This Sixteen-Year-Old Documentary Exposed the Inner Workings of the American Food Industry

Which documentary once influenced the career choices of our colleagues at Foodthink and led us to commit ourselves to the food and agriculture sector?

It was perhaps this one—Food, Inc. Released in 2009, this documentary exposes the inner workings of the American food industry, paying particular attention to the health and environmental issues embedded in food production. It attracted public attention the year of its release and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Before we knew it, more than a decade had passed. In spring 2024, the sequel Food, Inc. 2 premiered in North America. Today, industrialised farming, nutritional homogenisation, and the monopoly of seed giants remain as pressing as ever. On this occasion, our colleagues gathered together to revisit the first Food, Inc. and ask: are the problems depicted in the film really as dire as we have seen for ourselves in this field? Which issues in the American food system are now also playing out in China?

We hope this film, which shaped our own outlooks, will resonate with you too, because as the documentary says, as consumers, “You can vote to change our food system. Three times a day.”

This Episode’s Hosts

Tian Le

Foodthink’s founding editor and convener of the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market. I remember watching Food, Inc. in a cinema in the United States and being astonished that a documentary could secure a theatrical release. I never expected that this film and the people in it would go on to shape so much of my life in ways I only gradually came to recognise.

Wang Hao

Foodthink editor. The only host on this episode who crammed through the film at the last minute.

Xiaojing

Host of Food Talk. Though I don’t remember it, I discovered that I had actually watched Food, Inc. back in 2019 and left a review on Douban saying, “The poultry farming scenes scared me to death.”

Zeen

Foodthink editor.

The chicken sheds shown in *Food, Inc.* reek of a pungent smell; the appalling conditions pose health risks to both the poultry and the farmworkers.

The food industry has utterly transformed chicken farming: compared with 50 years ago, white-feathered broilers now need only 70% of the time from rearing to slaughter, yet grow to twice their size (1950 vs. 2008). Today, the maturation period of the white-feathered broiler has been cut to 38 days. But anatomically, breast meat that grows too large and too fast has left the heart struggling to supply it with enough blood.

The food choices on a supermarket shelf appear enormously varied, but the vast majority contain maize and soya. Through chemical processing, maize can be refined into ingredients such as syrup, xanthan gum, diglycerides, and vitamin C—behind the surface “diversity” lurks the hidden threat of nutritional imbalance in our food supply.

By the time *Food, Inc.* was released in 2008, 90% of soybean seed in the United States contained Monsanto genes. Because these seeds are protected by patents, farmers are forbidden from saving them. Monopolised distribution channels and gene flow make it difficult for farmers who rely on farm-saved seed to remain untouched. Over more than a decade, the relentless infringement lawsuits brought by Monsanto’s legal team have driven most farmers from anger to quiet resignation.

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01:04 Food, Inc. has a sequel—let’s first revisit what the original covered.

05:54 Is it true that meat and dairy in the United States are incredibly cheap?

08:28 The 49-day broiler is history—now it takes just 38 days. That’s “efficiency”.

12:53 The food we see around us looks plentiful, but whether it’s meat, cereal, or soft drinks, over 70% of the supply is controlled by a handful of giant corporations. These hugely powerful companies are like Voldemort of the food industry—Voldemort, “you can’t even say the name”.

19:35 How can naturally grown seeds become a kind of “patent”? Let’s talk about another giant: Monsanto, the seed empire.

25:12 Fast food is so cheap—but what is the real cost of our food?

33:19 Can free-range chicken carry Salmonella? Meat from intensive farming operations has seen its share of large-scale pathogen outbreaks too—perhaps it’s time to update your assumptions about hygiene.

38:19 In the fifteen years since this film was released, has the situation in the United States improved or worsened? And what about China?

41:40 Too tired to cook at home, so you order a takeaway—only to discover that restaurants “don’t feel like cooking” either…

47:13 “You can vote to change our food system. Three times a day.”

R/e/l/a/t/e/d: Books & Documentaries