Food, Inc.

Name	Food, Inc.
Caption	Theatrical release poster
Director	Robert Kenner
Producer	Robert KennerElise Pearlstein
Co-producers	Eric SchlosserRichard Pearce Melissa Robledo
Starring	Eric SchlosserMichael Pollan
Editing	Kim Roberts
Released
Runtime	93 minutes
Country
Language	English
Gross	$4,606,199
Distributor	Magnolia PicturesParticipant Media

Food, Inc. is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner. The film examines corporate farming in the United States, concluding that agribusiness produces food that is unhealthy in a way that is environmentally harmful and abusive of both animals and employees. The film is narrated by Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser.

Content

The film's first segment examines the industrial production of meat (chicken, beef, and pork), calling it inhumane and economically and environmentally unsustainable. The second segment looks at the industrial production of grains and vegetables (primarily corn and soy beans), again labeling this economically and environmentally unsustainable. The film's third and final segment is about the economic and legal power, such as food label laws, of the major food companies the profits of which are based on supplying cheap but contaminated food, the heavy use of petroleum-based chemicals (largely pesticides and fertilizers), and the promotion of unhealthy food consumption habits by the American public.

Interviewees

Eric Schlosser

Richard Lobb

Vince Edwards

Carole Morison

Michael Pollan

Troy Rousch

Larry Johnson

Allen Trenkle

Patricia Buck

Orozco Family

Barbara Kowalyck

Diana DeGette

Phil English

Eldon Roth

Rosa Soto

Joel Salatin

Eduardo Peña

Gary Hirshberg

Moe Parr

David Runyon

Stephen R. Pennell

William P. Kealey

Production

Michael Pollan was a consultant and appears in the film. Eric Schlosser co-produced and appears in the film. Participant Media (which also produced Al Gore's 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth) was the production company. Director Kenner claims that he spent large amounts of his budget on legal fees to try to protect himself against lawsuits from industrial food producers, pesticide and fertilizer manufacturers, and other companies criticized in the film. Stonyfield Farm, an organic yogurt maker located in New Hampshire, promoted the film printing information about it on the foil lids of 10 million cups of its yogurt in June 2009.

Releases and box office

The film was shown as a preview at the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri, in February 2009. It also screened at several film festivals in the spring before opening commercially in the United States on June 12, 2009, in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. It expanded to an additional 51 theaters in large cities in the U.S. and Canada on June 19. It made an additional $280,000 its second weekend. However, its release was postponed until 12 February 2010.

Response

The producers invited on-screen rebuttals from Monsanto Company, Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods, Perdue Farms, and other companies, but all declined the invitation. Monsanto says it invited the filmmakers to a producers' trade show, but they claimed that they were denied press credentials at the event, and were not permitted to attend. An alliance of food production companies (led by the American Meat Institute) created a website, SafeFoodInc.org, in response to the claims made in the film. Monsanto also established its own website to specifically respond to the film's claims about that company's products and actions. Cargill told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the company welcomed "differing viewpoints on how global agriculture can affordably nourish the world while minimizing environmental impact, ensuring food safety, guaranteeing food accessibility and providing meaningful work in agricultural communities." But the company criticized the film's "'one-size-fits-all' answers to a task as complex as nourishing 6 billion people who are so disparately situated across the world."

Fast-food chain Chipotle responded to the documentary in July 2009 by offering free screenings of it at various locations nationwide and stating that it does things differently, which it hopes customers will appreciate after seeing Food, Inc.

The film's director, Robert Kenner, has denied attacking the current system of producing food, noting in one interview: "All we want is transparency and a good conversation about these things." In the same interview, he went on to say, "...the whole system is made possible by government subsidies to a few huge crops like corn. It's a form of socialism that's making us sick."

Critical reception

The film has been highly rated by critics collectively, with a combined rating of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 80/100 on Metacritic. The Staten Island Advance called the documentary "excellent" and "sobering," concluding: "Documentaries work when they illuminate, when they alter how we think, which renders Food, Inc. a solid success, and a must-see." The Toronto Sun called it "terrifying" and "frankly riveting". The paper called the picture's approach to its controversial subject matter "a dispassionate appeal to common sense" and applauded its "painstaking research and thoughtful, evenhanded commentary..." The Montreal Gazette noted that despite the film's focus on American food manufacture, the film is worth viewing by anyone living in a country where large-scale food production occurs. The review concluded that the most powerful portion of the film focused on Monsanto's pursuit of legal action against farmers it accuses of improperly saving and reselling or replanting Monsanto’s patented seed, in violation of a signed stewardship agreement and contract not to save and resell or replant seeds produced from the crops they grow from Monsanto seed.

Awards

The film tied for fourth place as best documentary at the 35th Seattle International Film Festival.

The film was nominated for best documentary in the 82nd Academy Awards, but lost to The Cove.

See also

Fast Food Nation

Super Size Me

The Future of Food

We Feed the World

King Corn

Eating Animals

References

External links

Excerpts from the movie and an interview with director Robert Kenner on the PBS show NOW

Interview with director Robert Kenner on the CBSNews.com political Web show, "Washington Unplugged"

Category:American documentary films Category:2008 films Category:Films based on actual events Category:Films based on non-fiction books Category:Documentary films about agriculture Category:2000s documentary films Category:Industrial agriculture