Do You Know Where Your Food Comes From?

Imagine learning that the burger you picked up from Joe's last week may have been contaminated with E coli. Five other people who ate at Joe's last week got sick. Now there is a report that hundreds more cases have been linked to beef from the same supplier that Joe uses. There is talk of a massive recall. No one is sure what the toll will be, in dollars or in human lives. What would you do?

Would you stop eating at Joe's? Would you stop eating hamburgers altogether?  Would you find yourself wondering about the workings of an industry whose products you have always taken for granted? What do you think you would find, if you took a look behind the curtain of food production in the United States? Do you think you have a right, or maybe even a responsibility, to find out where your food comes from? 

The makers of the recent movie Food, Inc. think you have both a right and a responsibility to know... although they don't think you will be pleased with what you find. The movie points to a whole range of ethical challenges that confront us when we consider the complex, and often messy, business of feeding millions of people every day. The following trailer should whet your appetite to participate in an informed discussion of the ethics of food production and consumption: