While these food films flew under the Academy's radar, that doesn't mean they didn't deserve a nod, or at least a closer look. If you watch all of these films you'll understand where the food system stands today, a little bit about how it got that way, and you'll have some insight into what it might look like in the future.
The World According To Monsanto
Monsanto claims that their genetically modified seeds will solve the food crisis. But this film compellingly shows the unsettling possibilities of genetic contamination of conventional or local varieties of seeds by their genetically-engineered cousins, pointing to a horrific future without global plant biodiversity, where farmers are not able to grow anything but genetically contaminated food.
The revelations in this film are too many to mention. But one of the most telling scenes shows George H.W. Bush visiting a Monsanto laboratory during his time in the Reagan administration. He jokes with the Monsanto management about how they should talk to him if they have any trouble getting permits to test GMO crops because he's in the deregulation business.
King Corn
In this film, Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney drive to Iowa to plant, grow and harvest an acre of American industrial corn. But their hope to follow the crop all the way through the food system quickly fades as their corn disappears into the maw of the industrial food machine soon after harvest.
The movie lays bare some of the causes and effects of the U.S. relationship with corn: what happens on feedlots, how high fructose corn syrup changed the American diet, and how one well-meaning but misguided bureaucrat altered our collective fate because he dreamed of "fields of plenty."
Our Daily Bread
Director and cinematographer Nikolaus Geyrhalter takes the camera inside the industrial food system to offer an unfiltered look at how most food is produced. A non-narrative, hypnotic film with scenes that some may find hard to watch.
The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
The reason Cuba was able to successfully bring their food production up to speed without fossil-fuel based fertilizers was because the people believed in sharing what little they did have -- food, land, and resources. How Cuba Survived Peak Oil should be watched with a suspension of political ideologies. Almost overnight, Cuba was thrown into a crisis by the collapse of the Soviet Union, and it was average people who took it upon themselves to make sure they not only survived, but prospered.
Food Fight
Food Fight offers and interesting history lesson on the evolution of "California cuisine" and the local food movement. It then moves past that to an explanation of former Nixon appointed USDA head Earl Butz's "get big" agriculture policies that are often blamed for the current state of U.S. agriculture. Director Chris Taylor does a great job of showing how a few people with vision can make a big difference. Food Fight is worth watching because it offers hope for an alternative food future.