Serious Green: A Preview of 'Food, Inc.' in Theaters June 12
"Though heavy-handed in places, Food, Inc. is both a chilling expose and a practical manifesto."
"You can change the world with every bite," ends the film Food, Inc., in theaters on June 12. Directed by noted documentarian Robert Kenner, with Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser on the production team, Food, Inc. takes a sharply critical look at Big Agra--the corporations that manage an enormous percentage of America's food supply by controlling the nation's beef, poultry, corn, and soy industries.
Pointing fingers squarely at corporations driven by profit motive rather than product quality or consumer health, along with the government agencies that allow them to do so, Food, Inc. finds plenty of villains to tackle, blaming them for obesity, illness outbreaks, worker abuse, and the environmental consequences of factory farming.
And they're not shy about pulling on your heartstrings, with close-ups of wobbly, fluffy chicks on conveyor belts, and an extended segment with a food safety advocate whose two-year-old died after eating an E. coli tainted hamburger.
Though heavy-handed in places, Food, Inc. is both a chilling expose and a practical manifesto. Sweeping aerials of cattle farms are sobering; shots of ammonia-cleansed ground beef, nauseating; and statistics about the FDA's lax behavior, enough to raise even the most jaded eater's eyebrows.
These factory farms are juxtaposed with shots of more holistically-minded farmers, the kind who raise grass-fed cattle, greet their swine with "Good morning, piggie!" and ruminate on the morality of a profit-minded world.
Yet the film doesn't stop at this small-scale pastoral ideal. It goes on to profile Stonyfield Farms, today the nation's third-largest yogurt producer--a company that, despite its size, still hasn't loosened its responsible-farming standards. "I'm thrilled to be at Wal-Mart," says CEO Gary Hirshberg, once a self-fashioned botanical anarchist of the 1970s.
Selling to the masses isn't selling out, by his logic, but proving the economic viability of sustainable dairy manufacture. And the Wal-Mart dairy buyer has a clear message of his own. "If the customers want it, then we get behind it."
Ultimately, the film suggests, control of the food industry lies with the consumer. Mega corporations may own the farms, but their product is only as good as our business. If we demand ethically and environmentally sound food--and purchase accordingly--they will have to supply it. Which shifts part of the blame to us, the public. But also shifts the power.
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13 Comments:
I was able to see this early, as well. Here's my similar review.
http://veryculinary.com/_blog/2009/05/26/early-movie-review-food-inc/
veryculinary at 3:18PM on 05/26/09
it's definitely a must-see film. i was angered when learning about the meat industry, the seed companies, and the treatment of farmers and workers. i was touched by the poor treatment of the animals.
the movie said we have 3 chances each day to have our voices heard...breakfast, lunch and dinner. i'm defintely making better choices since i've been learning about the food system.
_greenbean at 3:25PM on 05/26/09
I can't wait to see this! I loved Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. The movie was a awful though so I hope that this movie sticks to the facts more.
DesperateChefsWives at 4:02PM on 05/26/09
This film is fantastic. All people, no matter their food preference (meat eater, vegetarian, vegan) should see this. It uncovers a lot of very disturbing information. (for example, farmers can lose their livelihoods if they reuse seeds.)
I really hope this movie inspires a change in the corrupt food industry. It's about damn time.
Smoosh at 4:37PM on 05/26/09
Not a lot of new ground plowed here if you have read or watched many of the recent food politics films or read the books (Omnivore's Dilemme, Fast Food Nation, Corn, etc) but the movie is a good primer for someone who doesn't live this stuff, as I am sure many of my fellow Serious Eaters do. What was especially interesting was the Monsanto bit -- pretty chilling...
HunterAnglerGardenerCook at 7:24PM on 05/26/09
You should also watch "The world
According to Monsanto," "The Corporation,"and "King Corn."
iwanttobeachef at 2:50PM on 06/03/09
If you go see the film, you owe it to yourself to visit the site www.SafeFoodInc.com . There is another side to this story and if you are serious about food, you should be open to it.
QueenofWien at 5:14PM on 06/03/09
While the film is a stripped-down, visual version of many of the works cited above, I think it's very communicative, and will indeed be news to many. The irony of food making people diabetic so they have to pick between medicine to help it or healthy food-egad! And ...Go Grassfed!
hauswriter at 5:45PM on 06/09/09
No, food doesn't make you diabetic, poor food choices and excessive consumption make you diabetic. Urban life makes this utopian view of free range, organic, and local an impossibility. Where can you get enough locally grown food to feed New york cities entire population? Think of the new flu virus, a blend of human, avian and human flu viruses, only possible when animals and people mingle freely. Skip coffee, tea and spices, none of those are local.
Meat guy at 3:40PM on 06/12/09
fifteen years ago sitting at a dining table on a cruise ship our tablemate discussed his job as a meat inspector for the government in a city i do not remember. He told us then, that if we even had the slightest idea of how meat is prepared produced and packaged for consumption we would never eat meat again. He refused to tell us, to him, it was not a subject to be spoken at the dinner table it was so disgusting.
blondee47 at 9:57AM on 06/13/09
It is definitely a documentary worth seeing, yet I can't seem to understand why in NYC, it is only shown at a small theatre that doesn't even accept credit cards or online orders.
camdon at 3:35PM on 06/14/09
I got to see this (for free!) in an advance screening ... The film is a bit of a re-hash of "Omnivore's Dilemma" and "Fast Food Nation" ('Omnivore' author Micheal Pollan is interviewed in the film, as was Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface Farms, who was interviewed in Pollan's book). I would say that this film is the equivalent of "An Inconvenient Truth" for food production (The production company behind this film actually produced "AIT" as well). The film defenitely aspires to the dramatic, especially during the opening title page, with businessmen with briefcases walking through a blackened field towards factory machines (evil., evil!)
Still, the film does provide many eye-opening scenes that are dramatic... huge cattle farms .... images of dead and/or diseased cows and chickens. There ARE some scenes of inside the slaughtering houses in this film (but thankfully, not too many scenes, and the film does prepare you before showing anything too gruesome). There is an un-intended (or is it?) effect of the scenes inside the slaughter-houses: The film is rated PG, meaning it is acceptable for young viewers, even though some of these images are disturbing. But think - these images are from our food production model. Shouldn't our food production methods be able to be seen by anyone? Is meat processing something that has to be rated R? This relates back to one of the film's primary themes: we would all change our eating habits if we really understood the source and production of our food.
I wouldn't say the film is necessarily a "hatchet job" ... it squarely points the finger at large agra-businesses and government agencies, but that's because they are an easy target: They DO a lot of the bad stuff that the film claims they do, and they try very hard to keep information about their business below the public radar.
Overall, I though the film was very good and eye-opening ... It has made me and my wife think about our food purchases when we go grocery shopping, so this last week instead of buying our groceries at our local "bargain warehouse" grocery store (WinCo ... if you are from the NW, you know WinCo...), we tried getting our groceries from the local farmer's market and Whole Foods. It was more expensive, but when it comes to our food and our health, we both decided that this was important. The film also states at the end of the film some statistics on how you can change the environment and food production model, including such ideas as "buying organic", "buy local", "buy in-season only produce", etc. The tough part is that many people simply do not have the funds to purchase organic or local foods (the film interviews a family of four on food stamps, who finds it cheaper to feed their family a dinner from the dollar menu at McDonald's than it is to buy just a few vegetables). They ARE more expensive ... part of the reason is our skewed farming methods, and the laws that protect and favor industrial food production. But like the film suggests, if we, as a public, change our eating and buying habits, businesses will have to follow suit if they want to keep our business.
I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars.
ajbetz at 9:45AM on 06/23/09
Great movie! It's very Different to see these issues and not just read about them.
The Indecisive Eater at 11:47PM on 07/01/09