About the film

One billion people are dying of famine, while the food that is produced worldwide is enough to feed 12 billion people. This painfully direct – but beautifully shot – documentary by Austrian Erwin Wagenhofer analyses this distorted division. Wagenhofer introduces fellow-Austrians who are globally active in the food industry. From a farmer to the CEO of multinational Nestlé, all of them are experts in their trade. With a keen eye to detail, Wagenhofer films them at work. A waste disposal worker stoically states that the quantity of bread thrown away every day in Vienna would be sufficient to feed the whole of Graz, the second largest city in Austria. How this is possible? Corn is dirt-cheap. “Even de-icing salt is more expensive”, the farmer sighs despondently. At a French fish market, a connoisseur makes an ardent plea in favour of small-scale fishing (“The taste! The texture!”), but it seems in vain: in the long run, the complete European catch will be industrial. Meanwhile, in the south of Spain, tomatoes are grown and sold at bottom prices in Senegal, genetically modified soy beans from the former Brazilian rainforest feed our engineered chickens, and farmers with a horse and cart in Romania have to compete with the world’s largest seed producer.