"Fast Food Nation's" message.

One surprise about this sad and slow-moving film is the number of people going to see it. The title alone touches a cultural nerve.

A second surprise was that was almost all of the viewers at the screening I attended carried popcorn and Cokes into the theatre, suggesting that the audience was made up of users rather than confirmed avoiders.

A third surprise was the "that's how it is--don't eat it raw" message spoken by the fast food chain's meat buyer when he is confronted with independent research showing fecal contamination and e-coli in the meat. Seeing and hearing that "get over it" shrug in a movie jolted me into realizing that more consumers are echoing this sentiment, suspecting that big food is about nothing but big money, and that shopping for local products and at stores like Whole Foods are the only ways to avoid it.