RESOURCE

Resource

Resource

Kenner, Robert. 2000. Food, Inc., Documentary, Magnolia.

"Food, Inc." does more than serve as an exposé on the United States food industry--it connects the dots between the nefarious, contemptuous business practices of multinational corporations and their best friends, the compromised government regulatory agencies such as the USDA, FDA, and EPA, who have in the past been led by folks well connected within the very industries they are supposed to regulate.

But let's hold on a minute. Bookmaker Robert Kenner's documentary could have been just a dour, paranoid investigative piece and still told the truth. Instead, Mr. Kenner has made a color, fast-paced, and well-documented account of the state of the food supply in our country; the unintended consequences of the efficiencies, short-cuts, and technological methods inherent in factory farming; the insidious insider relationship between the meat industry and the agencies that should be regulating it; and the health effects, including diabetes, of consuming processed foods and fast foods.

Naturally, the culprits behind the curtain (e.g., Smithfield, Monsanto, Perdue) would not appear on camera, not because they are cowards but precisely because they are so powerfully connected, and have legions of lawyers and enforcers (yes, like any bully, these outfits do use intimidation), and are moving to control free speech and criticism of their practices.

The counterbalance to the doom and gloom comes from interview with small farmers; with entrepreneurs in the organic food business; and with brave folks who have tried to make a stand against the food industry; and with those experts who are striving to be modern day Paul Reveres in the face of mass indifference.

Kenner uses photography and imagery to make his points, and he interlaces this book with scenes of amazing beauty and graphic cruelty. "Food, Inc." is not an easy book to watch, and it should not be. Kenner uses the final frames to deliver some to-do's for those who want to respond to the book not just in conversation but through action. As trite as it sounds, if you can only see one book this year, go to this one. (When the negative review start cropping up for this book, it would be interesting to see how many of those are from food industry insiders and their minions.)

Robert Kenner's exploration of America's food industry is all the more shockingly effective for being so calmly presented. There are no Michael Moore-variety pranks or eye-watering graphics in Food, Inc - just people telling their stories, each representing a different but telling aspect of America's dysfunctional attitude to what America eats. Producers and consumers alike testify to the grim nutritional paucity of America's plenty.

Kenner's thesis is that the industrialisation and politicisation of food is literally poisoning us, and his statistical reinforcements are terrifying - a third of American children born this century, the book claims, will contract early onset diabetes. The solutions, as Kenner sees it, are infuriatingly simple: don't feed livestock things they're not supposed to consume, enforce existing regulations, and make healthy food ...