Food, inc.

[mykidsand_i]

I have seen this movie (at least bits and pieces of it) before and tonight with a child not feeling well and wanting to be rocked, I decided to watch it in full- from start to finish.

I know, it is a completely one sided film. It makes the food industry look like it's out to get EVERY consumer. And I am not going to 'end all meat' or 'go 100% organic' because of watching this film. BUT, it sure made me think about how we as consumers are getting our foods. It made me gain more respect for the 'local grown' farms in our area that offer grass fed beef, fresh chickens, chicken eggs, pork products and fresh picked veggies. I do try to support them by purchasing 'local- carefully maintained' products...when they are in season.

This movie made me look forward to summer months of buying from farmers markets, going out to our 'grass fed butcher market' and buying from him as we do (after this movie, we'll be taking more regular trips there- believe me!)

On one hand, I do believe that new laws NEEEEEEEED to be set in place in order for our children to be healthy (school lunches, fast food, even eating at home!!!) But, on another hand, I am not the person who would ever just see one side of the story either. I see good in both ways of doing it. Yes, there are major problems with the food industry. BUT, until we, as consumers, show the industry what WE want, (We tell them by what we purchase!) nothing will ever be changed.

I really appreciated that the movie touched on the fact that it is cheaper to buy a bag of chips than a head of broccoli...or that people were complaining about the price of REAL farm fresh eggs as they carried a pop in their hand- that costs more-

So, I really recommend this movie. Not because I believe it is 100% truth, or that we all should go to 100% organic, or local, or what ever- but because it will make everyone who sees it more knowledgeable about the food they are putting into their bodies, the food that is allowing to be put into their children!

At the end of the movie there's a website about supporting healthy school lunches. http://www.foodincmovie.com/sign-the-petition.php I know there was a topic on here about lunches, and how some people are furious with their children's school lunches- so if we go there and voice our opinons, maybe we can do something about it...

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

Recently, my doctor told me if I choose to eat beef, to make sure it is only grass fed beef as it is lower in cholesterol.

It's interesting to me that we have HFCS as a major ingredient in many foods (and those clever little ads that imply this poison really is ok) where it interferes with the body's ability to signal it is full...

It is interesting to me that we have a government that set us up for problems with "fats" when they declared all fats equal and equally bad, and are now back tracking... consumers aren't as stupid as they thought.

It is interesting to me that diabetes, an isidious disease that wreaks havoc on the body is almost at empidemic levels and we continue to be bombarded with food products that actually cause this illness...

A complex topic to be sure! No simple answers and no one answer for everyone.

 

[Christine]

I have yet to see the "good" side of our food industry. I guess lots of cheap food for the masses can be a good thing but, so far, in our case, it isn't.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Obviously eating healthy and exercising starts at home. I could complain that the government made me buy those oreos and soda or look to myself.

There will always be a segment of the population that does not want to buy healthy so the industry is serving them. Right now that is very large due to our lifestyle, mentality, etc..

You are free to buy what you want just as much as you are free to shop healthy.

I struggle with this daily. Meal planning has gone to the wayside for me and I will admit freely it is hard to get back in the saddle. The only person I blame is myself.

So what is for dinner tonight? Seriously, what are you planning that is healthy?

 

[Christine]

Obviously eating healthy and exercising starts at home. I could complain that the government made me buy those oreos and soda or look to myself.

There will always be a segment of the population that does not want to buy healthy so the industry is serving them. Right now that is very large due to our lifestyle, mentality, etc..

You are free to buy what you want just as much as you are free to shop healthy.

I struggle with this daily. Meal planning has gone to the wayside for me and I will admit freely it is hard to get back in the saddle. The only person I blame is myself.

So what is for dinner tonight? Seriously, what are you planning that is healthy?

My gripe isn't with the oreos or the chips. That's pretty much common sense that this causes a problem.

What was paramount to me out of Food, Inc was the way the meat industry had changed. The quality of meat produced, especially beef and chicken, was pretty scary. The terrible way the meat is processed makes it cheaper for every to be able to eat; however, the way the meat has changed has made it very unhealthy.

My husband and I make a decent living but with two very large eaters in the house, it pretty much rakes my budget over the coals to buy grass fed beef and free range chicken. I'd love to, it tastes so much better, but I can't seem to sustain my budget. Therefore, I just eat very little beef and chicken.

 

[RUDisney]

Our local library showed this movie about 6 weeks ago.

There are two things that stood out for me more than others.

1. The crap that is washed with bleach and mixed into burgers that are served at fast food places has completely made me stop going to McDs, BK and Wendys as those are the ff places in our area.

2. The fact that Tyson recruits illegals to work in its plants is an abomination... even moreso that the govt sides with the big meat processor instead of the consumer... gee, thanks lobbyists. You realize that if you or I hired an illegal housekeeper or nanny, we'd probably be found out and fined if not sent to prison. Yet, this company is allowed to employ so many undocumented workers. Who pays taxes for employing them? The illegals don't pay taxes when they are paid in cash. This ticks me off.

There were other things in the movie that annoyed me... the soybean nonsense with Monsanto, the chicken farmers having to go further into debt to be able to produce chickens for the meat processors, and I can go on.

The movie really gave me some things to think about.

 

[MosMom]

Does anyone remember when a big corn sticker would be on packages of meat? Since most consumers really didn't have a choice or have a clue, they were placing that sticker on the meat as if corn fed was better for you. Marketing foods is deception that goes way back.

Some changes the government could make would be changing the foods they subsidize.

I don't think it is as simple as "put down the oreos". I think some SERIOUS education on nutrition is needed in America. So many packaged foods are SO bad and 75% of the grocery store is stuff that is bad for you, whether it looks bad or not.

I was at a food show with my aunt (she is a caterer). The show was clearly targeted to school lunch programs. The food was SHAMEFUL. I'm telling you, it was scary. There were probably 100 booths and it was all deep fried/processed/low quality JUNK. My aunt was looking for a catering philly steak because she had a client wanting to do Philly cheesesteaks. We found some and the saleswoman asked if my aunt was from a school. When we replied she was a caterer, she said "Oh, you don't want this, this is (I can't remember what term she used but it was obvious she meant crap) meat." I walked away thinking "So it is fine for our kids but not a caterer?"

 

[The Mystery Machine]

My gripe isn't with the oreos or the chips. That's pretty much common sense that this causes a problem.

What was paramount to me out of Food, Inc was the way the meat industry had changed. The quality of meat produced, especially beef and chicken, was pretty scary. The terrible way the meat is processed makes it cheaper for every to be able to eat; however, the way the meat has changed has made it very unhealthy.

My husband and I make a decent living but with two very large eaters in the house, it pretty much rakes my budget over the coals to buy grass fed beef and free range chicken. I'd love to, it tastes so much better, but I can't seem to sustain my budget. Therefore, I just eat very little beef and chicken.

I never saw the movie but I am aware of processing of meat to begin with. I will have to check it out and scare myself some more.

Being in MO we have many local farms around us with local produce.

Growing up my mother would always get the side of beef from the local butcher and put it in the deep freeze. I wonder if that still makes a difference. Now chicken has been always scary. I remember watching "Faces of Death" as a teen.

And pork, well you can get that info from "Dirty Jobs". Seeing how they are raised is scary enough.

What is really scary for me is the fish industry and the fish farms. Did the movie touch on that?

I am educated with nutrition so for my home it is about the junk food. It is about just being quick with something to fill your stomach rather than nutrition. It can be a struggle at times. Like right now we are in a slump.

Plus it is also about cooking. You can buy all the organic stuff you want however if you cook it improperly you are not gaining anything.

 

[Nette]

Obviously eating healthy and exercising starts at home. I could complain that the government made me buy those oreos and soda or look to myself.

My gripe isn't with the oreos or the chips. That's pretty much common sense that this causes a problem.

While I agree that good habits and healthy eating start at home, I think the problem is that a LOT of people really don't know what good habits are. When I was growing up it was all about the packaged convenience foods but low-fat. The gov't has been publishing bogus "healthy eating" guidelines that serve the big ag lobbyists for so long that people have no idea what is healthy anymore. We need to wake up and realize that it's NOT healthy to eat as much grain as they're telling us we should eat. Our bodies are NOT designed for that. And all the prepackaged crap... guess what? It's all corn... a grain.

OTOH, if people don't want to learn (and obviously a lot of people are much happier living in ignorance) there isn't much that can be done.

It's interesting to me that we have HFCS as a major ingredient in many foods (and those clever little ads that imply this poison really is ok) where it interferes with the body's ability to signal it is full...

Those commercials make me so angry. They might be right that IN MODERATION HFCS isn't that awful, but it's nearly IMPOSSIBLE to get HFCS in moderation in this day and age. It's in EVERYTHING.

This is a subject that I am really passionate about and I wish I could figure out how to turn it into a career. I'll be following this thread for sure!

 

[kirbydog48]

We'd be so much better off if we ate more like our grandparents. What really scares me is how early girls are developing, some getting their period ate age 7. The fast food "beef" is really horrifying.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

A thread like this makes me think of Soylent Green. The movie was in 1973 and the year in the movie is 2022.

It really was a movie ahead of it's time.

 

[ckay87]

What affected me more than anything was, as another poster stated, how it's cheaper to eat from the BK dollar menu than to buy fresh produce. I buy a lot of fresh fruit and veggies and I'll find myself actually thinking "should I put some of this back?" And then I smack myself.

I do not like the animal factories that we have going on, but that won't change for a long time. But I feel a TON better about my husband's hunting and spending the year eating his deer. Free range...yep. Grass fed...yep(well, unless she got lucky ). Hormone-free. She lived a happy life before feeding our family. She was not stacked on top of other animals, she didn't graze knee-deep in her own poop. She was allowed to run, lay down and mate. Does it get more organic?

 

[Lady V]

The scene where he had that big hole in the side of the cow and was putting his hand in the hole to add stuff the cows stomach? And the cow is alive? That was disgusting.

And that family who each had a dollar or something and the little girl wanted fruit but they couldn't afford it? so they got hamburgers off the dollar menu? Now-I do agree fruit is too expensive but I also think they could have shopped better, combined all the dollars, and had a healthier meal with water instead of soda and that would have saved $.

And I agree about how those poor chicken farmers must keep up with all these updates and they make so little? And did you notice how the one blonde lady who let them film ended up 'resigning' from the company soon after? Yea, right...I'm sure it was her choice.

And that 'cleaning' product they add to meat? WTH??? And the cows covered in poop that gets into the ground meat? And how a pound of meat could actually have parts of over 1,000 different cows so if even one of them was sick or dirty you could get sick?

Can you tell the movie bothered me?? I will say this-my kids watched it with me and now my son refuses to eat chicken nuggets. (he already knew they weren't 'good' for him but now that he has seen all the 'special ingredients' he is so grossed out!)

 

[PghLybrt]

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.cfm


There is tons of great info at that site (like who really owns who) so you can really see where you food comes from. They also have some great links to local orgainic products of all sorts, not just food.

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/
I have my own garden , i belong to a csa and I buy from my local farmers markets (or the farm) as much as possible.

 

[goodeats]

My daughter is starting to eat table foods, and I went to whole foods and got her some free range organic chicken breast from Whole Foods. 2 chicken breasts cost $12! Of course this is at least 21 servings for her, but still that's a lot of money.

DH and I would like to move to all free range meat, but it is definitely costly. I need to think of meat as more of a condiment instead of the 'main deal'. Last night (for a special occasion) we had free range bison. It was incredible! It cost $20 a pound, but we only got 3/4 of a pound and we cut it in 4ths. We each got enough for dinner (including salad and veggie sides) and have enough for a small lunch today.

I guess I need to learn more vegetarian recipes that I can serve with small portions of $$$ meat.

 

[anniemae]

This sounds really interesting, I will have to watch it.

One thing I don't understand is about free-range chicken. I know it is a better life for the chicken, but is the chicken meat any better for you, the consumer, if it is free-range vs. just regular chicken. I just have a hard time justifying the cost.

 

[Christine]

This sounds really interesting, I will have to watch it.

One thing I don't understand is about free-range chicken. I know it is a better life for the chicken, but is the chicken meat any better for you, the consumer, if it is free-range vs. just regular chicken. I just have a hard time justifying the cost.

If you look out how the chickens in Food Inc were raised, you would think otherwise. Free-range might be the wrong term. I just want a chicken raised on a farm. The Food, Inc chickens were crammed in a chicken house, they were specially bred to grow very fast so they cannot support their weight on their legs. They are living in their own/other's exrement and they cannot move. They are often sick and on antibiotics to make it to the weight they need to be. Basically, they are sick chickens.

 

[eliza61]

I never saw the movie but I am aware of processing of meat to begin with. I will have to check it out and scare myself some more.

Being in MO we have many local farms around us with local produce.

Growing up my mother would always get the side of beef from the local butcher and put it in the deep freeze. I wonder if that still makes a difference. Now chicken has been always scary. I remember watching "Faces of Death" as a teen.


.

Don't ever watch it MM. It will take weeks to recover.

I loved Food Inc. I found it very informative and yes I know it's one sided.

For me I simply wish food companies would give out more truthful information so I could make informed choices.

Ironically, I started getting interested in better food quality after working in my uncles restaurants over 40 years ago. I will admit it was purely based on taste. I couldn't understand why the meats I was eating now were absolutely tasteless. Why was the beef and chicken I was buying more often than not simply absolutely the most tasteless blob on my plate?

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Why was the beef and chicken I was buying more often than not simply absolutely the most tasteless blob on my plate?

Well I am going to add to that. We are a household that has reflux and I can't find a whole chicken in my local store that is not injected with the crap.

Free range is one thing, packaging is another.

 

[eliza61]

This sounds really interesting, I will have to watch it.

One thing I don't understand is about free-range chicken. I know it is a better life for the chicken, but is the chicken meat any better for you, the consumer, if it is free-range vs. just regular chicken. I just have a hard time justifying the cost.

Funny story Annie, I actually got "told off" by an amish lady last summer. I went to an Amish market last summer and picked up 5 lbs of chicken wings. I mentioned casually that they were smaller than supermarket wings. LOL boy o boy was that the wrong thing to say. She said to me very loudly " THIS IS THE REAL SIZE OF A CHICKEN WING, CHICKEN WINGS ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO BE THE SIZE OF BASEBALL BATS". I think by the time she finished I offered to clean up for insulting her.

Anyway the answer to your question IMO is simply TASTE. The chickens that I've had that are antibotic free are juicey and flavorful. You ever read the label on a perdue roaster and it says 5% water injected for flavor? With antibotic Free chickens they don't need to inject that water into the breast meat to keep it moist.
I've found with supermarket wings before I broil them, I've got to use a ton of seasoning salt or pepper to give it some flavor, not so with antibiotic free chickens.

You are right the cost can be prohibitive but now I try to at least pick up some healthy cuts. So I may get regular perdue wings but free range it when it comes to roasters or chicken breast.