More than a century ago Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, an exposè of the meatpacking industry that led to important reforms. Today there are more and more books and films that look at America's food industry. Recent films have included a fictional adaptation of Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation, and Morgan Spurlock's attempt to eat nothing but McDonald's food for a month in Super Size Me. The newest entry into the food doc field is Food, Inc., which much like the other films gives an overview of a very far-ranging topic.

The main focus of the film is corporate agriculture, but it isn't always slamming the industry. Early on someone says, "We produce a lot of food on a small amount of land at an affordable price. Tell me what's wrong with that." That may be something of an oversimplification, but from an economic point of view it has validity.

The film notes that the way we eat has changed more in the last fifty years than in the previous 10,000. There are a number of factors involved in that change: fast food, genetic science, development of pesticides and herbicides, factory farms. The film spends a little bit of time on each of these issues as well as others. We hear the reasoning behind Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) as well as seeing the down side of these feedlots and poultry houses. We meet organic food producers (many of whom are being bought by big corporations). We hear of the bullying done by some of the corporations to those who don't do things their way. We follow a mother of a child who died from hamburger-borne e. Coli as she makes rounds to members of Congress seeking legislation to enhance food safety.

There are a number of issues that people of faith should be paying attention to in films such as this: environmental stewardship, economic justice, the needs of hungry people, and whether these agricultural methods can help us feed the world.

This film needs to be seen as a primer. It covers many subjects, but none of them deeply. Leaving the theater, there were a number of things touched on in the film that I thought needed to be more fully examined. It mentions subsidies and farm bills at a few points, but never really looks to see if these are a worthy use of tax dollars. Do subsidies help provide better food, or do they actually undercut nutrition? Related to that is the question of the various food lobbies and their influence on the political process. Certainly more could be said about the labor practices at food processing facilities. Much more could be said about the role of government in providing safe food and why that system has failed.

Perhaps the most hopeful section of the film was when it made the point that corporations may be one of the best hopes in making things better. Now that people are asking for more organic food and wanting more local food, corporations such as Walmart are responding. As Gary Hirschberg of Stonyfield Farms (a producer of organic yogurt) said as he spoke about the grief he gets from his old environmentalist friends because he now sells to Walmart, a million dollar sale of organic food to Walmart makes a difference in the amount of pesticides and herbicides being used. Walmart and others are responding to demand. They don't sell organic food because it's a good thing to do, they sell it because it makes them money. This kind of market-driven view could be an important aspect in making changes in our food delivery system. One of the suggestions noted during the credits reminds us that we "can vote to change the system—three times a day."

The overwhelming question of the film is whether we know where our food comes from and how safe it is. Because the film covers so many angles, its shotgun approach may not give us the in-depth answers that we really need, but it serves as a good starting point for us to consider if we are satisfied with the food chain or if we are going to do something (shop at farmers' markets, buy organic, only buy food that is in season, lobby the government for more oversight of the food industry) to bring a change in the way things have come to be.