Food Inc (Documentary)

[Dukefrukem]

Anyone else remember the convo about food we had in the random thoughts thread a while ago?

Check out the trailer and the clip here (http://www.apple.com/trailers/magnolia/foodinc/).

[Kurosawa Fan]

Probably going to catch this at my film festival in a couple weeks. Looks decent.

[baby doll]

I saw this a few weeks ago. (Why is this in the upcoming film emporium?) It's pretty interesting. I mean, it's definitely cut from the same activist cloth as An Inconvenient Truth (one of the people they talk to was motivated by a personal tragedy, and it ends with lots of text telling us what we can do with the important parts in green), but it does more showing, as opposed to simply telling. Also, it's hard to think of a more relevant topic for a film than the food we're all eating. It's definitely worth going out of your way to see it.

[Dukefrukem]

Well I guess it can be moved into General Discussion.

Wouldn't this be a little different from An Inconvenient Truth? There's people that don't even think Global Warming exists. There's nothing really to debate on this food topic. It's a fact that we're eating tons of chemicals and byproducts in our food today.

[baby doll]

Well I guess it can be moved into General Discussion.

Wouldn't this be a little different from An Inconvenient Truth? There's people that don't even think Global Warming exists. There's nothing really to debate on this food topic. It's a fact that we're eating tons of chemicals and byproducts in our food today.Well, the whole point of An Inconvenient Truth is that there's nothing really to debate on this global warming topic, and anyone who doesn't believe it exists is simply in denial of the facts. And besides, it's not like any of those people saw the film anyway.

[Ezee E]

The people that deny global warming like to use the equilibrium and timeliness of photos excuse. Then refuse to listen to anything else that i learned in Oceanography class. Ugh.

[Melville]

I just saw this on Saturday. It was all right, but kind of scattershot and obviously biased. It depicts organic farming in far too saintly a light. I think organic farming has lots of potential upsides, like preventing monopolization of the food supply, being more sustainable and having less of an environmental impact, and especially providing more humane treatment of animals, but I'm not sure how much of those potential benefits are actually being realized, and any potential health benefits have always struck me as lacking any real evidence. The film doesn't really provide any evidence of organic farming's greatness; it just notifies us of the greatness by switching from threatening music to happy music. Also, I really dislike when these movies focus on the "human interest" angle (i.e., the people motivated by personal tragedy), since it immediately clouds the issues while providing very little information.

EDIT: the theory of global warming has a much stronger scientific basis than most of the things being debated regarding food.

[Dukefrukem]

The film doesn't really provide any evidence of organic farming's greatness; it just notifies us of the greatness by switching from threatening music to happy music.

Isn't most of this implied already? They don't have to go deep into the greatness of organic food because it's... organic. Nothing external is added. No pesticides. No growth hormones, which is the opposite of what the food they are targeting is doing.

I understand the complaint about the agenda, but I was way into this before I even heard bout this movie. I've become self aware... by accident. Maybe that's why I'm interesting in seeing it.

[Melville]

Isn't most of this implied already? They don't have to go deep into the greatness of organic food because it's... organic. Nothing external is added. No pesticides. No growth hormones, which is the opposite of what the food they are targeting is doing.
I don't think it's at all self-evident. There's nothing inherently bad about adding external things to food. Adding vitamin D to milk, iron to flour, etc. is quite good for us. And the dividing line between internal and external seems kind of arbitrary; organic farms do add "external" vitamins and minerals by, for example, using manure for fertilizer. Also, organic pesticides are allowed on organic farms.

But even putting those issues aside, you have to weigh any potential benefits against the potential drawbacks. There is some evidence (though any evidence in the field is inconclusive at this point, I think), that certain types of organically grown food might contain more parasites; I'd certainly rather eat pesticides than parasites. Also, organic farms typically have a lower yield per unit farm area, which can counteract their reduced environmental impact.

Anyway, these aren't really the issues that the film focuses on. It doesn't really spend any time at all talking about pesticides or growth hormones. It has more to say about how the food industry is being monopolized by a few companies, how modern slaughtering methods can lead to contamination of meat, how animals are mistreated in factory farms, and how unhealthy foods are heavily subsidized by the government, which leads to cheaper food being more unhealthy, which leads to mass obesity amongst poor people.

[Dukefrukem]

I'd certainly rather eat pesticides than parasites.

Not me.

Watched this yesterday and loved it. Well done.