Food Inc Movie Review
Sadly we were unable to attend Monday’s A-list premiere for the hotly-anticipated Oscar-nominated FOOD, INC. hosted by Stella McCartney. Our new friends over at Dogwoof have kindly secured tickets for the Natural food finder team to preview the movie at our nearest cinema, so we promise to add a honest and informative review as soon as possible.
If you'd like to see it then you can watch the movie in
Featuring interviews with experts such as Eric Schlosser (author of Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (author of The Omnivore's Dilemma), along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs such as Stonyfield Farms' Gary Hirschberg 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.
Monday 15 February sees a special day of one-off nationwide screenings, which will present the only opportunity to see the film in some areas of the country Find details of your nearest screening at www.foodincmovie.co.uk/cinemas
Our Review:
We had the opportunity to watch the movie on Monday 15th Feb as part of the special one off screenings spoken of above. The event was sponsored by the Soil Association and our viewing was attended by their deputy director, Roger Mortlock. The movie was a revealing expose of the highly corrupt and money grabbing industrialised food industry. There was a significant focus on the disturbing treatment of chickens, cattle and pigs within the powerful meat packing industries. Most concerning is the sheer corporate power held by the 4 companies that control all of the meat packing in the USA - Tyson foods, Cargill Meats, Smithfield foods and Perdue farms. This shift from small farms and local abattoirs has led to the need for faster, mechanised factory lines to process the animals quick enough to make profit large profit margins and to meet the demand from the fast food industry and the supermarkets - the largest customers.
This has also led to vast, completely grass free feedlots and large, barn reared chicken sheds where the animals are fed corn and soy based feed. This fattens the animals very quickly ready for slaughter, but also makes their guts very acidic increasing the pathogenic bacterial growth and the need to depend on antibiotics, which are routinely added to their feed. There is an interesting section in the film discussing how these living conditions have led to the formation of antibiotic resistant bacteria such as E coli H157 that has been responsible for many food bourne disease outbreaks in recent years.
There was also concerns over the 2 major grain crops in the USA, namely corn and soy beans. Vast expanses of land have been turned over to producing these grains. The chemical company Monsanto have also genetically modified the soy bean and pushed a law that protects their seed variety, the Roundup ready soybean. this is resistant to Monsanto's most successful pesticide of the same name. 90% of all soy grown in the US is Roundup ready soy. Farmers are not allowed to retain any seed for producing beans the following year and so are forced to purchase fresh GM seed each year from Monsanto. They have virtually created total control of the US soy market. Although not discussed in the movie when this is combined with the vast expanses of land cleared in the Amazon and the destruction of the rain forests, soy can hardly be considered an environmentally friendly food stuff, in fact it is probably the most environmentally damaging plant crop!
Solutions are discussed, though this is a smaller focus in the movie. A visit to Joel Salatin's Polyface farm, an organic, grass based operation that provides one of the few havens in the USA for high quality produce, offered hope that the growing consumer demand for better food may create a turn in the tide from corporate power to consumer vote. It was interesting to note that even Walmart, the largest supermarket chain in the world, was bowing to consumer demand and had removed all milk with bovine growth hormone from its operation and that they were now stocking more organic produce as a result of consumer demand.
Although this film is focused on the US, we should not be complacent here in the UK as we also have some concerns over our food production. The vast majority of all meat in the UK is processed through a large industrial abattoir in the Forest of Dean. There are currently only 5 major dairies in the country, soon to become 4 with a large takeover about to happen. There are only a handful of carrot producers that supply the supermarkets. Asda is owned by the supermarket giant Walmart and Tesco's is the 3rd largest supermarket in the world. These huge companies prefer dealing with a handful of large suppliers, rather than small, local farms. It allows them to dictate the way their food is supplied and processed. However the concern is what price is paid by handing over so much control of the food chain to a handful of vast, corporate entities? Well the answer is apparent all around us. Poor health, obesity and strain on the health service are all part of the fall out from such corporate power. This movie comes recommended from Natural Food Finder in the hope that it not only shocks the viewer, but motivates them to become more involved in supporting smaller, local farms and high quality producers. This is necessary to support local economy, and to be in touch again with the source of the food we eat.
