Comments on: Possibly the most important film you’ll ever see

By: inadvertentgardener

inadvertentgardener — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:15:42 +0000

Tom, thanks for the book recommendations — I’ll definitely check those out. And I appreciate your on-the-ground insights from Iowa!

Greenphonebooth, I hope you do — it’s going to be a worthy way to spend your time.

Kären, I totally agree with you. The wholer the food, the better…and this movie just confirms it. It’s scary to really take a hard look at how badly we’ve poisoned ourselves and our food system…

By: Karen Ledebur

Karen Ledebur — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:23:30 +0000

Genie, I want to see the film but I know it’s going to be tough. As you know with two autistic kiddos I’m constantly being asked, “How did that happen?” My answer is always that we live in a toxic world. Genetics and environment are the explanation. We’ve poisoned ourselves and the road to recovery is so-o long. On the one hand thousands of dollars are spent researching the cause of countless neurological disorders and on the other thousands of dollars are spent to subsidize horrible practices that genetically alter the food we eat. I don’t maybe I’m too simplistic but you are what you eat. The food you eat, the water you drink, the air you breathe it all adds up. Combine that with any genetic pre-disposition and you’ve got problems. The root of all that is ultimately greed and no man can accuse others until they are willing to look at their own life and ask how they might play a part in that.

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:42:08 +0000

For anyone just starting to focus on industrial agriculture, read Jim Hightower’s books from the 70′s “Hard Tomatoes, Hard Times” and its sequel “Eat Your Heart Out.” They detail how the USDA and land grant colleges fostered the industrialization process.

By: http://www.greenphonebooth.com/

http://www.greenphonebooth.com/ — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:44:40 +0000

Thank you for the review. Sometimes movies are better for sharing than books. Most of our spouses’ and friends’ can find the time to watch a movie even if a book is beyond them. I’ll definitely check this one out.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:12:56 +0000

Industrial agriculture made my family farmer dad an activist in the 60′s. I went to my first NFO meeting in 1969 to hear about Purdue & Tyson abusing chicken farmers. The speaker warned us that they were going to do the same thing to pig farmers . . . and they did in the 80′s as the farm crisis turned pig farmers into serfs on their own farms. Iowa State was at the forefront of researching and promoting the use of antibiotics as a growth agent. My feed man convinced me to add ten pounds of tetracycline to each batch of feed. I did that from 1974 to 1978. All of my farm clients used to raise their own pigs on grass lots and pastures. Now they raise corporate pigs in $500k confinement buildings that they “lease” to the corporation. They all comment that the pigs are meaner, even cannibalistic.

It sounds like Food, Inc., is going to get wide release. Good. I hope that it changes American consumers’ buying and eating habits. The Iowa Dept of Ag is finally making local food production and farmers markets a priority. I have heard that Sec. Vilsack is saying the right things. We’ll see if the USDA changes course from 1968 “Contours of Change” yearbook which touts the benefits and efficiency of industrial agriculture.