Super Eco

Photo credit: Food Inc.

"Food, Inc.," the food industry exposé that hits early release theaters today, is preparing to burst through the doorway cracked by Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma." “If you know the truth about what you’re eating … you might not want to eat it anymore,” investigative journalist Eric Schlosser ("Fast Food Nation") warns the movie's audience at the film's beginning. Says The Ethicurean (check them out—they'll help you "chew the right thing"), the film "persuasively confirms what the real 'real food' movement has long held: the only beneficiaries of our current food system are giant agribusiness corporations such as Tyson, Smithfield, Monsanto, and others like them."

But the food industry isn't taking this sitting down. The counter-propaganda SafeFoodInc.org calls the U.S. food supply "a modern miracle and one in which we as a society can take pride." Agri-giant Monsanto has hit the threat posed by "Food, Inc." even more directly with a rebuttal page that addresses the scuttle on "Food, Inc." head on. We foresee months of irate blogging, demonstrations and criticism—definitely a debate it's time for America to bite into.

The "Food, Inc." web site enumerates the issues at stake:

• genetic engineering
• pesticides
• healthy eating
• environmental impact
• low-impact farming
• cloning
• factory farming
• foodborne illness
• farm worker protection
• food labels on restaurant food

"Food, Inc." is now previewing in limited release and will open in general release beginning June 19 at theaters nationwide.