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Subjects (65)
Environment and Conservation (50)

Food and Population (3)

  • Beef Inc.
    Beef Inc.
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    Carmen Garcia 1999 50 min
    A struggle for control of the world food market is waging, and the battle promises to escalate in the 21st century. Beef Inc. examines how a handful of companies have come to dominate beef production and distribution in North America.

    As traditional farming falls victim to agri-business, small producers and consumers are paying the price. What has been a way of life for generations is now solely a money-making venture for big business. In the beef industry, a strategy of "intense livestock production" has been implemented to boost profit margins. Cattle are housed and fattened in overcrowded feed lots, a situation which exposes them to disease. To combat this, the animals are systematically vaccinated, given antibiotics and pumped with growth hormones. No regard is given to the potential health risks to consumers or the quality of the end product.

    This film gives a voice to the independent cattle producer who, unable to compete with the corporations, find themselves being squeezed out of the industry. In French with English subtitles.
  • Circuit marine
    Circuit marine
    Isabelle Favez 2003 7 min
    "All you need is food," the Beatles could have sung if they had been inspired by Circuit marine, a whimsical fantasy about our cruel, carnivorous world. To be eaten or not to be eaten: that is the question for a ginger cat, a goldfish and a colourful parrot which a tender-hearted pirate tries to get to live happily together along with his hungry crew. We can only wonder who will be the next meal on this ship of food. As the ship pitches and rolls to a sprightly gypsy tune, the cat relentlessly pursues the goldfish, and even the parrot gets into the act. But who is predator and who is prey? Everyone ends up down someone's gullet. Isabelle Favez's colourful and humorous film is a tasteful reminder that we're all links in the food chain.
  • The New Alchemists
    The New Alchemists
    Dorothy Todd Henaut 1974 28 min
    This short documentary profiles a community engaged in developing sustainable living methods, including food production and small-scale solar and wind technology, on a farm in Massachusetts in the 1970s. Well before sustainability was a mainstream concern, these prescient innovators attempted to create a vision of a greener, kinder world. "Think small," say the New Alchemists. "Look what thinking big has done."

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