Food for thought: "Our Daily Bread"

If you aren’t subscribing to Very Short List, you should. It’s a pithy, smart and cutting-edge daily dose of culture brought to you by Simon Dumenco and Kurt Andersen. Usually they introduce me to something new—be it a book, DVD, movie or whatever other media tidbit their touting. But even if I am already familiar with what they list, it’s an insightful blast to read their take on it. Plus, if you don’t have time to read, they provide you with handy Venn diagrams showing just where their pick falls in the cultural scheme of things.

Today VSL short lists the new film, “Our Daily Bread,” hot on the heels of Richard Linklater’s (by way of Eric Schlosser)"Fast Food Nation," Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Slow Food’s Terra Madre conference and outbreaks of E. coli in spinach. This film, which comes out in NY and Chicago November 24, continues the ongoing discussion of where food comes from, a constant and colossal topic of late. From what I can gather about “Our Daily Bread,” it appears apolitical, letting you make up your own mind on the subject. There’s no narration and the soundtrack is comprised only of the whirs, buzzes and cha-chings of the machines behind industrial food. That said, after witnessing images such as these I challenge anyone to not give serious thought to the origins of what you put in your mouth.

Check out the trailers—there’s even a crop dusting one that (almost) tops Hitchcock. And sign up for Very Short List. You won’t be disappointed. Even if you don’t sample all the media items they list, at least you’ll appear au courant to your friends and family.