Director: Robert Kenner
(2009)
What may be a more terrifying movie than the darkest of horror films is the documentary Food, Inc. - a portrait of the system of food production in America that has been shrouded in mystery. We have somehow become incredibly distant and unaware of something as imperative as the food we eat. Kenner did a great job bringing this dark issue to light without alienating his audience.
It’s unsettling to know how much has changed in the food production industry in the past 30 years alone. Today, we’re consuming corn that has been genetically modified and we’re eating meat from cloned animals. It's unclear what kind of long-term effect this will have on our health. If food producers continue to modify the way we have eaten for millennia, eventually we may not be able to turn back to the way things used to be. Massive conglomerates are controlling much of production, and they are manufacturing food in facilities that resemble factories more than farms. The conditions are inhumane for both the animals and workers. The fact that these companies refused the chance to appear on camera to stand up for themselves is a sure-sign that the film should be watched.
These massive corporations are not going to decide to change overnight. Change needs to happen on the federal level. While it may seem impossible to bring change to such a powerhouse of an industry, Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, points to the battle against tobacco as a model of how change can be accomplished.
If you follow the food chain back from those shrink wrapped packages of meat, you find a very different reality. The reality is a factory. It's not a farm - it's a factory. That meat is being processed by huge, multi-national corporations that have very little to do with ranches and farmers.
The one thing that everyone in this world has in common is that they have to eat, and this film challenges the eating habits of virtually all Americans. The fact that I was so apprehensive to watch this film is a testament to how powerful a message it holds. Before I watched it, I knew that it would have an effect on me. I thought it was a lose-lose situation; it was either going to push me to spend more money on organic meats or just make me feel terribly guilty every time I purchased a pound of ground beef at the Food Emporium. In the end, it left me inspired enough to get involved and it made me really eager for the fresh, independently-produced goods from the farmers’ market this summer.
official film siteTrivial Tidbits:McDonald’s is the nation's largest purchaser of beef, pork, potatoes, and apples
30% of the land in the US is used for planting corn
Every day, 32,000 hog are killed in Smithfield Hog Processing Plant in Tar Heel, N.C (the largest slaughterhouse in the world)
