A movie to watch AFTER dinner
Wow -- what a powerful movie! Food Inc. is the sad truth about our national food industry.
It featured some familiar faces, people like Michael Pollen and Joel Salatin whom I have met through reading over the past year as I devoured The Omnivore’s Dilemma and visited Polyface Farm. In addition, there was Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm and so many others with a story to tell.
I winced as I saw cruelty to animals beyond belief at places like the Smithfield packing house in Tar Heel, North Carolina; when I saw commercially grown chickens being fattened so fast they couldn’t stand up; when I saw cows standing in shit halfway up their legs.
My heart repeatedly went out to the little guy who is getting squeezed by the large conglomerates. This would include the illegal aliens recruited to work in the meat packing plants and then forceably deported. It would include the farmers who are being prosecuted for saving their seed instead of having to buy genetically engineered seed from Monsanto each year. It would include the mother of 2-year-old Kevin, who was killed by e-coli, as she struggles to get legislation passed to add control to the food industry.
One of the scariest things I learned was that our food industry is dominated by just a handful of extremely powerful companies, who control everything and have infiltrated government at the highest levels.
It’s a movie that fires you up and makes you want to bring about change. The movie makes the point that consumers are responsible for the removal of milk containing human growth hormone from the shelves of Walmart, proving that people do have a voice. Check out the simple things that we can do to make a difference, starting with “Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages.”
I’m not big on the missionary approach to anything, but with the future of our planet and our species ultimately at stake, I’m ready to try to win some hearts and minds to this cause.
posted by Barbara at 11:48 PM
3 Comments:
I'm a bit cowardly and avoid watching documentaries etc. about this.... It seems a bit more possible to avoid it now, with farmers markets, more organic produce etc..... but I guess they are all suffering from the recession.
sobering stuff
Reminds me of how I felt after reading "Fast Food Nation." Very sobering, and it definitely killed my appetite for a while.
F.
my bookgroup is just finishing up our year of reading 11 months of books about food. all of the books were winners. none directly concerned factory (animal) farming which is just horrendous. although the michael pollen book we read (in defense of food) did touch on the issue....based on your recommendation I need to get food inc. good addition to our theme.
on the issue of food and local food - I think it's more than okay to become a proselytizer! after all as you said our planet depends on it!
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