food, inc.

I just saw this show.

Good show. 

Definitely a professional production.  They did a really good job of pointing out the problems with our current system.  I think this is a good one to own and anytime you talk to somebody about this sort of thing and they start to get that glazed-over expression on their face, you can present the information in a hollywood documentery.  You will probably have to sit with them.



They did a thing at the end that was pretty neat about how you vote with your dollars, although I got to thinking that they went too far with it.  That's pretty much my only complaint.

I thought Food, Inc. was awesome.  My girlfriend came out of the movie and told me, "Anything you want to do with worms is fine."  She was on-board conceptually with permaculture ideas before, but hadn't overcome the gross-out factor of nature up close and personal.

Seeing the alternative, she got over it (mostly ).

Interview with Robert Kenner, producer of Food, Inc.

Oh man I loved this one.

It was interesting how they showed that the supermarket was really just an illusion of diversity, with 50% or more of the products just being rearrangements of corn.

I actually did a presentation on this for a class in school, and it turns out all of these common foods below in a supermarket likely have corn in them. People were blown away when they realized that those yellow kernels can be found in, well, almost everything they eat  (in different forms of course).

Cool Whip
Cold cuts
Jelly
Pancake syrup
Chocolate syrup
Peanut butter
Pickles
Pork
Ricotta cheese
Ice Cream
Yogurt
Cookies
Salad dressing
Hot Dogs
Cold Cuts
Barbeque Sauce
Cranberry Sauce
Relish
Baked Beans
Cheese Crackers
Soda
Bread
Cereal
Waffles
Energy Bars
Juice


I told them why, too. So Monsanto can make more money selling  seed! Haha that got them riled up.

I also really enjoyed this Documentary.

what surprised me the most is how the industrialization of food production , has made once independent farmers into nothing more than employees with tons of dept. with little to no options.  they are more like slaves, but the chains are made of contracts, dept, and dependency on seeds that cannot be replanted.

So I'm watching this right now (37 minutes in) and I am flabbergasted with the dishonesty. They are trying to make it sound like o157:h7 is the result of feed lots and corn in the cows diet, which is 100% false. Yes it spreads in feed lots, any kind of E. coli can but it doesn't need a feedlot to do well.

This strain has been killing people for a long damn time, it picked up Shigella toxin thousands of years ago.

Cows, pigs, sheep, and deer don't have the same receptors in their systems so the dangerous E. coli don't affect them. It's not about acid in digestive tract (because corn acidifies the upper digestive tract of cows, and E. coli live in the lower digestive tract). They even brought up the tainted apple juice a number of years back as an example of what feedlots are doing to us, ignoring the fact that it was deer in the orchards that lead to the problem (the workers were picking apples up off the ground, which is a bad idea) cows were not involved the o157:h7 was doing just fine in the deer.

This is why the sustainability movement can't get any traction, there are lots of good reasons to be against factory farming, that's not one of them.

Emerson White:

what do you say about this article summarizing research on the topic at Cornell University?  mentions that undigested starch from grain ends up fermenting in cows' lower digestive tracts causing acidic conditions in the colon.  I've never been to vet or ag school, so what am I missing?

I'm with you on the Odwalla apple juice, though.  I read that it may have been shit to shoe to ladder to hand to apple to juice rather than picking up windfalls, but it's unlikely that feed lots were involved.  does Food, Inc. really claim a connection?

You have a solid point with that one. O157:H7 is not all acid resistant however, some of it is and some of it isn't (I have worked with this particular bug in the lab) I was under the impression that the grain affected the cows differently :/ (My background has a lot more to do with microbes than with megafauna, egg on my face). I'm going to have to read the paper in science and get back to you on the contents.  I felt that the movie strongly implied that O157:H7 was a result of feedlots and they listed the juice in between beef and spinach. Deer pigs and sheep are still fed there "normal" diets and still carry this bug ... in a form that infects humans.

If I recall the movie correctly, it suggests that the conditions of the CAFOs with their grain feed make the bacterial load in the guts of the cows much, much higher.  Yes, there are naturally occurring pathogens, but their effect is greatly intensified by the CAFOs.

when there was that massive salmonella peanut recall, trader joe's dumpster was absolutely loaded with peanut products in all shapes and forms

i ate peanuts til my belly ached many many MANY times after that, as i had a store of peanuts that lasted half a year and never got sick once.

I also have never gotten sick from drinking raw milk or eating eating raw eggs, so basically salmonella does not concern me, but growing and eating pre-cancerous animals does.

Also, I eat windfall fruit every year and I can't say if it has not gotten me sick ever, but I have eaten a lot more of it in the past 4 years than any other time in my life and it never got me sick then either.

Though, I suppose I wouldn't mind the windfalls going to the animals anyways...

I haven't seen the movie but know the issues.  Reason I'm posting is just this week three different people have come to me after seeing it to ask for more info and help changing lifestyle.  And I'm not talking regular granola-y types but border patrol wives etc.  Did it just come out on video?  It's interesting I not such a freak anymore --more like a resource for people who want to live healthier.  I think it's wonderful.

mrchuck wrote:
Oh man I loved this one.

It was interesting how they showed that the supermarket was really just an illusion of diversity, with 50% or more of the products just being rearrangements of corn.

I actually did a presentation on this for a class in school, and it turns out all of these common foods below in a supermarket likely have corn in them. People were blown away when they realized that those yellow kernels can be found in, well, almost everything they eat  (in different forms of course).

Cool Whip
Cold cuts
Jelly
Pancake syrup
Chocolate syrup
Peanut butter
Pickles
Pork
Ricotta cheese
Ice Cream
Yogurt
Cookies
Salad dressing
Hot Dogs
Cold Cuts
Barbeque Sauce
Cranberry Sauce
Relish
Baked Beans
Cheese Crackers
Soda
Bread
Cereal
Waffles
Energy Bars
Juice


I told them why, too. So Monsanto can make more money selling  seed! Haha that got them riled up.

yeah, but...
There are plenty of alternatives that don't use HFCS, or whip it up from scratch. Adam's Natural Peanut Butter is made from...peanuts. Whip cream can be made from a pint of cream(cheaper, and no hydrogenated fat) and a pinch of powdered sugar in 3-4 minutes(and that's with me flogging my hand beater).

The sad thing is the general reaction of people will be to tell(whine) the manufacturers to make stuff without the bad stuff--HELLO there already ARE alternatives out there, turn the jar/box/can over and READ THE LABEL(not to mention cook it yourself--it will be healthier, no preservatives). If we BUY stuff without the HFCS, they will "get it".

It's all about conveniece now, it's convienient to whine, convenient to grab the box with the pretty yummy picture, convenient to microwave something. It's inconvenient to make a better choice, or peel a potato. Gah!

wyldthang wrote:
It's all about conveniece now, it's convienient to whine, convenient to grab the box with the pretty yummy picture, convenient to microwave something. It's inconvenient to make a better choice, or peel a potato. Gah!

depends on the person.  for some folks, it's more convenient to follow the crowd to the grocery store and inconvenient to examine the downsides.  for other folks, it's inconvenient to go to work to pay for all that ridiculous garbage when a garden is such a pleasant, and convenient, place to be.  I do share your frustration, but I'm trying to let it go.

Food Inc is what inspired me to follow a whole foods diet. It was absolutely horrifying to see how terrible animals are treated in feedlots and chicken coops. And Monsanto? Holy crap, for real? How did we let them get so big and so powerful? It blows my mind that they send spies out to farms and sue farmers who have crops that had the misfortune of cross pollenating with the GMO farm across the road...crazy. /stepping off the soap box...

I'd love to see a documentary on the "organic" industrial food that is flooding the market. Does anyone know if one exists? Any other food documentaries you might recommend?

haven't seen it but have been watching for it ..just not sure where it is to be seen..and have heard a lot of good things about it.

this year all the ruined drought corn will be going for fuel (as that is all it is good for even though i'm not a fan of corn for fuel)..and there will be corn shortages for food, so people will have to learn how to do without the corn food or pay thru the nose..myself I'll just be going without..thank you very much

My son and I just got back from a 2 day intensive at Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm in Virginia (Joel is the "good" farmer presented in Food, Inc). Joel made the point that farmers need an incentive to go back to grass-based farming - it may be that the drought and higher corn prices provide that incentive.

The online film "Edible City: The Movie" on YouTube is worth watching too - shows how people are taking back their power.

I had a hard time re-shifting my ethics when we went from 15 years as vegetarian to the GAPS diet (which emphasizes animal products for healing). I had read a little of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" before seeing Food Inc and I found it SUCH an awesome documentary!

It really cemented for me that my issue with meat production is the mass farming. That buying meat from my farmer's market from farms similar to Polyface is a good ethical choice. I also felt reminded that vegetarians are NOT immune to the ethics of food, and the environmental impact of mono-crops.

It's up there as a "life changing, light-bulb moment" movie for me.

I thought the movie "Fresh" was fantastic. Imo, a notch above Food, Inc.

This movie almost made me go veggie, almost. Fortunately I was born and raised in Idaho so that's unlikely to ever happen. It did, however, succeed in making me want to grow as much of my own food as possible or at least find local, safe food as often as I can. I highly recommend it.

GMO corn, soy, and mass produced beaver butt juice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nweK6VRM8a8

If you wanted to save a copy of that youtube flick.. a free program called DvdVideoSoft has stand alone programs for such or all of their programs in a suite.
you could easily convert that 1:33 youtube into a DVD for home watching later.

nice.. thanks Paul...

Raven told me that the youtube link failed.  I think i fixed it?

Video unavailable
This video contains content from Lasso Group, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds

Might be ok in other countries though?

Still not showing for me.

This might work for those of us not in the usa.

https://archive.org/details/2008-food-inc-1920x-1080