Happy Book Club Monday Tuesday!
Every week I review a book and share that review with you guys. To see past books, check out Badger Girl’s Book Shelf.
Last week I promised an awesome book on Paleo-like style eating. I am breaking all of the rules this week. Last weekend, I watched a movie that seriously touched me. But unfortunately it was not the touch in the sense of a feel-good-warm-and-fuzzy kind of touch. More like the touch in the sense skin-crawling-shudder-inducing-creepy-guy-on-the-subway kind of touch.
I watched Food, Inc.
I don’t think I will ever be the same.
Food, Inc.
I have had the book sample on my Kindle for weeks. I started it a few times, but just didn’t get into it.
After the Writer’s Institute on Saturday, I decided I needed a bottle of wine and a movie. For some reason, I was determined to get this one.
Manatee and I settled into the couch and pressed play.
If you would have taken our picture while we watched, you would have seen wide eyes and trembling hands.
Without tearing my eyes from the screen, I asked, “Are we agreed that we are never buying meat from a grocery store ever again?”
Manatee’s whimper was answer enough.
Overview
Next time you go to the grocery store, try to separate yourself and really look at the store.
Aisles and aisles of food.
Brightly covered packages, meat that magically appears without bones or skins, shiny packages of beef that look identical to each other. It’s a little creepy, isn’t it?
Do you know where that food came from?
Our food industry is an industry and food has changed into a commodity.
We are taught not to take candy from strangers, but we have no idea where our main sustenance actually comes from or who is responsible for it.
Where did the chicken come from and how did it get here? How was it raised?
If it is winter in Wisconsin, then where are we getting the strawberries and tomatoes?
Food, Inc. forces you to think about these questions.
It tracks down meat processing plants and reveals the not so pretty truth. It not only uncovers what happens behind closed doors, it also points out how hard it is to get in to the back room.
Doesn’t it make you nervous that big business wants to hide this from us?
Food, Inc. Clip
This is the clip that had the biggest effect on me.
Watch if you dare.
Believe it or not, I am not being melodramatic.
Life After the Movie
As much as I would love to go totally local, I know myself well enough that I will still buy un-seasonable produce in the winter and occasionally will buy produce at a grocery store. Judge me if you would like, but I am being realistic.
The produce stuff alarms me, but there was a more pressing issue. There were scenes that keep replaying in my head and to be honest, I think I may have missed parts of the movie because they hit me so hard.
I will not buy a package of meat that was not raised on a local farm. Period. End of sentence.
Manatee and I have talked a lot about becoming vegetarians. To be honest, we just don’t want to make the commitment. We rely a lot on vegetarian and vegan meals, but we like our meat every once a while and we are both in professions where it helps us to have a more open diet and have the ability to be flexible in what we eat.
We know there are things out of our control and we accept that. We can control what we buy for our home and that is where we are going to begin.
**********************
Have you seen Food, Inc.? What did you think?
I did not watch the clip you provided as I’m scared it’s very similar to the “Rave Diet” DVD that shows precisely and exactly what happens to livestock meant for human consumption.
As a Holistic Health Practitioner, my husband and I eat for our blood types. He’s an O+ (very much a carnivore); I’m an A+ (much closer to vegetarian, but not quite).
Laurie Buchanan recently posted..Write to the Top!
Big Fat “Like”, Kimberly! *That*’s what I’m talking about! We made viewing that movie a part of our kids’ education – it was most definitely one of many sources for discussion I certainly never had growing up. It’s very difficult for those of us in “the middle”, especially those of us in the northern middle, to change what we thought was the norm based on being a generation raised by grocery store shoppers. I’m almost 40 and still am struggling with my budget to spend more in the summer (or grow most of my own) and store it for winter. Diets will change seasonally for us (cooked vs fresh), and it takes some getting used to. I can be done – it’s just a matter of understanding, planning, and adjusting.
Great book/movie choice!
Laura @ The Art of Cooking Real Food recently posted..Cheesy Vegetable Chowder
Hi Laura-
I do agree that is is so hard for our generation that was raised in the super market. We lived in town and so the grocery store was where you went and that’s where my mother grew up too. My husband’s mother grew up totally different. She wanted a chicken for dinner and she had to kill it herself. We grew up in the age of convenience and unquestioning trust. This movie really shook me up. Even the co-ops in Madison can’t provide local farmed and grass-fed meat. It’s a little un-nerving. I think it’s awesome that you brought your children into the discussion and power to you for sticking to that lifestyle. I would love to hear more about your gardening and how you manage that.
Your comment is inspiring.
Thank you!
Kimberly
I had farmer relatives growing up and it’s always been a hard business, I’m sure it’s not getting any easier now. Thanks for the clip, haven’t seen this one but saw Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead last weekend, that was good, too. More of what we can do as a personal response to the system as opposed to an expose of the system itself.
Mary @ Fit and Fed recently posted..What we eat- from vegetarian to pescetarian