Food, Inc. (2008/2009)

Food, Inc. is sometimes difficult to watch yet at the same time intensely interesting. The film takes a critical look at large-scale, industrial-style food production in the US.

It makes the assertions that current practices are environmentally unsustainable, unhealthy, and often inhumane. It introduces you to people whose lives have been affected by food prices as well as tainted food. And on the lighter side it reviews agricultural and food production practices it finds commendable. Producers of the film tried to give the film a bit more balance by giving companies criticized a chance to tell their side. But every one of them declined.

While many scenes will stick with you after viewing, one of the saddest was watching a young girl and her family grocery shop. They have a limited food budget because they have to pay a lot for the father's diabetes medications. The mother knows fast food is less healthy for her two daughters, but feels stuck because it's a cheaper way to fill their stomachs. Inside the supermarket the youngest daughter is reduced to tears when she asks to buy fruit and her older sister explains that they can't get enough pieces with the current price.

When is the last time you saw a child throw a tantrum in a grocery store over fruit? Not candy. Fruit.

I understand that there are a lot of people in the world to feed, but I also understand that technological advancements in food production played a part in allowing the population to expand. Food, Inc. has some suggestions on what an individual can do to support healthy food production, but it doesn't have a solid solution as to how to feed so many people when the current ways are seen by so many as efficient.

Most people don't know where their food came from or what happens on the way to their plates. So even if Food, Inc. doesn't have all the answers, it'll at least open your eyes to that process. Director Robert Kenner accomplishes that in a way that's visually striking and hard to forget.

Rating: 4.5/5
Recommended for: After you've just eaten a salad

Extended Review: If you see it on DVD, be sure to watch all the deleted scenes. There's some interesting stuff they cut for time reasons or what have you.