It might come as a surprise to you, as it did to us, to learn that you could go to jail in Colorado for merely criticising the ground beef that’s produced in that state. Similarly, corn (a cheap, easily raised and heavily subsidised crop) can be found in cheese, peanut butter and batteries. And don’t let’s get started on the shocking figures about early onset diabetes and the E. coli virus in modern America.
To its credit, Food, Inc. chooses not to hit its audience over the head with a litany of ghoulish facts and figures. Instead, with the help of Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser, it unearths a country unwittingly in thrall to corporate machinations, horrific, near illegal farming practices and legislation that is slowly squeezing the independent farmer and consumers to death.