Food Inc.

[janiejoey]

Give me your opinions, tell me there isn't anything to be frightened of, but tell me why also.

Joey and I watched it today. At least most of it, somehow it wouldn't play in a particular place. I don't know how much we missed, but I'm sure it wasn't much.

It truly makes you rethink how you want to eat your food. Will have a thriving garden next year, and will only eat organic here on out. Will go to our local gardeners and buy healthy food to dehydrate, can...

There is no respect for the animals, workers, other businesses, or the consumer. Unbelievable! Scares the hell out of me. I wonder how long this can go on without having very dire consequences to the human race. We see changes now with our humanity, what will happen if this continues on?

We are in trouble, if we don't do something about it.

There is a way to send a message though. As the documentary suggests, when you buy your food, the bought food is on their computers at our grocery store, and if you want healthier food in our lives, then that's what you purchase to consume. Give the people who keep tabs of our receipts at the store, a run for their money, and purchase wholesome healthy food. We do have a vote on what we want to consume. We can make a difference.

Read labels, buy organic, buy from USA, somehow help pass a law that there will be no dictation to farmers on what to grow or how to grow it...It goes on and on and on. Watch the show if you dare. Remember Oprah being sued by the beef companies? Same kind of thing happening but in other areas of our food chain...grains, beans...so many many chemicals out there, who knows how to begin to recognize them and how they are harming us.

Hope you don't shut your eyes to this. Please watch Food Inc.

Janie

 

[NRG Woman]

One of the things that absolutely floored me about the movie was how Monsanto had taken over our food supply by acting like the mafia with our farmers and strong-arming them into using only GMO seeds. How could that happen. I think it is really important to know what is happening with our food supply.

 

[lrayburn]

I'm so glad that people are finally starting to look at this issue. As someone who grew up in agriculture and studied and works in agriculture, we have been talking about these issues for decades. My father had issues with Monsanto trying to strong-arm him back in the 70s when he worked for a university. I refuse to buy and eat commercial meat because I refuse to support the system. I buy local as much as I can.

Please remember that Monsanto is making it virtually impossible for farmers to buy non-GMO seed for some crops simply because they have a corner on the commodity seed market and choose not to provide non-GMO seeds for some crops. Supporting people who grow non-GMO crops will help build alternate supply and demand pathways and support businesses that are more sustainable and that care about the public good.

Your money is the only place you have to vote in our economic system so put your money where you conscience is.


Lisa

 

[kathryn]

Monsanto is evil.

 

[story1267]

Since watching the movie I've been researching local places to buy grass-fed and humanely treated meat...it's pricey but it can be done. Even our local Market Basket carries a couple of lines of Certified Humane meats.

Now, that assumes you can trust the Certified Humane label.....

Trying to slip away from Monsanto's grip is much more difficult. I've been reading about the 4 most modified crops - soybeans, corn, canonla, and cotton.

So now I'm on the search for non-modified cooking oil, considereing organic cottons (ack! SO expensive), and great googly-moogly these ingredients are in everything.

You think you're going green by making cleaner from vinegar but the vinegar is distilled from GMO grain.......

I was pleasantly surprised though by WalMart and Stonyfield Farm and WalMart responding to consumer pressure to offer more organics. Again, I take that with a grain of salt but even a little improvement is meaningful.

 

[NRG Woman]

Before watching Food Inc. I was completely disassociated from where my food came from. I was so upset by the whole Monsanto issue that it completely changed how I live my daily life. DH can't figure out why I have become so ardent on some things, but it is because if I can do any little thing to work against Monsanto I will.

 

[ellesan]

I haven't watched it yet (just bought from amazon) but I just read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan who had a lot to do with the movie. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!
This year we have started an organic garden, we are raising happy and healthy chickens for eggs, and started composting for our garden. Not only do we know what we are eating, but it's teaching all of us (my son included) to be more connected to the earth, learn the value of food and taking responsibility for what we put in our bodies and how we treat animals. Not to mention learning where food really comes from and taking responsibility to feed/water and care for something.

Farmer's markets are finally open here and whatever we can't grow, we'll purchase there. It is more expensive, but totally worth voting for health conscious and ethical food and products.

I think it's important to encourage people to just make one small change--be more conscious of where their food comes from, start a small herb or veggie garden, support local farmers, etc. It can be overwelming when you look at the big picture.

Favorite Michael Pollan quotes:

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

"The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature halfway."

"The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world. "

"You are what what you eat eats."

"The shared meal elevates eating from a mechanical process of fueling the body to a ritual of family and community, from the mere animal biology to an act of culture."

"While it is true that many people simply can't afford to pay more for food, either in money or time or both, many more of us can. After all, just in the last decade or two we've somehow found the time in the day to spend several hours on the internet and the money in the budget not only to pay for broadband service, but to cover a second phone bill and a new monthly bill for television, formerly free. For the majority of Americans, spending more for better food is less a matter of ability than priority."

"He showed the words “chocolate cake” to a group of Americans and recorded their word associations. “Guilt” was the top response. If that strikes you as unexceptional, consider the response of French eaters to the same prompt: “celebration."

"The sheer novelty and glamor of the Western diet, with its seventeen thousand new food products every year and the marketing power - thirty-two billion dollars a year - used to sell us those products, has overwhelmed the force of tradition and left us where we now find ourselves: relying on science and journalism and government and marketing to help us decide what to eat."

 

[lrayburn]

Since watching the movie I've been researching local places to buy grass-fed and humanely treated meat...it's pricey but it can be done. Even our local Market Basket carries a couple of lines of Certified Humane meats.

The most economical place is to find a local farmer who will sell you an entire animal. It does require the investment in a second freezer if you don't already have one. Ask at your local food coop, CSA or ag school for recommendations. Most of these people are not selling through stores and most probably don't have a website. My dad raises "freezer beef" and we have regular customers that buy an animal, a side (half) or a split side (quarter) each year. Your animal will be shipped, processed and cut. You will receive several boxes of processed frozen meat. My dad gets pasture raised lamb and pork from other farmers. Chickens and turkeys (seasonally) may be available depending on the area too.

Your initial investment is high but the price per pound is significantly lower than what you would pay in the grocery store for similar product. Also, you can forge a relationship with your grower and know who is raising your food. This is much more important to me than a seal of "Certified Humane" that may or may not mean much.

Lisa

 

[story1267]

The most economical place is to find a local farmer who will sell you an entire animal. It does require the investment in a second freezer if you don't already have one. Ask at your local food coop, CSA or ag school for recommendations. Most of these people are not selling through stores and most probably don't have a website. My dad raises "freezer beef" and we have regular customers that buy an animal, a side (half) or a split side (quarter) each year. Your animal will be shipped, processed and cut. You will receive several boxes of processed frozen meat. My dad gets pasture raised lamb and pork from other farmers. Chickens and turkeys (seasonally) may be available depending on the area too.

Your initial investment is high but the price per pound is significantly lower than what you would pay in the grocery store for similar product. Also, you can forge a relationship with your grower and know who is raising your food. This is much more important to me than a seal of "Certified Humane" that may or may not mean much.

Lisa

Hi Lisa, thanks for the feedback. We do have a second freezer but we also live in a somewhat rural area with occasionally sketchy electrical service....which makes me at the thought of a failure with several hundred dollars of meat to be lost. DH is considering a generator.

I've looked at the website http://www.eatwild.com/ and found a grower who isn't too far, who sells "proportional packages" at about $7.00 a pound. We'll have to check the place out and see but I do like the looks of it. http://stevenormanton.com/

I've been looking for a place to buy a turkey but the closest one is a 2 hour drive one way.....

I certainly agree that knowing your producer is important...and more valuable than a label.

For ourselves we have a large garden this year (actually too large!). We'll certainly continue that practice. My neighbor across the street sells eggs at the end of her driveway and I patronize her cooler whenever it's out.

It's the hidden products that have me thinking now....all the Monsanto-ized ingredients in everything that I never really thought about before. You think "cotton is good" but actually, not so much. More research to be done.

 

[Bobbi-B]

For many years I bought meat only from local farms with humanely treated animals, which is fairly easy to do in Portland, OR. The more I learned about animals in even the best of circumstances, the more I concluded that there is no such thing as so-called humane meat. It's been 3 years since I stopped eating meat and besides the health benefits, I can't tell you how much money I've saved!!!

And I agree with others, Monsanto is evil!

 

[kathryn]

0You think "cotton is good" but actually, not so much. More research to be done.

How true.
Cotton is often associated with being 'natural,' but last stats I heard, it takes up 5% of agricultural land worldwide, but 25% of agricultural chemicals are used on it (and since it isn't technically considered a food crop, some nasty stuff is used on it, even though cottonseed oil IS used in some food products). I try to buy cotton organic when I can, but attractive, affordable cotton pants are hard to find.

 

[story1267]

Exactly Kathryn....for a bit of a hippie throwback as I am I never thought I'd be wondering if polyester pants are "better" than cotton!

As it is I usually buy all my clothes used so at least it's a step in the right direction.

Hemp? Rayon? What's a girl to wear?

And then, with all of this, avoiding the tendency to overthink absolutely every.single.aspect of daily living. Crazy-making that is. We babystep.