Intro

Where does our food come from? It is a question many think about more than once in our lifetime. We would like to believe that our cows, chickens, and pigs live on beautiful grasslands on the plains on some Texas farms. But the relation we come to find is that most of our food has been highly industries and made into what many would consider an agriculture machine. In 2008 a documentary called Food, Inc. sought to bring to light the dark realities of the agricultural/ food packaging industry within America and show the dangerous side effect that our modernization of the industry can have on the health of the American people.

Background

Food, Inc. is a 2008 documentary that exposes the food industry and all the corruption and misdeeds they have committed. The film was directed & written by Robert Kenner, who would also produce the PBS series American Experience. Food, Inc. would be Robert’s Magnus opus. The film was nominated in 20 different film festivals, which included an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary, Features in 2010. According to Huggo on IMDb, the basic plot is this: 

The current method of raw food production is largely a response to the growth of the fast food industry since the 1950s. The production of food overall has more drastically changed since that time than the several thousand years prior. Controlled primarily by a handful of multinational corporations, the global food production business – with an emphasis on the business – has as its unwritten goals production of large quantities of food at low direct inputs (most often subsidized) resulting in enormous profits, which in turn results in greater control of the global supply of food sources within these few companies. Health and safety (of the food itself, of the animals produced themselves, of the workers on the assembly lines, and of the consumers actually eating the food) are often overlooked by the companies, and are often overlooked by government in an effort to provide cheap food regardless of these negative consequences. Many of the changes are based on advancements in science and technology, but often have negative side effects.The products made have been shown in several studies to enlarge male sexual organs and increase male breast size. The answer that the companies have come up with is to throw more science at the problems to bandage the issues but not the root causes. The global food supply may be in crisis with lack of biodiversity, but can be changed on the demand side of the equation.

My Review

I like this film. It is a fascinating film to watch and a very eye-opening documentary to see. It is a very well-crafted film, and push it very efficiently, using facts and emotions to get the point through. Overall, there was nothing I could find wrong with the film. It had good cinematography that looked very nice but had a deeper meaning within it. Many of the people they interviewed were interesting, and all highlighted particular wrongdoing in the food industry. However, it would have been interesting to see them interview some of the executives or CEO of these food companies. Their graphic was also a high point in the film. They have a very similar style to something of a Pink Floyd concert with an emphasis on the industry’s power and exaggeration of the structure of the factories.

What does not make this film is that it does not hit the emotional beat that great documentaries do. It is the style they make the documentary that holds it back, and it is not a bad thing. The documentary needs to be very fact base to be as effective as possible, but this also means it can only go so far. But all and all, it is still a good film, and it is worth a watch.

My Rating: 8/10

Last Things

According to Wikipedia Robert does plan to make a sequel to Food, Inc. in 2023. This was announced in January of 2023, and it plans to be release in late 2023. So it will probably be around a September-December timeline. So I will make a promise that I will watch and review this film when it comes out.

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