As I watched the movie, Food, Inc., recently, I felt sad, frustrated and ticked off, (crying and covering my eyes at times), but kept having to remind myself of this: just the fact that all of the bullcrap was coming to light in this film is a VERY positive fact indeed. And it’s really true, we can make a change one meal at a time with our food dollars!
Read a couple excerpts from the post, The Truth about Food, Inc., which includes an interview with Michael Pollan & the filmmaker:
- ”It’s going to be mothers who are feeding their children who will help change this system.”
- “The health care debate is going to drive the food debate, because you cannot address these health care costs without addressing the food system. More than half of what we spend on healthcare, of that 2.5 trillion, is going to treat preventable, chronic diseases linked to diet.”
WHAT?!!!
“More than half of what we spend on healthcare, of that 2.5 trillion, is going to treat preventable, chronic diseases linked to diet.”
LET’S ALL MAKE IT STOP!
GO see this movie!
- Read what bugged Hallee about Food, Inc. (She makes a great point!)
- READ DONIELLE’S POST ON Food, Inc. full of more details that I didn’t take good enough notes on to share. (Thanks again for organizing, Donielle!)
- More food movie links!
- By the way, in the picture above, regular readers will probably recognize 3 of my friends who have contributed to the blog. They’re in the middle front: Sue, the one who submitted the wildly popular Baked Oatmeal post and also one of my favorites, the Natural, Healthy, Green Parenting post; Jenn, the one who used to write book reviews for my site, but then the crazy girl went and got a full time job, darn it (here’s Jenn’s guest interview); and Lyn, who has given me some recipes for the blog (White Chicken Chili with only 4 Ingredients, French Stew, Tortilla Soup for just a few), and she also did a guest interview for me. (I’m on the far left and Donielle is the one on the left with the baby.)
- To hold you over until you can see it for yourself, watch this short trailer…
Annette,
I just added another Youtube video trailer, hopefully this one stays! 🙂
Kelly
You’re YouTube link has been pulled. I hate when they do that! You can tell it’s “infiltrating” information when they pull videos from youtube! ugh!
But hey! I found it on instant play on Netflix! I saved it to watch later. I am a bit nervous to view it, as I am a casual, but regular meat eater (not much beef), and I encourage meat eating with all 4 of my kids! NOW I’m sure I’ll have to change my ways! My oldest and his GF get that frightened look in their eyes when they come over for cookouts because I am serving meat. They are going full-out vegan… I still think there is something somewhat nutritionally lacking with that, but it’s their decision.
Thanks so much, for your wonderful (and sometimes life changing) articles! I hope we can make this a better world for all by exposing all those dirty little secrets!
Hi Sally,
Yes! We’ve all got to keep telling our friends about that movie so they get as fired up as we are about our chance to vote three times every day!
Kelly
I just watched Food Inc and am overwhelmed, saddened, appalled, and fired up to make a difference. We are so uninformed as a nation and so controlled by big corporations that in turn control our government agencies that are supposed to protect us. Since my family made changes in our food choices, our food expenses increased by 35-40%. Can we afford this? Well, I think it’s better than having to go to the doctor, or having a serios illness, but many American’s cannot afford to make this change and we are all paying fo it. Something has to change and I think it can happen one person, one family, at a time. We are voting with our dollars. Consumers can make a difference. They already have with the increase in organic products at supermarkets.
Wow JoAnna, you are so blessed, that’s for sure. My 12th grader will roll his eyes all the way through it, IF I can get him to watch it… You can bet I’ll try though!
Kelly
My 12th grader had to watch this movie for his Human Geography class. He liked it but didn’t think he could watch it a second time (I have it on order at the library). It made his blood boil and said he could never eat at McDonald’s or Tyson chicken nuggets ever again. And he used to love the $1 menu double cheeseburgers. And he’s not really a health nut, but he does appreciate real food and hates injustice. What a good boy! 🙂
Wow, Raine, only 60 people, that’s so sad and frustrating. I know people are busy and all, but geesh, this is life and death stuff here…but most don’t see it that way, yet… We’ll keep getting the word out!!!
Hi Kelly – looks like you had a nice big crowd to see the movie. I have only a few friends in Boise who share my passion for this topic, and I couldn’t get connected with them to make this an event. We saw it this weekend, FINALLY! My husband and I saw it with my aunt who is visiting from Florida. My aunt is in the health industry and eats pretty well, but I think even to her there were some surprising, shocking things in this film (just as there were to us). And yes, there were definitely heart-wrenching parts that definitely made my eyes well up – especially the part about the mom lobbying to change laws for her deceased son. I feel for her. 🙁 But it really fired me up and renewed my energy to get the word out to people about making wise choices with our food dollars.
One of the things that stands out to me in the film is the repeated refusal by large corporations – Tyson, Monsanto, IBP, and others – to be interviewed. I believe that if they have nothing to hide, they should be more than agreeable to talk to the film makers and clear their names. Clearly, that is not the case!
Haven’t yet seen Fresh, and I’d love to get this film in Boise. The filmmaker contacted me about purchasing a license agreement and raising money to bring it to Boise…but I’ve been down that road already last October with Two Angry Moms, and it was one of the most stressful events I’ve ever organized and planned, and we had to raise over $1500 dollars in about two months to get the venue, speaker, and film license. Our turnout was less than 60 people, which is really sad. I guess I’m not ready to go there again, and we’ve got our solar business going now which requires 24/7 attention and work and I’m home-schooling my son. But I still hope to somehow be able to continue seeing this and other important food and nutrition films that come along. I think our health as a nation depends on it!
It’s good to recommend Food, Inc. to foodies, but I’ve had the most amazing response from movie fans who aren’t foodies. When I meet someone for the first time at the movies (I’m there a lot) or if movies come up in casual conversation, I always find a way to work Food, Inc. in. Many haven’t heard of it, many are just appalled by what they learned from the film.
And, I can’t finish my comment without what has become my standard Food, Inc. ending statement: We need a Hollywood champion to get this thing Oscar-nominated. It does make a difference in viewership.
Thanks for the post, I can’t believe I almost missed the movie. I had a lid from Stoneyfield Farms on my corkboard but it got buried (go figure). Calling in grandpa to babysit so DH can take me to see it tomorrow. Thanks again.
Wow you had a big turnout!
I haven’t seen this yet. But you’ve convinced me — I’m going to go see it TODAY — I love matinees and I haven’t been to the movies in months (since I went with you!)
And It’s showing right in my neighborhood.
Oh and don’t forget the new Julia Child movie with Meryl Streep opens today! Can’t wait to go see that one!
Crying is good! This is the type of effect that a documentary like this must have to invoke change, and unfortunately, I didn’t see the potential for this type of reaction in Fresh the movie (although it’s still an excellent documentary). I’ve been looking forward to seeing Food Inc and this review makes me even more excited!
I just noticed how much of baby girls “mullet” show up in that pic!! Grow hair, grow!!
And I can’t wait till it comes out on DVD so I can have my husband watch it. (he’s not a theater kind of guy!)
I saw this movie, and I feel the same as you. It’s so sad, and I cried and covered my eyes at times as well. BUT… there is hope. I do vote with my dollars. I don’t shop at the grocery store anymore. I am a mother, and I REFUSE to feed my son CAFO meat, pesticide ridden produce, chemical filled processed food, and antibiotic, growth hormone filled dairy! Period. I will cut any cost in my budget possible, but not REAL food.
I will do anything in my power to make big agribusiness stop! I hope and pray that many more people will join the fight!