Food Inc. – A Review

By Mike Harrington
In a recent Q&A following a screening of the film Food Inc., director Robert Kenner stated, “before we fix the healthcare system in this country, we have to fix the food system.”  Food Inc. not only links the deadly flaws of America's industrially driven food production to its failed healthcare system, but exposes “corporate food” and its effect on our environment, economy and workers' rights.
The film focuses on giant corporate food companies that control the majority of vegetable produce and meat in the U.S. especially highlighting the four companies, that produce 80% of the entire nation’s beef.  The film shows the economic, ecological and health risks associated with cheap, mass food production while making a more than convincing case for supporting a local, organic food revolution in your region. 
For so-called “foodies”—educated food consumers and food radicals—Food Inc. is unlikely to add a lot of new information. Made for the general public, it aims to  easily educate and change eating habits of a wide range of American consumers.  The strength of the film lies in its ability to do this with stirring visual imagery that can terrify any eater into a more sustainable diet.  
We see a researcher with his hand inside a live cow's stomach, conveyor belts full of little yellow chicks manhandled like car parts, and a little boy splashing around a lake only days before his life is taken by E. coli contracted from a fast food burger.
The film does not aim for shock value alone or simply making a viewer feel uncomfortable about what he or she eats. It encourages the audience to join a new food revolution that includes purchasing local, organic foods and ultimately boycotting (though this is my term, not the film’s) corporate food companies and outlets that are destroying our environment and the health of people everywhere.
As the film points out, the many alternatives are already in place.  The most likable character in the film is a Virginia cattle farmer, producing purely grass fed cows (as opposed to corn fed, “corporate cows,” which are prone to carry dangerous bacteria such as E. coli).  He lends a classic American persona to the local, healthy food market.  And although corporate food companies are great at packaging and marketing their products with the look of the small time, country farmer, (the film is quick to expose this fallacy), the truth is, this character still very much exists, despite the false corporate co-optation of his image. His presence in the film is an effective reminder of what food—growth and ingestion—should be about. This food may cost a bit more, but isn’t it worth supporting the people who produce it, not to mention receiving the ecological and health benefits that result from such choices?
This is ultimately the film’s thesis:  the greater long-term risks associated with industrially produced foods end up costing far more to the individual as well as the whole family than the seemingly cheap and mass-produced food readily available at fast food chains.  Commercially produced food is incredibly inexpensive and although the American diet is unhealthy, wasteful of resources and ecologically destructive, many families do not actually have a more affordable alternative. 
In one segment, the film looks at a Latino family who end up choosing the dollar menu at Burger King because a burger is cheaper than a head of broccoli at the market and easier than preparing meals at home.  As a working class, immigrant family they have no affordable choice, even as their kids become overweight and the parents themselves face diabetes and a myriad of other health problems associated with poor eating.  The film suggests that we need to work harder together to create a plausible alternative.
Food Inc. is meant to be an opening salvo that gets people's attention, not the battle that wins the war.  The question is how do we help people understand that the choice to eat commercial foods comes at an ultimately much higher cost down the line?  How do we make healthier food affordable?  The truth is, the more people start producing and purchasing healthy, environmentally friendly foods, the more affordable they will become.  It’s a win/win situation, much like the fight for alternative energy sources. But the revolution begins with those who can most afford to sign up.
Watch this film.  It is convincing.  More than that, we need to draw the attention of our friends and family toward this movie and the kind of changes in personal choice that it strongly suggests.  It is Christmas time and this film is available on DVD. It would make a great gift for the people we know who eat unconsciously or indifferently, but can choose the alternative.  If the war for better health and living starts with the food we eat, let the battle be waged on your own plate and then on those of the people you know and love.
Check out these links to learn more about Food Inc. and the action campaigns associated with the film:
http://www.foodincmovie.com/
http://www.takepart.com/news/tag/hungry-for-change/