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Damning Documentary Exposes Dangers of Mechanized Food Industry
Food, Inc.
Film Review by Kam Williams
 Did you know that the four largest beef producers now control 80% of the
U.S. market? Or that mass-produced chickens never have a chance to see
sunlight over the course of their abbreviated, 49-day lifespan during
which they are so rapidly fattened that many can’t even support their
own weight on their undeveloped skeletal structures?
These are the sort of inconvenient truths shared by Food, Inc., a scary
documentary likely to leave you rethinking some of your own eating
habits. For what anyone watching this revealing expose’ will unavoidably
realize is the fact that agribusiness has turned food production into a
highly-mechanized process more like manufacturing than farming.
The clever mega-corporations controlling the industry know that people
prefer to think of their groceries as having been grown in healthy
environments, hence all the packaging and advertising suggesting that
what you’re about to consume came from a wholesome family farm. But the
shocking footage director Robert Kenner somehow shot inside a variety of
factories and slaughterhouses around the country tell a chilling story
of misleading labeling, disease, pesticides, exploitation, genetic
modification, monopolies and greed.
For example, the film informs us that Monsanto, the same chemical
company which made the defoliant Agent Orange for use in the Vietnam
War, has successfully cornered the soybean market. How? By patenting the
only genetically-modified seed resistant to herbicides. So, farmers must
continually purchase the plant from the manufacturer because it is
illegal for them to harvest any seeds themselves.
Furthermore, we learn that Justice Clarence Thomas used to work for
Monsanto and that many others in the Bush Administration had close ties
to the company as well. So, it is no surprise to see that the courts
repeatedly side with the bullying firm in so many lawsuits against the
proverbial little guy.
Overall, Food, Inc. is to be commended for sounding such a clear clarion
call for the consumer to rise up and start demanding natural and healthy
alternatives to the processed junk which we’re being fed in the name of
profits.
Rated PG for mature themes and disturbing images.
Running time: 93 minutes
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
For a list of play dates and locations, visit
http://www.magpictures.com/dates.aspx?id=3e3938d1-b785-4286-9ae0-8eb5952f1480
To see a trailer for Food, Inc., visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJDGUxqEdYY
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Lloyd Kam Williams
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 Lloyd
Kam Williams is a syndicated film and book critic who
writes for 100+ publications around the U.S. and Canada. He is a member of
the African-American Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics
Online, the NAACP Image Awards Nominating Committee, and Rotten Tomatoes. In
addition to a BA in Black Studies from Cornell, he has an MA in English from
Brown, an MBA from The Wharton School, and a JD from Boston University. Kam
lives in Princeton, NJ with his wife and son.
IMDiversity.com is committed to presenting diverse points of view.
However, the viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of
the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or
employees at IMD.
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