Mrs. Faulkner recently showed a documentary titled Food Inc. in the A3 Horticulture class. This film, released in 2009, focuses in on the dark side of the food processing and packaging industry.

The beginning of Food Inc. speaks about the production of different meats like chicken, beef and pork, calling the process inhumane for both the animals and the humans working with the meat. This claim is portrayed through gut-wrenching undercover footage in big meat packaging factories.

The clips show images of cows bellowing while being pushed to the ground, workers collecting dead chickens and more. “I didn’t like the movie for the graphic content, but it’s important to see what’s happening to believe it,” said David Garcia, ‘20.

The next issues the documentary touches on are grain and vegetable production and legal powers such as food labeling. Big corporations control everything from the amount and methods farms use to get out products all the way to the restaurants and grocery stores consumers get those products from.

“I learned from this movie just how big and corporate the farming industry is. As someone going into the agriculture industry, I think it’s important to understand it’s faults,” said Mackenzie Furlong, ‘21.

After the film was over, Mrs. Faulkner lead a discussion on the topics brought up in the film. “There is a lot of skewed information in the video,” said Faulkner, “so it allows for Juniors and Seniors to dissect that information and then discuss about the facts or skewed information that we have learned in the current ag class or previous ag classes.”

Most students reacted positively to the film and had many questions. Overall this film helped to open students’ eyes to the lesser known aspects of farming through interviews and hidden footage.