The Grab is a documentary that delves deeply into the complex world of managing food and water resources in a time of overpopulation and scarcity, exposing the links between large private and public interests that are frequently concealed from the general public.
Based on a seven-year investigation by Nate Halverson of The Center for Investigative Reporting, the film looks into the sale of Smithfield Foods for $4.7 billion to a Chinese company, the largest deal of its kind, and the Chinese government’s control of a quarter of all pigs in America that followed. The movie also looks into the Saudi company’s purchase of land in Arizona, the founder of Blackwater’s shift in emphasis to facilitating land purchases in Africa, and Russia’s hiring of American cowboys to work in agriculture in a region of the nation that was, until recently, too cold to support farmland.
The Grab is an incredible film showcasing master journalistic skills and the presentation of its findings. The movie explores different forms of reporting in the 21st century, including guerrilla filmmaking, “The Trove” of data, and conducting interviews with prominent prospective sources in uncovering this “grand conspiracy” of resource stealing by large foreign entities.
Overall, The Grab is a significant investigation into a pressing problem for our time. By making connections between what, at first glance, appears to be unrelated food and water events, it emphasizes how close we are to resource scarcity-related catastrophes such as starvation, food riots, and violent revolt all over North America and how we got to this agricultural “bubble.” In a time when we place too little belief or value on such worries, The Grab is an utterly admirable portrayal of journalistic discipline in uncovering and highlighting these findings. Although it is a challenging movie to accept due to reality of our current situation, it is an eye-opening film.
The Grab is now playing at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival ’23. For more information, click here.
