Food Inc is Nominated for an Oscar

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Feb 02, 2010 at 12:33:51 PM PST

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

That's some stiff competition. So far I haven't found any predictions for who will win. But I bet you the food industry is going NUTS that Food Inc got nominated!

Book Recommendation: Food, Inc by Peter Pringle

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Nov 18, 2009 at 23:03:50 PM PST

Here's my caveat though: I believe the content of this book is essential reading, but I disagree with the author's ultimate assessment of biotechnology. In the tail end of the book, Pringle says:

[GM foods] are scientific creations full of both promise and potential hazard. These experimental foods deserve respect from those who discover them, call for more caution from those who regulate them and grow them, and finally, at the end of this real food chain, demand close study by those of us who eat them.

My main critique here is that, from reading the book, I do not believe Pringle has an adequate background in the science of sustainable agriculture (or perhaps ecology or agriculture in general) and thus, I believe that he overestimates the promise of GMOs. Assessing GMOs also requires assessing alternative solutions to the problems GMOs are intended to address. The question is not only "Do GMOs solve a problem?" but "Do GMOs represent the BEST solution to the problem?" This book makes it clear that the science of genetic modification is not quite ready yet for prime time. I am all for science for science's sake, but I believe that agroecology is the best and fastest way to solve the world's food problems at present. If, some day, biotech presents a better, safer solution than agroecology, then I will revise my point of view. In the meantime, those who want to solve the world's problems will get their best bang for their buck (and their fastest results) via agroecology, not biotech.

New York Event: The High Cost of Cheap Food

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Nov 16, 2009 at 13:23:09 PM PST

Seminar: The High Cost of Cheap Food.

WHEN:  Thursday, November 19th, 6:00 to 9:00 pm.  (Screening starts at 6 PM)

WHERE: The New School, Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street (between 5th and 6th Aves), 1st Floor.  Please note new location.

SUBWAYS:  F, L, or V to 14th St. - 6th Avenue

Speakers:  Marion Nestle, Peter Pringle, and Bryan Walsh.

NPR Demonstrates How Not to Do Journalism

by: JayinPortland

Sat Jul 04, 2009 at 15:30:00 PM PDT

The piece is 4 minutes and 27 seconds of tired old corporate propaganda under the guise of faux 'down-home' populism; from the title at the link, to the arrogant and provocative first sentence and completely untruthful last sentence of the summary, and all the way on down to the closing seconds of the interview.  My favorite bit of the "report" was the accusation that when we 'attack' Monsanto, we are running 'the last generation of independent family farmers' off their land.  I'm honestly surprised the piece stopped just short of calling us terrorists, but they must have run out of time.  However, the piece is still full of enough crap to fertilize every field within listening distance of the NPR affiliates that aired it.

Shame on you, NPR, for running this type of "journalism".

Nicholas Kristof on Food Inc

by: Jill Richardson

Sat Jun 20, 2009 at 21:31:33 PM PDT

Over the years, though, I've become nostalgic for an occasional bug in my salad, for an apple that feels as if it were designed by God rather than by a committee. More broadly, it has become clear that the same factors that impelled me toward factory-produced meat and vegetables - cheap, predictable food - also resulted in a profoundly unhealthy American diet.

I've often criticized America's health care system, and I fervently hope that we're going to see a public insurance option this year. But one reason for our health problems is our industrialized agriculture system, and that should be under scrutiny as well.

Big Ag has been all over the Internet, saying how this movie is anti-farmer and its views are unrealistic about agriculture. Well, there you have it. Nicholas Kristof, self-described Oregon farm boy, agrees with the views communicated in the film. Of course, one farmer-turned-columnist can't speak for all farmers, but I am grateful that somebody with as much credibility as Kristof and a platform as big as the New York Times is showing that Big Ag does not represent all farmers (as they claim to do).

Book Review: Food, Inc.

by: JayinPortland

Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 21:00:00 PM PDT

The book opens up with Eric Schlosser taking us back about 15 years to the beginning of his own journalistic involvement in food issues, up until where we find ourselves now; after which filmmaker Robert Kenner describes how Food, Inc. came together, sharing personal anecdotes and background stories from the process of making the film.  From there we head on into the second part of the book, the "meat" (if you will) of our story - essays covering topics ranging from organics to GMOs to ethanol, and from climate change to the abuse and exploitation of farm workers by agribusiness.  Standouts in this section include a piece by Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association laying out a strong case against GMOs, and United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez' piece describing the many ways in which 'cheap' food in our current system comes at the expense of those sweating, bleeding, being exposed to toxic chemicals and sometimes dying right there in the fields, with little to no legal protections, while living and working in appalling conditions.

The book closes with pieces focusing on what we can do, with the American Community Gardening Association offering "Ten Steps To Starting a Community Garden" in your neighborhood, and Joel Salatin offering guidance on how to "opt out" of the industrial food system and take charge of our future.  Previously published essays from Michael Pollan and Marion Nestle also appear in this section.  The essays in this guide are well written and easily accessible, and while there may be nothing new to the activists amongst us here, they will certainly be of help to the ever-increasing number of those new to our movement, helping them further along their own paths towards a good food future.  This book is another useful tool in spreading our message beyond just the screens playing this film.  A good book to gift, or to "accidentally" leave with a friend or relative you think may just need a little bit more prodding.

Sampler Platter 06.14.09

by: JayinPortland

Sun Jun 14, 2009 at 17:37:07 PM PDT

• Farmers' markets in Oregon have been affected by the Bush Depression...in a good way.  Record crowds have been counted at markets here in Portland this year, and purchases are up over 20 percent from last year.  Also, people on food assistance have spent almost 3 times as much at some markets as compared to last year, and markets are receiving many more vendor booth applications than they have space for.

• David Suzuki and SeaChoice have teamed up with a regional chain of supermarkets, who will no longer carry yellowfin tuna, Chilean sea bass, orange roughy and other non-sustainable seafood at their 117 locations throughout British Columbia and Alberta, Canada.

• Should the Washington Farmers Market Association allow nuts from around the world to be sold at farmers' market booths?  One local hazelnut grower thinks not.

• "They've survived ice ages, asteroids colliding. They've seen the dinosaurs come and go. And now they're going extinct in unprecedented numbers." - that's Kerry Kriger, founder of Save the Frogs.  They may have met their match in us.  Native amphibians in Oregon are disappearing at an alarming rate.

• The (Vancouver / Victoria, BC) Tyee takes a look at the ongoing battle between two rival forestry certification non profits who certify eco-friendly wood products - the industry-created "Sustainable Forestry Initiative", and the "Forest Stewardship Council", a group formed by environmental activists.

• Nevin Cohen takes a look at New York City's recently unveiled "Food Retail Expansion to Support Health" (FRESH) plan to bring more supermarkets into low-income sections of the South Bronx, Upper Manhattan, Central Brooklyn, and Downtown Jamaica (Queens).

• Big Ag's gonna hate this!  Food, Inc. was the top-grossing independent film at the box office this weekend, finishing ahead of even Francis Ford Coppola's (director of the Godfather trilogy) new film.  Reviews of the film can be found here from Jill and from me.  See it!

More Free Press For Food, Inc. - This Time From the Farm Bureau

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jun 11, 2009 at 08:00:00 AM PDT

The latest anti-Food Inc outburst comes from the American Farm Bureau. And while their name sounds quite farm-y, the organization tends to be on the wrong side of just about every single issue - wrong for farmers AND wrong for consumers. So it's quite funny how an organization that I view as anti-farmer is calling out Food Inc as anti-farmer.

(Hat tip to Naomi Starkman for sending this website my way.)

The Food Inc Backlash

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Jun 05, 2009 at 23:40:50 PM PDT

"Food Inc." contains an astonishing number of half-truths, errors and omissions. By clicking on the topics below you can learn more about issues raised by the film that concern you.

Monsanto Gives Food Inc Two Thumbs Down

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jun 04, 2009 at 01:33:43 AM PDT

Food, Inc. is a one-sided, biased film that the creators claim will "lift the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer." Unfortunately, Food, Inc. is counter-productive to the serious dialogue surrounding the critical topic of our nation's food supply.

Throughout this film, Food, Inc.:

• Demonizes American farmers and the agriculture system responsible for feeding over 300 million people in the United States.
• Presents an unrealistic view of how to feed a growing nation while ignoring the practical demands of the American consumer and the fundamental needs of consumers around the world.
  
• Disregards the fact that multiple agriculture systems should - and do - coexist.

This is Monsanto propaganda at its best.

Michael Pollan on Bill Maher

by: Jill Richardson

Sat May 30, 2009 at 21:37:41 PM PDT

Maher: We can't have [single payor putting insurance companies out of business]! Health care is the biggest industry we've got. We need sick people and the food companies are doing their part to help.

Oh yes, they put the time in the lab to find out just how much fat, sugar, and salt to load into a Happy Meal to make it more like crack. Do you know that even our baby foods are now up to one third sugar? Only Americans could develop comfort food for somebody who's already eating off a tit. I mean, what kind of people hooks babies on sugar? It's not a mystery why even one in five four-year-olds is obese. Four-year-olds! The elephant in the room is your kid. Not only can't Johnny read, he can't see his dick. If Al-Qaeda slipped something into our food that did that to us, well we would torture some Arabs and keep on eating.

Sampler Platter 05.26.09

by: Jill Richardson

Tue May 26, 2009 at 22:27:32 PM PDT

• The EPA said no to California's aerial spraying of 2 pesticides to combat the light brown apple moth. It's good news but not good enough... CA will probably find something else nasty to spray.

• Our calls on the Obama admin to put somebody who isn't an industry shill (and not named Michael Doyle) in charge of food safety at USDA are being heard. Good.

• Check out this new food and climate report from the Post Carbon Institute (PDF).

• Talk about making a win-win! A program by the Wholesome Wave Foundation allows food stamp recipients to get $2 of food for every $1 in food stamps they spend at farmers markets. Farmers win & so do eaters. Yay!

• You know, being out of work as I am, I'm not one to suggest that the recession is good for us. But check out this headline that the recession means more money spent on gardens and less on cigarettes and alcohol. So I guess the next time I look at my bank balance and cry, I should tell myself that it's not all bad.

• Dave Murphy gives us his $.02 on the new movie Food Inc. We're still in countdown mode until this film is in theatres. The date to mark on your calendar is June 12.

• Normally I'm no biofuels fan, but Tom Laskawy gives us an interesting idea: what if narcotics producers switched over to making biofuels instead? It's hard to argue against that.

• Here's another good one from Laskawy - his comments on Obama USDA nominee Rajiv Shah. Laskawy's a lot nicer about this than I am. He doesn't use any four-letter words.

• Oops. Los Angeles schools were found violating anti-junk food rules.

• Fooducate tells us about recession shopping trends. Like reducing impulse buys, cooking at home instead of eating out, and switching from sit-down restaurants to fast food ones or from grocery stores to superstores.

• However bad your food is, just be glad you're not Russian. I'm not dissing vodka and borscht - according to this article, Russians too poor to buy regular food are instead opting for spoiled food.

The Most Important Movie of the Year

by: Jill Richardson

Thu May 14, 2009 at 14:08:57 PM PDT

Why was it THAT important? No other film that I can name covers a global crisis of a basic human need in such a compelling, informative, and accurate way. This film is what I had hoped the movie version of Fast Food Nation would have been, except it's twice as good because it threw in The Omnivore's Dilemma too. Together, I consider those two books the Food Bible (old and new testaments, respectively), and now they are available in movie form for all of America to watch.

Film Review: Food, Inc.

by: JayinPortland

Sat May 02, 2009 at 19:57:10 PM PDT

This review, in short, can be summed up with two simple words - see it.  The best part of the film, for me, was being able to actually see the things I had already read about and heard of.  Immobile cows being pushed and rolled towards slaughter by forklift, hundreds of baby chicks rolled and knocked around down conveyor belts while tumbling every which way including off the belts altogether, hamburger filler being run through industrial-strength ammonia washes to kill off any potential e. coli bacteria.  

Cameras take us inside an industrial producer's chicken house and show close up footage of chickens too large to take more than two or three steps before crumbling under their own massive weight.  We follow the producer as she picks up dead animals off the floor and tosses them into trash piles.  Hidden cameras give us a look at a 1 AM poultry pickup at a Perdue chicken house - live animals being picked up by the legs 3, 4 or more at a time and haphazardly tossed and slammed into trucks...

Interviews with Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan and others guide us along; as Pollan again makes the point that our supermarkets only present us with "an illusion of choice", as virtually all offerings of the industrial food system are simply "clever rearrangements of corn" and one or two other main ingredients.

More below the fold...

Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Fri May 01, 2009 at 08:00:00 AM PDT

• Monsanto's throwing rotten tomatoes over on Civil Eats. It's a piece about the same Scientific American article on heirloom tomatoes that Joanne Rigutto took on on this site, and Monsanto's rep showed up in the comments.

• Ever wonder about that Ethos water that Starbucks sells? They say it's an ethical product, but is it? This blogger wasn't convinced. Personally, I find it hard to believe that ANY bottled water could be considered ethical. It's amazing that we are so lazy that we can't be bothered to fill up reusable water bottles and instead we insist on single-use plastic bottles that we throw away.

• Check out this awesome program in New York. They are recycling cooking oil into biodiesel. Yay!

• Cut the tray and cut the waste? Apparently it's true - if you don't provide students with trays in their cafeterias, they opt for less food.

• Wow!! If you're a map geek, check this out! They are maps showing which areas in the U.S. are most suited to solar, wind, and biomass energy.

• Should you make it or buy it? I've been on a budget lately so it's a question I ask myself. This article goes over that very question on a number of foods: yogurt, granola, crackers, cream cheese, and jam to name a few. Of course, the equations might change when we're talking local, organic food.

• Food and Water Watch has a nifty new toy on their site called Global Grocer. It lets you "go shopping" for produce and then tells you where that item was probably from.

• The FDA is finally wising up to ranking symbols on food packaging that point consumers to "better" choices. Good thing too, because food marketers' opinions of what constitutes a "better" choice is often pathetic. And for more information on this topic, I HIGHLY recommend reading the book Appetite for Profit by Michele Simon, in which she thoroughly analyzes such ranking systems, which appear on such "healthy" products as Kraft mac n cheese and Lunchables.

• Really sad news? Rich countries are buying up farmland in poor countries. For a map showing which countries are buying and which are selling click here and scroll down slightly.

• You totally have to check out this kickass report from the USDA. It's a beautiful, illustrated guide to a bunch of their research. They've got info on organics, biofuels, the impacts of NAFTA, food insecurity, consumer trends, and more.

• The headline says it all: Fat, salt, and sugar alter brain chemistry, make us eat junk food. No surprises there.

• Our own JayinPortland will post a review of Food, Inc soon, but if you can't wait (or want to hear a second perspective), here's another review of the film.