"You are what you eat" means you might want to know exactly what you are eating. The new documentary "Food, Inc.," now playing at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema, takes a look at what is behind all the pictures of old-fashioned farms on grocery store packaging. The reality behind the bucolic images may surprise you. A closer look under the covers of large-scale modern farming might send you running down the road to the friendly small-farmer realm of the Ferguson Farmers Market.
The film starts out by telling us the simple fact that food production methods have changed more in the last 50 years than they changed in the previous 2000 years. It goes on to delve into some of those changes, good and bad, and what they mean for consumers as well as farmers.
Despite the illusion of choice in supermarket aisles, only about six companies produce the food on shelves. What's more, a surprising number of products contain commodity crops such as corn or soybean. Later, the film notes that it is cheaper for a family on a tight budget to fill up on fast food and junk food calories than to buy healthy fruits and vegetables.
Actually, "Food, Inc." has little new information for those who are already reading about modern food production methods; however, the film serves well as a quick, broad overview of modern food producing, a sort of handy primer on the topic.
Despite its serious subject, "Food, Inc." presents information in a visual and colorful manner. There are some clever, very polished graphics, such as lines of cartoon cows with the market share of major food corporations presented on the sides. The pacing is brisk, in the style of recent documentaries from Morgan Spurlock and others.
Eric Schlosser, author of "Fast Food Nation," and Michael Pollan, author of "Omnivore's Dilemma," are among the experts who present information in director Robert Kenner's wide-ranging film. In fact, they are among the film's producers and their research is often featured.
The film presents facts in graphics and features interviews with farmers working with large food corporations, organic small farmers, and big organic operations. It is always interesting and avoids preachiness.
Subjects covered include confined feeding operations and links to increased disease and manipulation of farm animal genetics to maximize profit, such as chickens bred to grow large breasts and grow so fast, that their bones are not strong enough to allow them to walk. Commodity crops and their effects on farming methods and profits, and Monsanto's genetically engineered seed are scrutinized.
One of the most chilling parts of the film covers Monsanto's heavy-handed, even ruthless pursuit of farmers it believes have illegally saved patented company seed. The company employs a network to keep tabs on their product. The fact that the seed is now used by some 90 percent of soybean farmers and it is virtually impossible to keep neighboring fields from being contaminated by wind-borne pollen from patented strains leaves some farmers open to lawsuit even though they never purchased or planted Monsanto seed, a chilling David and Goliath scenario.
Even more chilling are reports that film reviewers who have commented on the film's content about Monsanto have received phone calls from the company.
However, the focus always remains on the practical concerns of consumers and the effects on the farmer, and it does not get bogged down in more philosophical or scientific debates.
"Food, Inc." is an excellent, easy introduction to a deeper and important subject. The film's one flaw is that since it is a broad survey, there is not a lot of depth on certain topics or lists of facts. For more, you would do well to start with Pollen's and Schlosser's books on the subject of food. It is worth digging into.
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