Monday, October 12, 2009

Food Inc.

I have gotten some flack recently from friends and co-workers due to my deeply held feelings on the food and restaurant industry. I understand that often my passion on the issue can come across as preachy and egotistical; which always makes me feel bad.

It is my personal belief the this country is in the middle of a serious epidemic. The way we eat is run almost entirely by a very few number of multi-national corporations. Tonight I watched a movie called Food Inc. that I think really highlights the most severe elements of this ongoing problem and shows us how to combat it every time we enter the supermarket or make a choice where to eat out. Eric Schlosser, the brilliant investigative journalist and writer of Fast Food Nation, is a producer and central figure in the movie and I think that anyone who has any concern about their health and what they are eating everyday owes it to themselves to watch this film.

Some interesting facts I learned from the movie:

Types of food can actually be patented

It is actually illegal for a farmer to plant seeds from their own crops

The average agri-chicken never sees light (not sunlight, light)

30 percent of the United States is now covered by corn fields and its production subsidized by the government

1 in 3 Americans born after the year 2000 will have early onset type I diabetes