Do you like scary movies? I normally stay far....far away from the scary stuff as possible.The other night however, I found myself in front of my computer with Legend, watching the scariest movie I've seen in the past decade. It had all the makings of a horror flick: wickedly powerful bad guys, gruesome innocent deaths, a citizenry unaware of the disaster just around the corner and just a handful of helpless good guys standing between us and them. The haunting movie? Food Inc.
Food, Inc. is powerful documentary that lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing how our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers, and our own environment.
The Revolution of Food
The world's food chain is built mainly on heavily subsidized and, therefore, cheap corn. And because supermarkets have become a cornucopia to us as consumers, we have become accustomed to eating whatever we want whenever we want it, in quantities we don't need. I'm guilty. But realize all my life I've been following different experts( books...the media,again!) as they tell me what to eat, what not to eat and what to look down on others for eating. This food is good.That one is bad.Those over there will KILL YOU. Even those of us who avoid junk food, with many sighs of relief and self-approval, may still be eating junk a good deal of the time.
(Just A Side Note)
This reminds me of the popular cartoon series Scooby Doo. Where we as consumers are on many quests to solve (food) mysteries. As we buy, each mystery is new (to us) and unusual, and involves each of us from stopping someone from wreaking certain havoc on the world. And then the mystery becomes solved by the end of each show (in our case, it would involve our health) with the villain proclaiming, "And I would have gotten away with it if it hadn't have been for you kids (consumers)"!The Result When We've Had Enough
Our health has paid the ultimate price.
Where The Real Change Begins
Companies respond to our buying choices. As one supplier says in the film, “People have got to start demanding good, wholesome food of us. And we’ll deliver, I promise you.” Even a small change can result in more equitable practices.
Disturbing as it is, "Food, Inc." doesn't present some doomsday scenario. People can make a difference, it says: After all, look what happened to Big Tobacco. There are changes we can make. The industry has been slowly taking over our country. Let’s take it back! If you care about your health, or the environment; if you care about human rights, or justice, if you care about food safety, national security, animal rights, sustainability, nutrition, integrity, fairness, or doing what’s right, you (the person reading this blog right now) should see Food, Inc.
I certainly recommend watching the whole documentary - you can even see it for free on Milledrive - but I'm warning you: you will never look at your food the same way again.-Seriously!
9 comments:
Yes its serious business! All the chemicals used, the antibiotics placed in the food. The amount of time ?fresh is kept refigerated prior going onto the shelves...all dead poison.
Farmers markets are best, then wash it well prior consumption.
Blessings Crystal
P.S. hope to meet you on facebook..
Oh yes, I watched this a while back, but wasn't shocked by what I saw. We have been eating organic/natural for years now. But, now the price on organics are tripled! I need a garden, badly and my own animals. lol
We should be able to achieve that in another year or two, but...still.
It's also a huge problem now, that most people just do not care about the food! They still willingly choose to feed their children these foods and look at me like i'm crazy if I try to steer them a different way!
Its amazing. Both my boys have battled skin problems (among a list of other things) so they were on a gluten-free/dairy-free diet for awhile. The prices are ridiculous! Legend and I were just talking this morning on how organic (or green) cost. Bring it down for everyone, I say:)
Hi, Unsure if you are on Facebook...
If you want to pick me up as a friend I would be honoured.
Name there:Crystal Lindsey and page photo is with my husband.
God bless beautiful christian ladies.
I read the book... It makes you want to buy a farm somewhere and have your own.. I am originally from Eastern Europe and the sad thing there is that the famers do not want to farm anymore b/c they can't compete with mass production. So sad.
http://polwig.com
I teeter on us becoming farmers so many times.
I just stumbled over here and I am all about healthy fresh eating. My daughter is on MEds for some mental health issues and so I decided I wasn't going to feed her anymore chemicals than she was getting from the Dr. We raise our own chickens for eggs and meat. We just started raising meat rabbits and of course I have a hunter for a husband. We have venison too. Hubby and I plant a garden and I can my little heart out come harvest time because I want to know what is in my kids food. As a family of six it is super expensive to buy organic produce, but if I grow it myself it's just alot of elbow grease.
I just watched part of Food, Inc. the other night and have been following Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. It's really sad how the our eating habits have changed in the past 25 years, that's just from my memory. I work for a USDA food sponsor program working with home daycare providers and I see these same issues everyday. I really try to work hard on encouraging my providers to serve healthier foods and showing them it really doesn't have to cost that much more. I look forward to reading more from your blog.
:)Thanks Crystal
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