I Finally Saw Food, Inc!

Vodpod videos no longer available.

posted with vodpod (if you’re using a Feed Reader to view this point, go to the blog to view the Food, Inc trailer)

I feel as though I may be the last food blogger in the country to do so, but I finally got the opportunity to see Food, Inc. last night! I’d been trying to find a local place to catch it for months (not exaggerating) and it finally arrived just one town away! The movie was what I expected, but that’s a good thing.  It put specifics on a lot of things I already knew or suspected and reaffirmed my decision to eat as thoughtfully as possible.  I found the film very compelling and well done.  Even my husband enjoyed it and it led to, in my opinion, one of our more productive discussions about food.  I think we’re more dedicated than ever to limiting our meat consumption, cooking our own food and avoiding processed foods whenever possible.  Buying local and buying organic are definitely of interest to me, but less simple due to time and money.

Food, Inc is one of those movies that I think everyone should see.  If you’re already aware of the information covered in the film, further educate yourself.  If you don’t know anything about where our food comes from, you’re really missing out and you need to see Food, Inc.  Maybe it’s the teacher in me, but I’m a firm believer that education is the first step towards creating change.  The information can be overwhelming, but I truly think that everyone making small adjustments in their lives can impact the industrial food system in the United States.

Now, since every other food blogger has already said their two cents about the film, I won’t say more.  They can speak for themselves:

My Review of Food, Inc (Healthy Tipping Point) –Caitlin managed to record a lot of the specific facts and statistics from the film; definitely check out her review if you don’t think you’ll get a chance to see the movie.

Food, Inc (Amateur Gourmet)

Increasing Appetite for Documentary’s Unsavory Message (Center for a Livable Future)

Finally, if you’re looking to help make change happen:

I Saw Food, Inc., Now What? (Huffington Post)

10 Simple Things You Can Do to Change Our Food System (Food, Inc website)

Oprah’s Factory Farm Faux Pas

Twitter is buzzing about Oprah at the moment, and not regards to the quanity of her followers.  Apparently she’s promoting KFC’s new grilled chicken giveaway. Though feeding people is a good thing, this promotion is a bad thing because Oprah has said she’s opposed to factory farming and KFC, obviously, gets their meat from factory farms, which are obviously not good. The saga is well summarized here.  At first I was really excited to retweet the protests (check the tag #oprahkfc if you’re interested) and get in on the action. I mean, really Oprah, what were you thinking?  Factory farms are terrible!

But then I got to thinking about it. How often do I promote something (businesses, restaurants, activities) that actually has underlying negative aspects? Nothing anymore is clear cut.  If I were Oprah (and its probably good I’m not) I probably wouldn’t have given the chickens’ origin a second thought. Same as I usually don’t think about the origin of the food at the restaurants I promote on this blog, or the conditions of the factories at the stores I buy my clothes from. Yes, ideally I would, but it just doesn’t seem practical to do so all the time.

I realize that Oprah is a very public figure and PETA’s 2008 person of the year. She shouldn’t be promoting companies that utilize factory farms. But I suspect she was more interested in helping people get a free meal than she was factory farms when she made the decision to support KFC. Hunger is an important issue, poverty is increasing in this economic downturn.  A free meal could make someone’s day.  I’m opposed to factory farming, but I’d rather people eat Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner than not have any food at all. I’m gonna cut Oprah a little slack on this one.