World History: Food, Inc. questions

Please respond to the following questions. Your answers should be in complete sentences and show that your really thought about them. Feel free to discuss these prompts -- and the documentary -- with whoever makes your household's food decisions.

1. How do you think farm animals should be treated? How do your ideas compare to what you saw in the film?
2. The movie points out that cows and farm-raised fish, which are not biologically suited to eating corn, are now given a modified diet that is based on corn. Do you think people’s diets have been modified in a similar way? How do you feel about the possibility of your food being modified without you being aware of it?
3. The film gives the impression that food is either cheap or healthy. Do you think it is true that food is either one or the other, or is this false?
4. In the film, the mother, Maria Andrea Gonzalez, says, “We’re really tight from either paying for his [Alfredo Orozco’s] medicine to be healthy or buying vegetables to be healthy.” Which should she choose if she cannot afford both?
5. How would you compare the slaughtering of the chickens by Polyface Farms (small-scale farm) to the slaughtering of the Smithfield (large factory) hogs? How do the workers’ conditions compare?
6. Author Michael Pollan uses the phrase “Vote with Your Fork” to mean that consumers have the ability to influence companies by what they choose to eat. Is there a way as a group, school, or town that we could possibly influence this situation?