The Documentary Marathon: Food, Inc. & The Omnivore's Dilemma

"You vote three times a day."

If you want better quality food for everyone in our country, make a vote that counts and buy locally grown, organic foods. I am writing that up front, because if you read nothing else, I want you to read that. I used to think I couldn't make a difference in the quality of our food, but I realize now that if the demand is greater (i.e., if everyone buys more food grown without pesticides, that is not genetically modified, or not raised in abominable conditions), then we can literally change what is sold in our supermarket.

Now the true beginning.

The other major documentary that we have watched lately is, of course, Food, Inc. It came out long enough ago that I have had it out from the library a few times and just couldn't bring myself to watch it. I finally got up the gumption to just...see what there was to see about how our food was really produced. I am a little bit of a bleeding heart about animals and the pain and trauma they go through, but specifically in factory farming, so...I wasn't excited to watch this movie at all.

But since I'm all interested in food and how it is NEGATIVELY affecting my body, I figured it was high time to watch this one. In no particular order, these are the things I remember strongly. :) So you might want to watch it for yourself since my memory isn't always the sharpest!

Genetically Modified Organism (or G.E.-Genetically Engineered) Crops: One thing that really stuck out to me (that I have blogged about before) is just how much GMO foods might be screwing with our bodies. This documentary kind of goes hand-in-hand with The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. Mr. Michael was a part of the documentary and, now that I look back on the movie, it kind of follows the book pretty well.

In any case, the discussion about GMO seed was poignant to me because a) GMO seeds are becoming more and more prevalent and b) it appears that GMO stuff (corn and soy, to name the biggest GMO crops) are causing more allergies. My personal theory is that our bodies can tell that it's not getting corn as nature intended and creates antibodies against corn. Makes lots more sense why there are so many allergies these days and why I seem to have a particular aversion to corn.

This reminds me of a doc I saw who swore up and down that my body couldn't tell the difference between the T4 hormone my body makes and the Synthroid that was made in a lab; funnily enough, studies show that if you take Synthroid for your whole life, you're more likely to end up with osteoporosis. Huh. So right now, companies that produce GMO seed and the farmers who are literally stuck growing it are saying, "Oh, no, this is just like regular corn, your body can't tell the difference, it still has all the same nutrients, plus the ones we added!" Apparently our bodies can tell the difference.

Food Science kind of pisses me off. We're not solving word hunger with it, we're just giving a few corporations an even bigger profit margin.

There is a lot of controversy about the labeling of GMO products--whether we should or shouldn't. Right now, companies that use, say, corn seed that makes its own pesticide in its own cells DOES NOT have to be labeled. So unless it says non-GMO, you won't know.

Unethical Corporations: I think I may have accidentally covered this up there. I am not anti-corporation, per se, nor am I anti-capitalist. But if any company or business is acting unethically and getting away with it, yeah, that pisses me off. In this documentary, Monsanto (a giant GMO corn seed seller) comes off as pretty unethical. They are the mighty Goliath pushing around our nation's farmers. Some farmers who desperately want to grow organic, non-GMO corn have great difficulty doing so because the freaking WIND blows Monsanto seeds into their fields and legally Monsanto can sue for that.

KickAss Farmer Dude: This guy owns a place called Polyface Farm. I linked it here because the dude who runs the farm (Joel) is so freaking awesome. I was blown away by him because based on appearance and his 80s brand glasses, you'd think he'd be a really poorly spoken country bumpkin, but he isn't. He is a farm-reformist. He is a revolutionary.

Joel has a fully functioning farm (that is, they grow more than one crop and have more than one animal) and he believes in giving cows grass and 'processing' his own meat. The chickens he raises and slaughters are treated well, fed well, and slaughtered so quickly and cleanly that I know they weren't as scared as a factory farm chicken. My friend (who is almost a vegetarian) went so far as to say that he made her want to slaughter chickens! The USDA (or whoever pretends to be in charge) threatened to shut him down because his chickens were slaughtered in the 'open air' and could be contaminated. So nice to know that they prefer our meat be killed on an assembly line in a giant shed and then washed in ammonia and chlorine.

He even goes so far (in the book, Omnivore's Dilemma) as to say that the big 'organic' grocery stores are crap because they have industrialized and gotten away from what it really means to be 'organic'. Food, Inc. is worth watching just for this dude.

Stonyfield Yogurt Dude: The reason my husband and I liked this guy is because he was very practical. He was a hippie commune guy who basically decided that he needed to compete on a bigger level and show people that organic could be done in a big, successful way. And he did it. His yogurt is in Wal-Mart, because Wal-Mart recognized the demand for an organic yogurt brand. If people will buy it, they will stock it. Wal-Mart got rid of the hormone-treated cow's milk simply because no one wanted it. So....remember, you vote at least three times a day.