Food, Inc.

I love documentaries.

When I was doing my month-long apprenticeship at Rio Muchacho Organic Farm in Ecuador, we watched one almost every evening. It is amazing how much there is that goes on that we don't know about.

The problem with documentaries is that they can be extremely biased. It is hard to weigh both sides fairly if one side is being demonized. I do think it is important to consider both sides before making a decision.

The industrialized food system, like industry itself, has its merits and its problems. Nothing is perfect, nothing will ever be perfect.

It appears to me that the problem started as a question "How are we going to feed all these people?" a.k.a. how are we going to meet the demand?

It was interesting how they mentioned that there was a time when the meat packing industry was one of the best industries to work in; the equivalent of working at a car factory. It doesn't have to be the way that it is now. We have this false illusion that factory food is cheap. The reason it is cheap is because it is subsidized by the government and there is a toll being taken on the environment, the animals, farmers, and even the food itself. What it lacks in quality, in humanity, it makes up in price. But then again, if you are an American citizen who pays taxes, you are also paying for the subsidization and the efforts to clean up the environment, for the lawyers battling bills, for the illnesses, etc. In the end, it really isn't that cheap. It is an illusion, just like many things in our lives.

I watched the movie with my father, and to my anger at the injustice that these money-laden giants were causing against farmers, he made the remark that it is the whole justice system that is at fault. Petty cases should not be clogging up the court system. Companies should not be able to get away with making stupid charges. Well, in the end, people, should not get away with making stupid charges.

Unfortunately it is worse in Canada. Check out this article from the Vancouver Sun: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Alberta+farmer+shot+thief+sentenced+days+jail/5521407/story.html Man defending his property gets 90 days in jail. The thief gets 30 days. Hmm....

There are always many ways to spin things, but I think it comes down to common sense, which there doesn't seem to be a lot of these days.

Back to the food...

In Canada, we don't have a lot of the farming problems that they have in the USA. We have a lot of land and relatively not that many people. All the beef farmers I know have their beef on grass for the majority of the year. Even a lot of dairy farmers (based on visual evidence since I live in the "country") have their cows out on grass most of the days, most days of the year. A few like to keep theirs in barns, especially the larger farmers. The difference, however, is that in this area, an average dairy farmer has about 100 cows. In the USA, I have heard that the average dairy farmer has about 3,000. Big difference. But out here, most farmers grow their own fodder for their cows, whether it be corn, grain, or grass (usually in the form of silage). People might say "You can't get enough milk for the population if all the farmers only have 100 cows. How are the farmers to make money?" I don't know the details, but when I was studying agriculture at (what was UCFV) in Chilliwack, the majority of the class were dairy farmers (or children of dairy farmers) that said they often had to pour out milk because they are not allowed to exceed the monthly quota.

Back to the movie...

I think one of the most important things said was that we do have a choice. We can vote with our dollars. Unfortunately the organic industry is quite the fad these days, and they exploit that to the max. It is very costly to buy many organic products. The more that this becomes the standard, however, the cheaper it should get as the market becomes competitive. In the meantime, you can always start with one or two things. If you have the time, you can start making homemade things, much like our grandmothers did. I am slowly doing this. I make my own jam, I started a small jungle-like garden this year and planted some fruit trees. I usually make my cookies from scratch, pies from scratch, bread in a bread maker. (I made hand-made bread once and although it was much tastier, it's too much work). I canned a lot of applesauce last year. The best thing about making things yourself is that you know exactly what is in it. My jam had fruit, vinegar and sugar. Though I don't know how the vinegar and sugar were processed, the fruit was all fresh picked from my garden, my mom's garden, and the fields just down the road. Best part was it was delicious. I need to make some more.

I would definitely recommend the movie, especially to people who have little to no access to knowing first hand where their food comes from. That package of meat used to be a cow. That extra large chicken breast used to have a heart beating inside. What the food is treated with, and how it was treated while growing are very important if you have any heart at all.