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Truth is hard to swallow in 'Food, Inc.'
If you are going to see Food, Inc.—and I recommend you do—be prepared to have two common assumptions run headlong into each other. The first is "you are what you eat." The second is "what you don't know can't hurt you." If you haven't read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser or Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, this move will serve as the Cliff's Notes. Through interviews with these authors we learn just how much has changed in the last 50 years in the way our food is raised and regulated.
We have the McDonald brothers to thank for inventing the original fast food restaurant. Their model of producing low cost, ready–to–go food high in salt, sugar and fat (the three most "desirable flavors") spawned a whole slew of fast food chains.
While these meals appeal to our taste buds and are easy on our wallets, they have long term health consequences—for consumers, workers who raise and process these foods and the planet, as well. By standardizing the menu so that each meal has to be exactly the same wherever it is purchased, the supply chain has to be standardized as well. The result is the current state of industrial farming where fewer types of foods are produced and fewer health and safety standards are enforced.
In the movie we meet a family that goes grocery shopping and finds it too expensive to buy healthy produce. What is affordable is the dollar menu at the fast food drive thru. Is it a coincidence that several members of the family have major health issues including obesity and diabetes?
We meet the mother whose son died from eating an e–coli tainted hamburger. As a result, she has devoted her life to trying to get the government and meat industry to do a better job of ensuring the food we eat is safe. We are introduced to individuals who move between the boardrooms of food conglomerates and jobs in the federal government that can oversee these very same industries. Can you say "conflict of interest"?
Be prepared for the "industrial farm" tour where chickens, cows and pigs are raised using hormones and antibiotics. Animals are crowded together and raised in conditions that not only maximize output, but threaten to increase swine flu and mad cow disease.
As an alternative, we visit a holistic farm where animals are raised in the bucolic way we imagine our food to be raised, with fresh air and room to graze on fresh grass. The animals are treated so well that every day is a good day right up until their last one.
Food, Inc. is an important and disturbing film because it lifts the veil on the food industry. No other industry is as crucial to our health as individuals or a nation. Equally important is its impact on the environment and on the health of those who work in it. In this case, the truth may not make us free—but it certainly is food for thought.
© 2009 Larry Forsberg. All rights reserved.
Articles posted on this Web site are for personal use only and remain the property of Larry Forsberg, L.Ac.
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