Presented statistics, expert opinions and commentaries by whistle-blowing farmers are shocking. Even worse, footage showing inhumane, unhealthy and unsanitary conditions of livestock and of food industry workers is horrific.
You Are What You Eat -- Can It Be This?
After you see this film--and it is essential that you do--you will never again approach nutrition in the same way. Not only will you eschew fast foods, you'll find it difficult to find foods that are readily available in popular outlets and is appealing, nutritious and healthful.In covering the current means of food production and distribution in the United States, Robert Kenner shows that almost all sorts of food stuffs, ranging from chickens, cows and pigs, to corn and soy, are tainted.
As we learned in King Corn, genetically engineered corn has become the mainstay of the American diet. It's found -- a fructose and other derivatives -- in almost every food product you find on the shelves of supermarkets. Food, Inc. shows us that it's also used to feed all of our livestock -- including farmed talapia and salmon. The pervasiveness of corn in our diet makes Americans not only corny, literally, but also undernourished and overweight.
We also see that farming -- of corn, soy and almost all other crops -- is now almost completely controlled by several huge (and unsympathetic) corporations. For example, Monsanto has patented the strain of soy that is most widely grown and has found ways of prosecuting farmers who strive to avoid using their genetically engineered seed.
Large corporations -- such as Tyson and Purdue -- also control the production and distribution of all kinds of meat. Kenner takes us to see the inhumane, unhealthy and unsanitary conditions in which chickens, cattle and pigs are raised and slaughtered.
Processing the Information
We've been exposed to this before -- in Death On A Factory Farm, for example, and in the famous Oprah Winfrey lawsuit, which is actually referenced in Food, Inc. -- but Kenner links the conditions to the E-coli outbreaks and other health problems.Farmers and ranchers who refuse to go along with the corporate program are squeezed out, and we see how for-hire food industry workers on factory farms and in slaughterhouses are constantly exploited and put in harms way.
Experts Speak Out
Interviews with Eric Schlosser (author of Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto), Gary Hirshberg (of Stonyfield Farms, organic yoghurt-makers), Joel Salatin (of Polyface Farms, feeding livestock with grass instead of corn) and others suggest ways to reclaim America's food production for a healthy future.The Future
Food in America, it seems, has become a guilty essential and the consequences, unless we change our ways, will not be a pleasure. The film makes it clear that it's time to turn the situation around. But see it for yourself, and decide. This is information you need.
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Film Details:
- Food, Inc - 2008
- Food Inc Website & Trailer
- Director: Robert Kenner
- US Theatrical Release Date: June 12, 2009 (limited)
- Running Time: 94 mins.
- Parental Advisory: Content advisory for parents
- Location: USA
- Language: English
- Production Country: USA
- Production Company: Participant Media
- Distribution Company: Magnolia Pictures
