Food, Inc

HC mentioned this on the Looser thread but I think it deserves its own. We saw a preview last night.

I's an ambitious,well reasoned documentary by Robert Kenner on the wholesale industrialization of the production of (INorth) America's food supply.

Interviewed are Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food) and it's a depressing portrayal of how giant corporations, along with the tacit consent of government agencies like the FDA and USDA, have taken taken control of food production with devastating effects on our health. .

If it comes to your neighbourhood, go see it. It's not sensational and there are bits (like Monsanto and their genetically modified seeds) that are worth an entire documentary.

Here's the trailer:

As Pollan points out, something is seriously wrong when it's cheaper to buy a fast food hamburger than a bag of carrots and that obesity is directly linked to the prepackaged food that you find in the vast majority of supermarkets.

Of course the "personal responsibility" pundits will be jumping up and down ---they always make me laugh because they never talk about corporate or government responsibility

This is a social problem and can be changed through advocacy, policy change and proper government regulation.

As Pollan points out, forty years ago the tobacco industry was considered to be bullet proof. Look at it now.

 

Let me second JR on this recommendation. I've been doing a fair bit of reading on this (alarming!) topic and this is a good distillation of what I've read. I really believe that this is an important film that everyone should see, especially if you have friends or family struggling with obesity and Type 2 diabetes or even if you just have children.