Comments on: Food Inc. – All is not pastoral out in the pasture

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:24:24 +0000

Thanks for the memories, Steve – the garden, the chickens, pigs and cattle. I remember eating my pet calf – even had a name for him. This has me thinking of the complexities of the global agriculture industry – many inequities and many people to feed.

By the way, you’ll recognize that the cow in the picture is a Holstein, bred for its milk production rather than for its meat, as the bar code on it might suggest.

By: Stephen T Berg

Stephen T Berg — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:06:22 +0000

I can see the draw to a vegetarian diet after watching “Food Inc.” But that is a visceral response and not the point of the movie. For me, Joel Salatin, a deversified farmer, raising grass fed cattle, free range chickens etc. was the central figure, and the voice of reason and hope.

You’re absolutely right that impoverished people are often left with “empty” food. Which means there is even more responsibility upon those of us that do have the resources and the energy to make good food choices so that the system begins to reverse. Big systems change very slowly, but Food Inc. did hold out hope for change, and of course, the documentary itself is a catalyst for change.

Thank you for sharing your wisdom Connie!

By: Stephen T Berg

Stephen T Berg — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:33:15 +0000

Janelle, thanks so much for commenting. I appreciate your open and enlightened position. Not all of us were meant to be vegetarians, but all of us have a responsibility for earth-awareness and good food choices. See you at the Farmer’s Market.

By: Connie

Connie — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:28:50 +0000

I too am hoping the movie will help us make wiser food choices. Our eagerness to leave our food supply to those promising more for less has enabled the sterilizing, stripping, unethical food supply system we now have. But the truth is that many of us simply don’t have the energy or resources to go out of our way to make truly better food choices, or to affect any substantial change on the system.

And what are wiser food choices? So many have come away from the movie determined to go vegan, and while that may a good choice for some, it is definitely not a good one for others, health-wise, nor is it any more sustainable or green. Most people don’t realize that agriculture, the way we’re doing it, now depends completely on oil, and is not sustainable.

We agree though: gratitude and awareness have mostly disappeared from our relationship with food, and fostering their return is essential if we want to have any hope of putting a stop to factory farming (of both meat and produce) in favour of local small-scale sustainable food production that will both cost more, and deliver more.

By: Janelle

Janelle — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:17:19 +0000

I thought this documentary was really well done – not a total-extremist Michael Moore style; although it was provocative and makes you want to flip the bird to the proverbial Man.

Further more, it really hits home to those of us whose parents and grandparents were farmers. The 100 mile diet is certainly not easy for most of us urban dwellers; however, it is certainly a goal we can strive to live by. Sure, Farmers’ Markets may cost a little more but the good of buying local, organic produce outweighs the convenience and cheaper prices of grocery stores. Local produce TASTES far better, you eat what is in season, which is what our bodies need to eat at that time, and it’s a great way to support our local economy.

Thanks for writing about this Steve. Your vivid descriptions of chicken and pig slaughter make me glad I’m a vegetarian. Having said that, I’m of the point of view that as long as an animal lead a life on a free-range farm and was fed the food its body was created to eat, then those of you who eat meat enjoy ? And I mean that with sincerity.