Food, Inc. Wow.

I eat animals just about everyday.  I believe we have dominion over animals but cruelty isn’t included in that responsibility.  I think we should be good stewards of the earth but a lot of environmentalists are out and out liars.  I also feel revulsion when I see those reports about how animals are mistreated for bigtime agribusiness.  What’s an omnivore to do?

I’m challenged to consider how I feel about these things because I just finished watching Food, Inc., one of the best documentaries I’ve ever watched.  [Note: Link to view the film can be found at the end of this post].  I won’t be joining any causes anytime soon, and director Robert Kenner didn’t set out to create a propaganda piece for some organization.  The film attempts to answer one main question: Where does our food come from?

I skip most of these projects when I know I’m going to be bombarded with punishing images of sick cows and chicken massacres only to be told in the end that I’m a horrible person.  Food, Inc. is not about that.  As a matter of fact, one of the main scenes that hooked me was a brief interview early in the film with Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation). 

I expected the preaching to begin, but Schlosser (who I know very little about) was seated at a diner trying to decide what he wanted to eat.  He chose a hamburger with fries and took a healthy bite.  At once I knew I was going to hear from investigative journalists rather than preachy hypocrites.  The experts in this film are not kooks like the jokers that spend their lives getting people to hate them so they can feel good about caged animals or dying trees. 

This movie is about the veil between us and where our food comes from.  That veil is heavily guarded by massive corporations and the American government.  Surprise, surprise, Democrats and Republicans are guilty.  The animals that suffer because of a few companies, and I mean a select group dominating everything, are only part of the story.  People are hurt by this corrupt system as well.