The kind flack public relations professional who invited me to the advance of FOOD, INC. also arranged for me to interview the film’s director, Robert Kenner, as part of a group of food bloggers. Some impressions from that interview:

1) Kenner stated that he was originally inspired by Fast Food Nation and wanted to make a film about fast food. He said that many people had the mistaken impression that Super Size Me was essentially the movie version of Fast Food Nation (the actual movie Fast Food Nation used the book's title but little else) and missed the larger picture painted by the book. Kenner wanted to make a film about the bigger picture, i.e., the impact of our food system on society as a whole as well as on individuals. (As an aside, the collective reaction in the room to Super Size Me was "you eat nothing but fast food, three meals a day for thirty days, you get sick. Duh!")




Robert Kenner, Director of FOOD, INC.

2) He said that the biggest surprise to him during the film’s making how much information was denied to him as a filmmaker trying to present both sides of a story, as well as to the public at large. Filmed incidents such as the scene in which a food industry representative testifies against requiring food products made from cloned animals being labeled as such clearly made a big impression on Kenner. And, the 40 to 50 food companies, in addition to the ones noted in the film, who declined to be interviewed for the movie added to Kenner’s impression that this is an industry with something to hide. Kenner called it an “Orwellian denial of information.”

3) I believe that the food companies made a huge mistake in not cooperating during filming. After watching FOOD, INC. and talking Kenner, my impression was that, while he clearly had a point of view informed by Fast Food Nation and Michael Pollan's writingsthat he wanted to convey, he made more of an effort to play fair than other provocateur filmmakers (i.e., he's not Michael Moore and I mean that in a good way) as well as most of the local/organic/sustainable crowd. By not appearing, the large food companies fostered the impression that they had something to hide and invited viewers to imagine the worst. Belated attempts at damage control, such as Monsanto’s FOOD, INC. micro site, serve only to amplify the impression that big agribusiness is not interested in an honest exchange of ideas with their critics. Wal-Mart, for example, took a chance and was amply rewarded. Interestingly, Kenner has done work for Wal-Mart.

4) FOOD, INC. takes the point of view that people don’t know that much of their food comes from farms controlled by large agribusiness concerns and that it’s processed used mass production techniques. That food is produced in this way seems to be rather obvious to me. I asked Kenner if the American public is really that clueless. He replied that people don’t WANT to think about how food is produced, don’t know that food production is industrialized and don’t know about the “notional tomato.”

5) The “notional tomato” concept came up a few times during the discussion. It’s the idea that agribusiness produces “notional tomatoes” that look like actual tomatoes but lack the taste and nutritional value of real, vine-ripened tomatoes because of the way they’ve been bred and raised to suit the needs of mass agriculture. Personally, I strongly prefer eating real tomatoes when they’re in season. But if the choice is between a “notional tomato” and no tomato when real tomatoes aren’t available, in at least some cases, I’m going to pick the “notional tomato.”

6) Regarding chicken growers, I asked Kenner the question I raised in my review of FOOD, INC., why would someone assume $500,000 in debt to garner $18,000 in annual income? He cited a number of factors, including chicken farming having been in some of these families for generations, owning a business is appealing and the large processors playing a shell game that seems to be enticing up front but eventually locks growers into a bad deal because high and increasing levels of fixed investment are required.

7) Kenner emphasized that much of our food is grown by illegal aliens and that this is an issue that we're going to have to address as a society.

8) Questioning Kenner was, at times, frustrating because his fallback position was that he was a filmmaker who was uncomfortable with the issues. Granted, he let others speak in the film rather than narrating it but he also took a clear point of view. That he didn't command some of the facts needed to defend that point of view made the experience less than fully satisfying for me. I guess I really need to interview Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan, like that's going to happen any time soon.

9) Kenner said that lots of good footage didn't make it into the movie because he couldn't fit it into the overall flow. He promised great DVD extras based on scenes that didn't make the final cut. He also talked about some things he wanted to film but didn't because he didn't see how he could fit them into the movie. The interesting one had to do with marketeers having doctors administer MRIs to people after they'd watched commercials so they could determine changes in brain activity. In my 20+ years as a marketing type, I've never even dreamed of being able to do something that wild.


In addition to the information Kenner delivered, the interplay between the bloggers in attendance was interesting and informative. I hope to have a post or two based on some ideas they discussed shortly. If I can get links to their posts based on the discussion with Robert Kenner, I'll add them here.

FOOD, INC. opens in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles on July JUNE 12. [If you've read this post previously, note correction to opening date.] San Francisco shows are slated for the Landmark Embarcadero.

Again, I encourage you to see FOOD, INC. and to do it with an open mind. That means acknowledging that the filmmaker may have a point AND that the film may be wrong about those it criticizes. This is the start of a debate, not the end.

Having seen the film, I'm looking forward to the release of the DVD so I can see the good stuff that didn't make the final cut. And, I'm rooting for FOOD, INC. to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary. I want to be able to (truthfully) say that I've met an Oscar-winning director!