Review of Food Inc. (2008)

Food Inc. (2008) proclaims that after watching "you'll never look at dinner the same way again" and they are absolutely right. The film takes a look behind the scenes at how American food has changed over the years and how much of how our food is made will shock you.

Factory farming is just one of the many issues the film targets, showing how animals are actually raised for food. The steaks you are eating are probably not coming from the "Happy Cows from California" but instead from an animal raised in inhumane conditions. The cattle often times stand in their own waste up to their ankles and then in the process of being slaughtered and butchered, the feces is often mixed in with the meat unintentionally leading to health problems in the food. Factory farming run-off also leads to contamination of vegetables when the animal waste comes into contact with the plants.

Genetic engineering has also changed the foods we eat. One example is that of chickens, which have been made to have more white meat (larger breasts) and grow much faster. Chickens now grow very quickly and cannot even hold themselves up. They, along with many other animals, have also been taught to eat corn instead of normal food sources such as grass. The film had difficulty finding any chicken barns which they could film because the major companies that buy the chickens don't want their practices revealed. The one barn that could be shown was packed with birds and could barely move, and many were dead.

Because there are now very few companies which handle the process of getting food raised and putting it on the shelves, they have huge amounts of control over the individual farmers. The chicken farmers have to do exactly as they are instructed in order to keep their contracts and because of all the required upgrades they are held in a constant state of debt and dependence on the companies. As for plants, the film showed how a seed company sold seeds for which the farmers were not allowed to collect seeds from the adult plants and had hired investigators to make sure their rules were followed. Now anytime a farmer wants to plant their fields they have to buy new seeds. Farmers who continued to collect seeds from their own plants instead of switching to the new company's seeds were often investigated, and in some cases they were sued by the seed company and couldn't afford the legal fees to keep their businesses going.

The movie gives a very eye-opening look at the issues with the current American food system. The film encourages buying organic foods as a way to avoid the future having additional problems. It is a great film to watch and think about the implications on your everyday life.

Food, Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Perf. Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. Participant Media, 2008.

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change? Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .