http://www.foodincmovie.com/about-the-film.php

most law students who may have taken a food law class, chef’s who ask themselves where their ingredients come from, doctors who get asked by their patients what they should eat, and moms who must feed their children everyday are usually already on the ball about this subject. or at least i hope so.  most of my dearest and closest friends and family are teachers, or have devoted their lives to help educate the future, and as a plea tonight, i ask, i beg of you, to scrutinized every little thing that you ever put into your mouth and chew.

just like how i do as a foodie/cook/responsible chef.

i can’t be a foodie and NOT write about this — and it helps me to know that if i do my part in spreading awareness, then my bloggie here will have done it’s job.

THIS MOVIE is everything you ever want in unveiling the darkness behind a system designed to dupe and sell Americans all over the nation cheap products as empty as Glamour itself.  YES that is a mouthful, and so is the crap we have gotten used to eating as a continent.  Food has changed so much in the last few decades. it has not only become a multi level corporation but also a monopolized industry subsidized by the government that controls everything we consume.  Except, unlike other industries that may operate on a more external level such as entertainment and media vehicles, the food industry deals with health, wellness, and very basic human needs.

i will try to be as honest as possible here, in exercising my north american rights to express my opinions, and as my travels this summer has brought me new perspectives on the puzzle as a whole that i had been searching for about food; really my reason for returning to graduate school in investigating this pan-demic, epidemic, issue that is the FOOD industry, is two fold. a) i want to eat better and lead a healthy lifestyle b) i want to be able to help others see what i have the priviledge to spend time learning.  I love to foster discussions about lifestyle and having respect for life as a collective culture whether it be about food or not.  And most importantly, learn how to feed people not only information that is digestible, but also food that is hearty and good for you.

I felt as though i was taken care of in europe.  The food i ate was respected, the green markets i visited were accessible, affordable, and clean.  I gorged on food and drink, and it was as expected, very very enjoyable.  I miss that feeling in north america.  i get frustrated with asking myself what i should eat. where i should eat, and where i think it’s not compromising my morals to shop for food. (drove by the classic and nostalgic maple leaf gardens landmark the other day downtown toronto and was so sad to find out that they are turning it into a blobblaws. yet another giant supermarket chain)

In Europe, you literally get to shake the hand of the purveyor at these local markets, in fact, they wanted to talk to me most of the time, (coming up to me explaining in french how to take care of the beautiful pot of orchids that i was cradling in my arm that i had scored for less than 6 euro that morning) well of course without my first dumb founded look and frantic search for my friend and local translator TuVan.

“Tu parle francais?” what happened to those stereotypes of the french being all stuck up? All out the window, shattered to my delight and surprise.  I felt so warm and cozzy strolling around that green market in Bourg la rein in zone three just outside of Paris on that hot summer saturday morning.  And it was then that i realized, there are nice and warm hearted people all over the world, if you just stop and listen.  Most people just want to take care of you, show you their best, and boast about their accomplishments and what they’re most proud of in life.  Most people are warm and friendly if you open yourself up and ask nicely.  People are always looking to connect with other people.  Whether that be through food, culture, language, or all of the above.   Likewise, there are sneaky, manipulative, and mean malicious people all across the world too, and i think it all goes back to the basics of psychology and aiming for a higher standard and quality of life.  If people feel like they aren’t being taken care of, they get defensive, they put up walls, and they want power to control things over other people and living things.

People turn to POWER controlling demons, when they feel like all they have to ‘protect’ is their ‘rights’ and to ‘protect their quality of life’ – and in america, quality of life is often a direct correlation to how much money you have to better your life, in its true capitalistic form.  hence, the saying “it’s not personal, it’s business” – but what happens when your business is supposed to feed the masses?  I don’t feel as though that in America, i am taken care of as a human being.  Sure i have rights, but who cares when i can’t eat well, when i can’t enjoy and celebrate life, stop and smell the roses every so often because my morale is so low from playing catch up with myself and the system that demands more and more instant gratification and high profit margins out of me.  My friend made a very good point the other day, “everyone thinks that their industry is the worst, that they are the ones working harder than anyone else, that their 14 hour days suck more than someone else complaining about their 14 hour days, 6 days a work weeks” — and i think he’s right.  Everyone has high work ethic, because you need that to survive.  So mix that in with a lack of benefits, guilty vacation days if any, and low wages, which all point to low moral.  And nevermind the constant catch up people play with their debt.  i have many friends who live in america who are happy surviving with very little each month, but in the end, that is because they are young and can protect themselves still with food and illness. and still they have the willpower and energy to take care of themselves.  “you guys in Canada at least get ‘free’ health care! — “ughhh uhhn, it ain’t free, we PAY for it, in every single minimun wage paycheck, biweekly, triweekly, however frequently we get paid – we pay for it”.  even if i’m not paying for a personal visit to the ER, i’m paying for someone else’s.  Chunks of my paycheck, go directly to the government automatically.  and at minimum wage, that’s hours of my everyday labour gone before i even see it.  Every system has it’s direct consequential issues.  All i’m saying is that when you have a movie such as Food, Inc. highlight some messed up issues in a particular industry because you have members of the society pour money, heart, passion, and time into spreading awareness, it’s best to pay attention.  Because it affects everybody.

Most of the time now it’s a struggle to survive, who isn’t struggling right now in this economic environment?  So wouldn’t you want to know where your hard earned cash is going when you spend it on food that you think is at the very basic level safe and natural? After countless tired hours of food shopping after work, and energy and heart poured into cooking a meal, wouldn’t you want to sit down at the end of the night for a reward well deserved?

For some people, that 89 cent taco, or 99 cent burger may seem like a quick, fast, convenient and easy choice, but in the end, more money is spent on drugs to try to alleviate symptoms of heart disease, diabetes, and poor health conditions without tackling the real problem at hand.  Where’s the solution? to the consequences of the system in hand that’s suposed to “protect” you?  Sure you have rights, but what’s that going to do for you when you’re lying in a hospital bed that you are paying per day for, feeling like shit, ill, with a worried family in debt to the now medical industry, watching you on the sidelines?  It’s quite sad don’t you think that America now has the highest rate of type 2 diabetes amongst CHILDREN all across the nation, our FUTURE. and that poorer areas and income level is directly correlated with obesity and heart disease linked to diet and exercise.  But seriously, how much exercise can you do if you’re poisoning your body with food that you can a) barely afford, and b) you think is supposed to feed you?

That’s why i believe it’s time. People are hungry for change, people are hungry for hope, and people want to feel inspired to do something about this fucked up reality.  At the very least, I DO.

i’m tired of this vicious cycle of CRAP, literally, being subsedized by the government, so we can EAT it — aka the CORN, that’s not meant to be fed to the MEAT & FISH  hence everyone gets sick and so do the animals, and our environment.  (would you eat a dying cow that was diseased if you found it lying screaming in pain in the middle of a field? the poor thing needs “free health care!”)

i’m tired of eating EMPTY CALORIES that poison my body into thinking it’s full, chalk full of preservatives, and chemicals that tricks my tste buds into thinking that it’s giving my body a treat because it’s either salty, fat, or sweet – so much that my blood sugar levels shoot up and up and offset my insulin production that is so out of WACK that all my body keeps thinking is that i’m HUNGRY (yes indeed, for nutrients, real food) so i eat more, i am depressed, so i eat more – but instead i eat more empty calories, more cheap food and hence the cycle continues until i’m obese and sick and people judge me for being FAT. and look at me like i don’t exercise. and i get ousted from society, a society blinded by it’s own doings to my people.  of course it’s easier to eat it anyway. to not think about it. to not watch my dinner get killed right in front of me.  of course it’s CHEAPER to buy cheap food. but that’s just it. it’s cheap. it’s imitaion. twenty fake gucci or prada bags don’t equal a real one.  and eating twenty dollar menu burgers will make you feel twenty times worse than eating one local organic grass fed burger that will make you beam from inside out.

it’s all in how you INVEST isn’t it?

feed me with nutrients. i want to love myself. i want to love my body.  feed me with knowledge, i want to learn more about how to really take care of myself and lead a healthy lifestyle aimed towards longevity and quality of life.  feed my soul. because all i want is to be happy in the end.

i want to LIVE, i don’t just want to survive.

Didactic, yes.

Scary, YES.

Hopeless? NEVER.

that’s what i’m most fascinated about with America.  no matter how effed up the systems in place may seem, they can be broken.  no one ever looses hope in the light of change.  people are ACTION driven, OPPORTUNITY hungry, and motivated to always move forwards.  People pride themselves on momentum, innovation, and passion.  And I LOVEEEE going along for the ride.

Hop on, the view’s better!  Here’s some inspiration

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms

Food and Water Watch

What’s on my Food?

edumacate yoselves, no matter where you live, what you eat, and how far removed you are from your actual food chain. Just like how people now ask starbucks whether or not their coffee is ‘FAIR TRADE’ – ASK. ASK your FAVOURITE LOCAL, NATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL MEAT SUPPLIER, RESTAURANT, DRIVE THROUGH, DINERS, FAST FOOD, FARMMER’S MARKETS, SUPERMARKETS, COSTCO, TARGET, WALMART, BUTCHER — WHERE THE MEAT COMES FROM. HOW FAR HAS IT TRAVELED, and IF they offer anything else. we are all about choices right? (you will soon find that there are 3 or 4 major companies that supply ALL meat in the states.  and who do you think their workers are? who are asked to treat the animals the way they are unequally and inhumanly treated as well, yea now that’s terrifying. watch slaughter house videos on youtube. i dare you)

come on, if WALMART now supplies an entire ORGANIC line of foods due to CUSTOMER DEMAND, you too can demand where and how you spend your hard earned dollar. not all capitalism is evil. but it’s easy to shake it up, because all businesses care about are NUMBERS. so do the math. if you stop spending, they get scared. if you stop buying their products, their demand goes down. and when demand goes down, production stops. when production stops, people find other ways to make money, people move on to other jobs, people create other ways to produce things.  Consumers hold all the power in consuming, that’s why marketers try to trick you in thinking what you want is what they want. which is more money, mo money mo money! for them. health? pssshhhhh, we’re not dealing with people. who cares about people, everyone’s in the minus anyway, charge it!!!! gimme more money!!!!! it’s all a numbers game.

i wonder what those fat cats eat at the end of their days when they go home.  i wonder they feed their families.  i wonder what is on their dinner plate at the end of a hard days work.  Do they eat the meat they slaughter and wash in chlorine and ammonia to wash away the e.coli knowingly? i mean, most consumers don’t know, so now you know. what are you going to do about it?

and i think we’ve all had those moments where we have FOOD-GASMS. don’t you want every meal to come close to those euphoric slices of life? :) When food is SOOOO GOOOD, that time stops, morsels of amazing flavours and textures work it’s way through your body, and you for the moment, happy?

i know i do. and i know i deserve good healthy food.

food for thought.

chew on it.

marinate in it, eat it up, and spit it out.

digest if you will.

you have the voting power 3 times a day. (and that’s only if you’re a square meals type of person)

CHOOSE.

*happy conscientious eating today

xoxo J xoxo