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Saturday, June 20, 2009

Movie review: Food, Inc. shows that cheap food ain’t so cheap

by Teresa Gubbins

Director Robert Kenner didn't have an ax to grind when he set out to make a documentary about the food industry. He just wanted to explore where our food comes from. But the more he tried to ask questions, the more he got shut down. That's what makes Food, Inc. so shocking: Huge companies own our food supply but don't feel like they need to show us how they're processing it.

The best example occurs when Kenner tries to visit a chicken plant. He finds a good ol' boy processor who agrees to give a tour; but after repeated visits by representatives from the corporate overlords at Perdue, the guy reneges.

As the film opens, it feels like a fairy tale, with the use of a gentle-voiced narrator and banjo music, to contrast our fantasy of independent farmers and their cows versus the new reality -- that the food industry has become huge yet is controlled by a very small number of people (i.e., Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Monsanto).

Cheap cheap cheap

These companies buy corn on the cheap that we subsidize, so they can turn around and make a bundle off of us by selling us crappy processed food made from that cheap corn, and feed the cheap corn to livestock so they can sell $1 burgers that are tainted by e. coli.

One Mexican family, the parents work insanely long hours and don't have much money. Should they spend $1 on two pears for their two daughters? Or spend $1 on a fast-food burger? Guess what they choose. The father has diabetes and could go blind, and it looks like one of the daughters has it, too.

One out of three people born after 2000 will get diabetes.

All those e.coli outbreaks? Not a coincidence.

Food, Inc. does a great job churning out a ton of information, with interviews from two journalists who've paved the way: Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, and Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma. But it gets to the people aspect too. You'll love the colorful independent farmer who says no to expansion; you'll cry for the older farmer who basically gets put out of business by Monsanto because he won't buy their genetically modified seed.

It does offer suggestions. Don't drink sodas. Eat at home. Go to farmers' markets. Skip meat once a week (or more). Buy organic whenever you can.

What it doesn't have: Any quotes from Monsanto, Tyson, Perdue, or Smithfield.

Staff
Verified User
Anonymous

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!

James Scott Verified

5 months ago
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And one imagines it has little consolation for people who do not have the money to eat "organic"...worst crux ever.

Travis Bush Verified

5 months ago
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Hence one of the many reasons why I became a veg recently and got rid of the HFCS in my diet. Another good read on this topic would be "Fast Food Nation", whos author eric schlosser is in the film, which is an interesting look at the business of food processing/manufacturing as a whole.

Chris Kidd Verified

5 months ago
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Actually not drinking soda, or not as much, is a good idea. I've been trying to change my eating habits, and in the first 2 weeks that I cut out soda and fried food completely, I lost 11 lbs. I am at 20 lbs lost right now and 2 inches off my waist, and that is without exercise (yes I know I should get off my butt). I admit I have also have fallen off the wagon, but not like before, and I haven't gained any back. In fact I am still losing some weight since it jolted my metabolism from the initial shock of not drinking soda.

John McClelland Verified

5 months ago
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Love this concept.....we are being exsposed in the cultural arts about our future in Food World...how Soilent Green could be made one day.......meanwhile,I have finished reading about the Great Wall of China, and how people were feed or how they built the Pyramids and those folks were feed...Food World is not about Mc Donald's second comming, no it is about "In whom we trust" to grow and feed our food too....A/T... I love you.. food folks who grow with the guru....

alexander troup Verified

5 months ago
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It should be said that the film doesn't have comments from Monsanto, et al, because they all declined to be interviewed for the film.

kersplat Anonymous

5 months ago
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And Travis, the film does suggest that people ask for/work toward farmers markets accepting food stamps.

kersplat Anonymous

5 months ago
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Eating "organic" is expensive as hell because people have figured out that yuppies will pay a 100% markup on anything that's vaguely healthy.

Eating healthy by buying the basic ingredients and unprocessed food is pretty damned cheap. And avoid anything that yells "organic!", anyway, since half of the time the claim is false at worst and misleading at best. (Anyone here even know what it means when food is "organic"? Let's see if we can agree on a definition!)

Pavel Lishin Verified

5 months ago
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I ate organics with the Almish for 3 months cured my back and other problems too, when I came back to the city it did not cure the greed and envy I would run into with ingnorant people who have been brain washed by Junk food culture.....Went to a Renuion last month and I saw,..... most of the Music class of 1979 was around 70 years old and ugly looking ,had one soda pop and left after 3o minutes........A/T, Getting old on junk food is a drag.....

alexander troup Verified

5 months ago
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more scary developments on the Monsanto front: they're <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE55N2IL20090624">partnering up</a> with Dole "to breed vegetables that are more attractive to consumers," specifically to creating "variations of broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and spinach."

i already go out of my way not to buy Dole, which isn't easy, since they seem to own about half of the produce dept. <a href="http://www.crocodyl.org/wiki/dole_food">this site</a> has a nice list of their various trangressions, from the e. coli outbreaks they've had to their employment of 11-year-olds to their use of Cayman Island tax shelters. and now an organizational alliance with monsanto, greeeat

Teresa Gubbins Staff

5 months ago
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That is a good thing to know T.G how things will merge.....then we can find out what food's we will purge....A/T, Keep and eyeball on that grapefruit girl...

alexander troup Verified

5 months ago
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How can we good Americans question the company that brought us affordable breast implants www.breastimplantsupport.org/view_top... and Round Up to napalm our weeds? www.monsanto.com/products/ag_producti...

Rawlins Gilliland Verified

5 months ago
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And yet Rawlins,.. that is what we have become.....very good looking...nice smelling people who live up to their part....we can provide....up to a point,then we begin to hide....and order take out.....and have the delivery boy do his best....Food you breath or you consume, but...is it good for you...A/T,...I am out of diet coke....