Grade Level: Coll-Adult
Producer: Filmakers Library
Closed Captioned: No |
Running Time: 52 mins
Country of Origin: United States
Study Guide: No |
Copyright Date: 2007
Available in French: No
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Chicken has become a global agribusiness, and the chicken in our super markets may have come from far away Thailand. The Chicken Stampede outlines the global forces that compete for a market in which 160,000 tons of chicken are consumed each day, worldwide. The U.S. and Europe used to be the leading suppliers, but this film shows that Thailand and Brazil are waging a fight to take over. Not surprisingly, politics plays a big role in the market. The World Trade Organization used its loans to persuade the Cameroon government to open its borders to imports. The result was that local farmers were put out of business. When Avian flu struck, the largest chicken company in Thailand, CPF, did not have to kill any of its birds, whereas thousands of family farms were wiped out by order of the government. It helped to know the right people for there had been small farmers who kept their coops as safe and spotless as did CPF. The French chicken farmers were being forced out of business by the importation of low priced frozen chicken from Brazil. Finally a Farmers Confederation was formed to protect the private farmers. Through portrayals of traditional farmers up against poultry businessmen the film makes us question whether the globalization of food production is good for society. "Recommended for media collections specializing in the felds of globilization, agriculture and economics." Educational Media Reviews Online |
