Globalisation of Factory Farming
Soyalism (2018) explores how farming has become a giant global business concentrated in the hands of a few Western and Chinese companies. Across the globe, people are eating more and more meat. Demand has increased sevenfold since 1960 with 70 billion animals currently being killed per year. That number is set to reach 120 billion by 2050. To meet this demand, corporate giants have taken over farming , creating massive ‘factories’ for the housing and feeding of livestock and waste disposal. Using buzz words like ‘vertical integraton’, Western and Chinese corporations now dominate supply chains and wield great power. At the same time, more and more land is being dedicated to growing the grains and soya needed to support the world’s burgeoning demand for meat. In the process, industrialised farming has put thousands of small producers out of business and permanently transformed entire landscapes. Factual America caught up with Soyalism’s director Enrico Parenti and producer Susana Trojano at the Global Health Film Festival. Their journey started with a question about how to feed the world’s fast-expanding population. They soon uncovered a tale that starts in America, winds through Brazil and China and finally takes them all the way to Mozambique. We also talk about what it’s like being a European filmmaker working in the United States, and some of the difficulties Enrico and Susana encountered there. “It’s even hard to find where the investors inside a company come from.” – Enrico Parenti Time Stamps: 01:38 – The guests and the topic of today’s interview.04:02 – A clip from the film ‘Soyalism’.05:25 – Introducing our guests…06:06 – What the film is about.07:32 – How the film affected Matthew in a personal way, as an American who’s experienced factory farming.08:52 – How the overconsumption of meat is unsustainable.10:48 – How different countries are increasing their meat production and consumption.12:13 – How Susanna got involved with the documentary and what filming it was like.14:32 – How the idea for the documentary came about, and how farming is becoming commercialised.18:26 – Food sovereignty and secrecy in companies.20:25 – The most challenging part about being a European making documentaries in the US.23:19 – How the team gained access to US.24:54 – The different difficulties involved with getting filmmaking grants in the US.26:37 – The amount of European interest they gained from local people that wanted to share on this topic. Resources: Global Health Film FestivalElliot Films Elliot Films on FacebookSoyalismSoyalism on FacebookTexas real food Connect with Enrico Parenti: LinkedIn Connect with Susanna Trojano: LinkedIn Connect with Factual America: Instagram Twitter Connect with Matthew Sherwood: Twitter