| One of the questions on the Myths & Facts page asks: "How are broiler chickens raised? What kind of space and lighting is included in broiler houses?" Well, the movie shows you a broiler house. It's nice that the website reinforces that the animals aren't kept in cages, but the movie never makes that claim in the first place. And the dead chickens you see in the movie? Those aren't props. The SafeFoodInc website makes it sound like broiler houses keep the animals safe and comfortable, but as you see in the movie, it keeps many of them dead.
Who's behind the site? They don't exactly say... at least, not on the "Who We Are" page of the site:
We are an alliance of associations that represent the livestock, meat and poultry industries. Together, our members produce more than 90 percent of U.S. beef, pork, lamb, veal, turkey and chicken. We are proud of the way we care for our animals, our employees and the environment. We are also proud of the nutrition, safety and good taste that our products offer.
I found the website from the American Meat Institute on Twitter, so I would assume they are among those behind the site. The links page provides links to: American Meat Institute, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, National Chicken Council, National Meat Association, National Pork Board, and the National Turkey Federation, plus a link to Monsanto's anti-Food, Inc site. The "Contact Us" page has emails for each of those listed above, excluding Monsanto. Nice.
In addition to the meat industry effort, there's the Center for Corporate Front Groups Consumer Freedom. They have an anti-Food Inc article up on their site too. It seems that they just saw the movie, so we can expect "better" stuff from them in the coming weeks. For now all they had to say is that food activists are saying the same old stuff with no new messages and that organics are expensive. Thanks, CCF.
For a better (and more accurate) review of Food, Inc., I recommend checking out Kim Severson's piece in the NYT. She quotes LVL friends Severine von Tscharner Fleming and Naomi Starkman. Severine (the filmmaker/farmer who is making the documentary The Greenhorns) is quoted as saying: "All we have are these little canisters of film, and we're launching them at a fortress" (Go Sev!) Naomi said: "I want people to feel like they can do something. You make a choice three times a day on what you want to eat. That is power."
The film opens in major cities on June 12. We're just days away now!
UPDATE: I forgot to include one more anti-Food, Inc. site - Brownfield Network's article "New movie is critical of U.S. food system." Love how they call Pollan's bestselling book "Omnivore's Delight." (Nice catch by Dave Murphy of Food Democracy Now.)
UPDATE #2: As noted by JayinPortland in the comments, one of the "third party experts" that contributed to the Safe Food Inc site is Dennis Avery of the Hudson Institute. And what is the Hudson Institute?
The Hudson Institute... a right-wing and corporate funded think tank (with funders like: American Crop Protection Association, Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, ConAgra Foods, CropLife International, DowElanco, DuPont, Exxon Mobil, McDonalds, Monsanto, National Agricultural Chemical Association, and Syngenta Crop Protection). |
