Contributed photoDeath. Cancer. Pollution. Diabetes and obesity.

If Americans were asked what all of these have in common, most would get it wrong.

The common denominator: food.

This omnipresence is exactly what the documentary “Food, Inc.” seeks to address: the uneducated way Americans in particular view their food.

In this week’s contribution to Mercyhurst College’s Guelcher Film Series in the Mary D’Angelo Performing Arts Center (PAC), filmmaker Robert Kenner gives the audience an inside look at one of our nation’s best-kept secrets – the inner workings of the food industry.

Kenner reveals that, regardless of the affect on consumer health, environmental and worker safety and farmer’s livelihood, food supply is still controlled by a small group of corporations whose main concern is making a profit.

The information and images which this film brings to light are gruesome and intended to be thought-provoking; Kenner addresses a wide range of issues, from health concerns to malpractice, which are sure to have a heavy impact on the audience.

For example, people’s risk for obesity and diabetes goes up because so much of what we eat is “high calorie, sugar-laden processed foods,” and in many restaurants, caloric value of a food isn’t even available.

Food-borne illnesses spread with greater ease because 10 billion of the animals killed annually have been raised in inhumane conditions.

When a two-year-old dies from eating a hamburger, then you know you’ve got a problem.

And how about that cloned, genetically engineered cow or those pesticide-seeped vegetables?

Yum, I’d just love to eat that for dinner!

The consumer doesn’t have to follow along blindly while the food industry points and laughs, either, which is arguably one of the most important points “Food, Inc.” has to offer.

There are ways to avoid falling into the trap of foods that are “too-good-to-be-true” because guess what – that’s exactly what they are.

“Food, Inc.” is showing Wednesday, Oct. 7, in the PAC at 2:15 and 8 p.m.

Tickets are $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, and free for Mercyhurst students with ID.