Food, Inc. (2008)

An unflattering look inside America's corporate controlled food industry.

Director:

Robert Kenner

Writers:

Robert Kenner, Elise Pearlstein

Stars:

Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Richard Lobb

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 7 wins & 19 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Eric Schlosser	...	Himself - Author, 'Fast Food Nation'
Richard Lobb	...	Himself - National Chicken Council
Vince Edwards	...	Himself - Tyson Grower
Carole Morison	...	Herself - Perdue Grower
Michael Pollan	...	Himself - Author, 'The Omnivore's Dilemma'
Troy Roush	...	Himself - Vice President, American Corn Growers Association
Larry Johnson	...	Himself - Center for Crops Utilization Research, Iowa State University
Allen Trenkle	...	Himself - Ruminant Nutrition Expert, Iowa State University
Barbara Kowalcyk	...	Herself - Food Safety Advocate
Patricia Buck	...	Herself - Food Safety Advocate, Barbara's Mom
Diana DeGette	...	Herself - Representative, Colorado
Phil English	...	Himself - Representative - Pennsylvania, Co-Sponsor of Kevin's Law
Eldon Roth	...	Himself - Founder of BPI
Maria Andrea Gonzalez	...	Herself - Mother
Rosa Soto	...	Herself - California Center for Public Health Advocacy

Storyline

The current method of raw food production is largely a response to the growth of the fast food industry since the 1950s. The production of food overall has more drastically changed since that time than the several thousand years prior. Controlled primarily by a handful of multinational corporations, the global food production business - with an emphasis on the business - has as its unwritten goals production of large quantities of food at low direct inputs (most often subsidized) resulting in enormous profits, which in turn results in greater control of the global supply of food sources within these few companies. Health and safety (of the food itself, of the animals produced themselves, of the workers on the assembly lines, and of the consumers actually eating the food) are often overlooked by the companies, and are often overlooked by government in an effort to provide cheap food regardless of these negative consequences. Many of the changes are based on advancements in science and ...

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Plot Keywords:

food | food industry | vegan | farming | gluttony | 

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Taglines:

Hungry For Change?

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Genres:

Documentary

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for some thematic material and disturbing images

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 July 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

P.O.V. Food, Inc. episode #23.1

Filming Locations:

Kentucky, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$60,513, 14 June 2009, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$4,417,124, 20 November 2009

Company Credits

Production Co:

Magnolia Pictures, Participant Media, River Road Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

On the Region 1 DVD packaging, the UPC bar-code on the cow is different from the one shown on the theatrical poster. The poster bar-code is 4-73762-52481-6-(18). The bar-code on the Region 1 DVD packaging is the same as the DVD's actual product bar-code on the back cover: 8-76964-00216-5. As of 2017, he bar-code used on the poster is not an active code.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000.

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Connections

References SpongeBob SquarePants (1999)

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Soundtracks

This Land Is Your Land
Words & Music by Woody Guthrie
Published by TRO - Ludlow Music, Inc. (BMI)
Performed by Bruce Springsteen
Courtesy of Columbia Records
By arrangement with SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT

User Reviews

Food Fight

"Faster, fatter, bigger, cheaper." A farmer describes fast food folly.

Although I would like to call Food, Inc. a horror film, I must relax my delicate eating sensibilities to call it a disturbing documentary. Images of little chickens hanging like laundry on conveyor cables above fast-moving assembly lines and cows patiently standing knee high in feces have changed my attitude toward grilling.

Robert Kenner's Food, Inc. isn't half the fun of a Michael Moore doc in which the infamous director savages everyone from auto execs to neocons. Kenner is more credible because he doesn't viciously pursue any one official, just the food industry itself (and McDonald's more than any other), which has become oligarchic and impersonal, endangering the quality and safety of consumers. Unlike Moore, Kenner has no sense of humor.

Like almost all documentarians, Kenner smartly offers ways to change the barbaric methods and marketing of food. In truth too little praise is given to the food giants that have provided good nutrition and cheaper food in an amazing harvesting that can feed the world. Narrator/interviewer Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and scientist Michael Pollan (UC Berkeley) modestly present their cases for food abuse such as the demand in corporations like McDonalds for "faster, fatter, bigger, cheaper."

On the point of treating animals with kindness, the documentary has encouraged me to consider vegetables.