00, 7:30 at night,

presented a black card to me

and they never told me that
they were from Monsanto.

MAN: They said that they had
had a surveillance team,

caught me cleaning beans.

MOE PARR: I found it
necessary to get up

at 3:00 and 4:00
in the morning

before the investigators are
on the road following me.

RUNYON: They were...

I'm gonna say maybe
ex-military or ex-police.

They were large and
they were intimidating.

MAN: I don't know whether they
had their surveillance team

or whether it was my neighbor
that turned me in. I don't know.

Now as I turned to walk in the
house, one of them said...

I could hear in the back...
"He's guilty."

RUNYON: It's a real ingenious
device designed back in the 1800s,

and Monsanto's gonna
close all of them out.

So how many seed
cleaners are out there

in the country do you think?

In the state of Indiana,
there may be six.

Maybe. I'm not aware of...

- How many there used to be? - Oh
my golly. Every county had three.

Have they all been
put out of business?

There's nobody left.

RUNYON: When Monsanto soybeans
first came on the market,

I just never really
switched over.

I was getting
pretty good yield

with the conventional
soybeans I'd been using,

so I thought "Well, I'll
just stay where I'm at."

My neighbors all around
me are all GMOs.

If the pollen goes in,
if the seed moves in,

I am still held accountable.

POLLAN: When you genetically
modify a crop, you own it.

We've never had this
in agriculture.

ROUSH: Used to be that your
land-grant universities,

they developed what was
called public seed.

The vast majority of
the plant breeding

was actually done in these
public institutions.

POLLAN: Monsanto is very
much like Microsoft.

The same way Microsoft owns
the intellectual property

behind most computers
in America,

they set out to own the
intellectual property

behind most of the
food in America.

ROUSH: Public plant breeding
is a thing of the past.

There virtually are no
public seeds anymore.

RUNYON: There's only like
four or five varieties

that I can actually plant.

Now I have some of
the last soybeans

coming out of the
state of Illinois...

- That are not GMO. - Public
variety. Public variety.

When it comes to the point that I
can't buy any more certified seed,

what do I do? What
are my options?

I acquired this list
that was mailed to me.

The black list here is Monsanto's
unauthorized growers list.

Wow.

Either farmers that have
judgments against them,

or businesses, or else it's...

or it's farmers that have not
submitted their paperwork,

will not turn over
their records.

For my case, that's
why I'm on there...

'cause I would not
turn over my records.

- Am I on this list?
- Yes, you are.

Wow.

I see two of the farmers
that I work for on here.

This list... now it
comes down to the point

where I cannot buy
Monsanto products, okay?

Right.

So it's coming down to
"What can I plant?"

PARR: Monsanto is
suing me on the basis

that I'm encouraging the
farmer to break the patent law

by cleaning their own seed.

I haven't been in
a courtroom yet

and my bill is
already $25,000.

People that were
friends of mine

now are reticent to
even talk with me.

We've been friends
for 50 years,

and now we can hardly
be seen together.

Right.

I don't think I'm
really guilty,

but it was cheaper
to pay the fine

than it was to
try to fight it.

- It gnaws at you...
- Parr: Sure.

...because if you think
you're right at something,

but yet you admit
you're wrong.

ROUSH: Monsanto falsely accused
us of violating their patent

and breach of contract.

None of it was true.

You go into a market, you
find a dominant farmer

and if you can ruin them, you scare the
rest of them to following the line.

My family spent $400,000

fighting the battle, pretrial.

And we were told it would
take another million

to take the thing to trial.

We settled out of court.

The way the system appeared
to work to me was.

Lady Justice had the scales

and you piled cash
on the scales

and the one that piled the
most cash on the scales,

hired the most experts
and was most willing

to tell the biggest lies,
that was the winner.

That seems to be how our
justice system functions now.

It's terrible. It's terrible.

How can a farmer
defend himself against

a multinational corporation
like Monsanto?

I talked to a young man
just three days ago.

They'd been to his
farm, you know?

And this poor kid, he's
just starting out.

His fiancée was there.
I talked to her

and tried to give them
the best advice I could.

Unfortunately the best advice
I could give them was.

"Try to get out of this thing
with your skin intact."

Don't fight 'em. You've
got to roll over

"and give them what they want,
'cause you can't defend yourself."

In the case of Monsanto, their
control is so dominant.

If you want to be in
production agriculture,

you're gonna be in
bed with Monsanto.

They own the soybean.

They are going to
control that product

from seed to the supermarket.

They are, in effect,
gaining control of food.

POLLAN: There has been
this revolving door

between Monsanto's
corporate offices

and the various regulatory

and judicial bodies that
have made the key decisions.

ROUSH: Justice Clarence Thomas
was a Monsanto attorney.

That wouldn't be
such a big deal

if it weren't for
one court case

that really decided this
whole seed-saving issue.

Justice Clarence Thomas
wrote the majority opinion

in a case that allowed
these companies

to prevent farmers from
saving their own seed.

POLLAN: Monsanto had
very close ties

to the Bush administration...

and the Clinton administration.

This goes to why we haven't
had much political debate

over this radical change
to our food system.

POLLAN: For the last 25
years, our government

has been dominated
by the industries

that it was meant
to be regulating.

SCHLOSSER: The challenge is
as soon as you have people

with expertise in industry, they may
turn out to be very good regulators.

It's really about what interests
they decide to represent.

You're talking about power...

centralized power

and that power is being used

against the people who are
really producing the food

like the farmers.

It's being used
against the workers

who work for these companies

and it's being used
against consumers

who are deliberately
being kept in the dark

about what they're eating,
where it comes from

and what it's doing
to their bodies.

(KIDS LAUGHING)

WOMAN: Good afternoon,
Madame Chair and members.

SB-63 is a consumer
right-to-know measure.

It simply requires that
all foods that are cloned

must be labeled
as cloned foods.

These cloned animals are

a fundamentally new thing.

But I find it
incredible that the FDA

not only wants to allow the sale
of meat from cloned animals

without further research,

but also wants to allow
the sale of this meat

without any labeling.

How many witnesses in
opposition, please?

Noelle Cremers with
California Farm Bureau.

And if I can point out...

the reason that we are
concerned with labeling

is it creates unnecessary
fear in a consumer's mind.

Until the industry
has an opportunity

to educate why we want
to use this technology

and the value of
the technology,

we don't feel that
consumers just having

a warning label
will help them.

(CHATTING)

POLLAN: These companies
fight tooth and nail

against labeling.

The fast food industry
fought against

giving you the
calorie information.

They fought against
telling you

if there's trans
fat in their food.

The meat packing industry
for years prevented

country-of-origin labeling.

They fought not to label
genetically modified foods,

and now 78% of the processed
food in the supermarket

has some genetically-
modified ingredient.

I think it's one of the
most important battles

for consumers to fight...

is the right to know what's in
their food and how it was grown.

Not only do they not want

you to know what's in it,

they have managed to
make it against the law

to criticize their products.

MAN: Can you tell me how
you've changed how you eat?

Yeah, we...

you'll probably have
to talk to an attorney

before you would
put this in there.

What? You can say this is...
we've stopped...

I know, but...

I could have the meat
and poultry industry

coming after me
and I really...

Seriously? For saying...
that it's so...

It depends on the context.

You're not saying "Someone
else don't eat it."

Yeah, I'm sorry, Robbie,

but I get asked
this all the time.

Initially, my reaction was.

"I don't care. Let
them Sue me."

Let them try and
Sue the mother

"of a dead child and see."

It's pretty amazing
that you can't say

- how you and your family have
changed... - The veggie libel laws...

(STAMMERS)

are different.

The food industry has
different protections

than other industries do.

We have a lot of questions
about this mad cow disease.

KOWALCYK: If you recall the
case where Oprah was sued

by the meat industry

for something she
said on her show.

It has just stopped me cold

from eating another burger.

- Man: Good morning, Oprah.
- Good morning, y'all.

MAN #2: Are you glad to see
it's finally winding down?

Well, I think I can
say that, right?

I can say that, yeah. I
can see the end in sight.

SCHLOSSER: In Colorado
it's a felony

if you're convicted under
a veggie libel law.

So you could go to prison

for criticizing
the ground beef

that's being produced in
the state of Colorado.

There is an effort in
several farm states

to make it illegal to publish

a photo of any industrial
food operation,

any feedlot operation.

SCHLOSSER: At the same
time, they've also gotten

bills passed that are
called cheeseburger bills

that make it very
very difficult

for you to Sue them.

These companies have
legions of attorneys

and they may Sue even though
they know they can't win

just to send a message.

MAN: We are on record for the
deposition of Maurice Parr

in the matter of
Monsanto Company

and Monsanto Technology
versus Maurice Parr.

MAN #2: Mr. Parr, we
subpoenaed your bank records

in this case. Do
you know that?

PARR: I'll tell you, what
really scared me the most today

was the fact that they have
every check that I have written

from every bank account
that I've used

in the last 10 years.

MAN #2: Do you own
any land, Mr. Parr?

- Yes. - Man #2: How
many acres do you own?

Three.

MAN #2: How long have you
had this Dell computer?

Which ones are soybean
seed cleaning customers?

- Mr. Kaufman?
- Beans only.

PARR: These people are
not just customers,

they're personal friends.

It's extremely
heart-wrenching for me

to know that this list is in
the possession of Monsanto.

Harold Sinn?

Beans only.

STEPHEN PENNELL: This
is the first case

in which a seed
company is suing

the person who does the
cleaning of the seed.

So if Monsanto's claims
are upheld in this case,

that would not only put
Moe out of business,

but it would prohibit every
grower in the country

from doing what Moe does as a
precedent in future cases.

MAN #2: Have any of these
customers specifically

told you that they
are not going to use

- your seed-cleaning services
anymore? - Ron Merrill.

PARR'S VOICE: This essentially
puts me out of business.

- Max Lowe.
- Parr's voice: I'm finished.

Jerry Kaufman. Bill Zeering.

Robert Duvall.

POLLAN: We've had a food
system that's been dedicated

to the single virtue
of efficiency,

so we grow a very small
number of crops,

a very small number
of varieties,

a very small number
of companies.

And even though you
achieve efficiencies,

the system gets more
and more precarious.

You will have a
breakdown eventually.

And where the breakdown
comes in the system

we don't always know.

ROUSH: Modern production
agriculture is highly dependent

on large amounts of petroleum.

Our farm, we're going to use

about 40,000 gallons
of diesel fuel a year.

POLLAN: We eat a lot of
oil without knowing it.

To bring a steer to slaughter,

it's 75 gallons of oil.

So what we're seeing is

that this
highly-efficient machine

does not have the resilience
to deal with shocks

such as the Spike
in oil prices.

Food prices last month
were 3.9% higher

than they were a year ago.

Take corn, another
basic source of food,

up to a 12-year high.

POLLAN: For a while,
we could sell grains

so cheaply anywhere
in the world,

farmers in other countries
who aren't being subsidized

could not compete with us.

So their capacity to grow food

for themselves
was compromised.

ROUSH: The world's
running out of food

and nobody's talking about it.
We have no reserves.

MAN: There have been
protests around the world.

The food crisis has already
brought down one government.

POLLAN: A month doesn't go by

where there isn't a
story in the news

that peels back the curtain

on how that industrial
food is made.

(MOOING PITIFULLY)

MAN: Downer cows... too
ill or lame to walk...

being brutalized to get them
to their feet for slaughter.

WOMAN: Millions of gallons
of concentrated hog manure

flushing their
contents downriver.

WOMAN #2: Government's
food Czar reported

that there are no tools
in place to track

the origin of the latest
salmonella outbreak.

POLLAN: Every time one of
these stories comes out,

America learns a
little bit more...

what's going on in the kitchen where
their food is being prepared.

And every time they
turn away in revulsion

and start looking
for alternatives.

HIRSHBERG: The irony is
that the average consumer

does not feel very powerful.

They think they are
the recipients

of whatever industry
has put out there

for them to consume.

Trust me, it's the
exact opposite.

When we run an item past
the supermarket scanner,

we're voting for local
or not, organic or not.

At Wal-Mart, we made a
decision about a year ago

to go through a process of becoming
rBST-free in our milk supply.

We made that decision based
on customer preference.

HIRSHBERG:
Individual consumers

changed the biggest
company on Earth

and in so doing,

probably put the last
nail in the coffin

for synthetic growth hormone.

POLLAN: 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's one of the reasons

that we need changes
at the policy level,

so that the carrots are a
better deal than the chips.

SCHLOSSER: People think
"These companies are so big

and so powerful, how are we
ever going to change things?"

But look at the
tobacco industry.

It had huge control
over public policy

and that control was broken.

The battle against tobacco
is a perfect model

of how an industry's
irresponsible behavior

can be changed.

(PEOPLE TALKING)

SALATIN: Imagine what 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.

How about that for success?

The idea then would be to have

such nutritionally dense

unadulterated food

that people who ate it
actually felt better,

had more energy,

and weren't sick as much.

Now see, that's a noble goal.

KOWALCYK: I can't change the
fact that Kevin's dead.

When you tell somebody
you've lost a child,

I really don't like
that look of pity

that comes into their eyes,

that they feel sorry for me.

I can have a pity party
all by myself very well,

thank you. I don't need
it from other people.

What I need them
to do is listen

and help me effect a change.

ROUSH: You have to
understand that we farmers,

we're gonna deliver to the marketplace
what the marketplace demands.

If you want to buy $2 milk,

you're gonna get a feedlot in
the backyard. It's that simple.

People have got to
start demanding

good, wholesome food of us.

And we'll deliver.
I promise you.

We're very ingenious people.
We'll deliver.

That's all I had to say.

("THIS LAND IS YOUR
LAND" PLAYING)

(AUDIENCE CHEERING)

♪ When I rode that
ribbon highway ♪

♪ I saw above me ♪

♪ The endless skyway ♪

♪ I saw below me ♪

♪ The Golden valley ♪

♪ Well, this land was
made for you and me ♪

♪ I roamed and rambled ♪

♪ I followed my footsteps ♪

♪ Through the
sparkling sands of ♪

♪ Her Diamond deserts ♪

♪ And all around me ♪

♪ A voice was calling ♪

♪ It said "This land was
made for you and me" ♪

♪ This land is your land ♪

♪ This land is my land ♪

♪ From California ♪

♪ To the New York island ♪

♪ From the redwood forests ♪

♪ To the Gulf Stream waters ♪

♪ Well, this land was
made for you and me ♪

♪ Now the sun came shining ♪

♪ And I was strolling ♪

♪ Through wheat fields waving ♪

♪ And dust clouds rolling ♪

♪ And a voice was sounding ♪

♪ As the fog was lifting ♪

♪ It said "This land was
made for you and me" ♪

♪ This land is your land ♪

♪ This land is my land ♪

♪ From California ♪

♪ To the New York islands ♪

♪ From the redwood Forest ♪

♪ To the Gulf Stream waters ♪

♪ Oh, this land was
made for you and me. ♪

(HARMONICA PLAYING)

(CLASSICAL SCORE PLAYING)