Food, Inc.

to their costs. 554 00:34:13,051 --> 00:34:15,343 I think the advantage here is-- 555 00:34:15,386 --> 00:34:17,471 Kowalcyk: Sometimes it does feel like 556 00:34:17,513 --> 00:34:20,640 industry was more protected than my son. 557 00:34:20,683 --> 00:34:24,770 That's what motivated me to become an advocate. 558 00:34:24,812 --> 00:34:27,189 In the past year alone, there have been 559 00:34:27,231 --> 00:34:29,191 a multitude of food-borne illness outbreaks 560 00:34:29,233 --> 00:34:31,651 which have resulted in significant losses. 561 00:34:31,694 --> 00:34:33,820 Clearly our current approach 562 00:34:33,863 --> 00:34:35,572 to food oversight and protection 563 00:34:35,615 --> 00:34:38,075 is not meeting the needs of American families. 564 00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:46,917 It's really hard for me to tell Kevin's story. 565 00:34:49,962 --> 00:34:51,922 But the only way I'm going to be able 566 00:34:51,964 --> 00:34:53,799 to prevent it from happening to other people 567 00:34:53,841 --> 00:34:57,677 is to go out there and speak about it. 568 00:35:01,724 --> 00:35:03,475 Yeah. 569 00:35:07,563 --> 00:35:10,857 Six are elementary school students, one is a sibling, 570 00:35:10,900 --> 00:35:12,692 and there's another one in another county 571 00:35:12,735 --> 00:35:14,402 in Kentucky, so... 572 00:35:18,282 --> 00:35:20,700 Kowalcyk: It will be seven years 573 00:35:20,743 --> 00:35:23,078 since my son died. 574 00:35:24,789 --> 00:35:26,998 All I wanted the company to do 575 00:35:27,041 --> 00:35:28,959 was say "We're sorry. 576 00:35:29,001 --> 00:35:31,044 We produced this defective product 577 00:35:31,087 --> 00:35:33,296 that killed your child, and this is what 578 00:35:33,339 --> 00:35:36,091 we're going to do to make sure it doesn't happen again." 579 00:35:36,134 --> 00:35:38,760 That's all we wanted, 580 00:35:38,803 --> 00:35:40,971 and they couldn't give us that. 581 00:35:51,107 --> 00:35:53,525 Pollan: The industrial food system is always looking 582 00:35:53,568 --> 00:35:56,820 for greater efficiency, but each new step in efficiency 583 00:35:56,863 --> 00:35:59,072 leads to problems. 584 00:35:59,115 --> 00:36:02,868 If you take feedlot cattle off of their corn diet, 585 00:36:02,910 --> 00:36:04,911 give them grass for five days, 586 00:36:04,954 --> 00:36:07,831 they will shed 80% of the E. coli in their gut. 587 00:36:07,874 --> 00:36:09,708 But of course that's not what the industry does. 588 00:36:09,750 --> 00:36:11,168 The industry's approach is-- 589 00:36:11,210 --> 00:36:13,587 when it has a systematic problem like that-- 590 00:36:13,629 --> 00:36:16,673 is not to go back and see what's wrong with the system, 591 00:36:16,716 --> 00:36:20,135 it's to come up some high-tech fixes that allow the system to survive. 592 00:36:29,812 --> 00:36:31,730 Man: The 5x5 product surge tank-- 593 00:36:31,772 --> 00:36:33,732 low level. Low level. 594 00:36:33,774 --> 00:36:36,401 (man speaks over radio) 595 00:36:36,444 --> 00:36:38,236 Eldon Roth: This is our operations center. 596 00:36:38,279 --> 00:36:40,488 We control all of our plants from here. 597 00:36:40,531 --> 00:36:42,449 Where's Chicago? Here's Chicago, 598 00:36:42,491 --> 00:36:44,951 Georgia, Utah, Kansas, 599 00:36:44,994 --> 00:36:48,371 Nebraska, Texas, L.A., Ohio. 600 00:36:50,041 --> 00:36:52,459 We control all levels of the gearboxes, 601 00:36:52,501 --> 00:36:54,127 the speed of motors-- 602 00:36:54,170 --> 00:36:56,213 we can change those all from here. 603 00:37:04,388 --> 00:37:06,348 We built something that-- 604 00:37:06,390 --> 00:37:08,183 from a food-safety standpoint, 605 00:37:08,226 --> 00:37:10,477 we think we're ahead of everybody. 606 00:37:10,519 --> 00:37:13,980 We think we can lessen the incidents 607 00:37:14,023 --> 00:37:16,358 of E. coli 0157:h7. 608 00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:18,360 (beeps) 609 00:37:18,402 --> 00:37:20,487 But I just started working with ammonia 610 00:37:20,529 --> 00:37:22,239 and ammonia hydroxide. 611 00:37:23,532 --> 00:37:25,992 Ammonia kills bacteria, 612 00:37:26,035 --> 00:37:29,162 so it became a processing tool. 613 00:37:41,175 --> 00:37:43,009 I'm really a mechanic. 614 00:37:43,052 --> 00:37:44,886 That's really what I am. 615 00:37:44,929 --> 00:37:47,514 We design our own machinery. 616 00:38:00,903 --> 00:38:02,904 (whirring) 617 00:38:11,497 --> 00:38:13,498 Roth: This is our finished product. 618 00:38:24,593 --> 00:38:27,304 Man: Is your meat in most of the hamburgers in the country? 619 00:38:27,346 --> 00:38:29,306 Roth: 70%. 620 00:38:29,348 --> 00:38:32,934 In five years, we think we'll be in 100%. 621 00:38:32,977 --> 00:38:34,936 We do have some competitors. 622 00:38:34,979 --> 00:38:37,230 I think we're gonna beat them. 623 00:38:37,273 --> 00:38:40,608 - (buzzes) - Roth: Again, it's a marriage 624 00:38:40,651 --> 00:38:42,569 of science and technology. 625 00:38:42,611 --> 00:38:44,612 (man speakin