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Aug
20
Food, Inc.
Filed Under Media
Jamaica and I watched the movie Food, Inc. a couple weeks ago. In addition to being a beautifully shot, well-done piece of entertainment, the movie had enough reality baked in to appeal intellectually as well. These Michael Moore-ish docudramadies are definitely increasing in popularity and Food, Inc. is no exception.
The big bad evil corporations are the villains and the small mom-and-pop farms are the heroes. The story of David and Goliath never gets old. Here’s the marketing copy from the film’s website:
In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.
If you don’t care where your food comes from, what it’s doing to your body or why any of this matters to the future of humanity, I don’t suggest wasting your time on this movie.
Although Jamaica and I didn’t quite convert to full vegetarianism, we have been modifying our diet quite substantially.
Fortunately, one of my favorite restaurants is on the same page with this conversation. They call it “food with integrity.”
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3 Responses to “Food, Inc.”
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dude, doesn’t McDonald’s own Chipotle?
McDonald’s used to own a portion of Chipotle but all stores are company owned as of October 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipotle_Mexican_Grill
I agree that the corporate “food chain” has not always had our best interests in mind, i.e. strong speculation that Nutrasweet and Splenda were engineered to increase appetite and cause water weight gain. On the other side, as a former vegetarian of 7 years, my body has found that organically produced meats provide the tasty strength of amino acids and iron not found in a plant based diet. I applaud your intentional change in food behavior based on investigation, but be aware that if your body isn’t getting what it needs you’ll find yourself craving more carbs.
Bon appetit!