The first film of the 2024-25 KIPCOR Film Series is the sequel to a widely viewed 2008 documentary.
Food, Inc. 2 is the follow-up to Food, Inc., the Oscar®-nominated and Emmy®-winning documentary by Robert Kenner and Melissa Robledo. In the second film, they reunite with investigative writers Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation).
The screening is Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. in Krehbiel Auditorium in Luyken Fine Arts Center. The talkback following the film will feature Ryan Goertzen-Regier, North Newton, who works at the Kansas Rural Center.
Since the first Food, Inc., multinational corporations have tightened their grip on U.S. government, denied workers a fair living wage, and contributed to the global proliferation of ultra-processed foods along with a chemically formulated international health crisis.
Food, Inc. 2 centers innovative farmers, future-thinking food producers, workers’ rights activists and prominent legislators Sen. Cory Booker and Sen. Jon Tester, who are facing these multinationals head-on in order to inspire change and build a more healthful and sustainable future.
Food, Inc. 2 was officially released early in 2024. In a statement made a couple of months before that, filmmakers Kenner and Robledo said, “Fifteen years after Food, Inc., we found ourselves reconnected to food issues when meatpacking plants became Covid hotspots.
“Although the pandemic was the catalyst, Food, Inc. 2 became a wider exploration of the dangers the food system poses to workers, consumers and ultimately our world.”
Talkback leader Goertzen-Regier is the program and administrative manager for the Kansas Rural Center.
KRC is a private nonprofit research, education and advocacy organization with deep roots in Kansas agriculture, communities and grassroots organizing.
The organization works to identify alternatives for a food and farming system built on stewardship and diversity, and that engages both rural and urban people, providing healthy and safe food and meaningful livelihoods.
KIPCOR, the Kansas Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution at Bethel College, sponsors the film series each school year. It is free and open to the public, with a freewill offering taken to support KIPCOR and the series.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel was the only Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu
