EC Entry - Aka Battle of the Food Documentaries!

Okay, maybe not a BATTLE... maybe minor skirmish?  

So, guess what this entry is about?  That's right!  I did a previous entry about the documentary Fresh and now there shall be an entry about Food, Inc.  One thing which is immediately different between these two documentaries, despite the similar topic, is the tone of Food, Inc.  Whereas Fresh had more of a hopeful, positive, and helpful approach, Food, Inc. has more of a depressing, negative, and hostile approach.  Food, Inc. makes it clear right off the bat that it's playing hardball.  No pulled punches here, nope.  The documentary is very informative, there's no question about that.  It gives an approach that puts the viewer directly in line with the topics that the film is trying to broach.  

From the meeting with the chicken farmers to the text over explaining that, after multiple visits from the production company, the farmer no longer was willing to allow the film crew inside the chicken buildings, the film makes it clear that the information that they are seeking to present is not information the corporate industries want the public to be aware of.  The first portion of the documentary focuses on this aspect regarding animals, from their treatment in how they're raised and prepared to an aspect of how they're taken to be slaughtered.   Parts of the movie are difficult to watch and somewhat startling, like watching one of the chicken farmers having to go into her chicken buildings and pick up the dead bodies that are just lying on the ground to dispose of them. 

Conversations with other farmers that focus on growing grains gives a more in-depth view of their interactions with Monsanto GMO issues, including bringing to light that Monsanto has investigators that do nothing but investigate farmers from claims that they've withheld seed.  Which is to say that the farmers are not allowed to keep any of the seed from their crops to then grow new crops - they have to buy more seed each time from Monsanto.  Why?  It's a GMO.  When you genetically modify something, it becomes your property, thus Monsanto owns a vast majority of the seeds which are used in farming today and farmers have to pay to use them.  Every time.  Every crop.  They have full-time investigators for nothing more than to stalk farmers to make sure they aren't keeping any seeds.  For you know... farming.  And sure it'd be easy to say "Just buy seeds that aren't from Monsanto."  Yeah, have fun with that.  Try finding a seller of seeds that isn't Monsanto owned.  Monsanto is worse than Big Brother.  At least people knew about big brother, the average person knows little to nothing about Monsanto or it's insidious reach.  

Yeah, it's really that bad.  And that's before even touching on the corn issue.  Oh yes.  Corn.  Lovely little veggie.  Delicious and such fun to eat off the cob, smearing freshly melted butter on our fingers and faces as we gnaw away merrily.  If only it were always so good.  If only so much corn wasn't used for so many other aspects of food production that it ceases being healthy and instead becomes something immensely detrimental to the entire population. Case in point - corn is made into corn syrup which is then further modified and refined into high fructose corn syrup, a cheap additive to sweeten foods.  Problem?  It's in everything practically, even items that we would think are "healthy" for us but actually aren't because of the presence of this additive.  

Now while the majority of Food, Inc is most assuredly something which can be viewed as an attack against industrialized production of meats, grains, and vegetables, it does try to bring things to a slightly more hopeful note near the end.  As the film builds to it's conclusion, it takes care to point out that some supermarkets like Wal-Mart are increasing the areas which specifically note food items which are organic.  This makes much more noticeable to consumers what foods are organic and makes them more easily accessible.  

It's a hopeful thing to see and something which anyone who's been in a grocery store lately can attest to being a big change: entire organic sections of the supermarket.  The downside?  Organic foods found in the supermarket are significantly more expensive than the alternative.  That alternative is the highly processed, nutrient deficient, additive laced "food" that the vast majority of the population can actually afford.  So while the healthier, organic food is there, in many cases it is prohibitively expensive.  There has definitely been steps made in the right direction but overall these are baby steps along the path towards a true return to the healthy foods which our grandparents got to enjoy.  Hopefully, these won't be the last steps that we take towards improving the diet and health of Americans.  Maybe more documentaries will come out that draw the attention of the populace to the inhumane, unethical, and downright disgusting ways in which animals are raised and slaughtered to stock our meat departments.  Perhaps in time, we'll see a shift away from the process of grain and vegetable production that strips the nutrients from what should be healthy foods and then 'adds' them back in, yet they still end up lacking.  It all starts with knowledge, understanding the realities of what's happening with our food production and making choices, conscious, thoughtful choices, on the kinds of food that we choose to put in our bodies.  Good luck.