Warning: This is a Rant

Let me begin by saying that today I had a wonderful morning.  I took Chase, my Miniature Dachshund, for a walk in the neighborhood--my broken foot now nearly healed.  Then I had a slice of quiche that I made of local bacon, eggs, flour, butter, cheese, and cream (so you see, that walk was really important).  After that breakfast I set out for Ithaca to see what was up at the farmers' market.

My plan was to bring back some seedlings to augment what I plan to sow in my garden, aka Dorset Harvest Farm.  It was a wonderful trip.  I touched base with farmers, artisans, and winemakers that I hadn't seen over the winter months.  There will be more posts coming about this soon--my intent today was to write about last minute sign ups for CSAs (it isn't too late!) and to talk about the difficulty of keeping a small organic farm aloft in a current industrial agriculture-based economy.

But then I came home and found that the movie, Fast Food Nation, was up on Time Warner cable's pay service.  You know, I never got to see it in the theaters it was gone so fast--now I know why.

This movie made me ill.  I mean, I'm sitting on the couch writing this and my stomach feels awful.  I read Fast Food Nation, the book, nearly five years ago and it changed my life.  I had given up Chicken McNuggets years before when I read something about how the workers were treated.  But after reading Fast Food Nation I reassessed my entire diet in light of the political, immigration, environmental, agricultural, and health implications that I often write about on this blog.  In fact, when folks ask me about when I really began to care about where my food comes from, I tell them that my passion for these issues went into warp speed after reading Eric Schlosser's book. 

Here's what I want to know:  How can anyone in their right mind watch this movie and still crave a Big Mac?  How can anyone watch this movie and not have big questions about their food?  As I drove to Ithaca NPR had a soundbite about the possible contamination of 25 million chickens from wheat gluten feed from China.  What, we don't grow enough wheat in this country for chicken feed?  Oh yeah, this wheat gluten was the same stuff responsible for killing numerous cats and dogs because it was in the pet food.  How in the world can we go on eating the way we do from conventional producers?

Near the end of the Fast Food Nation film is a scene from the kill floor of the beef processing plant.  As much I wanted to I didn't avert my eyes.  But watching it made me wonder if I should go back to being a vegetarian.  But that isn't the answer for me. 

This morning I picked up a couple of oxtails from McDonald Family Farm.  I understand that my choice to eat meat means that I participate in an unpleasant fact of the food chain--animals are killed so that I can enjoy a good meal.  But I have no doubts about the way Peter McDonald raises his animals and I know that they are killed and processed in ways that are as humane as possible.  This is true for any meat producer listed on this blog.  These are about the only conditions under which I can continue to eat meat.  But I want to do a Michael Pollan and see for myself how animals are butchered and processed--that will be a goal this summer.

But beyond that I want to help others understand how messed up our food system is.  Industrial agriculture--conventional AND some USDA organic--continues to offer cheap food and food products that put our health and our planet at risk while small family farms fight for survival.  This is crazy. 

Fast Food Nation the movie was never going to make it big.  Films that tell too many harsh truths rarely do.  And it is unfortunate because a film like this would not only change minds but it would change hearts.  And then we might get somewhere. 

Comments

[Carla]

Actually, MSNBC has been showing this off and on, especially on weekends. I've noticed it at least twice in the past few months.

[David]

The answer to the question "Why is this being allowed to happen?" can be taken right from your own writing above:

"Industrial agriculture--continues to offer **cheap** food and food products".

Our sick society is based on one thing: "MORE". Everyone wants MORE stuff. To that end, priorities have gotten way out of whack. People will cut back on what they deem less important to have more to spend on what they THINK is important, like more channels of crap on their giant TV.

Besides, no one's neighbors are impressed by you eating well - no one SEES that, so what's the point?

[Jill Hurst-Wahl]

I finally saw this last weekend on some TV channel. I was amazed at how sick he got and how fast he got sick. You're right...you should not be able to watch that film and think of fast food in the same way (or any food).

And yes our food supply is tainted, but "we" don't seem to care or notice. Avoiding that food supply is something that is not easy for most people, so we hope that if we ignore the problem that it won't affect us.

BTW Natur Tyme is having organic farmers at their place on May 11 for what seems to be a meet and greet.

[bazu]

Thank you so much for this review! This movie also made me appraise everything about my diet. I'd like to think that I eat low enough on the food chain that my food choices have less of an impact on the environment, but I have to pay more attention to the politics of what I eat, how I consume, what I buy... it can be mind-boggling.
I agree with David's comment above- we've been trained for decades now to look only at the price. For many people, reading ingredient labels or researching the corporations behind their foods is an alien and burdensome thought. I wish every food item in the market had two prices: the price you pay to eat it now, and then how much it's going to impact your health bill down the line, its environmental effects, etc...

I'll stop ranting in response to your rant now!

[Jen]

I loved that book. I wasn't big on fast food before I read it, but after, it was completely eliminated from our lives. I don't understand people who treat fast food like it's a necessary evil in their lives or they have to get it for their kids. My kids are growing up just fine without it.

Another good book is My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki. Turned me vegetarian for a few years but I have since become a meat eater again. I try my best to buy from small farms, and in lieu of that I buy organic from the supermarket.

[Jennifer BB]

Carla and Jill, good to see you here. I'm wondering, though--are you thinking of Super Size Me--the movie about Morgan Spurlock's adventure eating at McDonald's for 30 days? That's another film that will change your habits. And Jill, thanks for the heads up on the Natur-Thyme market.

David, you make a couple of excellent points but the one that I keep thinking of is the notion that no one is impressed by another person eating well. Food is such a complicated thing--we haven't even begun to address the various food issues. And the problem is that whenever buying an organic carrot or a fancy bird is observed, it is often labeled elitist. One can't win. And obviously the health angle doesn't work. Travis at the Co-op recently told me that some alarmingly large percentage of Americans don't think what they eat affects their health--so there goes that strategy.

Bazu, you're right about the pricing thing. But I think that if we really got the label-reading going that would do it.

Jen, thanks for posting a comment--I'll need to check out My Year of Meats--thanks for the tip!