Robert Kenner's FOOD, INC. (2008) takes a trenchant look at agribusinesses and their impact on the average person's living conditions. As with Business, Banking, and Energy, so it is with Agriculture: Bigger is Not Better for anyone except those who hold and consolidate the reins of power and those who make the quarterly profits. Underscoring the importance of seeing this film, everyone has to eat to survive.
FOOD, INC. doesn't come out and say it directly much, but people can choose to bypass the dominant system, or at least subvert it to a degree. Even while others are trying to change it from within.
Support a victory garden (try planting without Monsanto-owned seeds), local organic producers and farmers, local vegan/vegetarian/organic co-ops and eateries, and so on. Reduce visits to fast food joints, cut down on superfluous driving, try some of the energy savings ideas Jimmy Carter put forth in the late 1970s -- they are still valid on this side of Ronald Reagan's diminishing shadow.
In Fort Worth, there is an increasing buildup of certified organic food supply. For hamburger-lovers, Kincaid's cows "are vegetarian so you don't have to be." Spiral Diner offers nicely-prepared and tasty vegan meals; the same owners will soon open an independent movie theater, The Citizen. These foods are slightly more expensive than typical fast-food, but not by much -- and you can get them at most grocery stores to a surprising degree, and at mixed retailers like Target.
I am hopeful, actually, and predict that by 2060, organic vegetarian and vegan meals will comprise the majority of choices by the majority of the (mostly urban) population out of pure common sense, if nothing else.
Today's Rune: Fertility.
3 comments:
I SAW IN THE LIBRARY A NOTICE FOR A SEMINAR ON URBAN FARMING. SOME CITIES ARE ALLOWING FOLKS TO RAISE CHICKENS. THE VICTORY GARDENS DURING WWII WERE LIFE SAVING IN MANY CASES. WE NEED MORE PEOPLE TO LEARN WHERE THEIR FOOD COMES FROM, WHAT IS HEALTHY TO EAT. WE HAVE A FARMER'S MARKET HERE IN SAXAPAHAW EVERY SUMMER AND WE CAN BUY DIRECTLY FROM THEM. A LOT OF CITIES ARE BUYING THEIR FOOD LOCALLY. I KNOW OUR LOCAL EATERIES ARE.
Lana and I try to do many of these kinds of things. Our new bikes are an example. But still it is not easy.
I liked the movie.
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