Food Inc.

I'm not a huge movie buff, but I love a good documentary, and last night Josh and I went to the Moxie and saw Food Inc. This movie features three of my favorite authors, Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, and Joel Salatin, speaking about the problems of our current food supply. Here are some fascinating tidbits I took away from the film: Almost all of our food supply comes from five major corporations and almost all of our food supply contains corn and / or soy. Diversity and choice are hard to find in a local grocery store, even though it appears otherwise. The film refers to this as "the veil" between the public and where our food actually comes from.

The argument that "I ate fast food as a kid and have continued over the past 27 years and I'm fine," no longer applies. Food has changed so much in that amount of time. Factory produced food is less safe than it was 30 years ago because the FDA has become so intertwined with the mass food production industry that there are far fewer safety inspections. Modern methods of meat processing allow for massive amounts of bacteria to enter our food. Consider how many food contamination recalls we see each year.

The most heart wrenching part of the movie involved a mother discussing the death of her two year old son after eating a fast food hamburger that contained e-coli bacteria. After seeing that, it will be so hard for me to give Ben a fast food hamburger, most of which contain beef from at least a thousand cows.

So what are we to do? The film suggests shopping locally, visiting farmers markets, growing your own garden, and shopping wisely. In buying food, we are voting for what the companies will create more of. If we buy food that does not contain hormones, or if we buy organically produced items, then stores will begin carrying more of those items. As the film stated, "We vote three times a day." The website, Eat Well Everywhere, asks you to enter your zip code and they will list sustainable and healthy sources of food where you live.

We are still working on making better food choices. The Ozark farmer's market on the square has been a great resource for fresh, local food. We are also considering buying hogs and calves next year in order to produce our own meat, in addition to the chickens. Josh has even more ambitious plans for our garden next year, and this film strengthened our goals of sustainable farming even more.