Food, Inc. - You Can Change the World with Every Bite

Grab a post it and jot yourself a note. Tomorrow is the DVD release of Food, Inc.and you need to make a point to add this important movie to your Netflix or Blockbuster queue. It will change the way you eat.

Food, Inc. is not filled with gruesome shots that will put you off McDonalds hamburgers for life like the important but tough to stomach Fast Food Nation. But it is filled with interviews and facts that will make you think about the food you choose to buy. It's a fascinating expose of how food is produced in America today.

Today a handful of corporations control the vast majority of the food produced in America. Their focus is on the bottom line instead of consumer health or the environment. Their control of the food supply has far reaching consequences that increasingly result in danger to our families.

Producer-director Robert Kenner partnered with investigative authors Eric
Schlosser (Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals) to interview farmers, families, and food experts to explain all of the issues surrounding our food supply today in simple and impactful terms.

You'll learn that McDonald's is the largest purchaser of beef and potatoes in the world. You'll see how chickens have been bred to have such large breasts that they can no longer stand, how cows are being fed grain they cannot digest and are being contaminated by dangerous strains of E-Coli bacteria, and how farmers are being threatened and watched by company security firms. You'll hear from these same farmers about their struggles with mounting debt and their frustration in being forced to compromise what they produce all in the name of profit that they do not see.

I can't get the image out of my head of this poor immigrant family strolling through a supermarket, looking longingly at the fruits and vegetables that they could not afford. They then headed to a fast food restaurant to accomodate their budget but worsen their health.

I was captivated by all of the interviews and footage in Food, Inc, but I was inspired by its concluding message. It's so easy to feel powerless in the face of such control, but the movie reminds the viewer that we, as consumers, are actually very powerful. Every time we choose to put something in our mouths, we are voting.

Eric Schlosser's inspirational words scrolled on the screen before the closing credits,
"When we run an item past the supermarket scanner, we're voting. We need to vote to make carrots cheaper than chips.
You can vote to change this system. Three times a day.
Buy from companies that treat workers, animals, and the environment with respect.
When you go to the supermarket,
Buy foods that are in season
buy foods that are oganic
know what's in your food
Read labels.

The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to get to the supermarket. Buy locally. Shop at farmers' markets. Plant a garden.

Cook a meal with your family and eat together.

Everyone has a right to healthy food.

Demand healthy food lunches.

You can change the world with every bite.

I'm inspired. And I guarantee that you will too, after you see Food, Inc.