Food, Inc.

You are what you eat takes on a whole new paradigm with the documentary Food, Inc. Some facets of Fast Food Nation are reintroduced while the bulk of the film charts the modern transformation of the farm and that effect on American culture. Towards the end was a slight pedantic tone to the message but overall the docu reverberates with facts that cannot be denied.
The food we eat has been transformed by pesticides, additives and preservatives, and also genetically modified to the point that it’s not the same sustenance that nurtured people before the WWII era. Statistics on the number of items in grocery stores are simply mind-boggling. The film touches on the Montsanto effect of genetically altered corn and the resulting legal battles that have ensued. I felt that this point alone was so dense with information that it begged for a separate documentary only on that subject.
The agrarian America imagery used to sell food doesn’t really exist anymore. According to Food, Inc. in the 1970s the top five beef packers accounted for 25% of the product while today the top four beef packers control over 80% of the market. The typical hamburger you eat may be composed from over 1000 cows plus whatever chemicals have been used to purify the hamburger meat. Similarly through applied science the same acreage that bore 20 bushels of corn a couple of generations ago now yields 200 bushels.
Here’s a list of items that contain corn: high fructose corn sugar, cellulose, calcium stearate, ethyl lactate, maltodextrin, saccharin, xanthan gum, sorbital, gluten, sucrose, ethel acetate, citrus cloud emulsion, citric acid, absorbic acid, baking powder, di-glycerides, starch, there are others. I’m not even sure what this all means but the graphics in Food, Inc. give the corn byproducts prominent contrast.
Food, Inc. is an indictment of the food industry and its methods. Who needs to eat green tomatoes sprayed with ethylene gas so they will ripen while being shipped to market? Tomatoes can be ripened naturally by placing them next to bananas that give off ethylene. So who’s to say at what point harm enters the equation?
The film bounces back and forth from clever evidence to not so clever facts. The contrast between a corporate chicken farm and a free-range chicken operation could be Food, Inc.’s most eloquent allegory. But showing a poor family grappling over whether to spend a dollar on a stalk of broccoli or a fast food hamburger only panders to stereotypes. Another incident concerning a mother whose child died due to e-coli poisoning brings more personal feeling to the fore.
For the most part Food, Inc. separates the wheat from the chaff. Food, Inc. doesn’t advocate becoming a vegetarian for instance. When showing sensible methods of food production side by side with despicable quality control from corporate behemoths this film by Robert Kenner makes its best case. The food industry will ultimately have to change but as Food, Inc. implies so must the consumer.