The words "local," "seasonal," "farm-raised" and "organic"get a lot of play in columns like this. But the grim reality is that most of the 47,000 or so products that crowd American supermarket shelves have been shipped in from around the globe, are more likely to come from an industrial plant than a farm, and have been exposed to an alarming array of chemicals. Produced by a handful of multi-national corporations, food today is raised on a small amount of land for an affordable price in conditions that are often so shocking you might reconsider picking up that boneless chicken breast, that fast-food hamburger or that bagged spinach.

Food Inc. is playing at AMC Forum.

This is the theme of Food Inc., which opened in theatres yesterday. The documentary has the food world not just buzzing, but pumping fists. On Twitter, it is getting raves from the likes of nutrition and public health professor Marion Nestle, The New York Times' Mark Bittman and The Atlantic's Corby Kummer. Martha Stewart was so moved by it that she arranged a viewing for her entire staff.

 Food Inc. is narrated by two of the food world's most highly regarded experts in industrialized agriculture: Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and a co-producer of the film, and Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. There's even a companion guide book: Food Inc.: A Participant Guide: How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer - And What You Can Do About It.

The Canadian food industry is not as massive as that of the U.S., but it, too, has problems (let's not forget the Maple Leaf Plant listeria outbreak of 2008), which makes this American documentary relevant for Canadians as well.

Food Inc. is a must-see for everyone if only to understand how far removed we've become from the food we eat and discover what's happening behind the closed doors of chicken houses, hog farms, slaughtering facilities and processing plants.

The film is not for the faint of heart. Animal abuse is too timid a term for what goes on in factory farming. I've visited foie-gras farms, and they are pure luxury next to the chicken houses in Nebraska. Birds are sick and filthy, squealing hogs never see the light of day, steers wallow knee-deep in feces. Even the sight of pesticide-sprayed crops can make you queasy.

The issue of E.coli poisoning is brought up in the film's most poignant scenes, which show Barbara Kowalcyk, whose 2 1/2-year-old son Kevin died after eating a hamburger with E.coli, working tirelessly to help the USDA gain back its power to shut down plants that produce contaminated meat. There's the abuse of factory employees, most of them illegal immigrants doing the dirty work under constant threat of deportation.

And where is the government in all this?

Between the sheets with the corporations, the film argues, as so many top officials at government regulatory agencies of the USDA and FDA have held positions at agribusiness companies like seed producer Monsanto and Smithfield Farms. During the Bush administration, the USDA chief of staff was the former chief lobbyist for the beef industry in Washington. None of the big multi-national companies featured in the film would give interviews to the film-makers.

And though charismatic organic farmer Joel Salatin is the voice of reason, not everyone is willing to pay a premium for organic produce or take the time to drive to their local farm (after I wrote about two organic farms in the Laurentians in this space last week, the resulting number of visitors was lacklustre).

There's no denying the mass production of foodstuffs is in direct relation to demand. The average American eats more than 200 pounds of meat a year, which explains why 32,000 hogs are slaughtered daily at the Smithfield Hog Processing Plant in North Carolina, and more than 30 per cent of all U.S. land is used to grow corn, which feeds everything from cattle to salmon and produces the ubiquitous high-fructose corn syrup.

Despite the shocking depiction of the American food industry, the documentary ends on a positive note, showing how organic products are now the fastest-growing food segment in the industry at an increase of 20 per cent annually, and how multi-nationals like Danone, Kelloggs and Colgate are acquiring organic brands that now line the shelves of powerhouse retailers like Walmart.

The film concludes with suggestions for consumers to help change industry practices by "voting with their forks," eating less meat, avoiding fast food, going to farmers' markets, getting better lunch programs in schools, planting a garden.

Great suggestions, and, yes, consumers can bring about change by boycotting products by multi-national corporations that engage in horrendous practices. But with these problems so deeply tied to government regulations, lobbyists and big business, Food Inc. is a film that should be viewed first and foremost by members of congress, chief among them, that American burger lovin' president, Barack Obama.