Movie Review: Food Inc.

As far as I can tell, Food Inc. may be the first food documentary to hit major theaters. Documentaries, especially ones that present an “alternative” view, are generally relegated to short runs at small independent theaters. Not the case here.

I expected the movie to feel like a sensational expose on the “evil” forces behind our insanely messed up industrial food system. Perhaps because I’m rather familiar with the subject - it didn’t feel like one sided sensationalism. It felt honest. It felt real.

Have you ever watched a documentary that promotes heated arguments afterwards? I actually find it hard to believe that anyone could walk out of Food Inc. defending our industrial food chain. It’s really that good at presenting the issues.

Despite covering a wide variety of topics and issues, somehow Food Inc. does not overwhelm the viewers with a barrage of statistics that will slip away when the curtain closes. That being said, here are a few things from my notes that I’d like to follow up on in future posts on The Reluctant Eater:

• The rise of integrity in the meat packing industry from the depths of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle days and it’s subsequent fall in recent decades
• Kevin’s Law (which relates to the fact that the USDA cannot shut down meat packing plants that routinely fail inspections?!?)
• The effects of NAFTA on corn and jobs in Mexico (follow up posted 7/20)
• Monsanto’s seed monopoly
• Veggie Libel Law (which is particularly bad in Colorado)

There seemed to be something to appeal to everyone. Do it for the environment. Do it for your health. Do it for the animals. Do it to fight the profiteering multi-national corporations. Even a segment on a 2 year old who died from e. coli after eating a tainted hamburger.

The shots from inside meat packing plants, though cringeworthy, were relatively tame compared to some of the videos I’ve seen online recently. To some, these graphic images appealed to our sense of right and wrong in terms of cruelty to animals (the screaming pigs were particularly chilling), while others came away from the movie wondering about the true cleanliness of these industrial meat processing operations and whether or not we should be eating food coming from a factory.

On Polyface Farm we saw Joel Salatin killing chickens in the open air with his bare hands. I was truly shocked that the movie showed the real process. They could have easily skipped this and focused only on the industrial killing. Thankfully though, we were shown both sides.

But this wasn’t an anti-meat movie. In fact, I’m not sure viewers heard any of the: vegetarian, vegan, etc descriptors.

Despite all the doom and gloom mentioned above, Food Inc ends on an extremely positive note. Although it feels like we’re trapped into choosing from whatever “they” give us, we aren’t.

“You can vote to change the system. Three times a day.”

It may feel small, but each time you choose not to purchase a product, “they” are watching. It’s all about money. Do you think Walmart sells organic food because they care about saving the planet? Nope. They just want to increase their bottom line. Customer demand even led them to stop selling milk from hormone treated cows.

You know when they say: “If everyone in this country drove a Prius….”? This isn’t like that. You make thousands of food purchasing decisions every year, and when hundreds and thousands of people change even just a few of those decisions - the ripples are felt throughout our food chain.

Another way to vote? Go see this movie (Nationwide showtimes). Bring a friend who doesn’t think too much about their food choices…

And yes…it’s still playing in Boulder.