I saw Food, Inc. this afternoon and thought I’d review it for you. It’s Michael Pollan’s book, Omnivore’s Dilemma, brought to the screen. It was as explosive as the book, a bold indictment of factory farming and specifically the industrialization of the beef industry. They chose all the highpoints from the book.
Pollan and Eric Schlosser play the primary roles as head bites, commenting about the process of raising beef in feedlots. There is an entire section of the benefits of grass—the grass-fed model. Pollan cites the study of changing from corn to grass within five days of slaughter as eliminating e coli 80%. The film also shows a young boy who got e coli from a hamburger, wasting away and then dying 12 days after his meal. Very strong. Joel Salatin is featured. He was also interviewed in the book by Pollan.
The last section is about Monsanto’s invention and patenting of a specific gene for soy beans and their practice of suing farmers who might get blow-over from the field next to them.Even tho they didn’t use the Monsanto seed, if the gene is found in ‘next year’s’ crop of soybeans, the farmer can be sued. Private investigators go into the fields. The farmer is arrested criminally. And Monsanto is making a big deal about a few farmers, making them examples. It’s enough to make you run for Governor just to stop the giant corporation.
To say it’s a strong film is an understatement. I cried at the end, knowing Tallgrass is one of the few alternatives trying to change the system. We’ve always had the wind at our backs in the form of timing. This proves it again. There was applause at the end. I say it was the sound of the revolution....the people’s backlash against an agricultural model that is tragically flawed.