I expected the movie to feel like a sensational expose on the “evil” forces behind our insanely messed up industrial food system. Perhaps because I’m rather familiar with the subject - it didn’t feel like one sided sensationalism. It felt honest. It felt real.

Have you ever watched a documentary that promotes heated arguments afterwards? I actually find it hard to believe that anyone could walk out of Food Inc. defending our industrial food chain. It’s really that good at presenting the issues.

Despite covering a wide variety of topics and issues, somehow Food Inc. does not overwhelm the viewers with a barrage of statistics that will slip away when the curtain closes. That being said, here are a few things from my notes that I’d like to follow up on in future posts on The Reluctant Eater:

• The rise of integrity in the meat packing industry from the depths of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle days and it’s subsequent fall in recent decades
• Kevin’s Law (which relates to the fact that the USDA cannot shut down meat packing plants that routinely fail inspections?!?)
• The effects of NAFTA on corn and jobs in Mexico
• Monsanto’s seed monopoly
• Veggie Libel Law (which is particularly bad in Colorado)

There seemed to be something to appeal to everyone. Do it for the environment. Do it for your health. Do it for the animals. Do it to fight the profiteering multi-national corporations. Even a segment on a 2 year old who died from e. coli after eating a tainted hamburger.

The shots from inside meat packing plants, though cringeworthy, were relatively tame compared to some of the videos I’ve seen online recently. To some, these graphic images appealed to our sense of right and wrong in terms of cruelty to animals (the screaming pigs were particularly chilling), while others came away from the movie wondering about the true cleanliness of these industrial meat processing operations and whether or not we should be eating food coming from a factory.

On Polyface Farm we saw Joel Salatin killing chickens in the open air with his bare hands. I was truly shocked that the movie showed the real process. They could have easily skipped this and focused only on the industrial killing. Thankfully though, we were shown both sides.

But this wasn’t an anti-meat movie. In fact, I’m not sure viewers heard any of the: vegetarian, vegan, etc descriptors.

Despite all the doom and gloom mentioned above, Food Inc ends on an extremely positive note. Although it feels like we’re trapped into choosing from whatever “they” give us, we aren’t.

“You can vote to change the system. Three times a day.”

It may feel small, but each time you choose not to purchase a product, “they” are watching. It’s all about money. Do you think Walmart sells organic food because they care about saving the planet? Nope. They just want to increase their bottom line. Customer demand even led them to stop selling milk from hormone treated cows.

You know when they say: “If everyone in this country drove a Prius….”? This isn’t like that. You make thousands of food purchasing decisions every year, and when hundreds and thousands of people change even just a few of those decisions - the ripples are felt throughout our food chain.

Another way to vote? Go see this movie (Nationwide showtimes). Bring a friend who doesn’t think too much about their food choices…

And yes…it’s still playing in Boulder.

Now, having extra digestive juices in your stomach isn’t going to kill you, but certainly we can all agree that it can’t help when there isn’t anything to digest. When you chew gum, your body is being fooled into a completely unnecessary physiological reaction.

Other negatives? Almost all gum contains either sugar, or aspartame - neither of which are net positives for your body. One article I read claimed that you should chew sugar gum for at least 20 minutes - by then the sugar will be gone and you’ll be getting the saliva bath action that helps fight cavities. Or to put it another way - chew it beyond the point at which it stops tasting good. Since you should skip the sugar (or aspartame) all together, why not just chew some flavorless rubber for a few minutes?

Several articles around the internet also mention that people with irritable bowel syndrome should not chew gum because it results in swallowing more air, which leads to discomfort. Sounds like a bad idea for people without IBS too, right?

Any gum chewers out there want to defend yourselves? Or better yet, any addicts want to go off gum for a week and report the results?

Longmont Farmers’ Market from Dan Borgmann on Vimeo.

Not only did I have a great time doing the interviews, but I came away extremely impressed with the Longmont market. It has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years!

My favorite suggestions are:

• Make your own sauce (amazingly, I never do this - but should start!
• Prepare your produce when you get back from the grocery store (wash, and bag if necessary). You’ll be more likely to eat it since the preparation work is done and you’ve reinforced the idea that it’s waiting for you tastily in the fridge.

PS - If you’re looking for something to do in the Boulder / Denver area on Thursday night, check out Ignite Boulder. A fun night of presentations from people in the community - also drinks and two local bands. The reason I mention it - Garret Smith and John English are presenting their topic: “World War Corn”. $5 gets you a ticket to the show at the Boulder Theater.

Immediately upon arriving in town (Tahoe City), I hit up the local grocery store to buy food for the week. The feeling of walking through those doors was crushing. I hadn’t been to a “regular” grocery store in an entire year. It felt more like walking into a cramped Target than a place where I’d be buying tasty food.

Almost everything I bought there was noticeably bland - particularly Arnold Oat Nut Bread, which I used to love. No wonder I never used to get excited about food!

Just before arriving at the condo I noticed New Moon Natural Foods directly across the street. I’d passed this exact spot dozens of times - how had I not noticed it before? Well, it’s like when you need some bizarre electronic gadget and then Radio Shacks you’d never seen before start appearing all over town.

Well, I’m on the lookout for good food all the time.

Guess what? The tiny little town of Tahoe City also had an amazing farmers market! 30+ vendors selling a wide variety of stuff, and a few things I had never seen before like golden raspberries:

(photo courtesy of LexnGer)

When you care about food, you realize there are great options everywhere you go.

The link also contains a quick video highlighting the problem with our food supply chain, which includes the incredible fact:

“60 years ago, we could create a single calorie of food with less than half a calorie of fossil fuels. Unfortunately today to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food requires 10 calories of fossil fuels.”

In modern times, efficiency no longer accounts for environmental impact - it’s instead a simple money equation. Yes, it may cost less to produce a bushel of corn today, but when the fossil fuels used to produce it have increased 20-fold, something is wrong. Seriously wrong.

—

After returning from a recent farmers market in King’s Beach, Lake Tahoe - I expressed my surprise regarding the lack of vendors selling local meat. His response: “Yeah, you gotta be careful buying that kind of meat…”

It’s interesting to note that in this exchange, both of us expressed a lack of trust in our food supply. For me, it was supermarket meat. For him, it was local farmers selling their own meat. He doesn’t buy from them, so I’m not sure where he came up with the assumption.

Why should either of us have to worry?

According to this page on Magnolia Pictures, the opening Colorado dates are:

• 6/26/09 Denver, CO: Chez Artiste
• 7/3/09 Boulder, CO: Century 16
• 7/3/09 Colorado Springs, CO: Twin Peak Cinemas
• 8/21/09 Fort Collins, CO: Lyric Cinema Cafe 2

If you read this blog, then you care about food. If you care about food, then you need to see this movie. Each ticket sold counts as a vote for all of us who want a better, healthier food system in this country. Let’s make some noise…

(For other showtimes: click here)

Take a look. No harm in entering right?

(Romaine Lettuce, Batavian Lettuce)

(Spinach)

(Kale)

(Beats, Radishes)

(Arugula, Garlic)

Yum!

Think it’s possible that 30 years from now people will be incredulously asking: “You used to buy vegetables from South America?!?”