> Food Inc.
Director: Robert Kenner
Rating: (M)
4 stars (out of 5)
Reviewed by Mark Orton
More highly politicised than the recent and still very confrontational Food Matters, director Robert Kenner and investigative author Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) lift the lid on one of the biggest crimes of our time.
Forget global warming; when the planet becomes climatically inhospitable it will be too late. Our food is basically stuffed, now.
The villains in the piece are the corporations, whose desire to satiate our demand for convenience (so we have time to keep consuming) have manipulated the food chain to such an extent that purchasing from supermarkets should carry a health warning.
Food Inc. does stray towards a one-sided debate, but then that is not entirely the fault of the film-makers. The reason the film took six years to make is access, or lack of it. Not surprisingly, giant food corporations are reluctant to be trapped by journalists, plus they carry considerable legal clout.
With the assistance of Michael Pollen (The Omnivore's Dilemma), Kenner traipses through the seedy world of scientifically altered animals, the obesity epidemic, muzzled farmers, transnational discrimination and the completely dysfunctional United States political system.
With the amount of brickbats flung, no food regulatory bodies emerge unscathed - and for good reason. The industrialised food sector totally manipulates the membership of organisations supposedly empowered to protect consumers.
Food Inc. may be the best reason to get gardening this summer.
Best thing: The creative use of cinema tools to get the message across.
Worst thing: The harsh reality. Even taken with a grain of documentary licence, the message is hard to refute.
See it with: Anything purchased from a farmers' market.
