Food Inc.

Eager to stay in a well air-conditioned environment yesterday (it only got up to 108 degrees! HOORAY!), K and I decided to go see "Food Inc." at the theatre. I love a documentary just about more than any other movie genre (except maybe "Old"!), and having loved "Super-Size Me," this seemed like a no-brainer.


The movie is a collaborative effort from several food informants - Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma," and Eric Schlosser, of "Fast-Food Nation," among others. The premise is to enlighten audiences about where, exactly, their food comes from. It focuses mainly on the meat business, as well as farmers and their crops, and how a small number of mega-corporations controls just about every aspect of EVERYTHING. Like Tyson chicken and Smithfield Farms pork? Yeah, I used to as well. Not so much anymore.


The film did a great job of not being vulgar - it could have been very easy to make this a "go vegetarian" movie, or a "the Republicans have screwed up again" movie, but I found it to be very fair and balanced. Yes, there were several shots of animals being taken to slaughter (I covered my eyes), but it was necessary. The film's director made the point that companies who treat the animals with little respect often treat their employees in the same manner.


There were a lot of scary things in this film that I was entirely unaware of:


1) Tomatoes are usually ripened with ethylene. ETHYLENE! It's a naturally-occuring chemical in plants, but ethylene is also used for things like ANTIFREEZE! Gah!

2) There exists a company that produces a ground beef filler, which is made of, among other things, AMMONIA!

3) When cows are fed corn instead of grass (which is the norm now, since corn is so easy and cheap to grow...but evolutionarily speaking, cows were not made to eat corn!), their gut grows more succeptible to E Coli, and they can not rectify the situation naturally. If a corn-fed cow switches its diet back to grass, within a week, it is able to rid its system of 80% of the E Coli...and yet, we still feed our cows corn!


I can't recall everything, but suffice it to say that my eyes were opened to what I've been putting into my body over the last 27 years.


The film also touched on things like affordability of organic, natural foods, the prevalence of Type II diabetes as a result of modern diets, and how intimate the relationship is between the heads of government organizations (think the FDA and such), and THEIR ROLES AS FORMER LOBBYISTS!!! It blew my mind to see how little our government cares about ensuring the safety and well-being of its citizens when it comes to what we eat.


I left the movie feeling enraged and motivated to change. It was a lot like how I felt after seeing Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." When we were walking out of the parking lot, I said to K, "Well, I think I'm done with meat now," and he agreed. While I'm not sure if I can get off the meat bandwagon entirely (I only eat it on occasion as it is), going forward, you can bet I will be eating 100% organic, grass-fed, free-range beef/chicken/pork, etc. I never knew how important that stuff was until yesterday.


We also came home yesterday and immediately signed up to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), where we were put on a 2-3 month waiting list. We have decided to buy all produce from the Austin Farmer's Market from now on, and to buy produce that is in season.


We also stopped by the HEB on our way home yesterday, and I felt a little like I was in the lion's den. When I went to go see Body Worlds a few years ago, I had the odd experience for several weeks afterward of imagining everyone with their skin missing, as if I could see through it, and look at their musculature and organs. It was a very, very weird experience. I felt a little bit like that in the grocery store - I was no longer seeing the produce section...instead, I was seeing all of the fruits and vegetables that were A) expensively priced, and therefore unaffordable to low-income families, and B) flown in from places thousands of miles away from Austin. It was nice to have that extra layer of understanding, although, it made it difficult to buy anything. That was the first time I have ever walked out of the grocery store empty-handed.


I'm sure that some of this will wear off. Any time we are excited and motivated to change, the adrenaline always subsides, or is difficult to keep up. I am pleased, however, with our decision to join to CSA, opt out on meat the majority of the time, and buy organic going forward. Am I going to be a crazy about everything, and reject meals or dinner invitations just because they aren't in alignment with my new moral compass? No. Am I going to pass on my dad's burgers going forward? ABSOLUTELY NO! (but I might offer to buy the ground beef!) Am I going to boycot the HEB? Definitely no. Am I happy that we have decided to make some changes in our diet? Positively yes.