Documentary on the Modern Food Industry

Do you know how the modern food industry processes your food before it gets to your supermarket or fast food place? Do you know how animals are raised to become food?

Not many people are aware of what goes on behind the scenes in the modern American food industry. And then there are some (especially the few large companies that controls the food industry) who do not want us to know. Because if we do, we might not like the ugly truth.

The documentary film Food Inc tells us the reality of our American industrialized food system. It also provides some eye-opening and startling statistics. Just like Michael Moore's Sicko that explains the American health care system, Food Inc explains the food system. Just like Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth tells us the consequences of climate change, Food Inc tells us the consequences of our food system.

I would recommend all adults to watch the documentary Food Inc that was nominated for Academy Awards "best documentary".

Article on Oprah.com titled "Watch this Doc" says "it might change your life, or maybe just your dinner plans." In fact, the author of that article stated that she had not eaten meat, poultry, or eggs since watching the documentary.

Movie rating website RottenTomatoes.com is showing a very positive 97% for Food Inc (at the time of this writing).

WashingtonPost.com says "Everyone should see Food, Inc -- maybe after dinner -- but they should see it."^[ref]

Well, maybe not everyone should see it. Children should ask their parents first. The film is rated PG-13 "Parental Guidance Suggested".

That is because it does have some unpleasant scenes showing how animals are cruelly treated and how they are killed. You also would see downer cows and chickens who have been fatten so much so fast that they could barely walk.

There are also chickens that are breed as food that never see sunlight. But we do not see this in the film because none of those factories would allow the film crew to film it.

The documentary did get footage from a hidden camera of an employee at one of the largest slaughter houses in the world. The film points out that not only are the animals poorly treated, but also the people who work there as well.

How did the system get this way? It is because corporations controlling the food industry is always striving for greater efficiency and profit. The decisions they make sometimes put profits above consumer health and environmental well-being.

80% of the food industry is controlled by only a handful of very large corporations. These corporations are very powerful with legions of lawyers.

It is not surprising that film director Robert Kenner had to protect himself from being sued for making such a film. Kenner said "I’ve spent more on this film in legal fees than I did for my past 15 films combined."^[ref]

Even Oprah, one of the most influential women on television, had been sued by Texas cattle ranchers when she made some unflattering remarks about eating meat on her April 16, 1996 show on Mad Cow disease.^[ref] Oprah won the case on the grounds of free speech.^[ref] But as mentioned in the documentary, sometimes the industry sues to intimidate even though they don't think they would win.

Note: The contents of this article was based on the documentary film "Food Inc" and are opinions of the author at the time of this writing. Author and others shall not be held responsible for content.

America now has an obesity epidemic.  The low income are particularly at risk because healthy food are more expensive than fast food and junk food.  As an example, the documentary shows a family that can not afford to buy fresh vegetables and have to rely on inexpensive fast food to fill them up.  They do not have time to cook since they get out of the house at six in the morning and do not get back home until 9 at night.  The husband now has diabetes. 

This food system that we have sometimes have unintended consequences.  The documentary explains why we occasionally have E coli outbreaks in our food supply.

The documentary ends with some optimistic notes giving us suggestions as to how we can change the current food industry system.  Among the ways listed are to support your local farmers market and to buy locally and buy organic food when feasible.  Because we vote with our money. Every time we make food purchase decision, we are telling the food industry what we want.