Film review: Food Inc

Published on Sunday 7 February 2010 10:34

FOOD INC (PG) *** Director: Robert Kenner Running time: 94 minutes

THOSE contemplating a diet, or looking for something to give up for Lent, should watch Food Inc, where an investigation into the corruption of food production makes Super Size Me look like an episode of Christmas With Nigella.

Up for an Academy Award this year for best documentary, Robert Kenner's investigation has never been more timely, as we comfort eat our way through the recession with cheap food. Even those familiar with the animal abuse in mass food production — and this film has its share of sickly cows and crippled chickens – may find this nightmarish view of the American food industry practices hard to stomach. American budget burgers are made from cows fed on corn, something their stomachs were not designed to cope with. This promotes E coli bacteria, requiring antibiotics that are passed on to consumers, and an ammonia bath for mince before it is sold for a dollar in a bun with fries.

With the help of investigative food writers such as Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan, Kenner explores the way America's romantic view of fields of corn and grazing livestock prevents consumers from seeing the new farming methods where megacorps control food production, changing eating habits and employment patterns.

A poor Hispanic family feed their daughters on Burger King breakfasts because junk food is cheaper than fruit or vegetables; but what they save now may have a hidden cost in long-term health consequences. Another villain is corn syrup, which has contributed to the obesity epidemic. Other foods have litigious owners: farmers have been harassed by Monsanto for engaging in saving and cleaning seeds, a time-honoured practice the firm claims infringes their monopoly of a genetically patented, pesticide-proof soybean. Most heartbreaking are personal stories of loss, including a mother's crusade following the death of her two-and-a-half-year-old son, who died after eating a hamburger tainted with E coli.

Food Inc's larger point is that change is possible if consumers vote with their shopping baskets. The Wal-Mart executives may look a little daft during their filmed visit to an eco-friendly dairy farm but they end up signing up a line of organic foods because the company was persuaded the demand was there.

How complacent should we be in Britain? Many of our cattle herds are grass-fed, not corn fed, but we are far from compassionate in the way we raise livestock, and our obesity problem is waddling in the same direction as America.

General release from Friday

&#149 This article was first published in Scotland on Sunday on 07 February 2010