"Food, Inc." Rips the Shrink Wrap Off America's Dysfunctional Food System

Hopefully "Food, Inc.," the new documentary by Robert Kenner, will do for the American food system, what "An Inconvenient Truth" did for global warming - start a national discussion about something so obviously broken, and ways it can be fixed.

Wouldn't it be great if water-cooler conversations about what we eat, and how it's produced reached the same level of passionate discourse as, say, Dancing with the Stars?

Last night I attended an advanced press screening for the film, and for me it had everything I love in a documentary - it was funny, sad, scary, thought-provoking, and left me wanting to learn a lot more.

"Food, Inc." brings to life the works of Michael Pollan ("The Omnivore's Dilemma") and Eric Schlosser ("Fast Food Nation"), the Batman and Robin of all things bound for the belly. To read their books about our dysfunctional food system is one thing, but to see it splashed (literally, in some cases) across the big screen was something else altogether.

It made me wonder how many of us, strolling through grocery aisles, realize that a small handful of huge corporations control almost everything we eat. Those shelves may look like an endless array of delicious diversity, but they're really nothing more than a collection of genetically-modified, nutritionally void variations of wheat, soybeans, and corn.

The movie does a great job of exposing just how far these companies are willing to go to keep you from understanding what's really going on. Ignorance may be bliss, but it's also very profitable.

Using a fascinating juxtaposition between the dark, disturbing subject matter and the film's colorful graphics, interesting characters, and ironically upbeat music, the filmmaker delivers an entertaining and engaging narrative. If you eat food, or know someone that eats food, you really need to see this movie.

"Food, Inc." opens in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles on June 12th, and then in selected theaters nationally in July. If you would like more information about this important film, please check out the Food Inc. website.

Watch the "Food, Inc." Trailer:

Movie Poster Graphic (c) Participant Media