Remember Morgan Spurlock, the guy who lost his girlfriend by eating double cheese-burgers and fries? Screen producers followed “the food chain” to make more, such as Food Inc. and Food Tech.

Food Inc. (2009) directed by Robert Kenner

To reveal the shenanigans of the food companies,  the narrator lays out the products from the supermarket and sounds mysteriously like the dead housewife knowing all the secrets in Wisteria Lane. No one wants to know certain details of their favourite meals, but still, we couldn’t help watching this movie.

Risking generalizing, Kenner creates a magical formula that almost applies to everything, proves it with many convincing points. As a result, by the end of the movie, “you might not want to eat it”.

The movie involves the victims, villains and third parties, meets investigative documentary standards. It also exposes all the big brands and brings out issues like industrialisation and global warming. 

Food Tech (2010) hosted by Bobby Bognar

What’s so genius about Food Tech is that it captures the American’s most popular food genres–fast food. However, in contrast to Spurlock and Kenner, the TV host embraces all the giant workshops, wowed by them like seeing miracles.

In the episodes, Bobby Bognar acts like the optimistic Hurley (the grumpy chubby character from the American TV show Lost, who believes himself as a curse), so happy to hop into pickle vats, quake like a duck and even to sample unprocessed soy sauce. You wish you had his appetite and attitude.

And they are right about the factories’ bright sides, such as speedy process, massive production, precise quantity and flavor. While on the other hand, filming to publicise, the video camera easily goes through to share us a sneak-peak of the duck farm which Kenner didn’t manage to get in.

 Out of many food programs, it’s interesting to compare these two: both are made in American food farms and factories, but lead to different views. Plus, they create a fine balance for us to clear thoughts before any meal.

See also in UK:

Jamie Oliver’s Eat to save your life (2008) on Channel 4-4oDFOOD

Julia Bradbury’s  Kill it, cook it, eat it (2010) on BBC3