So last night I watched Food, Inc., a movie about the unsavory side of the food manufacturing industry in America. And, not surprisingly, I have a few things to say about it. But only a few — no need to answer every twig and leaf when the trunk is right there.
But first, I want to mention a few credit where credit is due moments. The makers of this movie were foodies, but did not appear to be insane foodies. This enabled them to give credit where credit is due. Twenty bushels per acre used to be really rocking, and now we get 200. A century ago, a farmer used to be able to feed 6 to 8 people, and now it is around 126. And there is one visual shot of a small mountain of corn that would make any ordinary person want to stand up and salute. Looked like Joseph getting ready for hard times in Egypt.
Nevertheless, the movie was still a propaganda piece, competently assembled, which means that it was an embodiment of the need for understanding Prov. 18:17, now more than ever. There were all sorts of moments where you found yourself thinking, “Interesting. Wonder why they would do that?” But we never find out. Defenders of the film could say here that multiple times we saw something like the phrase “representatives of fill-in-the-blank company declined to appear in this film.” But of course, when you consider how those who did appear were represented, it would seem that the no-shows had a better grasp of what was going on.
But that is all we need say about that kind of thing. Like Aunt Dahlia’s cook Anatole, I can take a few smooths with the rough. The central problem with the movie is that it was a movie made by idolatrous statists for idolatrous statists, with the main antagonists being more idolatrous statists. It is hard to make a battle between two different kinds of crony capitalists into a battle between light and darkness, but they labored hard (and unsuccessfully) to do it. For Christians to think of this movie as anything other than a significant part of the problem is to reveal real deficiencies in how biblical worldview thinking is currently understood.
Every real problem identified in the movie — for there were some substantial ones, along with the pretend ones — was a problem created by overweening government interference in the market. And a number of times, this government interference was created by the hue and cry of reformers from a previous generation, who were demanding that those in authority “do something.” And is this not the very definition of the modern reformer — someone who identifies a problem and wants “something done” — whether or not it makes things better or worse?
Over and over again, the movie pointed out how the savior of government had failed in its saving duties, and then the call of the movie was for government to rise up and save us. We need an Elijah to tell them to cry out louder. You cut yourselves with knives while you dance around the altar — maybe you need a sharper knife? Bigger knife? Turn the music up?
Here are some real problems with our industrial food manufacturing system — all of which were illustrated and shown in some fashion by this movie. These are problems that do to justice what the meat-packing plants do to cows. A short list: unjust agricultural subsidies, unjust immigration law, unjust patent law, the gross injustices of tort law, and the unjust revolving door that enables industry lobbyists to become government regulators of those same industries — anybody picking up a pattern here? What is the common denominator? C’mon, this is not a trick question. You got it — the iniquity and/or incompetence of the state in such affairs. And what do the makers of the movie want? More power given to the state! We need another regulation. Somebody pass a law. Get that legislation through. But to call for regulation of industry is to call for just this kind of crony capitalism, what I have elsewhere called crapitalism. This is what regulation does. This is hair of the dog that bit you reform, which is to say, no reform at all, no solution at all. The solution to idolatry is not more idolatry.
I will have to write another time on the role of government in all this, for it is an important one. Without going into it in great detail, let me give a brief preview of how it should work, lest I be written off as a libertarian naysayer. I am no anarchist. But neither do I think that the state is the Almighty God, in whom we are to live and move and have our being. The government has no business regulating this kind of thing. But they do have the solemn responsibiliity to define, in a weights and measures sense. The king is not overstepping his bounds if he defines a shekel, a cubit, a Troy ounce of gold, or a pound of ground beef. Define it, and then outlaw lying, stealing, and cheating. That would solve the real problems identified by this movie. And as for the many imaginary ones, we would be enabled to go back to minding our own business and thanking God for His abundant provision.