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Food, Inc. Movie Review

I got a call this week from a local woman that I met last January. She was very excited about finding local sources of food. What motivated her? She had just seen one of the many food documentaries that are making the rounds this year, The Future of Food. As a Weston A, Price Foundation volunteer chapter leader, I am always so excited when a new person reaches out to me, with a true interest in meeting local farmers and connecting with them.

These food documentaries I mention, will play a powerful role in pushing the local foods movement forward. They are provocative and really motivate you to change your buying habits. As people do this, we are ushering in a new enlightened age of nutrition and humane animal husbandry.

In early November, a screening of Fresh, another food documentary will be held in Vienna. A panel discussion will follow, with Sally Fallon Morell (President, Weston A. Price Foundation), Andrew Kimbrell (Center for Food Safety), Carole Morison (Sustainable Food Systems Consultant) and others. To see more details and attend, join our meetup.com group.

Last month, I had the privilege of meeting a wonderful local food writer, Jordan Wright, who has agreed to contribute as a guest blogger to Hartkeisonline. Today, I am publishing excerpts of her review of the Food, Inc. documentary, and her interview with the filmaker, Robert Kenner.

FOOD, INC. REVIEW OF FILM BY ROBERT KENNER by JORDAN WRIGHT

In his new documentary, “Food, Inc.”, producer Robert Kenner lifts the veil on the shameful underbelly of food production in this country. Kenner is the producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth”, narrated by Al Gore. It’s now the fourth largest-grossing documentary of all time. After the screening I wondered, could “Food, Inc.” have the same radical, policy-changing influence on business as usual in the food production world as “An Inconvenient Truth” did when it challenged and informed us on climate change? Could we continue to ignore the realities of an industry gone haywire?

Featuring interviews with the iconic food author and activist, Michael Pollan, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “The Botany of Desire – A Plant’s Eye View of the World”; Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation”; and Joel Salatin, real-life farmer of Polyface Farms, a sustainable, organic model farm in Swoope, VA, and author of “Holy Cows and Hog Heaven”, the directors have proffered the reality of agri-business in this country. This is an inconvenient truth of a different kind. It reveals how our nation’s food is being raised, produced, slaughtered, cloned, genetically-modified, seed patented and engineered, and co-opted and controlled by a few mega-conglomerates. Monsanto, Smithfield and Con-Agra top the list of eco-villains.

Read the rest of her review on her website, Whisk and Quill.

To see her interview with filmaker, Robert Kenner, see today’s other blog post.

Jordan Wright is one of the leading food writers on the Washington, DC scene. Covering the metropolitan area for the broad based news-centric ezine www.localkicks.com and the tony high-end Georgetowner, with its hip sister publication The Downtowner, where her eponymous column “Wright on Food” has had a large and loyal following. All her articles can be found on her website www.whiskandquill.com.