'Food, Inc.' film, panel discussion draws big crowd

More than 450 people turned out on a rainy Saturday afternoon, Feb. 6, to watch the 94-minute documentary "Food, Inc.," released to theaters last June but not shown publicly until screened at First United Methodist Church.

"The film never came here," noted Doug Bennett of Redding, who chaired a steering committee for Shasta-Cascade Farm and Food Coalition that helped sponsor the film.

Rated PG for some disturbing images of animal slaughter and processing practices, filmmaker Robert Kenner exposes the highly mechanized underbelly of our nation's food industry that has mostly remained hidden from American consumers with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, the USDA and the FDA.

Using film footage sometimes obtained from hidden cameras carried by employees working in actual food processing plants, the documentary explores worker safety, genetically altered chickens to maximize breast meat, insecticide resistant soybean seeds, tomatoes that don't rot as fast and new, virulent strains of E. Coli bacteria that currently cause illnesses in an estimated 73,000 Americans each year.

Shasta County Supervisor and fourth-generation farmer Glenn Hawes of Palo Cedro was one of several high-profile citizens engaged in the food production business who sat on a panel after the film and answered questions.

"I was very impressed with the number of people there and the way they are thinking about their health. Maybe now they will eat healthier foods," said Hawes, who obtained a degree in agriculture from Chico State University.

"It was amazing to learn (from the film) how few companies actually control the food processing chain, particularly in the meat industry," said Hawes, referring to statistics from the documentary that only four companies account for 80 percent of the beef, pork and chicken processed daily in the United States.

According to researchers, some of the biggest meat processers in the U.S. are Tyson, Cargill, Swift & Co., National Beef Packing Co., Five Rivers (Smithfield and ContiBeef), Smithfield Foods, Pilgrim's Pride and Butterball.

It is no wonder, then, that we see such large beef recalls as the 143 million pounds of E. Coli contaminated ground beef processed by Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. of Chino, Calif., in February of 2008.

This recall followed two other similar actions in 2007 when the United Food Group recalled 5.7 million pounds of fresh and frozen beef and Topps Meat company issued a recall of 21.7 million pounds of beef, both as a reaction to possible E. Coli contamination.

One solution offered by the discussion panel that echoed the documentary's message was: Support your local growers. Buy fresh produce, eggs, meat and milk, when available.

As Hawes said, "The E. Coli thing isn't going to go away."