EATING ANIMALS – Review

Chickens crowded into a confined feeding shed they never leave in their brief lives, in a scene from the documentary EATING ANIMALS. Courtesy of IFC.

EATING ANIMALS has its title slightly wrong. The documentary should have been called “Factory Farming Animals,” because that is its real focus. Factory farming is the production of cheap, fast animal protein, done at a high profit for some big agribusiness corporations and a high price for farm animals, farmers, the environment, and public health. Whether one goes vegan or not after seeing this documentary, one certainly will be put off eating factory-farmed animals after watching this gut-wrenching expose´.

EATING ANIMALS is based on Jonathan Safran Foer’s bestselling book of the same name and it is narrated by Natalie Portman. Portman is vegan and Foer describes himself as sometimes a vegetarian, and both are producers of the documentary directed by Christopher Quinn. The documentary does make a pitch for going meatless at one point but it is not the whole focus of the film. The film does not get into the differences between vegan and vegetarian (vegans don’t eat animal products such as milk and eggs but vegetarians do), but it does offer plenty of food for thought for omnivores and even carnivores. One does not have to be a vegan to be appalled at the treatment of animals this film reveals. Just having a human heart is sufficient, as being eaten eventually is the least of what these creatures suffer. And then there is how this system abuses the people in it, which is also heartbreaking

Anyone who still imagines our modern agriculture system resembles the old model of the independent family farm is in for a big shock watching this documentary. Those family farms do still exist but now those traditional farming methods are called organic. As many will note, this is not the only documentary to spotlight the high cost we (and animals and the environment) are paying for the factory farming system. Several other films, including 2008’s FOOD INC, have made the case about the unsustainable, unsavory mess that CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations), excessive routine use of antibiotic, and extreme selective breeding have made. This documentary sticks to the animal husbandry side of things but other films have focused on the problems with crops also grown under this same big agribusiness system.

This is not a system that sprung up overnight, as this documentary rightly notes, from some sudden conscious decision but one arose step-wise, starting after World War II, in pursuit of increasing yields and hoped-for profits. Unfortunately, the profits increasingly were shifted up the economic chain to big agribusiness corporations, leaving farm families struggling with debt and trapped in an economic loop. The documentary also offers evidence to counter the false claim that factory farming is needed to feed the world. It isn’t really but it does profit a few politically powerful companies greatly.

There is, of course, hope for those who find themselves sickened by this out-of-whack system of food production. More people are choosing organic foods from small farms and locally-grown foods. However, this film mentions those trends only in passing or not at all, and does not acknowledge the public’s shifting attitudes and increasing awareness of where one’s food comes from. Instead, it suggests going meatless as the one solution.

The approach of director/producer Christopher Quinn in EATING ANIMALS is curious at times. He does a good job of focusing on the cruelty and animal suffering under a system so changed from the traditional farm, when chickens ran in the yard, cows ate grass in pastures, and farmers who took pride in breeding and raising healthy animals. Quinn also does well telling the human side of this story. The documentary follows several farmers, people who grew up on traditional farms and have a fondness for both their animals and farm work, but now find themselves caught in a system that dehumanizes and traps them as well as their animals. It also follows the story of a fisherman tracking the source of pollution of the lake he fishes, which he traces to the large collection of hog CAFOs upstream. There is also the heartbreaking tale of a veterinarian, who turned whistle-blower on a government agency that once served farmers and now conducts appalling experiments on animals for large agribusiness corporate interests, a choice that came with a high personal price.

At times, the documentary seems too far-ranging and a bit unfocused. Among the voices heard in the documentary is Dr. Temple Grandin, the famous expert on farm animal behavior and management, who speaks disapprovingly of the abuses seen in the film but then vanishes. There is a long segment on Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame and his well-known criticism of what his chicken restaurant after he sold the idea but the connection to the rest of the film seems tenuous.

It always seemed a little surprising that the Human Society and similar animal protective organizations don’t do more to insist on humane treatment of animals in these facilities, or to stop cruel selective breeding that creates animals unable to stand. We do see a little on the Humane Society’s efforts to expose animal abuse in CAFOs and meat processing facilities, which is some of the most heartbreaking footage in the film. And the documentary does offer a kind of explanation of why we don’t see more, by noting the enormous political power of these agribusinesses giants, and the rise of “Ag-Gag” laws that keep their abuses out of public view.

Periodically, EATING ANIMALS shifts gears to campaign for eating vegan or vegetarian, presenting glowing segments touting going meatless, although many meat substitutes made from wheat leave those who are allergic or sensitive to gluten out of luck. Ironically, the end credits note that one of the agribusiness companies spotlighted for CAFOs is now investing in companies that sell meatless products. Switching to something made with mono-cropped soybeans doesn’t seem like much improvement for the farmer trying to raise heritage breed chickens sustainably.

EATING ANIMALS offers going vegan as an option for reducing demand for meat, as a way to move away from factory farming but it is strangely silent on other options to this kind of food production, such as the public’s move towards organic foods, locally-sourced foods, grass-fed beef, small-farm free-range chickens, and farmers markets. The documentary has little to nothing to say on those topics, which is perhaps its major flaw. Any one-note approach seems unlikely to solve the problem.

EATING ANIMALS makes some good points, although not a lot of new ones, on far-ranging topics all connected to the problems created by factory farming of animals. Where it falls short is a tighter focus and in offering options besides going vegan or vegetarian as to solve it.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars