Food INC.

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Permalink Reply by Wendy Bednar on July 12, 2009 at 9:48pm

My husband and I are going to see this movie tomorrow, so I thank you for your synopsis and opinion! We're already growing what we can,and we have chickens for eggs and source all of the meat we consume, but we want to know what else we can do. In fact we're just about to start our next epiriment of attempting to go "totally local" for the next 6 months. It's going to be a very interesting thing to attempt to do. Considering every dollar spent locally will stay here 2-3 times longer than if we were to spend it at a "mega-grocer" and buying things that go back to another corp. center elsewhere. We'll see how it goes...keep your fingers crossed for my family :)

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Brunty on July 13, 2009 at 11:31am

What I've learned from the movie and from a couple of my customers is to literally eat with the seasons... It makes sense too, as it makes you appreciate when strawberries are in season. You get to wait all year for that one month and it makes it exciting if you think of this way. I guess if you have the mentality that you can't eat a fresh tomatoe in January you will get used to going into the pantry and getting a jar of canned tomatoes that were locally raised... Produce is much harder to get used to eating in seasons than meat as all you do is raise the meat and freeze it for winter. A lot less prep work is involved. However eating out is a whole other story... which I'm still puzzled on how to incorporate this into our diets.....

In order to eat local and stay clear of sprayed fruits and vegies is to grow and preserve what you can but it's not easy that's for sure. My girlfriend and I found ourselves at the pub after the movie to grab a bite to eat as we were close to 50 minutes away from home and were starved. So we both got burgers... I felt so guilty after watching the film and then going and chowing down on something I knew was horrible for me.... not to mention that I just supported the same industry that I despise so much. So in reality what are you suppose to do? Stay home and eat nothing but what you raise or produce from local farmers? Sometimes I like to go out and eat like most of you guys and enjoy a classic burger and fries but I would love to eat a burger that came from a cow that I know was raised properly. I don't mind paying a little extra for it but some of the reasturants that support local farmers charge $16 bucks for a burger... which many just can't afford. Fourtunatly I have enough land to raise a few cows for my family and I along with other various meats but that only helps if I stay home and eat just what I raise. So how is it done?? How do you get more places to buy meat from more humane places? I don't want my cow to come off of a feed lot in Wisconsin but instead I would much rather see it come from a cow in southern Ohio.

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Permalink Reply by Anna Gayheart on July 13, 2009 at 10:25am

My husband and I left the theater with our heads spinning. Although we are educated consumers and make a point of buying organic and seeking out local produce, gardening, and cooking from scratch, this movie still left us in shock. The idea of eating hamburgers that have a filler of chicken "washed" in ammonia! WOW. It's not a pleasant movie to watch, but it's important. We should all know what we're eating! I absolutely agree... for those who have not, GO SEE IT!

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Permalink Reply by Carol Jeanne on July 14, 2009 at 1:27pm

I also saw this sock-in-the-gut movie last night. I'm all pumped up to spread the word and vote hard with my dollars for local food. I was especially rocked by listening to speaker Warren Taylor's story from Snowville Creamery in Pomeroy, OH. I encourage everyone to buy his milk which is now being carried by Heinen's and Whole Foods.

I've been following the food story closely ever since reading Mad Cowboy 5 or 6 years ago, followed by several other books including Omnivore's Dilemma . These books have changed my eating habits forever. But I'd never heard the Monsanto story of how they are stalking and suing farmers who clean their own seeds to reuse, rather than buying Genetically Modified seeds from Monsanto. This film has some really important stories to tell. PLEASE SEE IT!

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Permalink Reply by dan morgan on July 14, 2009 at 1:37pm

Kind of dry, I enjoyed King Corn better but Michael Pollan adds a great credibility to the serious issues. Would have liked to see more about the real cost of "cheap" food, health care, transportation, subsidies etc.

Would also have liked to see more about suggested solutions to problems most people who see the movie already know exist.

Thanks Peter for moderating discussion that NEEDS to continue outside among the folks out there who don't have a clue. I would like to discuss how to reach them. We are all preaching to the choir inside Local Food Cleveland.

How about pushing our politicians for curriculum in schools, the kids today have to educate the parents, demand healthy local food!

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Permalink Reply by John McGovern on July 17, 2009 at 2:30pm

I agree that the movie was on the dry side, but it was certainly loaded with provocative facts and made very good use of computer graphics to put the facts in context. I would love to see the producers of this film release some sort of powerpoint that could be used as a guide for community screenings of this movie.

Echoing Dan Morgan's points on the need to get the word out to the greater Cleveland community, how about a ballot initiative to create a position for a local foods evangelist at the County level? Being that we are each a product of the foods we consume, shouldn't food security be a critical issue for our society/local govt? I think Warren Taylor of Snowville Creamery would be a perfect fit for the role of Local Foods Evangelist.

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Permalink Reply by Mike on July 14, 2009 at 2:07pm

Went and saw the movie last night. I enjoyed it but I hope that people would be a little more critical in thinking about what the film presents and the issues involved. A few examples:

Let's talk about food safety and regulation which was one of the themes/agendas in the movie. How could anyone be against food safety regulations? Try reading this article:

Crops, ponds destroyed in quest for food safety
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/07/13/MN02...

Food safety regulations are one way that large industrial farming/processing keeps small alternative providers out of the marketplace. I'm not against good practices for food growing and handling. How many people on this forum have actually read any food safety regulations and understand their impact?

NAIS (National Animal Identification System) was presented as a safety regulation but there are a whole host of other issues surrounding it.

I was pleased that the show was sold out (I wonder how packed other showings have been) and hope that the film provokes some critical thinking rather than knee jerk acceptance or rejection of the positions it stakes out.

Just a few thoughts.

Mike

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