Food, Inc. is a film with a companion book. Both deal with industrial food and how that food makes us sicker, fatter, and poorer. It's not a fun film and it's not a feel good film. It is at times sickening and disgusting and shows things I don't even want to think about let alone watch. It is also one of the most important films we may ever see.
The film exposes what 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 and are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.
The film pulls back the curtain on essential issues about which many of us are unaware.
For example -- Approximately 10 billion animals (chickens, cattle, hogs, ducks, turkeys, lambs and sheep) are raised and killed in the United States annually. Nearly all of them are raised on factory farms under inhumane conditions. These industrial farms are also dangerous for their workers, pollute surrounding communities, are unsafe to our food system and contribute significantly to global warming.
For example -- Some of our most important staple foods have been fundamentally altered, and genetically engineered meat and produce have already invaded our grocery stores and our kitchen pantries. This isn't a dooms day film. It ends by hopefully telling us what we can do to take charge of our food supply and what we can do to move away from foods seemingly mandated for us to eat.
Watch the movie. Allow it to change your life. Allow it to save your life.
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