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Participant Media, River Road Entertainment and Magnolia Pictures
Present
A Magnolia Pictures
Release
FOOD, INC.
A film by Robert Kenner
93 minutes, 35mm, 1.85
Rated PG
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SYNOPSIS
In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of e coli--the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually.
We are riddled with widespread obesity,
particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among
adults
Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farms' Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joe Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising -- and often shocking truths -- about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.
LONG SYNOPSIS
How much
do we know about the food we buy at our local supermarkets and serve
to our families? Though our food appears the same—a tomato still looks
like a tomato—it has been radically transformed.
In Food, Inc.,
producer-director Robert Kenner and investigative authors Eric Schlosser
(Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma)
lift the veil on the U.S. food industry – an industry that has often
put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihoods of American farmers,
the safety of workers and our own environment.
With the use of animation
and compelling graphics, the filmmakers expose the highly mechanized,
Orwellian underbelly that’s been deliberately hidden from the American
consumer.
They reveal how a handful of corporations
control our nation’s food supply. Though the companies try to maintain
the myth that our food still comes from farms with red barns and white
picket fences, our food is actually raised on massive “factory farms”
and processed in mega industrial plants. The animals grow fatter
faster and are designed to fit the machines that slaughter them.
Tomatoes are bred to be shipped without bruising and to stay edible
for months. The system is highly productive, and Americans are spending
less on food than ever before. But at what cost?
Cattle are given feed that their bodies
are not biologically designed to digest, resulting in new strains of
the E. coli bacteria, which sicken roughly 73,000 Americans annually.
And because of the high proliferation of processed foods derived
from corn, Americans are facing epidemic levels of diabetes among adults
and alarming increases in obesity, especially among children.
And, surprisingly,
all of it is happening right
under the noses of our government’s regulatory agencies, the
USDA and the FDA. The film exposes a
“revolving door” of executives from giant food corporations in and
out of Washington D.C. that has resulted in a lack of oversight and illuminates how this dysfunctional
political system often operates at the expense of the American consumer.
In the nation’s heartland,
farmers have been silenced – afraid to talk about what’s happening
to the nation’s food supply for fear of retaliation and lawsuits from
giant corporations.
Our laws today are such that corporations
are allowed to patent seeds for crops. As a result, Monsanto, the former
chemical company that manufactured Agent Orange and DDT – in a span
of 10 years – has landed its patented gene in 90% of the nation’s
soybean seeds. Farmers are now forbidden to save and reuse these seeds
and must instead buy new seed from Monsanto each season. Armed with a
team of employees dedicated to enforcing their seed patents, Monsanto
spends millions every year to investigate, intimidate and sue farmers
-- many of whom are financially unable to fight the corporation.
Food, Inc. also
introduces us to courageous people who refuse
to helplessly stand by and do nothing. Some, like Stonyfield Farm’s
Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farm’s Joel Salatin, are finding ways
to work inside and outside the system to improve the quality of our
food. Others are brave men and women
who have chosen to speak out, such as chicken farmer Carole Morison, seed cleaner Moe Parr and food
safety advocate Barbara Kowalcyk. Their stories, both
heartbreaking and heroic, serve to demonstrate the level of humanity
and commitment it takes to fight the corporations that control the food
industry.
It’s important to note that the filmmakers
attempted to interview representatives from Monsanto, Tyson, Perdue
and Smithfield, but they all declined.
Food, Inc. illustrates the dangers
of a food system controlled by powerful corporations that don’t want
you to see, to think about or to criticize how our food is made.
The film reveals how complicated and compromised the once simple process
of growing crops and raising livestock to feed ourselves and our families
has become. But, it also reminds us that despite what appears to be
at times a hopeless situation, each of us still has the ability to vote
on this issue every day – at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
SOUNDBYTES AND SUBJECTS
The voices of Food,
Inc. are food experts, farmers, businessmen, government representatives
and food advocates, all of whom have helped to reveal where our food
comes from and how it is made. Here is a sampling of their key
quotes from the film along with brief information about them:
“There is this deliberate veil,
this curtain that’s drawn 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.”
“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 … 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.”
“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.”
– Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation.”
“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 … you go into the supermarket and you
see pictures of farmers. The picket fence and the silo and the
1930s farmhouse and the green grass. The reality is
… it’s not a farm, it’s a factory. That meat is being processed
by huge multi-national corporations that have very little to do with
ranches and farmers.”
“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, it’s one of the reasons that the biggest predictor of obesity
is income level.”
“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 … 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 their corn diet, give them grass for five days, they will shed eighty percent of the E. coli in their gut.”
-- Michael Pollan, author of “In Defense
of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto,” which bowed in January, 2008
Pollan is an award-winning journalist
and world-renown food expert who has authored five books, including
“The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.”
The book, which was named one of the 10 best books of the year by
The New York Times and the Washington Post, was used as reference
material by the filmmakers for this film. His other books include
“Second Nature,” “A Place of My Own” and “The Botany of Desire.”
“I understand why farmers don’t want to talk because companies can do what it wants to do as far as pay goes because they control everything. But … something has to be said.”
-- Carole Morison, a courageous chicken
farmer growing for Perdue in Maryland who – despite fear of retaliation
– spoke out when no other farmer in the area would.
Morison brings the filmmakers inside
a chicken farm so Americans can see first hand what antibiotics and
high-tech breeding are doing to the nation’s chickens. It used
to take a chick three months to grow into adulthood, but with the chemicals
put into the feed by the big industrialized food companies, the chicks
grow in only 45 days and develop oversized breasts. Morison shows
how it has affected the chickens -- some of the chickens can no longer
stand and die before they are brought to market.
Carole subsequently lost her contract
and is now left with few options. She is considering the worst-case
scenario: Selling the family farm.
“We reduced funding for the FDA and rely increasingly on self-policing for all of these industries, and now we just have really lost our system.”
-- Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-Colorado),
one of the champions for food safety in D.C.
“We put faith in our government to protect us, and we’re not being protected at the most basic level.”
--
Barbara Kowalcyk, a heroic mother whose 2 1/2 year old child Kevin died
from E. coli. She has since become a food safety advocate, fighting
to give the USDA back its power to shut down plants that repeatedly
produce contaminated meats. Barbara and her mother, Patricia Buck, have
pushed for the “Kevin’s Law” bill to become law since 2002.
It still has not passed.
“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? 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.”
-- Joel Salatin, owner/farmer of Polyface
Farms in Virginia, which lets his livestock graze on grass, the way
nature intended.
“Monsanto has a team of private investigators that kinda roam the country and they have a little 1-800 hotline … if you save your own seed, you’re gonna get a call from Monsanto.”
-- Troy Roush, VP, American Corn Growers
Association, on what’s happening behind the scenes to America’s
farmers.
“I found it necessary to get up at 3 or 4 in the morning before the (private) investigators are on the road following me.”
– Moe Parr, an Indiana man who was sued by Monsanto for inducing farmers
to violate patents by seed cleaning – a practice utilized by farmers
for thousands of years. Parr, who has been a seed cleaner for
25 years, was subsequently pushed out of the seed business.
“The irony is that the average consumer does not feel very powerful. They think that they are the recipients of whatever industry has put there for them to consume. Trust me, it’s the exact opposite. Those businesses spend billions of dollars to tally our votes. When we run an item past the supermarket scanner, we’re voting.”
– Gary Hirshberg, founder of Stonyfield Farm.
Hirshberg began with a seven-cow farm and grew his business into the
No. 3 yogurt provider in the country.
“Actually, it’s a pretty easy decision to try to support things like organics or whatever it might be based on what the consumer wants. We see that and we react to it. If it’s clear that the customer wants it, it’s really easy to get behind it and to push forward and try to make that happen.”
-- Tony Airosa, chief dairy purchaser for the nation’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, which recently began carrying organically-produced food in its store. Wal-Mart has since stopped carrying milk containing growth hormone.
Co-Producer/Food Expert
Eric Schlosser, Food Expert Michael Pollan and Producer Elise Pearlstein
How did this film initially come about?
Kenner:
Eric Schlosser and I had been wanting to do a documentary version of
his book, Fast Food Nation. And, for one reason or another,
it didn't happen. By the time Food, Inc. started to come together, we
began talking and realized that all food has become like fast food,
and all food is being created in the same manner as fast food.
How has fast food changed the food we buy at the supermarket?
Schlosser:
The enormous buying power of the fast food industry helped to transform
the entire food production system of the United States. So even
when you purchase food at the supermarket, you’re likely to be getting
products that came from factories, feedlots and suppliers that emerged
to serve the fast food chains.
How many years did it take to do this film and what were the challenges?
Kenner: From when Eric and
I began talking, about 6 or 7 years. The film itself about 2 ½
years. It has taken a lot longer than we expected because we were
denied access to so many places.
Pearlstein:
When Robby brought me into the project, he was adamant about wanting
to hear all sides of the story, but it was nearly impossible
to gain access onto industrial farms and into large food corporations.
They just would not let us in. It felt like it would have been
easier to penetrate the Pentagon than to get into a company that makes
breakfast cereal. The legal challenges on this film were also
unique. We found it necessary to consult with a first amendment
lawyer throughout the entire filming process.
Who or what influenced your film?
Kenner:
This film was really influenced by Eric Schlosser and Fast Food Nation,
but then as we were progressing and had actually gotten funding, it
became very influenced as well by Michael Pollan and his book Omnivore’s
Dilemma.
And then, as we went out into the world,
we became really incredibly influenced by a lot of the farmers we met.
What was the most surprising thing you learned?
Kenner:
As we set out to find out how our food was made, I think the thing that
really became most shocking is when we were talking to a woman, Barbara
Kowalcyk, who had lost her son to eating a hamburger with E. coli, and
she’s now dedicated her life to trying to make the food system safer.
It’s the only way she can recover from the loss of her child. But
when I asked her what she eats, she told me she couldn't tell me because
she would be sued if she answered.
Or we see Carol possibly losing her chicken
farm … or we see Moe, a seed cleaner who’s just being sued for amounts
that there’s no way he can pay, even though he’s not guilty of anything.
Then we realized there’s something going on out there that supersedes
foods. Our rights are being denied in ways that I had never imagined.
And it was scary and shocking. And that was my biggest surprise.
So, what does our current industrialized food system say about our values as a nation?
Pollan:
It says we value cheap fast and easy when it comes to food like so many
other things, and we have lost any connection to where our food comes
from.
Kenner:
I met a cattle rancher and he said, you know, we used to be scared of
the Soviet Union or we used to think we were so much better than the
Soviet Union because we had many places to buy things. And we
had many choices. We thought if we were ever taken over, we’d
be dominated where we’d have to buy one thing from one company, and
how that’s not the American way. And he said you look around
now, and there’s like one or two companies dominating everything in
the food world. We’ve become what we were always terrified of.
And that just always haunted me – how
could this happen in America? It seems very un-American that we
would be so dominated, and then so intimidated by the companies that
are dominating this marketplace.
How has the revolving door relationship between giant food companies and Washington affected the food industry?
Pearlstein:
We discovered that the food industry has managed to shape a lot of laws
in their favor. For example, massive factory farms are not considered
real factories, so they are exempt from emissions standards that other
factories face. A surprising degree of regulation is voluntary,
not mandatory, which ends up favoring the industry.
What have been the consequences for the American consumer?
Kenner:
Most American consumers think that we are being protected. But
that is not the case. Right now the USDA does not have the authority
to shut down a plant that is producing contaminated meat. The
FDA and the USDA have had their inspectors cut back. And it’s
for these companies now to self-police, and what we’ve found is, when
there’s a financial interest involved, these companies would rather
make the money and be sued than correct it. Self-policing has
really just been a miserable failure. And I think that's been
really quite harmful to the American consumer and to the American worker.
Pearlstein:
The food industry has succeeded in keeping some very important information
about their products hidden from consumers. It’s outrageous
that genetically modified foods don’t need to be labeled. Today
more than 70% of processed foods in the supermarket are genetically
modified and we have absolutely no way of knowing. Whatever your
position, you should have the right to make informed choices, and we
don’t. Now the FDA is contemplating whether or not to label meat and
milk from cloned cows. It seems very basic that consumers should
have the right to know if they’re eating a cloned steak.
Is it possible to feed a nation of millions without this kind of industrialized processing?
Pollan:
Yes. There are alternative ways of producing food that could improve
Americans’ health. Quality matters as much as quantity and yield
is not the measure of a healthy food system. Quantity improves
a population’s health up to a point; after that, quality and diversity
matters more. And it’s wrong to assume that the industrialized
food system is feeding everyone well or keeping the population healthy.
It’s failing on both counts.
There is a section of the film that reveals how illegal immigrants are the faceless workers that help to bring food to our tables. Can you give us a profile of the average worker?
Schlosser:
The typical farm worker is a young, Latino male who does not speak English
and earns about $10,000 a year. The typical meatpacking worker
has a similar background but earns about twice that amount. A
very large proportion of the nation’s farm workers and meatpackers
are illegal immigrants.
Why are there so many Spanish-speaking workers?
Kenner: The same thing that
created obesity in this country, which is large productions of cheap
corn, has put farmers out of work in foreign countries, whether it’s
Mexico, Latin America or around the world. And those farmers can
no longer grow food and compete with the U.S.’ subsidized food.
So a lot of these farmers needed jobs and ended up coming into this
country to work in our food production.
And they have been here for a number
of years. But what’s happened is that we’ve decided that it’s
no longer in the best interests of this country to have them here.
But yet, these companies still need these people and they’re desperate,
so they work out deals where they can have a few people arrested at
a certain time so it doesn’t affect production. But it affects people’s
lives. And these people are being deported, put in jail and sent
away, but yet, the companies can go on and it really doesn’t affect
their assembly line. And what happens is that they are replaced
by other, desperate immigrant groups.
Could the American food industry exist without illegal immigrants?
Schlosser:
The food industry would not only survive, but it would have a much more
stable workforce. We would have much less rural poverty.
And the annual food bill of the typical American family would barely
increase. Doubling the hourly wage of every farm worker in this
country might add $50 at most to a family’s annual food bill.
What are scientists doing to our food and is it about helping food companies’ bottom line or about feeding a growing population?
Schlosser:
Some scientists are trying to produce foods that are healthier, easier
to grow, and better for the environment. But most of the food
scientists are trying to create things that will taste good and can
be made cheaply without any regard to their social or environmental
consequences.
I am not opposed to food science.
What matters is how that science is used … and for whose benefit.
Can a person eat a healthy diet from things they buy in the supermarket if they are not buying organic? If so, how?
Pollan:
Yes, the supermarkets still carry real food. The key is to shop
the perimeter of the store and stay out of the middle where most of
the processed food lurks.
How are low-income families impacted at the supermarket?
Kenner:
Things are really stacked against low-income families in this country.
There is a definite desire of the food companies to sell more product
to these people because they have less time, they’re working really
hard and they have fewer hours in their day to cook. And the fast
food is very reasonably priced. Coke is selling for less than
water. So when these things are happening, it’s easier for low-income
families sometimes to just go in and have a quick meal if they don’t
get home until 10 o’clock at night. At the moment, our food
is unfairly priced towards bad food.
And, in the same way that tobacco companies
went after low-income people because they were heavy users, food companies
are going after low-income people because they can market to them, they
can make it look very appealing.
What can low-income families do to eat healthier?
Schlosser:
As much as possible, they can avoid cheap, processed foods and fast
foods. It’s possible to eat well and inexpensively. But
it takes more time and effort to do so, and that’s not easy when you’re
working two jobs and trying to just to keep your head above water.
The sad thing is that these cheap foods are ultimately much more expensive
when you factor in the costs of all the health problems that come later.
Pollan: It’s possible
to eat healthy food on a budget but it takes a greater investment of
time. If you are willing to cook and plan ahead, you can eat local,
sustainable food on a budget.
If someone wanted to get involved and help change the system, what would you suggest they do?
Pearlstein:
I hope people will want to be more engaged in the process of eating
and shopping for food. We have learned that there are a lot of
different fronts to fight on this one, and people can see what most
resonates with them. Maybe it’s really just “voting with their
forks” – eating less meat, buying different food, buying from companies
they feel good about, going to farmers markets.
People can try to find a CSA – community
supported agriculture – where you buy a share in a farm and get local
food all year. That really helps support farmers and you get fresh,
seasonal food. On the local political level, people can work on
food access issues, like getting more markets into low income communities,
getting better lunch programs in schools, trying to get sodas out of
schools. And on a national level, we’ve learned that reforming
the Farm Bill would have a huge influence on our food system. It requires
some education, but it is something we should care about.
What do you hope people take away from this film?
Schlosser:
I hope it opens their eyes.
Kenner:
That things can change in this country. It changed against the big tobacco
companies. We have to influence the government and readjust these
scales back into the interests of the consumer. We did it before,
and we can do it again.
Pollan:
A deeper knowledge of where their food comes from and a sense of outrage
over how their food is being produced and a sense of hope and possibility
of the alternatives springing up around the country. Food,
Inc. is the most important and powerful film about our food system
in a generation.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Robert Kenner (producer/director)
Award-winning filmmaker
Robert Kenner worked for over six years to bring Food, Inc. to
the screen. Kenner’s previous films have played theatrically, on television,
and to President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore at the White House.
Prior to directing Food, Inc., Robert Kenner received the 2006
Peabody, the Emmy for exceptional merit in Non-Fiction Film-Making,
and the Greirson (British Documentary) for his previous film Two
Days in October. Two Days is characteristic of Kenner’s
keen sense of authenticity and his passionate quest to present the truth.
His brilliant interviews highlight a director who creates a compassionate
atmosphere for his subjects to reveal their intimate stories. The Boston
Globe review noted that, “If you could watch only one program to grasp
what the Vietnam War did to the U.S….Two Days…would be a
great choice…. It is profound.”
Robert’s other notable
work includes his co-filmmaking endeavor on the Martin Scorsese documentary,
The Blues Series. His The Road to Memphis included interviews
with legendary B.B.King. Newsweek called it, “as fine a film ever
made about American music” and “the unadulterated gem of the Scorsese
Series.”
His exceptional documentaries
for The American Experience include War Letters, reflecting
on the experiences of American soldiers and their loved ones from the
Revolutionary War to the Gulf War. War Letters weaves a seamless
tapestry of archival footage, historical recreations and readings by
Kevin Spacey, Joan Allen, Bill Paxton, Edward Norton and others.
Other films include his
numerous specials for National Geographic. Robby’s rich inspirational
and emotional style drive Don’t Say Goodbye, which was screened
at the White House for President Clinton and Vice President Gore. It
was the winner of The Cable Ace, Genesis, and The Emmy awards.
Robert’s skills with
real people brought him to the attention of Goodby, Silverstein &
Partners where he directed four pieces for eBay. Robert’s commercial
for Hallmark is another illustration of his ability to integrate the
ease of his interviews and touching remembrances into a story. The “Fran”
spot was named to Adweek’s list of “Best Spots of the year”.
Recently Hewlett Packer
hired Kenner to tell the history of their company. Origins won
two Tele awards for Best Biography and Best Motivational film, as well
as the Aegis Award.
http://robertkennerfilmsrt
Kenner
Elise Pearlstein (producer)
Elise Pearlstein has been producing and
writing film and television documentaries for over 10 years.
Prior to producing Food, Inc., Pearlstein produced Oscar-winning filmmaker
Jessica Yu’s documentary Protagonist
about four men from different backgrounds who end up on a similar path
of extremism. The film premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
and was released theatrically by IFC Films and Red Envelopment Entertainment.
Pearlstein directed, produced and executive
produced The Million Dollar Recipe, which became a critics’
favorite when it bowed on Bravo in 2005. The feature-length film followed
seven contestants – both housewives and female executives – as they
competed to win the coveted Pillsbury Bake-Off and take home a million
dollar prize.
From 2000 to 2005, Pearlstein produced and wrote five, prime-time documentaries
for NBC’s Tom Brokaw and the late ABC news anchor Peter Jennings.
Her award-winning NBC special for Brokaw, Your Kids, Our Schools,
Tough Choices, probed inequities in public education and the controversial
issue of school choice.
For Jennings, she wrote and produced two episodes of his critically
acclaimed, six-hour series, In Search of America. God’s Country,
explored the culture clash of science and faith in a bible-belt town;
Headquarters, examined globalization through Frito Lay’s efforts
to spread potato chips to unsuspecting consumers worldwide.
She also wrote and produced the MSNBC documentary, No Way Out: The
Fall of Saigon.
Smoke and Mirrors: A History of Denial, a feature documentary
she co-produced and co-wrote about the tobacco industry’s sordid history,
was short listed for the 2000 Academy Awards and won the 2001 Prism
Award.
Pearlstein is currently collaborating
with Jessica Yu on a documentary about a maverick, deaf educator who
has devoted her life to teaching communication skills to language-deprived,
deaf adults.
Eric Schlosser (co-producer)
Eric Schlosser is an investigative journalist,
best-selling author, playwright and a correspondent for The
Atlantic Monthly. He is considered a leading authority on
the impacts of industrialized agriculture.
In 1998, Schlosser wrote an investigative piece on the fast food industry
for Rolling Stone. What began as a two-part article for
the magazine turned into a groundbreaking book: “Fast Food Nation:
The Dark Side of the All American Meal”
(2001). The book helped to change the way that America thinks about
what it eats. “Fast Food Nation” was on The New York Times
bestsellers list for more than two years as well as on bestseller lists
in Canada, Great Britain and Japan. It has been translated into
more than 20 languages.
The book later became the basis for
Participant’s feature film Fast Food Nation. Directed by Richard
Linklater and released by Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fast Food Nation
told the story of a fast food restaurant marketing director (Greg Kinnear)
who discovers the ugly truth behind the making of hamburgers and the
treatment of illegal Mexican immigrants. Schlosser co-wrote the screenplay
and executive produced the film.
Schlosser’s second book, “Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap
Labor in the American Black Market” (2003), explored the
nation’s growing underground economy. The “Strawberry Fields”
essay section of the book examines America’s exploitation and harsh
treatment of illegal immigrants who toil in fields and factories to
provide the nation’s food supply. The book also became a New York
Times’ bestseller.
Hoping to counter the enormous amount of fast food marketing aimed at
children, Schlosser decided to write a book that would help young people
understand where their food comes from and how it can affect their health.
Co-written with Charles Wilson, “Chew on This: Everything You Don’t
Want to Know About Fast Food” became a New York Times
bestseller in the spring of 2006.
In 2007, Schlosser served as an executive
producer of There Will Be Blood,
a film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and based upon the novel, “Oil!”
by Upton Sinclair. In recent years, two of Schlosser’s plays
have been produced in London: Americans (2003) at the Arcola
Theatre and We the People (2007) at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
He is currently at work on a book about America’s prison system.
Schlosser has been a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly
since 1996. His work has also appeared in Rolling Stone,
Vanity Fair, the Nation, and The New Yorker. He is
the recipient of both a National Magazine Award and a Sidney Hillman
Foundation Award for his investigative reporting.
Richard Pearce (co-producer, cinematographer)
Richard Pearce began as a cinematographer
of award-winning documentaries in the late 1960’s before becoming a
feature film director. He currently serves as a Governor of the
documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Pearce’s early camera credits include
three Oscar®-winning documentaries: Woodstock, Marjoe,
and Interviews with My Lai Veterans.
His final project before becoming a feature
film director was the controversial Vietnam War documentary Hearts
and Minds, which was directed by Peter Davis. For over a year
and a half Pearce served as both cinematographer and associate producer
on the film, helping to navigate the film through a quagmire of political
and legal obstacles so the film could be shown to the public.
Hearts and Minds eventually screened at the Cannes Film Festival
and went onto win the Academy Award for best documentary film.
For Food, Inc., Pearce is once
again in dual roles – as both producer and director of photography.
The film also marks yet another collaboration between Pearce and Robert
Kenner.
The two previously paired on The Road
to Memphis, a film that was one of seven documentaries in a series
about blues music. Financed by Paul Allen and presented by Martin
Scorsese, The Blues was broadcast over seven consecutive nights
on PBS. Pearce directed and Kenner produced The
Road to Memphis, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and
was released theatrically throughout the world after its U.S. television
debut.
Pearce’s feature film work includes
Country, which brought Jessica Lange an Academy Award® nomination
and was chosen to open The New York Film Festival; the highly praised,
racially charged drama The Long Walk Home,
which paired Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek; Leap of Faith
with Steve Martin, Debra Winger, and Liam Neeson; No Mercy which
starred Richard Gere and Kim Basinger; and A Family Thing with
Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones.
His feature film directorial debut came
in 1981 with the period drama, Heartland, which earned the grand
prize Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and also opened the New
York Film Festival’s first look at “American Independents.”
Pearce is currently working with Academy
Award® winning actor Forest Whitaker on developing a film project for
HBO.
He also executive produced The Judge
and the General, a feature documentary that had its world premiere
in May 2008 at the San Francisco Film Festival.
Melissa Robledo (co-producer)
Melissa Robledo has worked alongside
filmmaker Robert Kenner for the past ten years on a variety of projects,
including PBS’ critically acclaimed American Experience series.
Robledo co-produced War Letters,
one of the more memorable and poignant films in the series. Based on
the book by Andrew Carroll, War Letters
presented stories about American soldiers through their own words –
using correspondence they had written from the battlefield to loved
ones. Kenner produced and directed the film while such actors
as Edward Norton, Joan Allen, Kevin Spacey, and Bill Paxton lent their
voices to the project.
She also co-produced The Road to Memphis,
a documentary by Richard Pearce and Robert Kenner and executive produced
by Martin Scorsese. The film traces the rise of music legend B.B.
King who got his start in 1950s Memphis, a city rich in Blues history.
As a researcher, she worked on Two
Days in October, a story about two incidents that turned America
against the war in Vietnam. The film won the Emmy-Award for exceptional
merit in non-fiction filmmaking in 2006 and a Peabody Award for PBS.
Robledo began her career as an archival
researcher and assistant editor on John Brown’s Holy War, a
bio-documentary about the great abolitionist and religious leader whose
execution escalated tensions between the North and the South and led
to the outbreak of The Civil War. Produced and directed by Kenner,
the film began her long association with the filmmaker.
William Pohlad (executive producer)
As the founder of River
Road Entertainment, Mr. Pohlad has been producing quality films for
more than twenty years. His ability to seek out unconventional material
and bring it to light has established him not only as a producer unafraid
to take creative risks but also one of the most influential forces at
work in independent film.
Mr. Pohlad is currently producing Terrence
Malick’s highly anticipated feature The Tree of Life, starring
Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. His recent credits include director Ang
Lee’s Brokeback Mountain and Lust Caution,
Penn’s Into the Wild, and
the late Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion. Other
credits include Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, I’m Going
to Tell You a Secret and Chicago 10.
Robin Schorr (executive producer)
Robin Schorr is head of creative production
for River Road Entertainment. Previously, Ms. Schorr served as president
of production for Lionsgate-based Sobini Films where she produced the
Universal Pictures release Peaceful Warrior, which starred Nick
Nolte, and Paramount’s The Prince and Me, which starred Julia
Stiles.
She was the former head of production
for Trimark Films where she oversaw Frailty
starring Matthew McConaughey
and Skipped Parts, with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Drew Barrymore.
She also executive produced Attraction, which paired Tom Everett
Scott and Gretchen Mol and Under Heaven, which starred Joely
Richardson. Ms. Schorr also held senior executive positions at the Kennedy/Marshall
company and Laurence Mark Productions and currently serves as executive
VP of Women in Film.
Jeff Skoll (executive producer)
Jeff Skoll founded Participant Productions
(now Participant Media) in January, 2004 and serves as Chairman. Skoll's
vision for Participant is to create a long term, independent, global
media company to produce and finance entertainment focused on long term
benefit to society. Skoll most recently served as executive producer
on Participant’s films Good Night, and Good Luck, North
Country, Syriana, American Gun, An Inconvenient
Truth, The World According to Sesame Street, Fast Food
Nation, Angels in the Dust, Jimmy Carter Man from Plains, Darfur
Now, The Kite Runner, Charlie Wilson’s War, Chicago 10, The
Visitor and Standard Operating Procedure.
Diane Weyermann (executive producer)
As Participant Media’s Executive Vice
President, Documentary Films, Diane Weyermann is responsible for Participant
Media’s documentary slate. This includes the 2008 releases, Brett
Morgen’s Chicago 10 and Errol Morris’ Standard Operating
Procedure, which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at this year’s
Berlin International Film Festival, as well as the 2007 releases
Angels in the Dust, Jimmy Carter Man from Plains and Darfur Now
and 2006’s Oscar® winning An Inconvenient Truth.
Prior to joining Participant in October
2005, Weyermann was the Director of the Sundance Institute's Documentary
Film Program. Before that, she was the Director of the Open Society
Institute New York's Arts and Culture Program for seven years.
In addition to her work with contemporary art centers and culture programs
in the Soros Foundation network, which spans over thirty countries,
she launched the Soros Documentary Fund (which later became the Sundance
Documentary Fund) in 1996. Since the inception of the Fund, she has
been involved with the production of over three hundred documentary
films from around the world.
Kim Roberts (editor)
Kim Roberts has been editing award-winning
documentary features for eight years. She worked with Robert Kenner
previously on Two Days in October,
which was part of the PBS’ series American Experience.
The film won an Emmy Award for exceptional merit in non-fiction filmmaking
and also earned PBS a Peabody Award for distinguished programming.
She was the editor on Daughter from
Danag, the moving story of a 22-year-old woman who journeys from
America to Vietnam to find her biological mother. The film was nominated
for an Academy Award for best documentary feature and won the Sundance
Grand Jury Prize in 2002.
Roberts’ other work includes Autism:
The Musical, which aired on HBO in 2007 to critical acclaim.
The film won five audience awards at various film festivals around the
country and landed on the Oscar short list. In 2006, Roberts was nominated
by the WGA for documentary screenplay for co-writing The Fall
of Fujimori, a film she also edited.
Her work on
the feature-length documentary Lost Boys of Sudan propelled an
Independent Spirit Award win and was named to the Oscar short list for
documentaries in 2004. And A Hard Straight,
a documentary about parolees, took the Grand Prize at the South by Southwest
Film Festival in Austin. Daddy & Papa won 11 Best Documentary
awards at film festivals.
In addition, Roberts collaborates with
her husband, Eli Despres, on feature films. In 2004, they wrote, produced,
directed and edited the coming-of-age thriller Wilderness Survival
for Girls. The film, distributed by ContentFilms and Image
Entertainment, premiered in competition at the Los Angeles Film Festival
and won Jury Prize for Best Performance for lead actress Jeanette Brox.
Roberts began her career in 1999 on
Long Night's Journey into Day,
a feature documentary about Apartheid that was nominated for an Oscar
and won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize.
She earned her Master in Documentary
Film Production from Stanford University.
Mark Adler (music)
Mark Adler is a longtime collaborator of Food, Inc. filmmaker Robert Kenner, having scored nine of his documentaries.
As part of the Martin Scorsese-produced series, The Blues, he contributed original music to The Road To Memphis, which was directed by Richard Pearce and produced by Kenner. He also scored the Pearce-directed television movie, Thicker Than Blood.
Over the years, Adler has scored numerous films and TV projects. He is a regular at the Sundance Film Festival, having scored almost a dozen films that debuted there. These include the Audience Award-winning Miramax film "Picture Bride," the soundtrack of which was released by Virgin Records, with the film’s main title featured in the compilation, "Miramax Films Greatest Hits."
Other feature credits include Paramount Classics’ Focus, which starred William H. Macy; Wayne Wang’s Eat A Bowl of Tea; Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School, which paired Robert Carlyle and Marisa Tomei; and the upcoming Summer 2008 release Bottle Shock, which features Alan Rickman, Chris Pine, and Bill Pullman.
He can be heard playing piano on his scores for Picture Bride, Focus, Eat A Bowl of Tea, and Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School. In 2000, he composed the new theme for PBS’ series, American Experience.
In 1999, he won an Emmy for his work on HBO's The Rat Pack for director Rob Cohen and garnered another Emmy nomination for Hallmark Entertainment’s Forbidden Territory: Stanley's Search for Livingstone, which starred Aidan Quinn and Nigel Hawthorne
Other notable TV movie scores include CBS’ Flowers For Algernon and TNT’s The Ron Clark Story, directed by Randa Haines.
In addition, he has scored numerous National Geographic specials, two Hallmark Hall of Fame movies and three Oscar-nominated feature documentaries. Previously, he served as the music editor for numerous films, including Godfather III, Blue Velvet, and Milos Forman’s Amadeus, which won eight Academy Awards including best picture.
He has played keyboards for a number
of bands, including the Heart of Gold Band, fronted by former Grateful
Dead vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux.
Adler serves on the National Awards Committee
of Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and is a vp of the Society
of Composers and Lyricists.
About Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures (www.magpictures.com) is the theatrical and home entertainment distribution arm of the Wagner/Cuban Companies, a vertically integrated group of media properties co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban that also include the Landmark Theatres chain, the production company 2929 Productions, and high definition cable networks HDNet and HDNet Movies. Magnolia’s 2008 slate included such critically acclaimed films as James Marsh’s Man On Wire and Tomas Alfredson’s Let The Right One In. Magnolia’s upcoming 2009 slate includes James Gray’s Two Lovers, The Great Buck Howard starring John Malkovich, Guillermo Arriaga’s The Burning Plain, documentary and festival favorite Food, Inc Michael Pollen and Eric Schlosser, Anne Fontaine’s The Girl From Monaco, Lynn Shelton’s Humpday and much more.
About Participant Media
Participant Media is a Los Angeles-based entertainment company that focuses on socially relevant, commercially viable feature films, documentaries and television, as well as publishing and digital media. Participant Media is headed by CEO Jim Berk and was founded in 2004 by philanthropist Jeff Skoll, who serves as Chairman. Ricky Strauss is President.
Participant exists to tell compelling,
entertaining stories that bring to the forefront real issues that shape
our lives. For each of its projects, Participant creates extensive social
action and advocacy programs which provide ideas and tools to transform
the impact of the media experience into individual and community action.
Participant films include The Kite Runner, Charlie Wilson’s War,
Darfur Now, An Inconvenient Truth, Good Night, and Good Luck, Syriana,
Standard Operating Procedure and The Visitor.
About River Road Entertainment
Since its inception,
River Road Entertainment has emerged as one of the leading independent
production companies known for developing, producing and financing unconventional
films and documentaries that astonish, inspire, reveal and provoke.
After establishing its reputation for ground-breaking material with
the Academy Award® winning Brokeback Mountain, the company went
on to produce an impressive slate of acclaimed films, including Sean
Penn’s Into the Wild, Ang Lee’s Lust Caution, Robert
Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion, as well as Fur
– An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
starring Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey, Jr. In addition to Food,
Inc., the Company has produced several notable documentaries including
Brett Morgen’s Chicago 10 and I’m Going to Tell You a
Secret, featuring Madonna. River Road is currently in production
on Terrence Malick’s highly anticipated The Tree of
Life starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn.
CREDITS
Participant Media
&
River Road Entertainment
Present
A Film by Robert Kenner
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Richard Pearce
CO-PRODUCERS
Eric Schlosser
Richard Pearce
Melissa Robledo
MUSIC
Mark Adler
EDITOR
Kim Roberts
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
William Pohlad Jeff Skoll
Robin Schorr Diane Weyermann
PRODUCERS
Robert Kenner
Elise Pearlstein
DIRECTED BY
Robert Kenner
Many thanks to those who let us in
(in order of appearance)
Eric Schlosser
Richard Lobb, National Chicken Council
Vince Edwards, Tyson Grower
Carole Morison, Former Perdue Grower
Michael Pollan
Troy Roush, Roush Family Farms
Larry Johnson, Iowa State University
Allen Trenkle, Iowa State University
Patricia Buck, CFI
Barbara Kowalyck, CFI
Representative Diana DeGette
Representative Phil English
Eldon Roth, Beef Products, Inc. (BPI)
The Orozco Family
Rosa Soto and Healthy Teens on the Move
Joel Salatin, Polyface Farms
Eduardo Peña
Gary Hirshberg, Stonyfield Farm
Lilac Ridge Farm
Wal-Mart
Moe Parr, Custom Seed and Grain Cleaning
David Runyon, Runyon Farms
Stephen R. Pennell
William
P. Kealey
Special Consultant Michael Pollan
Writers Robert Kenner
Elise Pearlstein
Kim
Roberts
Post Production Supervisor Melissa
Robledo
Main Title & Graphics Bigstar
Associate Producers Sascha Goldhor
Jay
Redmond
Additional Photography Chris Baron
Jay
Redmond
Jon Else
Shana Hagan
Don Lenzer
Terry McAdle
Stephen McCarthy
Justin Sprecher
Brett
Wiley
Sound Recording Steuart Pearce
Susumu Tokunow
Mario Cardenas
Jim Choi
Ben Clore
Eddie O’Conner
Douglas Dunderdale
Ernesto “Cato” Estrada
Claudia Katayanagi
Bruce Perlman
Paul Rusnak
George Shafnaker
John
Slochum
Lighting Design Jon Tower
Archival Research Melissa Robledo
Sascha
Goldhor
For Participant Media Ricky Strauss
Jeff Ivers
Buffy Shutt
Kathy Jones
Courtney
Sexton
For River Road Entertainment Mitch Horwits
Frank Hildebrand
Michael Reinarts
Deborah
Zipser
Supermarket Shoot
Director of Photography Gonzolo Amat
Production Designer David Courtemarche
Key Grip Rick Stribling
Best Boy Matt Devitt
Assistant Camera Jonathan Peter
Art Department Wolf Amer
Anna Branson
William Branson
Jory Felice
Marguerite Kenner
Kamil Korus
James Priest
Production Assistants Singli Agnew
Jill Armstrong
April Ciaccio
Lincoln Else
Tess Kenner
Chris Murdock
Ryan Pratt
Jay Shepley
Cody
Terrell
Interns Derek Boonstra
Michael
Weinreich
Transcription Chloe Bystrom
Karen Childs – BAM Transcription
Information Technology Support
Stephen La Rocque
Assistant Editor Jay Redmond
Post Production Supervisor Bill
Newcomb
On-Line Editor Dan Wilken
Additional On-Line Editors Chris A. Peterson
Ryan
Dalley
DaVinci Colorist
Brian George
Arri Laser Film Recording Provided
by EFILM
EFILM Project Manager
Vanessa Glavez
Music Supervisors Amine Ramer
Jack
Baran
Sound Mixed By Gary Bourgeois
Bill
Freesh
Mix Technician Fred W. Peck III
Sound Editorial Services AnEFX,
Inc.
Supervising Sound Editor Jack Levy
Sound Editors Daniel Colman
Mark Peterson
Glen Oyabe
Vince
Balunas
Assistant Sound Editor Sara Bencivenga
Foley Mixer Sam Lewis
Foley Artists Doug Madick
Rick
Partlow
Music Orchestrated and Conducted by
Mark Adler
Guitars Peter Maunu and Paul Viapiano
Bass Bob Glaub
Drums Matt Laug
Violin Charlie Bisharat
Keyboards
Mark Adler
Concertmaster Rene Mandel
Violins Grace Oh, Jennie Leem, Radu Pieptea,
Lorand Lokuszta,
Sungil Lee, Susan Rishik, Mark Robertson, Marc Sazar, Joel Pargman,
Kristine Hedewall, Ashoko Thiagarajian, Hiam Strum, Yelena Yegoryian
Violas Janet Lakatos,
Bob Becker, Robert Berg, Luke Maurer
Cellos David Low, Dave Speltz, Tim Loo, Vanessa
Freebarin-Smith
Basses Nico Abondolo, Nico Philippon
Flute Heather Clark
Oboe Tom Boyd
Clarinet
Gary Bovyer
Bassoon
Damion Montano
Contractor
David Low
Music preparation Julie and John Eidsvoog
Assistant Engineer Aaron Walk
Recorded and mixed by Daryn Roven and Mark Adler at
Capitol
Studios and Bucketworks South
Stock Footage & Photographs Provided
By
ABCNEWS VideoSource
AGStockUSA, Inc.
America By Air
AP Archive
BBC Motion Gallery
Bill Mitchell/Blue Sky Stock Footage
Larry Burke, Flying
Cloud Moving Pictures
CNN ImageSource
CORBIS
Jon Else
Footage World
FootageBank HD
FRAMEPOOL
Getty Images
High Plains Films
The Humane Society of the United
States
Ana Joanes
KVIE
Library of Congress
MacNeil Lehrer Production
MacDonald & Associates
Mosaic Films
National Archives and Records Administration
National Chicken Council
NBC News Archives
Poultry Research Center of Alberta
Canada
Radio Pictures
Streamline Films Inc.
WGBH Media Library and Archives
Legal Services Provided By Victor Kovner, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Robert
Wise
Very Special Thanks Cara Mertes
Special Thanks The Armstrong Family
Judith Belzer
Steve Bjerklie
Richard Branca, Sony Post Production Facilities
Scott Z. Burns
Mike Callicrate
Consumer Federation of America
Troy Cowen and Family
Al Christian
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro
DesignTown USA
Joanie Diener
Aloma Dew
Rick Dove
Margaret Drain
Ted Driscoll
Earthbound Farms
Bernadine Edwards
Julie Eisenberg
Lenny Feinstein
Kage Glanz
Harold Goldstein, California Center for Public Health Advocacy
Michael Hanson, Consumer’s Union
Nathanial Johnson
Richard Kassabaum
Marguerite Kenner
Martin Kenner
Andrew Kimbrell, Bill Freese and The Center for Food Safety
Fred Kirschenmann
The Kowalcyk Family
Diana LaPointe, SonyBMG
Dale Lasater
Don Lenzer
Michael Levy
Richard Linklater
Ralph Loglisci and the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production
Bill Marler, Marler Clark
Alice Markowitz
Kathy Murphy
Marion Nestle
North Carolina Pork Council
Nick Noxon
Chris Petersen and the Iowa Farmer’s Union
Emily Rice
Bobby Roth
Mike Semple
Whitley Stephensen
Jeremy Thomas
Alice Waters
Alison & Paul Wiediger, Au Naturel Farm
Charles Wilson
Joshua
Wilton House
Completion
Guarantor Film Finances Inc.
Production Insurance DeMille Halliburton, DeWitt Stern Group
Distribution Advisor Josh Braun/Submarine Entertainment LLC
SUNNY L.A.
Written by Nancy Peterson
Performed
by Great American Swing Band
THIS LAND IS YOUR
LAND
Words & Music by Woody Guthrie
Published by TRO – Ludlow Music,
Inc. (BMI)
Performed by Bruce Springsteen
Courtesy of Columbia Records
By arrangement with
SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
Developed with American
Documentary, Inc.
This film has been carbon offset.
Carbon offsets by NativeEnergy
DOLBY License E Film
Copyright © MMVIII Perfect Meal, LLC,
All Rights Reserved
Country of First Publication: United States of America
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