Food and Country was well-received at the SXSW Film Festival. It is an extremely well-research documentary that explores the nature of food production and distribution within US capitalist system. The film uses cases studies of smaller independent farmers, ranchers, fisherman and restauranteurs to explore the complexities of our food system. It shows how our system was structured historically to gradually consolidate food production into a oligopoly of large producers who are able to mass produce inexpensive food.
This system has all sorts of implications. It reduces the quality and healthiness of the food supply. It undermines the business model of small farmers - and particularly small-scale African-American farmers. It negatively impacts the environment. It undermines small restaurants trying to produce healthier fare at reasonable prices. It also undermines the wage scale for workers in both agriculture and restaurants.
Through a series of case studies against Food and Country intricately lays out all of these impacts on human life and health against the background of the pandemic in 2020-2021 which exacerbated all of these long-standing issues. It focus on the smaller scale solutions such as organic farming and farm-to-table production that cuts out the middle-scale wholesalers. It sets up, but doesn't fully examine ways in which the reform of the food system can produce greater economic and social justice in the broader society.
This film does an excellent job of exploring the nuances of a very complicated and underexamined system. It is recommended for those who want to gain a more systematic understanding of how we are all shaped by what eat.
