Food Inc

[okiegirl1]

I think I will check it out. We had blockbuster on line for awhile and it' was pretty cool.

I'll got see. Lady Henevere suggested the netflix online, but I'm not sure if our internet is steady enough to stream an entire movie. it's pretty good, but can get iffy sometimes.

 

[Lady Henevere]

I checked this out from the library and watched it today. It was very good. There is a lot of information in there, so even if you know some of it, you will likely learn something new too. It kept DH's interest for the whole film, and he's not usually into that kind of thing.

 

[Dace]

It is now available on our cables pay per view service. Check yours if you have it.

Great movie....still gotta get FatHead

 

[modern_pioneer]

Hmmmm..... I did watch the film this weekend as well.....

I was very disturbed my the actions of Monsanto, no not really, it pissed me off.

Its nothing short than making a monopoly of seeds. Not to mention chemicals like round up, seeds and chemicals together for bumper crops.

Did you see the fields? No hedge rows for birds to live in, just row upon row of corn.

Maybe I will mention something else I learned from the film that I never even had any idea of the affect of NAFTA from another countries point of view. Being a huge Anti NAFTA person, my selfish feelings were focused my own country and the loss of jobs here. I did not know that NAFTA also destroyed the Mexican grain market putting 1.5 million grain farmers out of work.

What civil change must we have before they will abolish NAFTA? I know, round up those mexican farmers, get every unemployed american together and march on washington!!! I bet it won't slow the wheels for CAFTA...

Did you see the mounds of corn just rotting? Hmmmmm..... Starving people, rotting corn....

The film just highlighted my personal cause and drive of why I am living as ss as possible.

The emotional impact of losing the farm when I was 14 is deep rooted today. Not only cultural shock for a young man, country to the big city after a three hour flight. But I always felt as if Mom and Bobby were robbed of the farm. I know its easy for me to say that, not knowing all the money problems they had at the time.

But the roots that were placed in me at the time was how much I hated big companys and banks. Perhaps the same reason I hate wally world and the destruction it does to small town america. I would rather do without than to give them one red cent of my money.

If you watch the film, and don't see anything wrong with America and its food system, what's the point?

I imagen I have the same feelings as did those patriots fight in the revolutionary war?

Who said coup!!!!

And none of you that saw it don't see a problem?

Sorry I made it all up in my own mind, I blame free for suggesting the film in the first place.

WAKE UP PEOPLE.....

Sorry for shouting but people can't be this stupid?

Maybe they can and I am just learning how stupid folks can be.

I am going to take a chill pill, and think how my ss efforts are so much better than eating
cloned cow.

The next thing to happen will be milk from man boobs, as long as the government says its safe, the flock will drink it.

 

[Lady Henevere]

And none of you that saw it don't see a problem?

WAKE UP PEOPLE.....

I'm not sure what you mean. We do see serious problems, that's we're on sites like these (breaking away from corporate food, etc.) and why we support and discuss movies like this one.

Maybe I missed your point?

 

[Dace]

Hmmmm..... I did watch the film this weekend as well.....

I was very disturbed my the actions of Monsanto, no not really, it pissed me off.

Its nothing short than making a monopoly of seeds. Not to mention chemicals like round up, seeds and chemicals together for bumper crops.

Did you see the fields? No hedge rows for birds to live in, just row upon row of corn.

Maybe I will mention something else I learned from the film that I never even had any idea of the affect of NAFTA from another countries point of view. Being a huge Anti NAFTA person, my selfish feelings were focused my own country and the loss of jobs here. I did not know that NAFTA also destroyed the Mexican grain market putting 1.5 million grain farmers out of work.

What civil change must we have before they will abolish NAFTA? I know, round up those mexican farmers, get every unemployed american together and march on washington!!! I bet it won't slow the wheels for CAFTA...

Did you see the mounds of corn just rotting? Hmmmmm..... Starving people, rotting corn....

The film just highlighted my personal cause and drive of why I am living as ss as possible.

The emotional impact of losing the farm when I was 14 is deep rooted today. Not only cultural shock for a young man, country to the big city after a three hour flight. But I always felt as if Mom and Bobby were robbed of the farm. I know its easy for me to say that, not knowing all the money problems they had at the time.

But the roots that were placed in me at the time was how much I hated big companys and banks. Perhaps the same reason I hate wally world and the destruction it does to small town america. I would rather do without than to give them one red cent of my money.

If you watch the film, and don't see anything wrong with America and its food system, what's the point?

I imagen I have the same feelings as did those patriots fight in the revolutionary war?

Who said coup!!!!

And none of you that saw it don't see a problem?

Sorry I made it all up in my own mind, I blame free for suggesting the film in the first place.

WAKE UP PEOPLE.....

Sorry for shouting but people can't be this stupid?

Maybe they can and I am just learning how stupid folks can be.

I am going to take a chill pill, and think how my ss efforts are so much better than eating
cloned cow.

The next thing to happen will be milk from man boobs, as long as the government says its safe, the flock will drink it.

I noticed it too, you said it well and I did not feel there was anything to add. Big Agro is a train wreck and it needs to be cleaned up...everything about it is wrong. NAFTA too.....I also had no idea what the impact was on the other side of the border.

 

[me&thegals]

I didn't see the movie but intend to someday.

I think crop subsidies are a HUGE problem with our food system. When you subsidize certain foods and don't allow demand to set the market prices, you guarantee a tremendous surplus of those products (corn and soybeans). Manufacturers take that very cheap food (surplus) and put it in EVERYthing. I don't believe there is anything inherently wrong with corn and soybeans (except GMO), but I don't think they should be in every thing we buy from the store.

The OTHER side of subsidies is that you create this international market problem where one country can sell their food really, really cheaply because their farmers are subsidized by the gov't. Other nonsubidized countries (as in Mexico) are crushed underneath that kind of unfair competition. It's very sad to me that Mexico's corn farmers, the virtual BIRTHPLACE of corn/maiz, are struggling so badly because America's GMO corn farmers are producing such a surplus.

The subsidy system started out as a good idea--the gov't gave you interest-free loans to NOT grow a product that was in surplus, thus balancing out demand/supply, and then you paid back that loan when you were able to. These days, you simply are paid money if the market falls below a certain level. I should know the #s, but I don't. For example, if soybeans' market value is $3/bushel and the gov't has set the subsidy at $5/bushel, you get paid $2 for every bushel to make up the difference. So, you work out your farm inputs/outputs to be able to at least break even at subsidy prices and then you grow as much as you possibly can. If other farmers go bust due to drought or flooding, the market price is high and you do great. If there is a huge surplus and the market price is low, you still have a huge crop and subsidies to make up some of the difference.

 

[Lady Henevere]

M&TG, you should definitely see it. It has lots of great information. And you are totally right about the subsidies -- it's what allows all that terrible food to be artificially cheap in the U.S.

I was wandering around the internet today (looking at the Food, Inc. website and others) and I found some interesting sites relating to the issues in the movie. I thought I would share some of them in case anyone else is interested. Here are the sites, along with statements cut and pasted from the sites saying what each organization is about. (Disclaimer: I don't know much about these organizations, but each site seems to have good information about making better choices.)

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/ "Food & Water Watch protects our essential resources by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink and by helping people to take action to make a difference." (This one has tons of information.)
http://farm.ewg.org/index.php "EWG supports broad-based reform of federal farm policy by expanding farmland conservation programs to increase assistance especially to the bottom 90% of farm subsidy recipients as well as those completely left out of the current system." (This has info about where the farm subsidy money goes. See also www.ewg.org for broader environmental issues.)
http://truefoodnow.org/ "Center for Food Safety works to protect human health and the environment by curbing the proliferation of harmful food production technologies and by promoting organic and other forms of sustainable agriculture."
http://coolfoodscampaign.org/ "The Cool Foods Campaign educates the public about how food choices can affect global warming and empowers them with the resources to reduce this impact."
http://www.organicconsumers.org/ "The OCA deals with crucial issues of food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, children's health, corporate accountability, Fair Trade, environmental sustainability and other key topics."

 

[me&thegals]

Thanks for all that, LadyHenevere! It is heartening to see what I believe to be a real groundswell of consciousness about our food. Food is so much a part of our health, our social connections, our planet, our wallet, our politics. Just reading school lunch menus tells you a lot about who has power in America. Food touches everything.

I hate to go on and on about CSAs in every thread tonight , but that's the "alternative" food source I work with. Our most recent workshop offering is about how to become more efficient as an operation to help meet the HUGE demand for CSA we have in our area. I could easily double my current business (only 10 families now, true) right now without even trying. A little effort could triple it. A local CSA has 1400 families! People are definitely hungry for change.

I'm also amazed and heartened at how much extra effort people are willing to put forth for good food. They set up egg deliveries amongst themselves every week to distribute my eggs. They pay $2.50/lb for free-range chickens when they could get chicken at a fraction of the cost in the store. They pick up their CSA deliveries each week and work out elaborate pick-up schedules to save gas. They take Sat mornings to come buy at the market. It's really neat how much effort so many people are making.

I offered a canning class this summer and had to cut it off at 7 participants. People are definitely changing.

 

[Lady Henevere]

Yes, people are hungry for change. I'm in my first season of trying CSA and I'm very pleased with it.

MSN ran an article today about "cowpooling": http://www.good.is/post/the-good-100-cowpooling/?gt1=48001