I just saw "Food Inc." the powerful and polished new doc from Participant Films. I think it's Participant's best film to date. What impressed me most was the tone that they set and kept throughout the film in what could have been overly preachy or too emotional or frankly, too gross for people to receive this urgent information.
The film showcases the experience of writers --including Michael Pollan ('The Omnivore's Dilemma') and Eric Schlosser ('Fast Food Nation), activists-- a mom who lost her son to E Coli from tainted beef, and farmers --the most insightful being the philosophizing organic farmer Joel Salatin, all sharing their experiences and musings on the power and corruption of Big Agriculture. Their stories create an provocative, disturbing portrait of the industrialization of what we eat. The segment on Monsanto is especially frightening even when I knew much of the story from Deborah Koons Garcia's "The Future of Food".
Food Inc. is essential viewing as it clearly outs the multinationals who have taken over the production of food. It's ultimately uplifting highlighting visionaries like Stonyfield Farm's Gary Hirshberg who reminds us of our power to vote everyday at the grocery store and restaurant by buying local, organic food. What happened to Big Tobacco must now happen to Food Inc.
Check out the film's action oriented web site here.
