Thanks Nina for posting the trailor of Food, Inc. last month and for folk’s comments.

I recently had the fortune to join a group of community members from Boston’s Moishe/Kavod House Food Justice Campaign for a screening of the film. Here’s my review of the film–the good, the bad, and the ugly:

• I was first struck that the film would make an excellent education tool for students in grades 5-12 and beyond. Robert Kenner divides the film into chapters that do a nice job framing and connecting the dots on the key industries in our current food system–livestock issues, genetically modified organisms (GMO), the hidden costs of food and the ubiquity of corn. Showing this in health, science, political science or other classes would be a great way to provide students with a primer on where food comes from as well as a powerful, if at times graphic, illustration of what’s wrong with it.

• It would also be a productive tool for anyone that uses the popular education model. A friend of mine commented that this is the first time he’s seen a publication connect the dots between the core “issues” of big agriculture, big oil, big pharmaceuticals and big genetics–this connecting of dots goes a long way towards reshaping the way people think about the food issue from one in isolation to one that is more about reshaping a society that currently relies on unhealthfulness, fossil-fuel energy, and large corporate dominance to maintain its wealth.

• Gary Hirschberg (see Lisa Fine’s great interview), a native New Englander who sees his Judaism as more about politics than faith, plays a hybrid businessman/radical in the film. At once the founder of the radical New Alchemy Institute at Hampshire College and now a full-fledged supporter of the organic-ization of Wal-Mart, Hirschberg supports the sales of brands such as Stoneyfield, Kashi and Odwalla to corporations such as Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, Pepsi and others to take advantage of economies of scale. I appreciate Hirschberg’s role in the film, and see the integration sustainable foods into the industry as a critical step. However, I hoped for more insight into what I/we can do than his affirmation of Marion Nestle’s cliche “vote with your fork.” For instance, what would it take to transition other companies to Stoneyfield’s economically and ecologically successful business model?

• While I’ve been involved in sustainability work for years, I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma or Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation. Food Inc. was essentially a combination of Pollan and Schlosser’s arguments in a different media, and while I haven’t read either work, I learned next to nothing about the issues themselves. The only new issue for me was on the blacklisting of seed cleaners, farmers, and others resisting the pressure to convert to large-scale GMO food production. As Jenna Levy (Adamah ’04) pointed out, it’s amazing that blacklisting hasn’t made it into the public sphere yet because it attacks a fundamental American right to choose our livelihood. The rest of the film felt circa 2006 (a result of Kenner’s six  years developing the film?). This doesn’t mean that other issues aren’t new to folks, but that the branding of the film itself may alienate people who are less aware of our problematic food system.

• The film, playing predominantly at independent theaters in major metropolitan areas, isn’t particularly appealing to the mainstream American. The documentary, who’s cover is of a steer with a life-sized bar code, describes itself as lifting “the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA.” If you don’t already have a critical lens around corporate America and our food system, I can’t imagine that you would voluntarily pay $10 to see the film. Perhaps a new format will increase access to the issues, but I’m unclear if these numbers will be statistically significant.

• What most disappointed me was that Kenner and many interviewees identified “vote with your fork” as the single most powerful act to take. Although the film connected the dots across diverse issues, it neglected to address the serious economic and social disparities created by our food system–the regular immigration raids that tear apart families, the 1 in 2 chance of U.S. minority children born after 2000 getting type II diabetes (barely improved at 1 in 3 for the general populace), the aging farmers forced out of their livelihood and without the financial or social capital to transition to other careers, and others. Many people have begun to identify powerful solutions to address these disparities–from Shira and Yuval Potash’s film Food Stamped, to the inordinate press about the mistreatment of workers by  Jewish leaders at Agriprocessors, to the many Boston-area synagogues like Nehar Shalom that are leveraging their buying power to establish community CSA’s. Food Inc. could have at least touched on these disparities and provided more insightful action items. It is true that education is often a necessary first step to developing a critical consciousness.

• But the film didn’t forget to address the issue of “what next”–it suggests a “what next” that is eerily similar to the immigration raids at corporate food production facilities: don’t address the root cause, punish the individual. Popularized by the “Reagan Revolution,” this stance has us dangerously avoid the fundamental question of why our food system is out of balance. In many ways, the Jewish tradition provides an antidote for us: communal responsibility. What happens when an entire community joins together to get congregation to source local produce, eat humanely raised chicken and avoid all beef? When, instead of a single mother advocating for “Kevin’s Bill” for food safety, this same woman organizes victims’ families and allies across the country to pass this same bill? Organizing our communities around issues that are important to us help us to fulfill this Jewish responsibility.

Overall the film was a mixed bag but has its place–a great educational tool for addressing and connecting the diverse problems with the food system, while also leaving a lot be desired in terms of new content and powerful action steps.

But I’m just one person. What do YOU think?

1. Decide for yourself and organize a group screening in your area. Many cities such as Boston are even offering free screenings.
2. Share your thoughts on the film: What did you find most powerful? Least compelling? What place does this film have in a larger effort to mainstream this movement? Are you/how are you going to change your actions after seeing the film?
3. And most importantly, share what your community is doing. How has your community organized around the issue? What motivates people to get involved? Learn about my community’s Food Justice Campaign.