"Food Inc.", or Shining a Limelight on a Rotten Industry

In his 2008 documentary,"Food Inc.", Robert Kenner depicts the current state of the food industry. The film shows how mass production and attempts to achieve maximum efficiency have result in an alarming downfall in quality of the product and the safety measures surrounding every aspects of its processing. Kenner also uncovers the abuse suffered by animals and workers alike. Overall, Kenner achieves his goal: "Food Inc." leaves you shaken, thinking about the food you eat and what you can do to change the system.

Before watching the documentary, I though the issues with the food industry where mainly rich white girls problems. Sure, the quality may have decreased, but the consumer could still eat as healthy as he wants with a bit of effort. I mean, if there was anything to complaint about in the U.S, it was overweight, not lack of food. However, the documentary changed my opinion. Not only because of the issues surrounding the food itself, but because I was surprised at how rotten the whole industry is. The food field has gone from being one where there was fair competition to being controlled by a few large, powerful multinationals. These corporations are very well aware of their power, and the movie shows they will do anything, whether legal or not, to protect the unfairly huge piece of pie they have. They use their ties to the government, the money and the resources available to them to crush anyone who dares oppose them or so much as try to shine a spotlight onto their miseries. Some of the activities that the movie managed to depict in the film are not only unlawful, but directly unconstitutional. The lack of respect towards animals, workers and consumers is both appalling and enraging. And although the movie tries its best to convince each individual viewer that they do have power to change the status quo, you are inevitably swept with a feeling of impotence.

The only aspect I found the documentary to lack was some kind of view from the other side. There are no interviews with someone from Monsanto or a lobbyist for one of the corporations. They only get the story told from one viewpoint. Other documentaries, such as "Inside Job", show that it is possible to get the big fish on camera. Not only that, "Inside Job" manages to make them look like the dull, selfish, wit-lacking idiots that they are. I would have really like to see such interviews in "Food Inc."

Besides that one aspect, I found the movie to be revealing about a really important issue which I had not previously considered. Since that was Kennet's objective all along, he can proudly say that "Food INc." was a success.