96m; U.S.

Director: Erwin Wagenhofer

Synopsis: Every day in Vienna the amount of unsold bread sent back to be disposed of is enough to supply Austria’s second-largest city, Graz. Around 350,000 hectares of agricultural land, above all in Latin America, are dedicated to the cultivation of soybeans to feed Austria’s livestock while one quarter of the local population starves. Every European eats ten kilograms a year of artificially irrigated greenhouse vegetables from southern Spain, with water shortages the result. This documentary about food and globalization traces the origins of the food we eat, depicting fishermen and farmers, long-distance truckers and high-powered corporate executives, the flow of goods and cash – contrasting scarcity amid plenty. An insight into the production of our food, the film answers the question of what world hunger has to do with us. Interviewed are not only fishermen, farmers, agronomists, biologists and the UN’s Jean Ziegler, but also the director of production at Pioneer, the world’s largest seed company, as well as Peter Brabeck, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé International, the largest food company in the world. Erwin Wagenhofer received the 2006 Fipresci Award for We Feed the World at the Motovun Film Festival (Croatia). Other films include Agnes (short, 2002) and his latest documentary, Let’s Make Money (2008).