Genre: Documentary
Director: Robert Kenner
Cast: Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Gary Hirschberg, Joe Salatin
RunTime: 1 hr 34 mins
Released By: GV
Rating: PG
Official Website: http://www.foodincmovie.com/

Opening Day: 30 July 2009

Synopsis:

In "Food, Inc.," filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's 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, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of e coli--the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.


Movie Review:

Have you stopped to think where the food you’re eating comes from? Or how it was produced? Well, if you haven’t, “Food, Inc” will certainly make you think twice, whether you’re eating that piece of chicken breast from KFC or that perfectly cooked piece of prime steak in some expensive fine dining place. After all, if we are what we eat, then “Food, Inc” doesn’t paint a very delicious picture.

Not at all. Imagine if you found out that the chicken meat you’re eating came from a fowl raised in only six weeks, kept in cages too cramped for them to move more than a few feet, and fattened so quickly they can barely stand up, let alone walk. Or imagine if that piece of steak came from a cow fed on a diet of corn, which increases the likelihood of E.coli in its stomach, and kept in a pen perpetually knee deep in manure.

That’s not a very appetizing scenario. No indeed, but that’s the truth behind the food industry (and I emphasize, industry) that director Robert Kenner intends to lift the veil from, the truth that giant corporations spend millions behind closed courtrooms to protect. Based on the book “An Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan, “Food Inc” is a very important film that exposes some very important facts.

It isn’t just the meat industry that’s at the mercy of commercialization, so too is the vegetable industry- in particular corn, one of the most useful ingredients that has thousand and one uses, including making batteries. Both industries are so chock full of genetically modified products that it’s difficult to differentiate what’s natural and what’s not. So it doesn’t matter whether you’re a vegetarian, a carnivore, or an omnivore like most people, you’re still not safe from some horrific process by which the food ends up on your plate.

“Food, Inc” as a film benefits tremendously from its very substantial message, but one can’t help but feel that director Kenner is himself a little overwhelmed by what he wants to convey. Certainly, his film is less eloquent in delivering its message than one would expect, jumping back and forth in trying to string together a coherent narrative. His overly generous use of interviewees Eric Shlosser and Michael Pollan also somewhat weakens the credibility of the film, since the perspectives he presents on the issues are necessarily limited.

Also too simplistic is Kenner’s solution to the problems that “Food, Inc” poses, perhaps an unintended consequence of documentaries such as Fast Food Nation and An Inconvenient Truth. Yes, like its predecessors, “Food, Inc” is yet another social-reality film that believes change begins with the individual and the choices he/she makes. While that certainly is true, its single-mindedness in espousing such a way out also means the film loses much depth.  

Despite the messenger’s inadequacies, one shouldn’t simply ignore the message it carries- especially if it’s as significant and dare I say, monumental as that which “Food, Inc” has to offer. This is a film that deserves to be seen, simply because what it says concerns each and every one of us, every day of our lives. Food is sustenance, and food is nutrition, and we deserve to know what exactly it is we are eating.

Movie Rating:



(An important film that you should see- if only to find out the shocking reality behind’s today’s food industry)

Review by Gabriel Chong