Suspicions aroused by the works of Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food reviewed here; thoughts on The Omnivore’s Dilemma coming soon), I decide to delve deeper with an Oscar-nominated documentary called Food, Inc. The effect is…enlightening.

First up: the food we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the last 10,000. The goal is now efficiency and profitability—to the point where an acre that grew 20 bushels of wheat a hundred years ago can now grow 200 bushels. Where it once took 90 days to grow a chicken, it now takes 6 weeks to grow one twice as large. Many supermarket meats are more affordable than ever before. What’s wrong with that?

As it turns out—everything. And while I can’t go into all of it here, I’m happy to pass along a few facts and ruminations. Michael Pollan, who appears in the film, wonders ‘What am I eating, how was it made, can I have a look in the kitchen?’

Well, no, actually. Consider:

The industrial food system (you are here) has battled for years to prevent the release of fast food calorie and trans fat information, and the labeling of food products containing GM (genetically modified) ingredients.

In several states, it is now illegal to criticize products of the industrial food system. In Colorado, for example, saying unkind things about ground beef is a felony, punishable with prison time. (Not jail; prison.)

There have also been attempts to criminalize the publication of photographs depicting industrial food facilities like, say, CAFOs (concentrated animal farming operations, which are basically concentration camps for food animals).

The seemingly ever-more frequent (and ever-larger) outbreaks of foodborne illnesses and subsequent recalls are in fact caused by the modern system of food production. When a dozen meatpacking plants process over 80% of all the meat in the country, and thousands of carcasses per day—all on the same equipment—the chances of widespread contamination skyrocket. The same logic applies inside the huge plants processing other, nonmeat foods.

E. coli winds up on things like spinach because of the runoff from the abovementioned processing plants.

Cattle evolved to eat grass but, because government subsidies permit CAFOs to purchase corn for less than what it costs to actually grow that corn, most cattle are fed—guess what?—corn.

The problem here is that digesting corn changes the chemistry of the critter’s stomachs. Enter E. coli, which thrives in this new environment. In fact, E. coli 0157:H7 is a new organism that seems to have evolved in the guts of grain-fed cattle.

Taking these cattle off grain and feeding them grass for 5 days prior to slaughter will reduce E. coli levels by 80%. But that would cost something, so it isn’t done. Instead, the meat is bathed in ammonia to (when all goes well) kill the E. coli.

The typical mass-produced burger contains pieces of literally thousands of different animals, exponentially increasing the chances that any given burger will be contaminated.

Even if you don’t eat fast food, you are most likely eating food produced to meet the standards of the fast-food industry. That’s because they buy most of the meat and potatoes sold in this country, and therefore dictate the way in which these things are gown and processed by the largest suppliers.

At one point, the USDA introduced regulations that would allow it to shut down any food processing plant where testing revealed repeated E. coli or salmonella contamination. Meat and poultry interests promptly sued, and the court ruled that the USDA lacked the authority to close contaminated processing plants.

The mother of a 2-year-old killed by an E. coli burger backed a bill to correct this, named after her son: Kevin’s Law. She and a few concerned federal legislators have been trying to get it passed for 6 years.

Monsanto (the people who brought us DDT, Agent Orange, and PCB) came up with an herbicide called Roundup, which kills everything except Monsanto’s own genetically-engineered “Roundup Ready” soybeans. So they get to sell the farmers both the seeds and the spray.

But the plant’s genes are patented, making it illegal for farmers to plant the new seeds from the plants they grow. Instead, they must buy new seeds from Monsanto, every year. This thanks to a Supreme Court decision (majority opinion written by former Monsanto attorney Clarence Thomas) permitting patents on life forms.

Trouble is, those genes don’t stay where they’re planted. During pollination, they contaminate nearby, naturally grown crops, which then become hybrids. Even though the natural farmer has never planted a Monsanto seed, he can (and most likely will) be sued by Monsanto for patent infringement. The company has a staff of 75 people devoted to farmer investigation and prosecution. A farmer’s pretrial costs can run $400,000 or more. Most farmers knuckle under and settle, agree not to discuss their case, and become Monsanto customers.

In 1976, the year of its introduction, Roundup Ready soybeans accounted for a mere 2% of all us soybean crops. By 2008, the figure was 90%. If you’re eating something with soy in it (or corn, for that matter), you’re most likely eating GM foods. In fact, 78% of the items in a typical supermarket contain one or more GM ingredients. But of course you wouldn’t know this, because industry efforts have prevented GM food labeling.

This is partly due to lobbying efforts, and partly due to the fact that the upper echelons of the FDA, the USDA, and other government “regulators” are routinely populated with former (and future) industrial food industry executives—many of them coming from (or going to) Monsanto.

In the face of such concentrated power, as Pollan calls it, consumers often feel helpless. But as Stonyfield Farms founder Gary Hirshberg points out, nothing could be further from the truth.

Consumer rejection of dairy products from cows treated with synthetic growth hormones has caused one of the largest corporations in the world—Wal-Mart—to reject them as well. Every item you run over the supermarket scanner, says Hirshberg, is a vote that cannot be ignored. Use it wisely.

Pollan sees the reformation of Big Tobacco (in this country, anyway) as a model for reshaping irresponsible industries; once untouchable, tobacco companies are now heavily regulated, warning-labeled, and taxed.

There are farmers out there doing the right thing. Their animals are free-roaming and happy, their crops unmodified and unpoisoned. We meet a few of these folks (and their critters) in the film. Like anything of quality, their products cost more.

And most people do see the logic in paying a premium for quality—how many of us, for example, drive Yugos? So why is it that we cheap-out on what might just be the most important purchase of all—the food that becomes part of our very being?

Farmer Troy Roush tells us that “we farmers are going to deliver to the marketplace what the marketplace demands. People have got to start demanding good, wholesome food of us and we’ll deliver, I promise you.”

Another farmer, Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms wonders “what it would be as a national policy if we said we would only be successful if we had fewer people going to the hospital next year than last year. How about that for success? The idea then would be to have such nutrient-dense, unadulterated food that people who ate it actually felt healthier, had more energy, and weren’t sick as much. That’s a noble goal.”

Under “Guiding Principles” on his farm’s website is the following: “Anyone is welcome to visit the farm anytime. No trade secrets, no locked doors, every corner is camera-accessible.”

All things considered—whose food would you rather eat?