18/05/2020 Where’s the Beef?

- The New York Times

QUESTIONS FOR ROBERT KENNER

Where’s the Beef?

Interview by Deborah Solomon

Oct. 9, 2008

Your new documentary, “Food, Inc.,” is the latest contribution to a growing shelf of books
and films that weave ominous narratives about the food we eat. Would you say your main
point is that conglomerates have ruined supermarket food? I thought I was making a
film about food, but the big surprise was it became about First Amendment issues as
much as anything. Agribusiness doesn’t want us looking inside their kitchen. They still
want us to think our food comes from a farm with a white picket fence. I’ve spent more on
this film in legal fees than I did for my past 15 films combined.

You were worried Perdue or Tyson might sue? Everyone sues. The companies talked to
me on the phone, and some even had dinner with us, but they didn’t want to be on
camera.

Can you blame them? A positive review in Variety says the film “does for the
supermarket what ‘Jaws’ did for the beach.” It takes the depiction of the poultry industry
to a new level of menace. Some of these chicken houses have 27,000 chickens stuffed in a
room without light. They’re designed to grow as rapidly as possible, and their bones
cannot keep up with growth. Some of them are too heavy to stand.

That is sad, but aren’t you encouraging food paranoia, which could lead Americans to be
as nervous about threats inside their body as they are about threats from abroad? I’m
not worried about threats from abroad. I’m worried about the safety of our food.

Why is that such a litigious subject? Do you know about the veggie libel laws? Oprah
was discussing how the American meat industry is vulnerable to mad-cow disease and
said, “It has just stopped me cold from eating another hamburger.” She was then sued by
a group of Texas cattlemen.

Why is it called the veggie libel law if the case was about meat? I don’t know. Why do
they call them jumbo shrimp?

Your film draws heavily on interviews with Eric Schlosser, whose “Fast Food Nation”
helped start the junk-food-consciousness movement in 2001. For me, that book was a
brand-new way of thinking about America.

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18/05/2020 Where’s the Beef? - The New York Times

Brad Swonetz for The New York Times

What do you think of Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me,” which followed in 2004? It’s
been done. I wanted to leave behind fast food and start thinking about the supermarket.

Are there any supermarkets you like? I love Trader Joe’s.

Me, too. It always feels like an outing, if only because the bags of raw almonds are such a
deal. I love their walnuts, and if you toast them, they’re delicious on yogurt. I bought my
wife “The Trader Joe’s Adventure” for Mother’s Day.

Did making this film ruin your appetite? I’ve become a vegetarian for the last two weeks.
I’m a flexitarian.

Nice phrase. Is it yours? No, nothing’s original.

Where are you from? I grew up in Mamaroneck, N.Y. I dropped out of school and became
a filmmaker when I was 18.

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18/05/2020 Where’s the Beef? - The New York Times

What sort of food did they eat in Mamaroneck? There was a place called Cook’s. I would
get the roast beef sandwich on rye, with a coffee malted, and that was the greatest. And
then I would go play skeet ball in the game room in the back.

I actually went to Cook’s, too, in my long-ago childhood. I’m sure you’re aware it has
closed. Oh, no, don’t tell me that. You’re kidding. Wow. Oh, God. That shows you.

That shows you what? It’s not as if Cook’s served health food. It shows you that Cook’s
can’t compete. We’ve become a nation of franchises. On the other hand, consumers have
a lot of power. We get to vote three times a day when we go food shopping. So go vote for
fair food!

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED, CONDENSED AND EDITED BY DEBORAH SOLOMON

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