Food, inc.

Robert Kenner, the creator of Food, Inc., probably sees himself as an organic documentary-maker rather than a big-brand producer.

His hour-and-a-half survey of American agri-business practices comprises a half-dozen small case studies. They are constructed to add up to a damning indictment, with chapter headings and final notes to guide consumers' comprehension of the evils being done by the capitalist top dogs in their food chain.

Chicken production houses akin to mushroom farms. A meat manufacturing cartel which cannot be given that name. Lobbyists and executives who run the industry's regulatory bodies. Chemical giants that control a whole crop, as Monsanto does through soybean patent laws. Industrial efficiencies that now lead quicker to disease and epidemics. The phenomenal cost to the US and the world of subsidising American corn over-production. One can almost hear subliminal boos in the folksy musical soundtrack.

Kenner does offer some balance, some cheering news. Ironically, it is Wal-Mart that emerges with pass marks, because it embraced organic products in its market-savvy way. We're also shown several ethical idealists, including the organic yogurt manufacturer who industrialised his production lines. He was bought out by Danone, a major conglomerate, and allowed to go on running his own profitable business. There is, or should be, the movie avers, a lot of room for organic products, for a return to hands-on small-scale farming.

Inevitably, there's little screen time for doubting Thomases, and the food industry giants were foolish to "decline" interviews for the film. Kenner doesn't wonder if Wal-Mart squeezes organic farmers' margins any softer than their industrial suppliers. He doesn't expose lobbyists and politicians who line each other's pockets. He doesn't query organic merchandising claims. By screening too much of a free-range farmer's hectoring overbearing style, Kenner actually made me want my food to be produced out of sight and out of mind, in places where I wouldn't see live chickens decapitated.

Animal rights activists have to ask their audiences facts of agri-life and -death. Do we care if our modern chicken gets twice as big-breasted as it used to, in half the time, by being reared in the dark and fed chemically-adjusted food? If it tastes almost as good as it used to, and costs less than it did before? Do we care if agri-business workers and supermarket consumers are also blindfolded, cloned, formatted and prepackaged? It's the whole system that needs radical reform, not just the food chain. After this movie, one can only put the latest Michael Moore in the DVD player, and hope for sharper insights.