Our Daily Bread

During our first week of class, Professor Brittenham had us list movies we've watched about food production. I mentioned a documentary that contained no voice-over narrative or sound track that focused solely on the practices of the food industry. I finally recalled the title of the film.

Our Daily Bread is a 2005 documentary by Nikolaus Geyrhalter that examined the production techniques of some very mainstream companies. Geyrhalter intentionally excluded music and narration to allow you, the viewer, to make conclusions based solely on what you are seeing.

This documentary touched my partner and I; some interesting conversations ensued. I think this is a valuable documentary to watch. It exposes to us something that is vital to our survival, our food, and the way it is produced. We have a strange relationship with food - it is something we touch and experience on a daily basis; we use it to enhance our lives by serving food to guests and at parties, or only to reward ourselves yet it has for so long been this "white noise". Only recently have we become concerned and fascinated with the way our food makes its way to our tables. Maybe this documentary won't surprise or inform you in anyway, but it is still worth watching if only for the feeling of not being told how to feel about what's presented to you.

I have included some clips to whet your appetite:

This clip is more graphic:

These clips focus on meat production, but this documentary also examines vegetables and fruits.

We rented this from Netflix, so look it up if you've got Netflix. If you don't have Netflix, see if you know someone who does, and ask them to get this film for you!