Movie Review (Food, Inc.)

This is the film review straight from the website located at www.foodincmovie.com

“In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that 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—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.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.”

For those of you who have been glancing at our blog for the past 6 months or so you know that we are relatively new to the world of heirloom and organic farming. This film was a shocking wake up call. While we were watching Food, Inc. we kept commenting that the practices portrayed within the movie were so criminal that it was hard to even believe that it was really happening, but unfortunately it is very real and it is happening on a daily basis, if not meal to meal.

Viewing this film has motivated our family to take it to the next level as far as gardening and purchasing meat is concerned. Freezing, dehydrating and canning items straight from our garden are all going to become standard methods of feeding our family in the coming year. We are going to look into our local food shed through Cornell Cooperative Extension in hopes of finding free range and grass fed meat sources. We are fortunate enough to have long time friends who have children close in age to our own and they are going to begin raising chickens (is there anything better than fresh eggs) and we are going to grow a co-op garden this summer to increase both families availability to fresh and healthy food.

I realize a garden is not an option for everyone. But what is an option for most is watching this film. You are certainly free to form your own opinion, for example I am still not exactly sure how I feel about Gary Hirshberg. Obviously we all have an unknown amount of time on earth and health is always a question, something taken for granted, but after watching this film I realize that it is within my power to choose what is going to be put into my body at least three times a day. Life is a game of roulette to be sure but we all have the opportunity to raise our odds of a healthy existence by growing, eating, or buying organic. If not taking part in all three.

I will end this the same way I ended the review for “The History of Food”, if you eat food you need to watch this film.