Enjoyed this documentary about food. I'm glad that there is such a movement toward caring about where our food comes from, and about how our choices impact our health and so much more. Of course, after these bursts of education, I wonder, what do I do now?
One back-to-basics farmer is portrayed in sharp contrast to the meat-factory and says:
“Where we’re standing got grazed 2 or 3 times in the Spring then we made hay on it; the next time it got grazed, ran the hen-mobile behind it; then we ran a big batch of turkeys through here….and then graze it again at wintertime; the point being that when you add all of those things up, suddenly you’re not getting not only the multi-speciatian, and the different kinds of manures, but you’re getting all these complimentary income streams, so that unlike the neighbor who just brought in beef cows getting $150/acre, we’re getting over $3000/acre/year, and we haven’t bought a seed, or bought an ounce of fertilizer in 50 years. That’s what I say, wow.”
Once expert says:
“It is true that local and organic food costs more. It’s worth more too. When this dozen eggs costs $4 or $5, because these animals have been on pasture, and it’s full of Omega-3 and it’s full of Vitamin A, those are not the same as those 79 cent battery-cage eggs. Yeah they’re a white sphere, but it’s not the same product. As we’ve industrialized our food we’ve made it cheaper, but we’ve also diminished it nutritionally. According to the USDA’s own numbers, if you look at fresh produce grown in 1950 and compare nutritionally with fresh produce grown today, you will find that the amount of key nutrients-- minerals, vitamins-- has diminished by 40%.”
“The more you process food, the less nutritious it is. Cheap food is an illusion. There is no such thing as cheap food. The real cost of the food is paid somewhere. And if it isn’t paid at the cash register, it’s charged to the environment, it’s charged to the public person in the form of subsidies, and it’s charged to your health. You do get what you pay for, with food as with anything else. There are people, however, who can’t afford it. And we need to basically level the playing field. Right now we’re heavily subsidizing every calorie of high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oil, which are the building blocks of processed food, the least healthy food we’re eating, and we’re not doing anything to subsidize or support the growing of fresh produce. Millions of Americans live in food deserts, where you can’t find fresh produce; you can only find processed food. You can find Ramen noodles, but you can’t find an apple. People do want to eat this food, they just don’t have access to it.”
