Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
RC 1000
Levi Thompson
Prof Blackburn
diglycerides. These items seem to be a check list for a crazy lab project, instead, they are
ingredients found in the food we eat every day. It says something about the quality of our food
when we are required to pay more money for natural ingredients. Times are constantly evolving
from the “Ma and Pa farms” and have began to form into monopolies. Many towns and cities are
starting to slowly shift away from large companies, as their inhumane methods and chemicals are
slowly melting into public eyes. Supporting local farms not only helps the farmers themselves, it
also provides healthier, natural meat which is safer for the consumer in the long term.
Food Fight: How Corporations Ruined Food is a 2008 documentary produced by Chris
Taylor and written by Aaron Ginsburg, Wade McIntyre and Timothy Fall. The documentary
received the Washington DC Independent Film Festival award for Best Documentary. The
documentary focuses on the changes that the food industry is going through and how these large
corporations are able to churn out “mega-farms” and include so many ingredient fillers and
chemicals into food in our supermarkets. They also speak on the history of farms, using footage
from American events such as World War II, and how we slowly started sacrificing taste for
quantity. The documentary serves as a sort of public service announcement to the average
American and what they can do to watch what they are consuming.
2
One use of a fallacy that is present early on in the documentary is the slippery slope
fallacy. When the narrator begins to speak about World War II and the effects it has on the
farmers at home, he speaks that this was the major turning point in government involvement. At
first the over production was needed, as many of our troops overseas were not being fed enough,
which caused large oil companies to sink money and resources into crop production. It was
almost unpatriotic for farmers to turn away these companies. The narrator believes this is how
we have been brought to this situation today, as the grip of large corporations have not let up
since the war. The increase in chemicals have also been a factor in this slippery slope method, as
scientist discovered that adding nitrogen to fertilizer not only increases the amount of crops
grown, it also increases the size of the crops themselves. This advancement has opened the
floodgates on chemical modifications and farming. If you are able to produce more crops in
larger sizes by only adding chemicals, you would be a fool to do differently. This begs the
question “how many chemicals are too many?” Somehow we have went from nitrogen in
fertilizer to barely readable ingredient list and the slope seems to be getting steeper.
The use of pathos, logos and ethos are some of the documentaries strongest points. The
writers have found a way to speak to a large amount of people. Not only do they appeal to the
consumer, they also speak to the farmers in a way to appeal to them as well. The use of pathos is
the first thing the viewers are presented. The documentary opens with the viewer imagining they
are a child and your mother is in the kitchen, working hard making a pie. She breaks the natural
eggs and uses her original vanilla bean with cream and sugar. This use of nostalgia quickly
transitions to modern day and the artificial ingredients in todays food. Ethos is used to create a
separation from these large companies and putting money back into these farmers pockets.
Almost halfway through the documentary a restaurant is interviewed that buy all of their produce
3
from a local farm. They speak about wanting to bring this money to the people who really need
it, not these faceless multi-millionaire companies. The way that logos is presented is how you
could expect, it is logical to want natural, safe, and healthy food in your system. If you asked one
hundred people on the street if they wanted these chemicals in their food, many would say no.
When speaking on a topic like this, it is easy to forget about the people effected. This
documentary does a good job of reminding us by using overly sentimental appeals. They take a
big section of the documentary to speak about how many lives are changed with these
monopolized farms and supermarkets. Small time farmers are finding it almost impossible to
provide for their family. There have been positive movements forwards, including things like
crop insurance, that provide a sort of safety net in the case of crop failure. Times have definitely
When the documentary wraps up, a lot of it feels like an advertisement, which makes the
message almost fall flat. The time they spend speaking with the restaurant chef feels like its
forgetting the message of the food industry and more on this restaurant in California. Overall I
think they brought enough statistics to provide a valid argument, and the way they interviewed so
many people of different race, social class, backgrounds and culture really allow the viewer to
relate with someone in the video. I think the overall presentation could have been stronger if they
backed a lot more hard hitting claims with statistics and facts, but the message is still able to
Works Cited
Stories, Real. “Food Fight: How Corporations Ruined Food (Food Industry Documentary) - Real
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RwIWGkMxrE&t=40s.