I sincerely hope that Food, Inc., a Magnolia-released doc that lands on DVD this week, is able to capture that ever-elusive buzz it needs to end up on the Best Documentary nomination list at the Oscars this year.

Director/producer Robert Kenner has made a very fair and balanced look at the food industry. I walked into Food, Inc. earlier this year expecting a resounding endorsement of a vegetarian lifestyle, since that's what many films or articles about the problems plaguing the food industry ultimately end up concluding. Instead, Kenner delivered a pratical, realistic look at why meat doesn't have to come from questionable sources. Kenner is smart enough to know that most people aren't going to change the way they eat, and as a result he mostly sets his sights on the companies that use extremely questionable techniques to put food on America's table. He goes straight to the source. It works.

I challenge anybody who sees Kenner's doc to even think about eating at McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King or any other fast food joint ever again. Like most people in my generation, I was raised on that junk. I haven't touched it since seeing Food, Inc.

Food Inc. is certainly a better film than Capitalism: A Love Story, in which it felt like Michael Moore was just going through the motions as he slowly lapsed into a parody of himself. Food, Inc. also hit a lot closer to home than another one of this year's great docs, The Cove. Plus, Kenner's film certainly has a lot more to say than The September Issue, an entertaining look inside the offices of Vogue.