Food Inc.

I'm watching Food Inc. today for the "umpteenth" time.  It's never easy to watch, but friends...it is full of information that you NEED to be aware of.  If you have children, I can not stress this enough, so I will say it to you in bold caps: YOU OWE IT TO THEM TO WATCH THIS MOVIE!!!  At this moment, after viewing a heart-wrenching story of a mother who lost her perfectly healthy 2 1/2 year old son Kevin, to E. coli after eating a fast-food burger, I implore you to do your research.  In just 12 days, this little boy went from healthy to dead.  Healthy...to...dead.  The contaminated meat that killed him was not recalled until 16 days after he died.  Think about that for a moment, and then read on:

Cut to the next clip, filmed in meat processing plant whose meat is in 70% of the hamburgers in this country.  Upon showing the packaged meat ready to be shipped out to you, the screen reads:  "The finished product.  Hamburger meat filler that has been cleansed with ammonia to kill E. coli."  NICE.  I guess we can use these burgers to wash our windows, too!  Cool.  (Do not let your guards down,  non-meat eaters!  E. coli can contaminate your lettuce, spinach, sprouts, OJ, cider, pizza and cookie dough, as well as your water.)  But here's the good news...there ARE still some non-industrial farms out there that raise their animals in a healthy environment, feeding them grass instead of corn, living their lives grazing in the fields instead of behind dark, concrete walls, where they are pumped with hormones to make them grow to grotesque proportions in the shortest time frame possible, then pumped with antibiotics to keep them "healthy" until they are "processed".  Check out Polyface Farms for one example of a successful, family run pasture based farm.  I love where the owner says: "I've had people come up to me at a Farmer's Market complaining about paying $3 for a dozen eggs while drinking a 75 cent can of soda."  Can you say "priorities"?!

In todays struggling economy, it's a crying shame that you can buy a double cheeseburger for 99 cents, but not a head of broccoli! Candy, chips, and burgers are more affordable to purchase than vegetables, for God's sake!!  Why?  Because these cheap, unhealthy foods are subsidized!  However, when you add up the health costs, the environmental costs, and the societal costs, this cheap food is incredibly expensive.  I can attest to the fact that since becoming Vegetarian (and getting oh, SO close to Vegan), our grocery bills are LESS, not more.  Yes, we pay more for some things.  Believe me, I groaned out loud the other day when I spent $18 at Heaths for a couple of items.  However, I repeat:  our grocery bills are LESS.  (On that note, believe me, I take full advantage of Publix Buy 1/Get 1 Free offers, and I am not ashamed to say I am a coupon clipper.  Side note....check out http://www.southernsavers.com/)  But I digress...

What I'm trying to say my friends, is regardless of whether you are Vegetarian, Vegan, or you "just can't give up that steak", you should know where your food comes from.  End of story.  Period.

Please...if you have seen Food Inc., send us a message and tell us what you thought.  If you haven't yet seen it, again we plead with you to buy it or rent it as soon as you possibly can.  Watch it, and then drop us a line and tell us if it had any impact on your life; how it touched you, if it made you re-think your way of shopping and eating.  We guarantee it will!