“How much do we really know about the food we buy at our local supermarkets and serve to our families?”
For most, the answer is very little. Of all the social and environmental issues we face today, “what we eat” is probably the most important and the most urgent. Food, Inc, a new documentary by Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing many of the shocking truths about what we eat, how it’s produced and who is calling the shots. It takes an indepth look at how this industrialized food system effects our environment, our health, the economy and workers’ rights.
The film features interviews with some of the most greatest minds in the movement, including one of my personal favorites, Michael Pollan (author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto).
Check out the trailer…
Unfortunately it won’t be out until June 12th in select cities, but in the meantime you can visit their site to find out more information.
They give a great break down about the issues surrounding the food industry including…
- Genetic Engineering
- Foodborne Illness
- Pesticides
- Cloning
- Environmental Impact
- Healthy Eating
- Farm Worker Protection
and they give you 10 simple things you can do to help change our food system.
More reading:
- Food, Inc. (the book)
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma
- In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto
- Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty
- Harvest For Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating
I’m so glad that you mentioned this movie…I plan to be one of the first in line (…Star Trek on the other hand? Mmm, not so much.) The topic of what’s really in the food we eat has come up quite a lot in the past week over at a green social network I belong to. Community members, though green-minded, have a patchwork of information that they share with others and some of it is downright spotty. Bear in mind that these are people who tend to be more dialed into green information than the mainstream population. My point is that it’s high time that we can rely on a solid resource to help all of us to get our heads straight regarding the state of food in the U.S. Someone over at Greenwala just referenced the movie “King Corn” and how it made them realize the level of pesticide saturation on our nation’s staple crop. Another member spoke of the fact that cloned meat is now creeping into our food supply. Then there’s the realization that it is ALL connected…when we feed trash to the cattle that we then milk or slaughter, we truly become the poisoned with our own garbage-in, garbage-out system. It really blows my mind how this continues to persist.
Totally true. The more you lean about agribusiness the more is makes you angry. I started eating organic not because it was better for me, but because i didn’t want to support companies like Monsanto, Bunge, Cargill.
Don’t know how these ppl sleep at night.
What exactly makes you so mad? that they make food very efficiently? or that you keep eating this crap everytime you sit around watching TV thinking about how no one in the world cares for the environment. Cut down your diet and do without new stuff like Plasma TVs, a fancy fridge and a new Tshirt.
I don’t think the outrage is that food is produced efficiently, it’s that quality and sustainability are sacrificed for efficiency and profit reigns to the point where the public’s health is less than an afterthought. Adding insult to injury is their concerted and organized attempts to mislead the public and to hide the truth. That’s what I think makes most people mad.
I’m not exactly sure who you are admonishing however to be completely frank with you, I find you assumptions condescending, unproductive and naive. The core of your message is sound but I think you’ll find more people seeing eye to eye with you when you are not looking down your nose at them.