What's in the Meat? Food Inc. Delivers

I saw the anticipated film Food Inc. on Monday. It opens in Canadian theatres today.

This film will likely do for big agribusiness what An Inconvenient Truth did for climate change. If you always wanted to read Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore's Dilemma but never got around to doing so, Food Inc. summarizes quite succinctly the pickle we're in thanks to agribusiness practices.

Click here for the trailer.

Click here for the review in the Globe & Mail.

The film is shocking to those who are unaware of the the litany of problems that agribusiness has unleashed. With 60 years of government subsidies to corn and the birth of fast food giants taking advantage of cheap commodities, the farming industry has consolidated into a few agri-giants who have a powerful hand to influence public policy and strong-arm farmers and live-stock owners to do exactly what they want them to do.

As a result animals and migrant workers are treated inhumanely. The fallout to the environment with the release of methane from the multitude of cattle, not to mention salmonella from the manure, is staggering. The health problems arising from feeding cows corn, which lead to the birth of a deadly E. coli strain, and antibiotics, not to mention the fact that most processed food comes from corn or soy and chemicals is well...now epidemic. Diabetes and obesity are on the rise and have been so for more than a decade.

The film is very good at showing the alternatives and reminds viewers that we have the power to vote at the grocery store. Vote for local organic food.

Please see this film. Happily, I understand that it's been selling out in theaters in the States, where it's been running for a week.