It’s been over 8 years since I watched the famous American documentary about McDonald’s, “Super Size Me.”
Yesterday, I finally watched the sequel, “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken.”
Thank goodness for free YouTube movies with ads.
I recommend you watch it at least once because there are a lot of business lessons that you can learn from this documentary.
But there were a lot of eye-opening moments too, and today I’m going to share one of the biggest ones I’ve had.
But first, some background info.
(WARNING: There are spoilers from here on out.)
During the film, one of the things that was revealed was how Big Chicken treats chicken farmers.
Yes, just like Big Tech, Big Chicken is referring to the several chicken companies that control the majority of the chicken industry.
From my understanding, this is how it works in the chicken industry.
Chicken farmers work with Big Chicken companies by helping them raise chickens. The companies supply the baby chickens and their food.
They get paid by competing in a tournament system that Big Chicken set up. So the chicken farmers are essentially competing against each other, and ones who grow the biggest chickens get paid more.
Now here’s what Big Chicken doesn’t want the public to know.
Before the farmers even begin working with Big Chicken, they have to get into a contract, and a lot of times the contract requires them to buy new equipment that easily costs the farmers tens of thousands of dollars, putting them in debt. They work with the chicken companies to earn money and pay off the debt. Once they get into a new contract, the vicious cycle begins. Some chicken farmers have been in the cycle for so long that they’re as much as four million dollars in red.
But that’s not all.
Big Chicken can, and have, intentionally sabotaged chicken farmers by purposely giving them unhealthy chickens or bad food.
And what happens?
They’re ranking plummets and so does their paycheck.
The chicken farmer who worked with the filmmaker, Morgan Spurlock, has been a victim of this. He got blackballed by Big Chicken and put him in last place even though he grew the best chickens. And his paycheck got cut by over $5,000.
This is what happens when you work under big companies, or anyone for that matter. They control you.
That’s why I’m grateful that we live in a time where we can easily start our own business at a relatively low cost.
That’s why I tell my clients and readers to focus more on building your email list, something you can control compared to building an audience on social media where you always have to play by the platform’s rules.
It’s not too late. You can start today.
To learn how, check out my book: