Nervous about seeing a film
Steven and I received an invitation (okay, from Chipotle) to attend a free screening of the film Food, Inc. tonight. The only reason I know what this film even is (despite having read many books by its contributors) is because I’ve been reading about it on many food blogs (here, here and here). From what I’ve read, I get the impression that this movie is going to make me feel sick to my stomach. And possibly very upset. And disappointed.
Here is the description of the film that I took from their website:
In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.
Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield’s Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.
It feels silly to feel nervous about seeing a film. But when I see things like this, I never forget them. It’s like I have a special part of my brain that stores memories of bad/scary/disgusting/freaky things. That’s why I can’t watch films like Saw, or The Silence of the Lambs, or Se7en. That’s why I don’t look at the peta website. These disturbing images stay with me forever.
Who knows though. Maybe I’ll leave the film feeling inspired.