Hard to digest

Food, Inc. is a damning summary
of the case against the food industry

EAT IT AND WEEP: Food, Inc.

by MALCOLM FRASER

Hey, did you know that factory farming is a bad thing, that Monsanto is evil and that eating locally and organically is good? If not, there’s a new documentary out to clear everything up for you. Food, Inc. is a synthesis of mainstream-left discourse on the food industry, neatly summarized into a For Dummies presentation. But for all its un-subtlety, blatant preaching to the converted and lack of novelty to anyone vaguely familiar with the subject, the film still has the power to fill a viewer with disgust and despair at the agribusiness-dominated state of affairs, diluted with a few faint, tenuous glimmers of hope.

The film “stars” two pillars of the food-awareness movement, authors Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma), who patiently repeat their messages about the dangers of factory farming to human health, workers’ rights and the environment. One segment focuses on the growth of the organic food trend, revealing how mega-corporations are scrambling to go (or at least seem) green, tightening standards here and scooping up eco-friendly companies there. Another highlights the corruption of U.S. regulatory agencies by the industry.

More testimony comes from a mother who’s taken up the cause after her son died from eating an infected hamburger, a farmer who cheerfully talks up the merits of eating locally as he slaughters and cleans his own chickens and a Latin-American family who grimly illustrate one of the most vexing challenges of the movement—the fact that one-dollar burgers are a much easier sell than organic produce for working-class people desperately short on money and time.

To anyone who’s paid any attention to media reporting on food in the last few years, the arguments presented here are very familiar. Then again, since the Fast Food Nation film was such a bust and The World According to Monsanto was too dense for general audiences, you can see Food, Inc. as a sort of talking points bulletin to spread the good word. With its message and structure dumbed down to the maximum, it’d be a great film to raise awareness among students or people who don’t read—its damning compilation of facts is sure to open a few minds.

FOOD, INC. OPENS THIS
FRIDAY, JUNE 19