1. Food, Inc.

2. Upton Sinclair Muckraker Socialist
He exposed social and political problems
Working conditions of immigrants
Chicago’s meatpacking industry
Socialist
Socialism: a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies
Inspire take action

3. Meat Inspection Act of 1906

4. Questions
According to Sinclair, how was rancid meat made to look like it was “Grade A”?
How did the company “smoke” meat?
What went in to sausages?
How was meat store?
How did these conditions affect the workers?

5. The veil

6. What kinds of foods or ingredients are you afraid to eat and why?
Think / Pair / Share
What kinds of foods or ingredients are you afraid to eat and why?

23. Question
How would information about a food raise or lower your fear of it?

24. The veil

25. The Veil
Food is a huge industry with Americans spending over $1.5 trillion a year on food.
Food corporations do everything in their power to maximize earnings.

26. The Veil
Companies may increase profitability by using lower-cost ingredients, minimizing labor cost, and cutting competition.

28. What is wrong with this statement?
The Bottom Line
Food industry influences laws and regulations to protect their earnings.
What is wrong with this statement?

29. Food Disparagement Laws
These laws make it illegal to disseminate misinformation about foods.
Do these laws protect you? Why?

30. Do these laws protect you? Why?
Food Labeling Laws
These laws mandate that certain information be printed on a product’s label.
Ingredients, nutrition data, and allergy information.
Do these laws protect you? Why?

31. Do these laws protect you? Why?
Patent Laws
These laws protect intellectual property and have been used by agribusinesses to defend their ownership of genetically modified seeds.
Do these laws protect you? Why?

32. Does this law protect you?
Cheeseburger Law
This law makes it illegal to sue food companies for obesity and other health effects of eating junk foods.
Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act
Does this law protect you?

33. Question and Video Segment
Should a company have the power to decide what information to give consumers about the food it produces?

34. Debate
Healthy experts recently called for warning labels on energy drinks, pointing out the effects of “caffeine intoxication”- a syndrome that can cause anxiety, insomnia, and gastrointestinal upset, tremors, rapid heartbeat, and even death. Would a warning label affect whether or not you buy energy drinks? Why or why not?

35. Reflection
How effective are labels in helping consumers make decisions about their food? What might be more effective?

36. SURVEYS

37. SHOCKS TO THE SYSTEM

38. What can you control as a consumer?
You can be selective by…
reading labels
looking for specific products (organic)
making your own garden
stop purchasing items that are harmful for you (have in mind your health and needs)
advocating (health advocate groups)

39. rBST Recombinant bovine somatotropin
Synthetic hormone to increase milk production
Controversial issue since 1993
Why?
Antibiotic resistance diseases
Bacterial disease such as strep throat

40. Key Role Groups Activity
Opener
Key Role Groups Activity
Question: What individual or collective actions are you willing to take to improve our food system, and what would be their impact?

41. Reflection
What are the advantages of collective actions versus individual actions?

42. Let’s Move Explore the website “Let’s Move”
Read the information under “Take Action” tab
Click on “School”
What can we do at school?

43. Exploring food-based communities

44. Activity: Food Communities
Draw map that illustrate one or more examples from your own life of how people come together around food.
Places, people, and food
Festivities
School
Food preferences/restrictions

45. Questions
What do you know about how the foods that are depicted in this illustration were prepared, grown or harvested, and sold?
What else do you have in common, looking at your lives through the lens of food?

46. “Growing Together”
Muhlke examines how communities are grown out of people’s shared interest in food and food production
What was the most interesting about the article?
Did the article inspire you?

48. Scavenger Hunt Local v. international Organic v. non-organic
Natural v. Processed food
WHAT ARE OUR OPTIONS?