We Feed the World

The documentary of the title "We Feed the World" is a mixed bag. It is graphic at parts, and very upsetting, but I think they drop the ball overall in editing and who they interview.

It's about how the world has changed to be more industrialized in food and agriculture. How the little guy is being forced out and the big bad corporation is coming in, under selling everyone and making a worse product. All of which is true. But they waste time and energy talking in several sections how what the corporations produce have less flavor and taste because of the things they do to the animals and crops. Fine, I will agree that that is a bad thing, but on the larger scale who really cares if my tomato isn't as flavorful as it could be when there are 100,000 people dying everyday of starvation, as they say in the doc.

They waste time waxing and waining about the little picture and not stepping back often enough to discuss what this means for the world and for us as human beings. They don't even go into all that they are injecting in our food that's making us sick and change how our bodies function, but then again it clocks in at 90 minutes, if they tried to broaden their scope they would just end up being "The Corporation" an excellent documentary, one of the best I've ever seen, but is easily 3 hours.

They touch on farming, and on the fishing industry but by far the most awing is when they turn the camera on a chicken "farm" Its strange to see eggs being handled by machines with live chicks inside them. Never being touched by the hen or a human hand until its hatched, which even then they are thrown and dropped into machines like they were grain. There are long stretches in the film where no one speaks, you just watch as the industry unfolds in front of you, sometimes with aw, but mostly with disgust and anger.

The best part, or at least the part of the film that struck me the hardest was when they were interviewing the CEO of Nestle. He's a cold calculating man who someone should put in his place, one way or another. He demonizes people who say that water is a free right, anyone should be able to have water, where he thinks it should be privatized. Which to me begs the question, yes his company makes many products, the 24th largest company in the world, and I understand that if I want to buy some of their products I have to pay for them, so my question is, does he think that his company makes water? If so then I would say, sure bottle it and sell it. But what he refers to is sick, he wants to go into somewhere where there is a river, set up a bottling plant and start stealing the water out of the river and selling it. Without paying to do so, since water is free, but yet he turns around and sells it like its now his property. He wants both sides of the coin, for water to be free for him to take, but privatized for him to sell. If this disgusting show of whats wrong with the world interests you watch another doc. that deals with water exclusively called "Flow: For Love of Water"

Overall it was a good film, but needed tighter editing and a stronger message, it was to middle of the road to have a positive polarizing effect of getting someone to stand up and say I'm going to do something, this is enough. 6/10 stars.