"Food, Inc." and "The 11th Hour": How Documentaries are Promoting Change

Food, Inc. was created to raise awareness for the American consumer about the practices going on in our nation’s food industry. Much of this is going on under consent of our own government agencies, and being controlled by corporations only concerned with monetary gain. This economic selfishness has lead to major problems for our nation’s health, farmers, workers, and the environment (Food, Inc., 2008).

We watched the documentary The 11th Hour in class this week, and although it was not specifically about food, it had a lot of overlap with Food, Inc. on certain topics. The 11th Hour brought up the issues of politics and selfishness with the environment, and how we as a nation are much too focused on economics and not enough on sustainability. This point was very evident in Food, Inc. when talking about corporate ownership of the food industry and how factory farming and food transportation has very negatively impacted our planet. Annual greenhouse gas emissions for transporting food alone are up to over 30,000 tons, and industrial farms are greatly contributing to global warming through pollution.

Besides negative effects such as disease and threats to national security, food is one of the main culprits in destruction of our planet and our economic health. Food is supposed to make us healthy and good for the environment, so where did we as a nation go wrong? One of the main problems is that we do not demand for it to be better. This relates to both the food industry and our environment as a whole, because it is ultimately the consumer that decides what is produced. Buying is approval, and if we stop buying, then they will be forced to stop selling (Pino, 2009).

Most of the time people don’t even realize the power and impact they can have. Whether it is bettering the food industry or the environment, we have the power to make change, and awareness is the first step to make things happen. We need to change the way the system works in order to break the system and create a healthy, sustainable economy and environment for everyone. Both Food, Inc. and The 11th Hour have pushed us to think about our decisions and impact on the world. Because of this, change is happening at all levels, from the individual all the way up to global (Newman, 2009).

Here is the link to the Food, Inc. site where you can view the trailer:
www.foodincmovie.com

- Erika L. Hurn

Works Cited
1. Food, Inc. Hungry for Change. 2009.
2. Newman, Sarah. “From Fries to Fennel, How Food, Inc. Is Changing America.” The Huffington Post. 3 September, 2009.
3. Pino, Daria. “Food, Inc. Shows How Your Food Choices Can Change the World.” Summer Tomato. 15 June, 2009.
4. The 11th Hour. Documentary. 2007.