Food Inc. – A Review

I watched Food Inc. in the wake of the Supreme Court decision to strike restrictions of corporate contribution to political campaigns.   Already feeling that the hand of corporate American had too much control on my personal life, I almost abandoned the film early and to let my husband finish watching it alone. I’m glad that I didn’t.

Food Inc. is a good example of a documentary that takes sides without ramming an agenda down the viewers’ throats.  It set out to show how the food industry is controlled by a small amount of corporations who have sacrificed nutrition, safety and ethics when it comes to animals, workers, products, consumers and environment.  Food Inc. refrained from using fringe examples to make an extreme point.  Instead, the producers were able to find several people with the same story to support a stance.  For example, there were several different chicken and soybean farmers to who were being squeezed by their one corporate client by sharecropping and mafia tactics.  “You want to sell chickens to us?  Then you must borrow money from us every year to make technical upgrades that you will never be able to pay off.”  The soybean farmers were routinely followed by undercover seed agents to make sure they were not “cleaning their own seeds.”

Food Inc. had its fair share of scary yet revealing moments.  I knew that live stock is often herded together in quarters that are inhumanely close.  But I was surprised to learn that cows are fed corn because it is cheap even though they can’t digest corn very well.   The results of undigested food can lead to E Coli.  The cows are fed corn because the crops are subsidized to such a low level that it costs pennies to feed the cows thereby allowing the beef corporations to make the biggest profits possible.  If you follow the trail of corn, it will take you to chicken breeding facilities, genetically modified foods and thug-like control over criticism of the industry and its products.  Remember the beef industry lawsuit against Oprah Winfrey?

An hour into the movie and I was feeling enlightened but was on my way to complete depression about the times in which we live.  That’s when Food Inc. threw me a glimmer of hope by way of the Stoneyfield Farm yogurt company.  I eat Stoneyfield.  I feed it to my kids.  What a relief to know that I have been supporting a company whose mandate it is to produce healthy food, ethically, that is good for the environment and is a capitalism success story. 

When the film ended, I was feeling that the very bumpy journey had been worth it.  I admit that I have a soft spot for socially conscious documentaries that invite the viewer to join the struggle with specific suggestions.  Food Inc. did not disappoint me.  After the images faded to black, a list of simple tips were offered.  Easy things like “read food labels” and “cook with your family” are simple but can have big affects on families as well as the food industry.  The next morning, my husband and I spent ten extra minutes in the grocery store attentively labels while conscientiously choosing our food.

Review: Good Hair

One questions: how can I keep my daughter off of the “creamy crack?”  Yes, I am referring to a perm or relaxer that turns afro hair into straight hair, (a la Whitney Houston and Oprah Winfrey).  Chris Rock posed a similar question as he set out to produce the documentary Good Hair.  In my post entitled Comedians and Docs, I touched on the issue of well known-funny guys producing funny documentaries.  In the case of Rock’s Good Hair, he did a good job using humor to tackle what has been a taboo topic in the black community.  He’s got us talking about our hair in a very open way.  I’m sure his appearance on Oprah was a big help.

Using the flamboyant, hyped up, super charged Bronner Brothers hair show in Atlanta as the through-line added a since of drama, educational moments and a fair share of surprises. But the movie raises some good points too: why do black women straighten their hair?  Why do the men who love them bankroll thousand-dollar weaves?  What is the chemical process for making relaxers?  And, where does all that hair come from to make a good weave?  The most pertinent point for me was that the industry of whitening black hair is a billion dollar industry with only four black manufacturers.  The industry is largely controlled by whites and Asians.  As Reverend Al Sharpton points out, giving that kind of money away is like volunteer slavery.

Good Hair had a couple of uncomfortable moments when Chris Rock played a buffoon for the benefit Asian shop keepers to draw out a point. But perhaps the ends justified the means.  I was disappointed at the lack of discussion about WHY so many people seek perms and weaves.  Is there a disconnect for black women to proudly love our lips and hips but not our hair?  Also, lot of my sisters with natural hair were disappointed that the movie did not discuss natural hair at length. But that’s not what the movie was about.  The movie was about getting “good hair.”

Kudos to Chris Rock for getting celebrities like Ice-T, Raven Symone and Nia Long to talk about this touchy subject.   Good Hair gets a thumbs up from me because as a black woman, I learned a lot about the black women’s hair care industry and had a couple of laughs to boot.  In the meantime, I’ll prepare myself for my daughter’s style and fashion decisions to be what they will. When do I start worrying about body piercing?

Comedians and Docs

Comedians seem to be the supermodels of the millennium.  They are hosting radio shows, presenting the news and even winning seats in congress.  Recently, some comedians have even wandered into the realm of documentary production.  And I don’t mean documentaries about themselves working as comedians.  They are producing documentaries tackling serious subjects.

In 2008, Bill Maher produced Religulous, a documentary starring himself travelling around the world asking people about their religious views in an effort to understand why people believe in a higher power.  He clearly had an agenda: prove through comedy that people who believe in God are stupid. While the movie was funny and thought provoking, his obvious bias was sometimes distracting.  Michael Moore is also no fan of objective film-making. And while I enjoy his movies as well, I don’t always trust so-called facts presented in such a staunch one-sided view. You can view the Religulous trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdkyLrDpaUg.

Chris Rock’s soon to be released Good Hair, takes a look at black women’s quest for straight , long hair and the internationally multi-billion dollar industry that supports it.  The movie will hit theaters in about a week but the trailer has already created a national discussion about African-American hair.  Perhaps Rock’s appearance on Oprah had something to do with it.  At any rate, the subject matter is both touchy and niche specific – two adjectives that can often keep films from being made.  Rock’s daughter motivated him to make the documentary when she called a friend’s hair “good.”  As a black American with natural hair, I can only hope Rock’s documentary is eye-opening and insightful and doesn’t just go for the cheap laugh.  Take a look at the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m-4qxz08So.

I hope more comedians make documentaries.  It could be good for the genre.  My thinking is, if the big name stars bring people out to theaters to see one documentary, perhaps those same people will come back to see more.  Perhaps they will watch different types of documentaries.