"A must see!" --DineWithDani
When it came out, I was told that it was a gruesome depiction of the food industry intended to insight fear in consumers– so I never went to see it or rent it. Recently a friend announced that she was off meat after seeing a documentary on how meat is processed, so I had to know more.
After seeing Food, Inc. for myself (only seconds ago), I HIGHLY recommend it. Your threshold for blood and guts may be much lower than mine. And with that said, I want to warn you that there are some images of animal slaughter. But, to be honest, I understand that animals have to die for me to eat them, so… It was actually the statistics on corn by-products, protein-feed, dark houses, ammonia cleansing, antibiotics, pesticides and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that made me nervous.
I’ve been doing my best to buy local and organic produce for a long time, but I never considered how meat made it to my table. Here and now I pledge to seek out, support and promote small, local, cage-free, organic, grass-fed farms and dairies. Thank you Robert Kenner and Eric Schlosser for shedding some light.
The final sequence of the film really hit home: It is so much cheaper to eat unhealthy foods; a fast food hamburger is cheaper than a head of broccoli. But we don’t have to settle for what is given to us. We can decide! You vote for what is provided in stores every time the cashier scans the items in your basket. If we buy better foods, the retailers will stock more of it. And the more they stock the cheaper it becomes. It’s a cycle that we as consumers control without knowing!
Below is the trailer. The full-length documentary is available online at Netflix, iTunes (rent $4.99) and Amazon (instant video $2.99). Check it out.
There are different parameters for the terms “locally grown” and “locally produced.” Many consider “local” to indicate products that are grown/produced within a radius of 150 miles of the point of consumption. In some situations, the distance is extended. For example, some types of seafood, to be considered “local,” would have to extend either to the Atlantic coast or Gulf of Mexico — extending beyond 250 miles.
To me, the organic food movement has become dizzyingly, surreally chic. Farmers have become rock stars; the most exclusive restaurants name-check them so much you can almost see dirt on the menu. But before organic produce exploded into a $25 billion industry, before city gardening became cool, I grew up in a Hmong refugee community, living the urban organic lifestyle not because it was fashionable, but because we were poor. I couldn’t wait to leave it behind.
