SPOTLIGHTS
|
|
|
|
|
| Food Inc. Review |
| Posted by Erik Luers on 11.15.2009 |
| |
|
| |
A powerful and horrifying documentary on what we eat and how we get it, Food Inc. takes an informative and somewhat biased look at the food industry's shady and lesser known political ties. Some of the claims the film makes are scary but necessary, such as the fact that cows are genetically designed to eat grass, and yet farmers feed them corn to fatten them up faster. If they only ate grass, the cows would shed eighty percent of the E. Coli cells over the course of a few days, and yet we feed them corn regardless. The consumer's wallet, and not their health, is the main factor.
Chickens are also fattened up at an exceeding rate (their average life span is six weeks), so much so that they are no longer able to stand and support their own weight. They get kept in dark rooms so that they are less aware of when people come in to carelessly grab and throw them into trucks and take them away. Wait till you get to the chicken throat cutting scenes.
The film makes a strong case for organic foods, and one of the major successes brought to life within the film shows a major food supplier like Walmart carrying healthier food products. They claim to carry what their consumers want, but who dictates to whom? What came first, a starving man or the supermarket?
There is also some interesting talk about patents and pesticides and other things that may seem a little cinematically boring and dull, but it takes on a Big Brother is Watching approach that makes the film more of a thriller than a talking heads doc. It ends on an optimistic note, but be warned: The first seventy-five minutes are extremely pessimistic and bleak. But that's okay, for the issues it raises need to be brought to the forefront. Food Inc. takes that first step.
Final Rating: 8/10 |
| |
|
