Food, Inc. is a visually and gastronomically unappetizing excursion into the world of industrial food production. The phrase “seeing is believing” truly applies here. Countless people have refused to see this movie for fear of getting grossed out or losing their lunch, confident that there is very little they can do about the possible wrongs that they might see. However, sticking our heads in the sand will only allow the damage to continue.

If you are one of the few brave souls who is concerned enough about what goes into our bodies and environment, Food, Inc. will treat you to thought-provoking visits to places of mass beef, pork, poultry, and corn production that the majority of the population is unaware of.

The food industry’s quest is to provide fatter, faster, bigger and cheaper products.  According to the movie’s website, approximately 10 billion animals (chickens, cattle, hogs, ducks, turkeys, lambs and sheep) are raised and killed in the US annually. Nearly all of them are raised on factory farms under inhumane conditions.

Factory farming is an attitude that regards animals and the natural world merely as commodities to be exploited for profit, according to farmsanctuary.org. One of the film’s narrators, Michael Pollan, also the author of An Omnivore’s Dilemma, calls it, “the spinning of this pastoral fantasy.” Pollan helps illustrate the point, explaining that the companies deliberately cover up the process so we don’t see how our food gets to our plate and that we know very little about the “food” we eat every day.

These industrial farms are also dangerous for their workers, pollute surrounding communities, are unsafe to our food system and contribute significantly to global warming. The pesticides and fertilizers that are used for cropland cause soil erosion; in addition, these chemicals cause toxic runoff and emit a lot of greenhouse gases. According to coolfoodscampaign.org, once the food is grown, it is packaged and transported an average of 1,500 miles. That’s a lot of carbon dioxide emissions.

We are so used to seeing the foods we buy neatly packaged and covered with cellophane, we no longer make the connection to how our food got to our supermarkets. Since we are so removed from the growth, process, and distribution of our food, it has become difficult to make that connection; once we see and understand the process, it can be quite shocking.

Meanwhile, multinational, profit-driven corporations are painstakingly hiding these implications. This documentary reveals some startling examples of corporate evasion and malfeasance. Barbara Kowalcyk, a mother whose son died from eating a contaminated hamburger, is scared of criticizing the company that killed her son. Texas Cattle Ranchers, a meat company, sued Oprah Winfrey because she criticized their meat; she had declared that she would no longer buy ground beef from them due to a salmonella outbreak. According to Food, Inc., companies are purposefully covering up their activities in order to avoid a public relations nightmare.

In short, see the movie, maybe even before your next meal. Bon appétit!