Food, Inc.

I am sure that, for a food bloogers, aside from their personal, to watch movie list, the movie to watch is Julie & Julia, a story of Julia Child and Julie Powell who, according to Wikipedia, began the Julie/Julia Project, a Web log chronicling her attempt to cook all the recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which the movie is based upon. Now, I don’t have anything against the movie, I am sure a lot of people will go to watch it (whether I will be going to is still on debate). Personally, I like more action and comedy type movies; if I want to watch drama, I just tune to one of the US news channels… Instead, my food related movie to watch this movie season (*) is Food, Inc., a documentary about the food industry in the US. Here are my thoughts.

(*) – Technically, it was released in Canada mid/late last year; however, it generated so little buzz that I didn’t even realised it was shown…

First “problem” I ran into was finding a movie theatre that will be showing it. And, out of the dozen or so in Metro Vancouver, only one was playing it. And it was not Tinseltown 12 in the International Village (near Stadium Skytrain station), which usually shows independent movies. Instead, it was a Fifth Avenue Cinema, a small theatre near Kitsilano. How small? I think there were about 200 seats at most. And it was packed full in the 7:30 p.m. showing I went to! (Good thing I took transit this time, as it forced myself to leave early). Of course, I won’t expect it to compete against any blockbuster. However, at least, I would have expected some level of attention similar to Fahrenheit 9/11 or An Inconvenient Truth. But, alas…

Now, to the movie itself: It is about the food industry in the US and, while it is not directly about Canada, to a certain extent, it “hits” us too when you consider that a lot of food found here are US grown/manufactured. Go to the supermarket and you will see the same brands as the US, even if they are local brands, a lot of the ingredients are the same and, finally, despite a lot of produce are grown locally, we import a lot from the US. For example, without realizing it, I grabbed a clamshell of strawberries from a local supermarket and, when I came home, I noticed it was grown in the US. I was slightly confused at this, specially considering that a couple of weeks ago, there were reports that some of the local crops were starting to rot because “nobody is willing to take them in (on that note, after that report, I purchased 1 Kg of local grown strawberries and, while not as pretty looking as the one in the clamshell, they tasted way better).

So, what about the food industry itself? When I was growing up, one of those “funny” jokes was related to laws and sausages: if you like them, don’t try to find out who they are made. In this case, how some of the food we consume ended up in our plate. In the effort for “cheaper” and “standardised” (for example, fast food/chains), how corporations grow it. OK, let me rephrase that: it is not longer about “growing food” rather, as the movie points out, it is now about “manufacturing food” and taking control of the food chain. On that point, one of the most disgusting topics mentioned was that of Monsanto being able to patent genes of some grains (in the movie, soy was mentioned; in Canada, a ruling about canola) and, if another field that does not use their seeds end up having some of the genes (natural cross-pollination, for example), Monsanto can sue the farmer. And, due to the high cost of litigation (“whoever has the more $$$ “wins”), the farmers would usually settle out of court rather than fight.

And then there is food accessibility: how it is possible that unhealthy food tends to be cheaper, more accessible, than fresh ingredients to be able to cook a meal? Again, in the movie, it describes a family who are always on the run (due to the different jobs to make ends meet), to the point they don’t even cook. Instead, they just go to a nearby fast food for “cheap” food. But it has taken its toll: one of the members of the family has diabetes and the cost of drugs takes a huge chunk of the family income (which, oddly, creates a vicious circle).

I could go on and on but rather than doing that, I think it is better for you to watch that movie. Caveat Emptor, some of the scenes are not for the faint of heart. Likewise, the movie is one-sided, as the major food growers, errrr…., manufacturers declined requests for interviews for the movie. But, regardless, it would be a good idea to watch the movie to have a better understanding on how things end up in our plate. It will not be pretty (think shock therapy) and entertainment value might be nil for most but, as with most documentary, it is not about entertainment…

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