Food, Inc.

Emmy Award-winning director Robert Kenner's disturbing documentary looks at the industrialization of North American food production/delivery, illustrating how this agricultural monolith affects our health, environment, and economy. Forget the bucolic concept of chickens, pigs, and cows roaming freely on the family farm and munching on grass. Today, they're raised in nightmarish Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), and sheltered from public scrutiny by secrecy and intimidation. To complicate matters, the FDA and USDA have been rendered almost powerless by judicial rulings and legislation that have led to lax health and safety controls. Kenner (PBS' Two Days in October) delivers a blistering indictment of food conglomerates like Monsanto, Tyson, Purdue, and Smithfield—incorporating information from both Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation and Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, as well as commentaries from both authors and other food advocates, farmers, experts, and government officials. Sure, it's all one-sided “advocacy filmmaking,” because company representatives refused to respond—but explain that to the family of two year-old Kevin Kowalcyk, who died after eating a hamburger contaminated with E.coli. Back in 1906, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, a muckraking novel that exposed corruption, unsanitary conditions, and shocking labor practices in the U.S. meatpacking industry, ultimately bringing about reform. Let's hope that Food, Inc. has the same effect. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include deleted scenes (38 min.), PSA's (10 min.), the ABC News Nightline segment “You Are What You Eat: Food with Integrity” (8 min.), weblinks to resources, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a powerful documentary.] (S. Granger)