In keeping up with all the awesome press Food, Inc has been getting I can’t help but to post a few excerpts from Robert Davis’ astute look at the film over at Paste Magazine. In the review he compares the film to the two books it was inspired by, Eric Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation” and Michael Pollan’s “Omnivore’s Dilemma” and discusses how both efforts are essential, even if they don’t go in depth as much as he wished.  Below are my favorite bits:

“truly unpacking the systemic problems of food production via storytelling would probably require a sprawling, multi-part, spider web of an epic, like the food-based equivalent of The Wire.” (too true!!)

“my favorite parts of Food, Inc. are when Salatin (farmer Joel Salatin) himself appears, wearing denim, suspenders, and a cowboy hat, to speak eloquently and passionately about his back-to-basics farming, where the sun and rain grow the grass, the grass feeds the cows, the chickens come in to pick at the remainder, and the eventual slaughter is done not only in the open air but in front of any customers who care to watch.”

“Still, if Food, Inc. whets the appetites of its viewers and spurs them to question how their food arrives on their plates, it’s doing a heap of good.”

Do head on over to Paste and check out the entire piece.  And of course see the film when it comes to your town!