Food, Inc., a documentary produced in 2008, explains many aspects of the food industry that, unfortunately, aren’t well known.

Focusing largely on meat production, Food, Inc. presents the health, environmental, moral, and economic problems with the modern food system.

Narrators Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser interview many people involved with agriculture or food production in some way, including small-scale farmers who are threatened by big agribusinesses, people who work for those powerful food companies, and experts who have written about the problems with the food industry.

One particularly shocking interview is with someone who worked for Purdue Farms. During this interview, we see the inside of one of Purdue’s chicken coops. The chickens’ living conditions are dark and crowded, to say the least. The coop is so stuffed that I doubt one more chicken could fit, and I was shocked to discover that they aren’t exposed to natural light. It is more cost-effective to crowd chickens into a tiny space than to let them graze in the open, so most large-scale companies raise chickens under similar conditions. After the interview, the film’s narrators explain that Purdue fired Morison soon after the interview, and that Purdue was the only company that even agreed to show their chicken coops to the producers of Food, Inc.

Rating for Food, Inc: 5 out of 5The person whose story affected me the most was Barbara Kowalcyk. She explained that she used to be an average, everyday person, who never really thought about the food she ate until tragedy struck; her two and a half year-old son, Kevin, died from a strain of E. Coli after eating a contaminated burger. After that, she became a food safety advocate, to prevent any more people from dying in the same manner as her son. She helped to pass a bill, later called Kevin’s Law, which gave the USDA the power to shut down plants that had a history of producing contaminated food.

Over and over again, Food, Inc. presents the horrors of the food industry. However, just when you start to feel as if you’d never be able to eat anything again, the movie turns optimistic. The last part of the movie offers solutions. Pollan and Schlosser interview Joel Salatin, the owner of a farm where the cows are allowed to graze naturally on grass, instead of feeding on corn, the cheaper and more common alternative that cows cannot digest properly. The narrators also talk to Gary Hirshberg, founder of Stonyfield Farm, a yogurt company. Stonyfield is devoted to treating its cows properly and running a more environmental business overall. These people, as well as others in the movie, show that there are alternatives to eating unsafe, unenvironmentally friendly food that comes from mistreated animals.

Food, Inc. does a great job of educating us about the current problems with food production and offering solutions without being overwhelming. Although some of the images and information may be a bit disturbing, Food, Inc. is very interesting. It is an important movie that teaches people where their food comes from, and the environmental, ecological and ethical implications of our food choices.

To read more about the ideas presented in Food, Inc., visit TakePart.com, and read Barbara Kowalcyk’s blog about E. Coli.