This movie wasn’t about vegetarianism vs meatism. It was about how corporate food has become, and how evil those corporations are. I’m personally glad it didn’t preach vegetarianism, because that turns a lot of people off. I’ve convinced some heavy meat-eaters to watch this movie, and it has changed them. But they are/were very anti-vegetarian and wouldn’t have kept watching if it had a heavy vegetarian/vegan message. I do, however, think this film was great at planting an anti-meat seed in many people. Leave it to some other movies to approach the vegetarian aspect, since I don’t think it was really the focus of this particular film.

From the opening bell, as the camera panned those megalithic supermarket shelves to the tune of the narrator’s calm, informed crooning, I felt a rush of exhilaration that FINALLY someone had Big Agribiz pegged, though ‘Supersize Me’ was a pretty good start. In retrospect, Morgan Spurlock’s oft-hilarious film carried what should have been a no-brainer message, and it seems Food, Inc. is merely following up on that, albeit in a much more formal in-depth documentary format. But hey, we should already know the ubiquitous sugar and highly processed junk we all seem to take for granted is definitely making us fatter and bankrupting our sick-care non-system.

But also from Food, Inc’s opening, when the filmmaker sits down in a diner and commences to gnosh on, and worse, offer a paean to – a juicy red burger, the tone is set for the film.
Translation? The “meat is OK, touchy-feely, all-American and above all, NECESSARY” message – and the agenda behind it – is a glaring thread that runs through Food, Inc.;the mantra of ‘supporting local agriculture’ is implicitly infused with continued proliferation of veal, dairy, meat, eggs and all other things animal. The vegan/vegetarian message – especially its viability as a SOLUTION to continuing insanity – is, to my perception, completely and conspicuously absent in Food, Inc. If anyone else perceived a wisp of pro-vegetarianism in the film, please let me know!!!

For all its good points, namely calling out the ghastly blight that CAFO’s are (which most of us already stay abreast of via Farm Sanctuary and UPC), I just cannot roll over the pro-meat/dairy propaganda of Food, Inc. Case in point: the Joel Salatin chicken guttin’ scene. Egad! If that wasn’t enough to turn the stomach of even the heartiest of chicken eaters, I’ll eat my hat!

Picture this: Mom brings the kids to see the film. When it gets to the part where Salatin’s assistant is shoving gentle white hens headfirst into a metal funnel, then slitting their throats, Mom fails to cover Junior’s eyes, then is left with the difficult task of later explaining repeatedly that “yes, son, chickens have to be killed for us to eat them; it’s perfectly acceptable to shove them into a cone-shaped vise while other chickens watch. It’s normal for men to cut their throats, and of course after the blood is drained, they go into a tank of boiling water. We can’t eat the feathers.”

OK, so I’m ranting, but having had chickens as pets (roadside rescue!) for most of the past year, I found those scenes chilling and deeply hurtful, yet I’m glad they were in the film; who knows? Maybe somebody ELSE will stop eating chicken as a result of seeing that!

But I guess we should sit still and swallow ‘grass-fed happy meat’ propaganda hook, line and sinker, because after all, we present-day hominids ostensibly descended from hunter-gatherers who subsisted on ‘free-range’ game, and our genes apparently haven’t evolved much since then.

In case anyone missed the strident ‘meat’s fine as long as it’s grass-fed and ‘humanely raised’ message of Food, Inc., or if I’m being too harshly critical, then call me on it, but I won’t back off too much. Moreover, I urge my vegetarian/vegan brethren/sistren to do likewise. Big Beef can take it; we won’t hurt their feelings.

In fact, to borrow Toby Keith’s words: “we ain’t wrong, we ain’t sorry, and it’s probably gonna happen again!”

Sincerely;
Dave Hopkins