Today I wanted to look at food advocacy a little more. I thought by watching a popular documentary called Food Fight, I could see what is already out there and go from there.
While I was watching Food Wars, I realized a few things about the film.
1) It never really gave a lot of hard numbers.
2) It's a lot of opinions about food.
3) There was a lot of history behind the United States agricultural system.
I thought the film was a casual piece that went along with the book. I found this to be people in suits talking about food. I do not see this as a bad thing, necessarily, but I do think it does not fit my definition of a documentary. That definition being a film about a process of reality (an example being a film documenting the growth of a farm). I saw this as more of a long interview of people that were talked about in the book along with history of the US agricultural system.
The first thing I realized was the no hard numbers phenomenon. What numbers were given were in quotes by people in their interviews. It's more of a personal peeve of mine. I like numbers. I like charts. I like reading scientific studies for fun.
The second factor I found interesting was the fact there were a lot of opinions. Again, no hard facts. The people that were interviewed are considered to be well known for their food knowledge, but none of them study food. They are just food lovers. Don't get me wrong, I'm a food lover as well. But I guess I need more scientific material than the documentary was offering.
Third, the thing I enjoyed most, the documentary focused a great deal on the US agricultural movements from small agriculture, to big agriculture, to small farmer's markets. I thought it was great to see a history lesson about this because it is not taught is a part of high school curriculum. I was taught it in college in an Anthropology of Food class. I, personally, think it should be widely known knowledge how the food system works, not just for the college educated.
If I were to grade Food Fight, I would give it a B. It was easy to watch, and entertaining. I feel like it would be a great intro documentary for people to watch that are just getting started becoming more intrigued with the American Food system. Like I have said, it is more opinion and history than fact, but it is still enjoyable and worth watching if you do not know the history of Big Ag or do not know who Earl Butz is.
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