Still chuckling
June 22, 2009
This is just a quickie, but some long time friends of ours told us we should see Food, Inc. If you don’t know about this documentary you should check it out. I guess there is some fella in the movie by the name of Joel Suhlattin (their pronunciation), who rotationally grazes his cattle, and chickens. Hmmm, do you think we should go see it? Really? I know, I know, maybe my friends aren’t too quick on the uptake, it isn’t like they have been here before and had to wait while we finished our chores before visiting or anything. Baby steps – I guess.
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Food Renegade
Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op
Baby steps is the correct comment. (I quess) good post
I haven’t seen the film yet, but I have heard about it from friends who think it’d be a perfect viewing for me…. I’m not sure whether I’ll see it.
But I do wish that what you and others like you do in both husbandry and crop management could be known – its a way to know that it *is* possible, and not just for the few. Somehow your blog is more of a way to drive that home than a single film is, at least for me.
Mangochild, I probably won’t see the movie until it comes out on video, I already know the drill. But, I have to say I think the film is a good idea – my friends have been here countless times, and seen pastured poultry, and the rotational cattle grazing – but to them it was just farming. The disconnect is real. If it takes a film like this to get people to realize how farming could be different, then I think it is worth it. My friends would never read a blog, or get this information except from a source they deemed credible, i.e., news story, news paper, or a film. When the light bulb comes on, it is pretty bright. Look at all the new gardeners in the last few years.
I think too many farmers have fallen for the “how will we feed the world” crap that is so prevalent in conventional farming rags. Glossy ads for chemicals, higher production, etc, meanwhile, cancer is becoming more and more prevalent too. But, I personally know two farming families right now dealing with cancer in their families. They take the family member to chemo, come home and get on the tractor and apply more spray to the berries, grains, or fill in the blank. They refuse to see a connection, thinking organic is a scam. Until more people do, I guess they will continue to be battling cancer. After watching my brother go through the chemo route, and basically get raped and financially depleted, I think the business of cancer is just that, a business. The sad thing about “feeding the world” is that most farmers I know cannot even feed themselves, the skills and/or wherewithal is gone…
have you read sharon astyk & aaron newton’s book “a nation of farmers”? granted, it would be like preaching to the choir but for a suburban gal like me where the light just recently came on it’s got some eye opening information. for years i’ve thought that there must be enough food to ‘feed the world’ and it turns out i was right. there’s more than enough if we would just stop shoving it into our cars and cattle. there’s so much wrong with food production. i wish i was able to really farm and get out there but for now my 2 chickens and yard garden are going to have to do. i figure for every cucumber i grow for my family, there’s something more available for someone else. for every neighbor kid i get excited about picking broccoli there’s one more ‘farmer’ in the making.
Debra, I haven’t read the book yet, although I do read Sharon’s blog. I guess what I mean by not feeding the world, is, that if everyone would feed their neighbors, and that is a big if, because the neighbors would have to be willing to buy or barter for the products things may work out. My neighbors cows are starving, but if I try to tell them that, and force my ways on them, I am probably wasting my time, and not spending that time minding my own cattle. Meanwhile, they have 40 acres of grass that they will cut for hay to sell. And their cows are stuck on 2 acres going hungry. And a vet lives right across the street, and doesn’t even notice that the cows are sickly, and rail thin. Their family has been farming here in this area since it was settled too. But, what their ancestors knew is lost. We don’t live in a perfect world, and trying to force everyone to eat our diet, or have our farmers grow crops to feed what other countries prefer is a poor way of doing things. Our local food kitchen for the needy, is a volunteer effort and relies on donations of food. What do they go pick up at the stores? Mostly overbake, the store bakeries just keep pumping out more bread than can be sold, and then it moves down a rung to the food banks. A quick look at the pantry reveals mostly starch type foods that never even needed to be processed at all. It’s not the farmers fault, or the store, or the consumer. It is everyone’s fault. We demand everything, fresh, right now and the same all the time. I am not saying everyone should or can farm, but to save our farmers and their farms, the connection needs to be shortened down to the consumer buying food from the farmer in at least a bio-regional way. Farming is a noble profession and for too long farmers have been looked down upon. It takes a strong, smart and compassionate person to milk cows daily in all types of weather, or to bring in the crops and shepherd the land. And even on a smaller scale, by you having your hens, and growing vegetables for your family what you’re doing is important too. Thanks for awakening more future farmers.
Food, Inc. opens here this Friday. I got my tickets two weeks ago. I’m dragging along every friend I can think of to bring and getting a list of questions to ask for the panel that follows the movie. I’m so excited I could bust!
I had hoped to see FRESH when it was going around, but it never made it to my town. I’m working on getting a DVD and a small-party license to show it to groups in my area. I’m so thrilled that it’s the year of the food documentary and that the films being made are so high quality and focused on the right issues.
Peggy, I don’t think you will be disappointed. I have heard good reviews. Hopefully it will make a difference to more people.
Just got back from seeing it at Cinema 21 in PDX. Nothing new to me, though the story about Kevin, the little boy who died after eating an E coli-tainted burger had me weeping in the theater. His mom, who’s now a food safety advocate, is my kind of hero.
The story that made me angriest was of the seed cleaner, who settled with Monsanto after the company charged him with inducing farmers to save their own seed. Monanto and its law suits against farmers continues to astound me. So many farmers brought to their knees by the giant. Justice just seems to be turned completely on her head.
One farmer who was interviewed (one of many who has had run in with Monsanto) stated passionately that if consumers would only demand good, wholesome food, farmers would grow it. Your stories about neighbor-farmers who just won’t change, in the name of their own best interest, shows us that it really isn’t just about consumer demand. Farmers must be willing to learn and change, too.
I get so depressed around this sometimes. It seems like throughout history, monied interests have always gotten their way. Oh, there seems to be some forward progress toward more just, equitable societies, but it’s so slow and the stakes seem so high now. It isn’t even about justice and liberty–our very survival is at stake. But the monied interests can’t see beyond profit…perhaps they think they’ll buy their way out of climate change/peak oil?
Ugh…now I’m ranting.
If you have read Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dillema, and Salatin’s Everything I Want to Do is Illegal then Food, Inc. is nothing new, but interesting all the same. We just saw it Saturday.
We have a small farm, are local food proponents and are slowly educating our area farmers and community through a group we started called Healthy Harvest. We hold free workshops on soil building, organic gardening, etc. http://www.friocanyonhealthyharvest.blogspot.com
I agree with Chris, the seed cleaner story made me angry. I just hope more people than “the choir” like us see it. I just don’t see average Americans changing their fast-food habit without changing their priorities and lifestyle first, though.