Food, Inc., Hits the Web

If you've been kicking yourself over not getting out to the theater to watch Food, Inc., well, huzzah: The whole thing can now be watched online at PBS.org.

The movie's an epic downer, but it's also one of the most succinct and articulate summaries of what's wrong with the modern American industrial food production system, a system that subsidizes cheap, inhumanely produced meat, depends overwhelmingly on corn, is heading toward corporate-controlled agricultural monocultures, and, of course, regularly puts shareholder value ahead of anything resembling the welfare of people, animals, or the ecosystem in general.

Yeah, it's a lot to digest. Food, Inc. doesn't make it fun, per se, but it's elegantly edited and nicely paced, and serves as a great primer on an important issue. And if this stuff is old news to you, it's still worth viewing. The film is a fantastic sweeping overview, and the visuals help make whatever you've read in abstract a lot more real. So grab a bucket of KFC, pull up a chair, and get ready to learn where much of your food comes from. And then prepare to set that KFC down in horror.