This Post Contains No Sugar or Corn

This documentary (Food, Inc.) confirmed my suspicions about the state of the U.S. food industry. And honestly the main focus of this film is not about the plight of the animals as much as you would think (although it IS there and no one will ever convince me otherwise because you cannot NOT do it and feed the amount of people that demand the production of ‘food’ to the degree that it does). Its more about the monopoly of the industry as a whole, where ‘food’ is being ‘generated’ with the crap that isn’t worth selling outside of the cheapness of it and its ability to be made into several other components to ‘produce’ food for the masses, AND feed animals which were NOT built to ingest corn for sustained life, just as humans were not…

After reading Pollan's book (and the other 2 are on the way in the mail) and viewing this documentary, I'm starting to think that the current food crisis (or as Pollan calls it, "edible food-like substances") is actually more urgent than climate change (both are urgent, but this food crisis is creating an epidemic of diabetes, obesity, cancer, and more).

It is also outrageous how U.S. policy is helping fuel this crisis.

In short, you are what you eat, and what most people eating right now is pretty disgusting.

I feel like Keanu Reeves in the Matrix after he chooses the red pill. My eyes are open now to where all that shiny, cheap food comes from and I can never erase that. I think the most memorable part for me was when Mr. Salatin observes that we don't necessarily want the cheapest cars but we clamor to buy the cheapest food. And it goes INTO our bodies.

It's a challenge to present a difficult subject matter, one infused with so much political fire, in a respectful and straightforward way. Food Inc. does the job perfectly. It isn't preachy, it isn't blasting viewers with gory sights from slaughterhouses, it isn't one-sided; what it does is share important information in a way that lets viewers see behind the scenes of big agriculture, behind the marketing and the hype.

Often, books and movies on this subject are preaching to the choir. The only folks that see or read the message didn't need the message in the first place. Food Inc. is mainstream, accessible and open to everyone. Food, our health and our land shouldn't be an issue for the Left or the Right. It impacts all of us equally and the solution has to involve all sides. Small farmers have a big stake in this, as do those concerned with the environment, food safety advocates, workers' rights defenders and average consumers. Everybody has a piece of this pie and how we choose to go forward is what will matter. Food Inc. gives the viewer plenty of food for thought but also some conclusions that can be implemented now by consumers to help bring big business in line with what is safe and healthy.

Skeptics especially should watch this film. If you don't believe there is anything wrong with genetically modified food, with huge agricultural factories, with our current food safety, then watch this film and put your thoughts and beliefs up against the information presented. If nothing else, I think skeptics will get the chance to see things from another view point and perhaps walking a mile in those boots will give them some food for thought too.

This movie will leave you sickened by the amount of toxins we are ingesting, and the foods that are barren of nutritional content. The statistics regarding insulin resistance and the number of diabetics expected, in this, and the next generations, are staggering. If we look further down the road, at our already fragile health-care system, we can readily see that with these dire health predictions, due to poor nutrition, that any system, new, or old, will not be sustainable.

As the old saying goes, 'you can tell how civilized a population is by the way it treats its animals.' Well, it goes without saying, that we are failing miserably in this area. However, watching the poor, enslaved workers in these processing plants, is just as uncivilized, and, a blight against humanity.

Thankfully, of late, I have been introduced to someone that can get me pastured eggs, chicken and if I want it, beef. I am pleased that my family still pasture raises its animals and lets them feed off the land…but in the same breath I am sickened by the fact that my brother works for Tyson.

Coming next:  Yes I know healthier food is more expensive...but...