food inc. the movie

(click on this link if you'd like to see the 3 1/2 minute trailer for the movie.  If that doesn't work it can be found by searching for food movie inc. trailer in you tube)

Yes, the latest effort from Eric Schlosser et al is coming to a theatre near you.  It is what you think, looking at the state of the American food chain from the seed, meat, supermarket and labor angles. Eric Schlosser & Michael Pollan do much of the narration. Non-partisan, the lightest moments you will experience are in the trailer above.  If you haven't read The Omnivore's Dilemma, that might be a more humanistic and thoughtful approach to looking at the food situation.  This is more of an investigative reporting view from as many troubling angles as possible.  I thought I was pretty familiar with them, but this movie was able to point out a few more.

Overall, I would say this movie wants to overwhelm you into action, which is a tall order.  Overwhelm tends to numb and fuzz me out.  It is not a movie to see with your children.  But I had never seen inside an industrial chicken coop or meat processing plant (or a CAFO, which stands for "concentrated animal feeding operation) so I guess I have done that now.  I wish there had been more balance to the movie so that we could be left with a sense of purpose, not a sense of how completely messed up things are.  But perhaps it will speak to another layer of people that were not aware of this mulitfaceted insanity and effect at least one change in each of them.

I did leave with resounding appreciation for one of the panelists after the movie.  I mean all of the panelists were amazing I am sure in their own right, having already effected some measure of change in their area.  But Helge Hellberg, Executive Director of Marin Organic, didn't request that we get angry and sign a petition or vote against another legislative measure, he asked us how we were feeling.  He said that he felt pretty terrible and that he thought the movie was not appealing.  That bringing back the love and beauty is the way through this and if we each do one thing more towards this nurturing that we are helping.  He said it better than that, but it was timely and pleasantly shocking in its own right.  

The movie does touch on buying at a farmer's market or planting a garden (even a small one) as ways to help and has some enjoyable moments with Joel Salatin at Polyface Farms (and some in your face moments too), but they are not enough of a breather for me.  Enjoy the trailer.

One more thing, as I was gliding down the escalator, contemplating how lucky we are (afterall, I'm eating a delicious local organic greek salad as I write this) I saw this poster in a drugstore window:

                                     

Don't know if it is for real, but it was a tongue in cheek reminder that we would rather create a fix it product than undo what we have done.