***1/2
Directed by Robert Kenner.
I'd never heard of Monsanto. Now I feel like they're one of the most evil companies on Earth.
Monsanto owns the patent on genetically-modified soybeans. 90% of the soybeans grown in the US have the gene, so those crops belong to Monsanto, and if any farmer doesn't pay tribute to them, they get shut down. Any farmer who refuses to use Monsanto soybeans but someone how that gene can be detected in their crop, Monsanto will sue them into bankruptcy.
But they're not the only company with blood on their hands. This movie illustrates how in just a few short decades, the food industry has become an assembly-line monster, unhealthy and unnatural, with perfect collusion between corporations and the government to subsidize bad behavior. Justice may be blind, but money can tip her scales. The food industry is so protected that they can sue someone if they criticize their product. Remember when Big Beef sued Oprah Winfrey? Did you know that court case took six years and cost over a million dollars in legal fees before Oprah won? Did you know the vast majoity of cows set for slaugther live their entire life covered in feces?
Just like Super-Size Me made me stop getting the fries at fast-food restaurants, this movie makes me want to seek out organic foods more.
P.S. I am glad Michael Moore didn't make this movie. This is done in a way where we have narrators but I don't think the director himself actually appears on screen. I would hope Kenner or someone of his ilk would revisit the ground Moore covered in Capitalism: A Love Story so we could get a clearer-cut look at the bad marriage of K Street and Wall Street.
No comments:
Post a Comment