Another reason to raise our own animals and eat "real food".

[redux]

Ok - I have read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

I will have to check out the rest.

 

[Iceblink]

This is a little bit of 'OD' but I was reading the ingredients in a box of 'Herbal Tea' yesterday, and it contained 'artificial blackberry flavor' that has, yep, you guessed it, corn and soy! In herbal tea! Yucko Bucko.

Some other good books, "Plenty" "My Year of Meats" "All Over Creation."

 

[bibliophile birds]

OK - King Corn; Omnivore's Dilemma-

What else? What other movies and books should I use to learn?

If anybody knows, you guys do

movies/shows:

- Food, Inc (of course)
- Fresh (seems to be the antidote to the serious depression Food, Inc will put you into)
- Food: Beware (it's a French documentary, particularly dealing with kids and chemicals)
- Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (not particularly about organic and non-GMO, but about eating real food)
- The River Cottage Treatment (was showing on Sundance. good look into industrial chicken farming vs. free-range)
- Blood, Sweat and Takeaways (originally from BBC, but showed on PlanetGreen. VERY good look into where cheap food comes from and how it is produced, especially the social issues involved in that kind of production)

books:

- ANYTHING BY Wendell Berry: he is like the godfather of writing about food sustainability. a good intro is Bringing It to the Table
- The Junlge by Upton Sinclair: he wrote this in 1906 to expose the atrocities committed in the meat packing industry. seriously changed the way food production is perceived.
- Slow Food Nation by Carlo Petrini: Petrini is the founder of Slow Food International and has some very good observations about food culture
- Edible Schoolyard by Alice Waters: she transformed how people view food in schools
- The Essential Agrarian Reader edited by Norma Wirzba: good intro to many great agricultural writers

books with a more global perspective:

- The Global Food Economy by Tony Weis
- Food Rebellions: Crisis and the Hunger for Justice

more pop culture-y books:

- The Revolution Will Not be Microwaved by Sandor Katz
- Twinkie, Deconstructed by Steve Ettlinger

just generally good low-impact books:

- No Impact Man by Colin Beavan

sorry about the possible overkill... i'm not called bibliophile birds for nothing. also, ask Buster as he seems to always be reading something interesting.

 

[Farmfresh]

All the suggestions are great!

I want to give a few links for some of the stuff. Jamie Oliver short

King Corn and Food Inc. are both available through Netflix
Easy viewing of some of the River Cottage Series with Hugh Fearnly- Whittingstall Factual TV then search "River Cottage".

Jamie's Fowl Dinners is also quite an eye opener.

Also good are Jamie saves our Bacon which was a show promoting Free Range pork in the UK.

And Chickens, Hugh and Tesco Too

Full episodes are out there on the web my son has found lots of them for me.

 

[redux]

Excellent, thank you guys. You almost have to become a scientist to eat safely these days. I did read "Twinkie, Deconstructed" and I felt like I was in science class. It was very enlightening, though.

And I do have "Food, Inc.", the movie and the book. There is so much to know and to sift through.

I don't believe everything I read, but when it overwhelmingly makes sense, it's compelling.

 

[Wifezilla]

I would also recommend the DVD FATHEAD and the book EVERYTHING I WANT TO DO IS ILLEGAL by Joel Salatin.

 

[bibliophile birds]

also, there is some really good stuff in Gordan Ramsy's show The F Word. it's really sporadic because the show is MOSTLY about Gordan's restaurant, but each season he took on a special project. the first was raising turkeys in his backyard in London. then it was pigs. then sheep! in London! the best bit was that he actually went with his pigs to slaughter and watched them die and they processed the turkeys in a mobile unit in his driveway.

they also do lots of special reports about various food: rose veal, humane foie gras, buffalo mozzarella, etc etc. plus, like Jamie Oliver, his big push is that people eat real food. he did all these home visits where he taught people to cook simple, good food that was from fresh ingredients and that they could easily fit into their lifestyles.

i always hated Gordon until i started watching his BBC shows. sure, he's a bit explosive and can be, um, crash, but there is reason behind it all and he's doing good things.