You are what you eat. Which is, frankly, terrifying (movie #41)

Food, Inc.  
Cinema Nova, 05/07/2010
Status: Behind by 19 films

Of all the titles this film could have been given, Food Inc. is probably the most onomatopoeic. It’s exactly what it sounds like – a documentary about the corporatization of food production and its impacts on everything from farmers’ livelihoods to the exploitation of animals and poor workers to consumer health to economics and the environment. It’s the greatest hits of The Most Scary Things About Food Production in one shiny, well made documentary package.

While director ROBERT KENNER doesn’t seek to present a balanced view of the issue, his treatment doesn’t feel overly manipulative. True, he does tell the tear-jerky story of the mother of a boy who died of E.Coli because of lax regulations in food safety, but he doesn’t then contrive a protest-set piece a la Michael Moore, which makes a refreshing change. The material is already shocking, and this is highlighted by a restrained directorial hand.

It’s a documentary in the preachy vein, and I suspect it’ll be mostly preaching to the choir of people who already make informed choices about the food they eat. If you’re not already interested in this, you’ll probably turn away from the fairly confronting arguments and images (especially of the way animals are grown, slaughtered and processed for consumption). Which is fair enough but a massive shame.

For all the confronting footage about cows, chickens, pigs and crops, this is actually a documentary about people, and what happens to a farmer’s – or a consumer’s – relationship to food when you add in technology, massive-scale production system and corporations. And it’s a story well worth telling.