Food, Inc: A Fascinating Film

I just watched the film Food, Inc. I have been meaning to check it out for a while, and I finally did. Apparently quite a few people have been seeing it here in Alameda because Blockbuster only had one darn copy left! The lady at the counter said that a lot of people were renting it. Not a bad thing by any means. 

First off, if you didn't know it already, this is a documentary. I think that for a lot of people, especially around my age, the word "documentary" is often seen as synonymous with "boring." Well not this documentary! Unlike some I have seen it was quite well done and moved at a good pace. 

Although Food, Inc. covers many aspects of our modern food industry, I think it really excels at showing footage and facts on the meat industry. That is what stood out most in my mind. This might be because I have read Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and it talked a lot about corn and soybeans. Basically, I didn't find the parts in Food, Inc. on those crops as shocking as the parts on the animals. I think that this movie is great because it shows us, not just tells us in writing, where our food is being produced and what some of the consequences are.

Both Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser (author of Fast Food Nation) are featured in this movie. I thought Michael Pollan summed up our food system well when at one point in the movie he said:

"We have had a food system that has been dedicated to the single virtue of efficiency. So we grow a very small number of crops, a very small number of varieties, [controlled by] a very small number of companies. And, even though you achieve efficiencies, the system becomes more and more precarious. You will have a breakdown eventually."

Pollan makes an excellent point, because when you focus so intently on efficiency (which is directly related to profit for these large agribusiness companies), the system will eventually have a breakdown. When profit is the sole motive, companies (and stockholders in these companies) want to see profit now. They aren't worrying if these methods will be viable, five, twenty, even one hundred years down the road. 

 I'm going to try and convince both my parents to watch it before it is returned to Blockbuster and I highly recommend you watch it too. Here's the trailer for the movie.