Greening Austin Daily

Free Showing of Food Inc. Today

19th April, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

Today is the free showing of Food Inc. at the Alamo on Anderson Lane.

I recently watched Food Inc. after hearing about it from Carsi.  Specifically she mentioned that the movie portrayed chickens who had been so genetically modified they couldn’t stand upright, which sounded so crazy I wanted to see it for myself.  The movie did show that, as well as chickens closely clustered together in a filthy pen – and this was in the facilities where the chickens had more fresh air via mesh screens, not the completely closed-up facilities where the movie says most chickens are raised.  I enjoyed the movie and would recommend seeing it, but I think I had higher expectations for it because everyone was raving about it.  It did a very good job of noting that most food production is controlled by a handful of companies.  It also did a very good job pointing out how many items have corn by-products in them, and seeing the movie has made me more likely to analyze food labels to discern what’s really in the processed foods I eat.

I think my biggest problem with the movie was the number of issues it tried to tackle in a short time span.  It was like 5 documentaries rolled into 1, and could have done a more complete job of explaining each issue if it had been split up.  For example, the movie talked a lot about why corn fed diets are not as good as all grass diets for cows, and then at the end calls on viewers to buy organic.  But for one of the final conclusions of the movie to be “buy organic,” there could have been more detail about the chemicals these companies use on our food and the byproducts that remain on our food when we take it home from the grocery store – to me those reasons are more compelling to eating organic.  But for an introduction to the agricultural business, the movie did a very good job, and it’s influenced a lot of people.  If you haven’t seen it yet, what better way to enjoy it than at the Alamo for free – check it out!