In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.
Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.
This is one of the main reasons I decided to become a nutritionist. It's disgusting the things people think are better for them. Case in point: low fat ANYTHING. (most) Fat is good. Fat does not cause fat. The things they use to replace FLAVOUR in fatty items is a combination of chemicals that break down your body on a cellular level, destroying your immune system and eating away at your body, CAUSING obesity, an inability to digest your foods and block your body's ability to harness the proper nutrients it needs. So whenever I see 'low fat' on a product (especially dairy) I look at it with skepticism. The same people who think low fat is preventing them being fat are, in fact, the ones who are the most likely to be unhealthy and obese.
However, the USDA is very much more lax than the European versions of the same idea. This is why many American foods need to be imported specially even though they're popular - they'd never pass the European models.
I have not seen this movie, nor do I care to, prefering less biased approaches to study, but I suppose I should anyway to see where it goes with it's theories.
The general knowledge of health and foods is shocking. Oh, if I buy low fat, I'll be low fat!! MMmm, low fat cake! I won't be fat. (ignoring it is in fact sugar, aka, glucose that causes your fat cells to increase in size).
There's also studies showing that chemical replicants of nutrients, although 'perfect' on a chemical level, are for some unknown reason not as readily absorbed by the body. It's almost like the body knows it was manufactured instead of grown. Thus 'with added Vitamin C!' type of foods are actually detrimental because while you feel you're getting adequate nutrition, you are actually doing much the opposite. You're depleting yourself of valuable space that could go towards bettering your health.
This is how my ISH started, actually. I became so obsessed with healthy organic natural foods with a knowledgable source, I started becoming more self-sufficient, growing my own herbs and salads (which have the highest pesticides of any other products, including strawberries).
Since going on a nearly all home grown or organically source diet, I have gotten better skin, better hair, better nails and have even been happier. I have also eaten more, eaten cheaper and naturally, eaten healthier. Of course it's harder to find food when out to eat with others, but it's a worthy sacrifice.
The only thing I find annoying, really, is the fact I pretty much KNOW when a meal will make me ill. I can't have a lot of sugar. Coffee makes me nauseated. So I know I have to watch my intake because I am not sensitive to those types of things (as you should be! it means your body knows what's bad for it again!)...
... somehow your movie review turned into me ranting. I apologize. Not only is a sore spot with me, it's also my main course of study in school.
I'm with you there...my favourite subject food. I meet so many people who are on diets which obviously never work on them, they worry about their cholesterol, their hearts, are on statins and artificial sweeteners etc (I could go on forever!), I have to bite my tongue otherwise I could become very unpopular ...we both eat clotted cream, butter, home grown eggs (lots of ) cook in grass-fed dripping, goose fat and fat from the roast, our cholesterol levels are fine and we don't put on weight. We don't eat any ready meals and wouldn't touch any low fat things with a barge pole....I must stop because I am about to go on a rant!!
I hope that as many people as possible could read it, their lives would be a lot less stressful. The real tragedy is that my mother like me has always been fascinated by healthy eating (she and my dad are healthy 90 yr olds and knew about simple, healthy eating as described above) and I thank her for my robust health but we both have been through a long ( 30 year? ) health deception along with the rest of the western world, my husband and I also subjected our daughter now aged 25 to the same diet .......vegetable oils, low fat foods, semi-skimmed milk, cereals, margerine ( we luckily but guiltily stuck to butter) and all those additives we didn't give a second thought.
It has taken a long time but we feel we now understand the mistakes we, and most other people have made with our diet...we rarely go to the doctors, we have regular MOT blood tests and ask for copies of the results so we can check for ourselves our progress.
Beautiful report! I loved reading it. I'll bring it up in my next class, I think!
Your body absorbs these things better and with a lot of reason - they're meant for your body. If your bodily readily absorbed poison, you'd be dead.. but here people are constantly putting poison in their mouth. Margarine is, literally, rancid burnt poison. It's what happens when you screw up and burn something. The chemicals that make margarine should never get above a certain temperature or they start ATTACKING your cells.. but in order to MAKE margarine, you have to put these chemicals at this temperature.
And yet people consider it the healthy option because it has less FAT? WTF!?
"Oh no, fat will make my hair pretty and my nails strong. I better poison my liver!"
There was a programme on the other night, I think it was called Britain's Really Disgusting Foods. Did anyone watch it? I only saw the end, but it was about mechanically recovered meat and what can be classed as meat in various processed meat products. Anyway, it explained what mechanically recovered meat is and what it was in. I thought most people knew about this, but apparently my partner didn't because he was traumatised, and now when adverts for meat products come on the telly I find him muttering 'mechanically recovered meat!' randomly to himself, in a shocked tone. I think he has lost his innocence.
I've only just discovered this very interesting thread - although I haven't seen the film. Continuing on the tangent, I once watched You Are What You Eat (the Dr Gillian McKeith programme) and they did a nutritional breakdown of kebab meat. It was actually nutritionally worse than cat food! Even my kebab-loving boyfriend felt sick. It's horrible to think that some families eat stuff like that and even feed it to their children on a regular basis.
I was invited to see Food Inc. at the GFT last week, but couldn't make it. From what I hear, I'm kind of glad I didn't go, as it sounds as though I might have run, screaming from the theatre. I would like to see it though, in the comfort of my own home, where my blood-curdling screams and anti-corporate rantings wouldn't disturb anyone else.........
I took my dog to play frisbee. She was useless. I think I need a flatter dog.
I saw this the other day. The one thing that struck me afterwards is that as with many of these films it is preaching to the converted. Don't get me wrong I do understand that at least it creates dialogue and many people will end up hearing about the issues, but there does need to be a greater education program in most western countries with regards food - I guess this is part of it, but then should films such as this be shown in schools - along with grow your own classes?
I've seen it. You get the impression the government of the USa does not give a s**t about it's people. Cares more about big businesses, like Monsanto (who are evil IMO! ).
England is not a Free People, till the Poor that have no Land, have a free allowance to dig and labour the Commons.
I agree - brilliant film but definately needs a wider audience. We saw it at the 'Watershed' last night- an independant cinema in Bristol, and you could tell in the bar beforehand, exactly who was going to see this film (in the way that organic foodies (being one myself) just look like foodies!?)
It did reinforce my resolve that I am never, never, ever, eating anything made in or grown in, America. It blew me away how amazingly corrupt and sinister food production is over there (and if we are not careful, will be over here soon). Things like E-Coli, the deadly bacteria, which is prolific over there because they feed their cattle corn (because it's cheap)- which causes an imbalance of acid in the digestive system (because they are designed to eat grass) which is the perfect environment for e-coli. Not only is it in burgers (and did you know that there are potentially 1,000 different cows making up any one processed burger?) but it washes from the slurry from 'farms', into the water table, and was found in spinach grown hundreds of miles away. WTF?! E-Coli in spinach!?
And I was wincing because I bought some spinach in a bag from sainsburys last week (first supermarket shop in about a year) and noticed when I got it home that it was from the USA - when you can grow it perfectly well in a polytunnel in Somerset.
If we are not careful, we will head that way. I was shocked to find out that 97% of our carrots come from just 4 mega-producers.
The world's gone mad.
Sorry, massive rant.
"A pretty face is fine, but what a farmer needs is a woman who can carry a pig under each arm"
Don't get me started on GM foods! I think we should rewrite "....the meek shall inherit the Earth" to read "...the selfsufficientish shall...etc".
The problem has already been stated ..it's preaching tto the converted. We watch all the docs., read all the literature and then go back to our 'Good Lives' If we try to tell people about stuff as for example hubby trying to explain why Elmlea cannot substitute for real cream in coffee to sister-in-law ( major social offence caused there!) we can be accused of being food fascists (is that the right terminology?) Try to talk to loved ones about this kind of thing and, unless there is a spark of interest, there's the danger of alienating them to the whole subject. My thoughts are to lead by example and educate when curiosity is aroused...either that or assassinate the Govenment and put Monty Don, Satish Kumar and Prince Charles in charge!
I totally agree. I'm as converted as I can be at the moment - I will be growing my own veg as soon as I have the facilities to do so (but I'm so damned impatient!), but I'm not going to lie - I DO have to rely on supermarkets quite a lot, as I have very little choice. What I do try my best to do (on a very limited budget) is to eat (and live) as wisely and as ethically as I can - I SO want to do more, but some things are always going to be impossible, and some things are going to take time. I try to keep a sense of 'I'm doing what I can now, and when I can do more, I will do more', because otherwise (I know what I'm like) I will depress myself at how little I seem to be able to do, if that makes sense.
I don't bang my drum about things (much!), I try to put ideas across to friends and family as gently as I can rather than being preachy, but I find that I am often met with derision, and usually with astonishment that my family live very well thank you without the latest food 'fads', ready meals and McSlurry. I have a Sister In Law who can brag that she makes her own lasagne (from 4 different packets); family who think I'm 'weird' to read labels, and friends that think I'm 'making a fuss about nothing' when I tell them that no, my son won't have a Fruit Shoot / Popcorn chicken snackbox / Betty Crocker packet mix....but no, I'm 'living in the dark ages', apparently.
Get this film out to schools, to Youth groups, get it on TV sandwiched between a soap opera and some dire reality TV, and maybe, just maybe, people will start to get the message.
I took my dog to play frisbee. She was useless. I think I need a flatter dog.
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