Food, Inc.

 

 

Today I viewed an extraordinary movie entitled Food, Inc. Food, Inc. is a 2008 documentary concerning the American food industry. It is directed by Robert Kenner and is narrated by Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. The film examines many facets of both corporate farming and organic farming in the United States. To be honest after watching this film I felt slightly overwhelmed, very informed, and a little scared. It is common knowledge that organic food is healthier for you then factory farm meat and genetically engineered food, but I never realized how wide the health margin between the two truly is. The film raises so many issues that it would be impossible for me to discuss all of them in one post, so I will only discuss the one that shocked me the most. Before viewing this film, I had no idea that a company could patent genetically engineered seeds. This concept that a company can patent a source of life seems foreign and unnatural to me. Additionally, I do not see how Monsanto, who provides the technology in 90% of the genetically engineered seeds used in the US market, can run operations like they do. Monsanto has the power, and uses it, to bully farmers into doing exactly what they want and forcing them to either buy their seed or get out of the soybean business. A company with this kind of power and this kind of market share constitutes a monopoly in my mind. After viewing this movie there is no question in my mind that the United States needs to implement food policy reform starting with removing the ability to patent genetically altered crops and introducing stricter regulations in the raising and slaughtering of meat. I encourage anyone who has not seen this movie to check it out.