Movie Food Inc.

[Dowzer]

Now that “Food Inc” is out on DVD, it’s time to see it yourself, share with family and friends. The need to support local producers is plain good sense. The only thing to lose is a little of your budget on the front end. As business increases locally, the prices will be driven down. If our local grocers begin using local producers, it does nothing but help our health, local economy and the flavor of our food.

This is a great documentary about the production of the food a majority of people in North America consume. It shows how companies monopolize the food industry and how the biggest customers, the fast food industry, has shaped the farmers who produce their food and as a result, the public's too.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone who buys food from a grocery store.

 

[Acutie]

some things i'd rather not know, until i have the money to buy locally lol

 

[Dowzer]

Well, to be honest, most of what they show is common knowledge. You know, most people understand the idea behind slaughterhouses and mass production. I didn't know some of what they showed, but they pieced together information which was easy to understand. Like why we produce so much corn, because it's in a majority of the food we eat and drink one way or another.

This mainly focuses on the stranglehold companies have on farmers. Did you know their is a patent on certain seeds? >_>

 

[Acutie]

i know companies have the farmers by the nuts almost all the time. i dated a dairy farmer for awhile, a small farm, 40-50 cows. the milk company paid them $0.04 a litre, then of course they pasturized it, put it in a container and sold it for $4.15.

 

[Valandil]

Buying locally will have far greater benefits if it's extended beyond just food/agricultural products. Not only buying products made locally, but also buying a product from a local business that you could buy at a big-box store down the street.

 

[Thelona]

Don't know if i'd wanna watch that video. lol Is it one of those videos that shows slaughterhouses and all the nasty stuff?

but I already try to buy locally made products, my friends think its weird that i look on the back to see where something was made. I think its just common sense. You support your local industries and its most likely going to be fresher.

as far as the way we do things on such a huge scale, yeah that's got all kinds of bad effects.

in many other smaller countries people eat beef or even chicken sushi, with no worry of food poisoning. the E coli and food poisoning we always worry about here is a product of us doing everything on such a huge scale.

 

[Makelith]

Did you know their is a patent on certain seeds? >_>

Plant genetics is a billion dollar industry that most people don't even think about. The amount of work and stress that goes in to getting just the right breed of corn (what i studied for a semester) can take years and years. There better be a patent.

 

[Dowzer]

There's not many slaughter house scenes due to farmers being forced into privacy. Only a few disobeyed their companies to show how they make a living, resulting in them losing their contract.

Plant genetics is a billion dollar industry that most people don't even think about. The amount of work and stress that goes in to getting just the right breed of corn (what i studied for a semester) can take years and years. There better be a patent.

The problem farmers have with this is it's nearly impossible to find seed without a patent. If they're using a patented seed, it's through a contract, an incredibly sour one that requires them to loan hundreds of thousands of dollars to continually upgrade their farm.

Not only that, but their crops are at risk of being contaminated by a patented gene. That happens to farmers neighboring another farmer's crop with the patented gene, the wind can carry the seeds to their neighbor, resulting in them growing the patented plants. Those company's keep a close eye on their farmers and when they find other farmers using their patent, even when not by choice due to their neighbors, they have oodles of lawyers at hand.

It's not so much that the billion dollar industry needs to be protected. The way we rely on the corn and soy industry is amazing...It's literally in a majority of food products. There was the huge ecoli problem which stemmed from cattle being fed corn, instead of what they naturally eat, grass. They can't digest corn properly and as a result there's much more manure, combine that with huge crowds of cows and they become covered in shit. The slaughter houses are mass production butcher shops, the largest in the world being in the US. When cows weren't totally clean of their feces, the bacteria went with the meat into our grocery stores, when it wasn't cooked thoroughly people became sick and even died across the country. That resulted in the biggest recall ever seen.

The problem isn't exactly this, it's how to stray away from the mass production of our food. Something no one has been able to figure out. I'm in no way condemning people from eating this kind of food, we do have a choice but it's not easy and it seems impossible on a global level. That's what this movie shines a spotlight on.