The True Cost of Food (2004)
Sierra Club's Sustainable Consumption Committee
15 minutes
www.truecostoffood.com
The True Cost of Food, a production of Free Range Graphics (makers of www.themeatrix.com), is a 15-minute animated short that contrasts the Wal-Martized industrial food market with local and organic food systems, illustrated by a farmers market. The film's imagery and graphic depiction of the corporate industrial food complex provide solid fodder for discussion and analysis.
Highlighting food items like industrial tomatoes and factory farmed meat, The True Cost of Food offers a stark depiction of the true, and more often than not, hidden cost of the food we eat. Unfortunately, by featuring a white, middle-class mom who does all the shopping and cooking, the video steers clear of the issues regarding access and justice in the food systems it contrasts. The True Cost of Food is accompanied by a comprehensive discussion guide that supplies educators with resources and topics for further dialogue.
Future of Food (2003)
Deborah Koons Garcia and Lily Films
www.futureoffood.com
Produced and directed by Deborah Koons Garcia, Future of Food is a beautifully crafted documentary that spans from Canada to Mexico, bringing together several key parts of the battle against biotech corporations and genetically engineered foods. While providing a concise history of industrial agriculture, Future of Food extensively details the commodification of life embedded in the United States' intellectual property rights regime. The story of Percy Schmieser, the Canadian canola farmer who was sued by Monsanto, is particularly illuminating.