In Immokalee, Florida, lifelong farmworker (and labor leader) Gerardo Reyes Chavez explains how immigrant workers — mostly Latino and Haitians — are both relied upon and mistreated. “The industry wants immigrant workers because they feel they can take advantage of us,” he says. If we’re eating fruits and vegetables, Schlosser and Pollan tell us, we’re part of a chain of exploitation.
With flashy, colorful and user-friendly graphics, the film traces industry consolidation: the few companies who have 70% of the carbonated drinks market, for example, or 80% of the baby food market. Such realities violate the spirit of antitrust legislation, they argue.
We meet people like Wisconsin dairy farmer Sarah Lloyd, whose 450-cow farm feels huge to her, but other farms have 5,000 or 10,000 or 20,000 cows. How can she compete?
Marion Nestle, biologist and nutritionist at New York University, looks back a few decades and marvels at how food has become something available anytime, anywhere: “You go into a clothing store and there are candy bars at the checkout counter.” She especially marvels at the escalating portion size over the years, a thought illustrated by a stack of pancakes that keeps on growing.
A professor in Brazil, Carlos Monteiro, posits that “ultra-processed” foods are a key factor in diabetes. His ideas are borne out by an experiment at the National Institutes of Health that shows people who eat such highly processed foods consume a whopping 500 more calories per day. Mark Schatzker (The Dorito Effect) talks about artificial flavors and how they trick the body into eating more.
Are there solutions to all this? The filmmakers consider a bunch, approving of some more than others. Everyone’s coming up with “plant-based” substitutes (fake chicken wings, honey without bees.) But Pollan worries consumers might think “plant-based” means healthy food — often, it’s nothing of the kind. One promising idea: An ocean farmer, Bren Smith, is farming kelp, and a chef is using it in her restaurant.