Food, Inc.

Just got done watching Food, Inc. Ashley and I spent about 15 minutes trying to decide what to watch via Netflix or iTunes, and I said "no documentaries!" I didn't want to think tonight. I suggested Crank 2 or something like that but Ashley wasn't too excited about that idea. Then we saw Food, Inc. on iTunes and I remembered really wanting to see it when it came out, but as usual, no theaters in our area carry this type of film (If it wasn't made my Michael Moore and its a doc - its not showing in St. Charles, IL). Anyway, I saw a sign for the dvd, interestingly enough, at Chipotle (which I now plan to investigate as I thought Chipotle was owned by McDonald's). So when it came up on iTunes and Ashley said she wanted to see it I decided thinking on a Friday night might be OK.

UPDATE! So I just had one of those sort of media-crossover moments that just kinda makes you smile, whether you discover its something "good" or "bad". I went searching to figure out if the Mac Shack owns Chipotle. Turns out they DID have a majority stake in the company for several years, and are responsible for much of its growth, but did not start it and now have no involvement. Chipotle really does use quality food grown "with integrity" as they like to say. Anyway - I found this story: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7857921. Check it out - might give more hope than the end of Food, Inc.! (read below) - and the crazy part... it features the jolly organic farmer who also gets a ton of screen time in the movie. Guess he is the face of the "real" food movement for big media. Crazy!

It's a good movie - not as entertaining as something like Super Size Me, but beautifully shot with solid arguments presented throughout. So solid were the arguments that by the end I was ready to say screw it - the little guy has no chance in anything anymore. I don't even grow corn or soybeans, and I'm scared Monsanto (the biggest producer of soybean seed in the world), is going to find a reason to sue me for patent infringement. The power of these companies is staggering, as is their lobbying power and connections to the powerful in our country's government.

Food, Inc. makes the stronger argument, the one based in logical reasoning, and largely stays away from more pathos oriented individual stories. Well... kind of anyway - there is the mom who's kid died because of tainted beef, and the corporate chicken farmer who is miserable, and the independent organic farmer who lives a jolly and fulfilling life. Maybe what I meant to say was that its hard to watch this film and then just be like "WELL.... the filmmakers just picked the most outrageous and sensational examples." Because in fact, they really didn't - they simply show what's going on. And my guess is that they really DID try hard to get reps from all the major food companies to come on camera, and that they really were denied. While text that reads "Tyson Foods declined our request for an interview" set over a chicken-house that would be mistaken for a prison before a farm is a strong visual image; unprepared, belligerent, or simply caught red-handed spokespeople squirming through an interview would have been even stronger.

It's not until the last few minutes of the film that we actually are given a sense that something can be done, that there is a chance this corporate food machine can be defeated. It was a welcome sequence after over an hour of doom and gloom, but at the same time was so short that one is left wondering if anything truly can be done. The film ends with (if I'm remembering correctly) almost an identical call to action as used in An Inconvenient Truth. Text over music telling us that yes, we can change things. We can shop organic, go to farmer's markets, and call our congresspeople.

I guess the older I get the more scared I am. Scared of the powerful. Scared of the corporations. Even scared of the government. Say I make a video on YouTube that goes crazy viral. An anti-beef video. Gets on the news, gets mentioned everywhere: The newspaper, the radio, all over the web. So powerfully crafted is this thing that people start responding. Meat sales go down, I've had the effect I'm looking for. And BAM, I'm sued for more than I'm worth and simply trying to represent myself costs more than I may make in the next ten years.

Sounds crazy, right? Same thing happened to Oprah, if you remember back a few years. The film mentions this and its just scary. Yes, she won, but she is freaking OPRAH. And it still took 6 years and god knows how much from the Harpo Studios coffers. And the little guys, the seed-cleaner, the guy who doesn't want to use Mansanto seeds, well they try to stand up for themselves and don't have a chance.

Well this has turned more into a rant than a review or response to the film I guess. It's crazy though - we had left-over chicken parmesan from a fast-food pizza place for dinner. Tomorrow we are having a new fridge delivered. We will probably end up going out to grab some food after cleaning the old fridge out and transferring stuff. The grad school lifestyle's not cheap. So doubt we will go to the farmer's market or head to Trader Joe's into the organic section. Naw.. we'll probably get McDonald's (I'm serious).

:(