Movies About Food #2

I saw Food Inc two weeks ago. I just can’t get that sick, wobbling cow out of my mind…..

Not much in this movie was new information to me. I’m aware that those beautifully packaged, glossy chicken breasts at the store are from poultry “factories.” That the ground sausage that I buy for my meatballs is from pig “factories.” I’m also aware of CAFOs, corn syrup, and bacterial infections in the food chain. But I want to believe that it’s a distant problem, far away from me and my casserole dish.

Food Inc is like the fast-food movie of the fast-food industry: they attempt to quickly throw together the ingredients and package it for mass consumption. They features stories about chickens in dark, aluminum-roofed boxes, and contrast it with a farmer who beheads all HIS chickens personally. They touch on Monsanto just a little, and on unsanitary conditions and food-borne illnesses just a little. They are correct in stating that the food industry is heavily regulated, government-invested and protected, and that fast-food industry moguls monopolize our food. I think that’s true. But the movie poops out in the end, because they don’t really give an answer to the problems they presented. There’s some stuff about Stony Brook yogurt– the organic stuff from Vermont– and how WalMart made a deal with them. That’s great, but… the answer to our food problems really doesn’t lie in just another mega-company providing an alternative. The answer lies in consumers having more control over their own food. The only way (for the past 6,000 years, anyway) has been to grow it ourselves. Handing our food industry from one group (the company that makes the “bad” foods) to another group (the company that makes the “good” foods) is not the answer– the problem IS that the food industry is too large and has too much concentrated power. And power corrupts. No company or industry will ever have OUR best interests in mind; they will always have THEIR best interests in mind. This is historically true.

So while I’m not saying that every person needs to get their own cow, pig. chicken, and mini-farm with fruits, veggies, and nuts (because while that may have been possible in eras past, it’s not possible today), the individual families and communities need to band together. Our sense of community in this country has completely eroded. What ever happened to the local butcher, baker, and candlestick maker? I think they answer lies in that– in a local community where people know each other, where people are accountable to each other. Kinda like the “checks and balances” that are supposed exist in our form of government (but don’t anymore, for the same reasons that we have problems in the food industry– it got too big and into concentrated hands).

So. Anyway. About Food Inc. It was “OK.” I think a lot of Americans already know about this stuff. But what do we do?! I disagree that with the premise of Food Inc that claims we need “good” companies in charge. Food Inc does say that we need to grow our own foods more, however– so I’m not saying that Food Inc is “all wrong.” Not everybody wants to go back to making their own cheese and yogurt, just like we don’t want to go back to making men’s clothing or building our own furniture, I understand that. I’m just saying that we need to get back control of what we eat. There must be an accountability for something so important.

So Food Inc was an OK movie. Yes, the problem is big, almost too big. What will solve it?