Food, Inc. review

The hard-hitting documentary that Fast Food Nation should have been but wasn’t, Robert Kenner’s stomach-churning exposé of the US food industry is scary enough to turn Ronald McDonald into a vegan.

Shining an unforgiving spotlight on the corporations who decide what America eats, it’s a chilling portrait of how big agribusiness runs roughshod over animal and worker rights, public safety and toothless regulatory bodies.

It’s little wonder Uncle Sam has widespread obesity, a diabetes epidemic and enough E. Coli to wipe out the Netherlands.

Admittedly the film’s States-centric focus rather makes this feel like somebody else’s problem, while the empower-yourself coda is becoming a tediously predictable cliché in this type of activist cinema (“Plant a garden – even a small one!” is one of several patronising messages flashed before the end credits).

But if you care anything about what goes down your throat, Food, Inc. can’t help being food for thought.