Food Inc.

Friday evening I downloaded Food Inc. from Netflix because I realized I couldn't keep saying I didn't need to see it, but needed instead to have something to say about it to folks who ask.

My overall reaction? It's probably the best made movie of this sort I have seen,
but I am tired of focusing on the negative.

One note I wrote myself:
Is the foodie critique a luxury? not just foodie choices, but the time spent on critiquing the system?

I also wondered about the focus on animal foods. One more shot of a slaughterhouse or CAFO would be two or three too many.

My favorite part of the movie was actually getting to see Polyface Farms - even a shot of a Polyface kitty! It was just a second, and it just had one face, but it reminded me of all the photos of cats I took on the tour of organic farms in Iowa in the fall of 2008. I still look at them from time to time.

As long as I'm into quoting this evening, a couple of things from Joel Saladin of Polyface:

>>How far are you from the consequences of your decisions? [about what you eat]

>>We've been successful at hitting the bull's eye of the wrong target.

(How many time could you use that line?)

I found the CEO of Stonyfield a little shifty, personally - must have been the little smirk - and I felt the movie not strong enough in its critique of industrial organic. I mean, if you are going to do the foodie critique, do it.

Finally, the movie as a whole left me with a renewed commitment to advocate for more than consumer solutions - but not because the movie did. It isn't just about what you buy when you go to the store and how you vote with your dollars. It's about becoming producers ourselves, and about informed work on issues.