Food, Inc. poster

Food, Inc.(2008)

dir. Robert Kenner

Follow a burger back to the companies that own it.

Where to watch: Free: Kanopy, Hoopla, Roku Channel, Fandango At Home Free (ads); Prime Video subscription; rent $2.99 on Amazon and Fandango At Home, $3.99 Apple TV (JustWatch US, checked 2026-10-19). Verify.Letterboxd ↗

Kenner follows an American hamburger and a chicken breast back through the industrial food system: the feedlot, the meatpacking plant, the seed company that sues farmers and the regulators who came from the companies they oversee. Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser guide the way, and the farmers and workers do most of the talking.

Why it’s here

The film turns a trip to the grocery store into a lesson in who holds the power. What's punk is the farmers who risk everything to talk on camera. What's pedagogical is that it shows a system, not a villain, and ends on what a shopper can do. Pairs with the new book Stuffed and Starved, plus The Story of Stuff and Garbology. Note: it's an advocacy film, and the industry has disputed parts of its picture; the film does show some industry refusals to appear.