Not a vegetarian message movie specifically, since Pollan wrote “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” Pollan and Schlosser being the two main commentators on America’s food industry for the purposes of this doc. The movie is anti-big corporations, anti-food industry status quo, and anti-science for changing and trying to manage food production. The movie reveals to customers where their food comes from, how farmers cope with corporations controlling their operations, the cause of a couple food related illnesses, and the natural way a minority of farmers still produce food. Two things stand out to me. First, there were gasps and murmurs from the audience whenever animals (mostly chickens) were shown to be mistreated. But then when the movie presents it’s segment on a farmer raising his livestock humanely, most people in the audience were still audibly uncomfortable when a chicken was killed for food. This one farmer was portrayed as a good guy who was well spoken. He speaks of the intimacy of animals giving their lives to feed us. It is a very natural thing for us to eat meat. I can’t help but think that it is a spoiled, childishly picky attitude that vegetarians take, which shows how distanced we in the modern world have become from the blood and guts and bones that our ancestors learned to handle. Second, I have enjoyed the History Channel’s Modern Marvels show. This show has focused on food production for several of their episodes, so I was not surprised by the factory assembly line style of food processing today, the genetic modifications and computerized operations, or the fact that corn is so cheap and prevalent throughout the food industry. While there are obvious problems, I’m quite cynical of the movie’s approach in generally bashing science.

I thought the movie made great points in the food industry needing better regulations. This includes more objective outsiders running the FDA and USDA rather than past executives from the big food corporations. And also food labeling needs to be more revealing to the customers in the grocery stores. The movie also does a great job of showing natural farming and organic foods in a positive light. With the cost to consumer issue and the fact that most organic food companies are finding themselves under the same umbrellas of the huge corporations, it is still not an easy decision to make as to what you are going to put in your refrigerator, on your plate, and in your body.