Hollywood loves sequels, but in the nonfiction space its rare for a documentary to get a follow up.
And how could those two things go together?
The lumbering giants of ag business were too clumsy to adjust, the filmmakers say.
Participant
What those companies did have going for them was immense power in Washington.
That became evident after meat packing plants turned into Covid super spreaders.
A complete abuse of that Act, by the way, Pollan maintained.
Author and ‘Food, Inc. 2’ producerMichael Pollanat the Telluride Film Festival.Paul Best/Getty Images for ABA
If you ever needed a better illustration of corporate power run amok, it was that John Tyson-to-Trump letter.
trick the brain into eating more.
That, in turn, leads to higher rates of obesity and diabetes.
Big ag companies receive billions of dollars in subsidies to grow commodity crops like corn.
Not surprisingly, corn and corn-derived sweeteners wind up in more foods, again with deleterious health effects.
This is the ultimate capitalist move, Kenner observed.
It might kill its customers, but its taking advantage of cheap commodity prices.
Food, Inc. 2, however, isnt all doom and gloom.
Far from it, in fact.
The Achilles heel of capitalism, consumer capitalism anyway, is the brand.
Companies are more afraid of their brand being sullied than they are of any regulation, Pollan said.
Wendys reportedly said its move was unrelated to the Fair Food Program.
Commodity crops like corn and soybeans have been depleting precious topsoil in states like Iowa.
But the film shows how farmer and entrepreneur Zack Smith has created an innovative solution to that problem.
He co-designed an ingenious mobile barn he calls a Cluster Cluck 5000 that moves through fields.
In front are goats and sheep that happily munch on crops.
In back of a central unit, pigs root about in dirt, aerating the soil and depositing manure.
Every few hours, the mobile barn relocates to a new spot and the animals renew their efforts.
Theyre always happy, Smith told Deadline about the animals.
They never look stressed.
Theres always fresh pasture coming and theyre excited.
The Cluster Cluck keeps soil in place and improves crops.
Smith said scaling his project is not a hard thing…
I know how to make this work on the production side and weve proven that.
The processing side where pigs and other animals go to slaughter is another matter.
Thats controlled by the big ag companies.
Theres the brightness of people like Zack out there doing great things.
We just need to be able to create a system where people like Zack can flourish, Kenner said.
And its not a fair, even playing field at the moment.
The interest is definitely still there among consumers, Robledo, the co-director, said.
I think theres no shortage of interest in these issues and whats going on.
People have been continuously interested from the time the first film came out.
Food, dare we say, for thought.
