Food Inc,
“You'll Never Look At Dinner the Same Way”

If you get a chance, go see the movie, Food Inc. Many of us feel pretty good about food safety when shopping at our supermarkets.

But underneath the veil of “farm fresh” signs and packaging lies a shocking reality. Some of the issues covered in the Food Inc are:

Many of us are trying to make healthy choices on a shrinking budget. It's easy to get sucked into buying cheap processed food and fast food dollar menus items. It's getting tougher and tougher to eat healthy with all of the GMO food and the overwhelming amount of chemicals in food. I think this explains the recent popularity in organic food and home gardening. Once you see what's really going on in the food industry, it's easy to understand why obesity and diabetes are reaching epidemic levels in the US.

Your chicken dinner with corn on the cob and a tossed salad sure sounds like your serving healthy choices in your household. However, it's quite likely that your chicken was factory farmed where they are raised in inhumane conditions that facilitate the spread of disease. It's probably been genetically modified to have more breast meat. Unless you have bought your corn and salad fixing from your local farmer's market and can validate its quality, its most likely been genetically modified and treated with numerous chemicals. So while this meal seemed to be nutritionally healthy, the production of the food has not only significantly diminished its healthful benefits but has also altered the food with harmful chemicals.

We have to start taking responsibility for our own health and welfare. Relying on bureaucrats and government institutions is not always in our best interest. Follow the money trail and do your homework and you'll see what I mean.

I've heard experts say it only takes 20% of consumers to start changing how they spend their food dollars for manufacturers to take notice of the consumers changing demands.

That's what happened with the milk industry. Now almost every gallon of milk says that it is rBGH and rBST free, because consumers voted with their dollars. So vote for change by using your food dollars to buy healthier foods.

Seek out local farmers that practice good sustainable farming and rely on consumers like us to stay in business. To find them go to farmers markets and talk to them. Or go on-line and do a search. The Greenhorns have started a search website to help spread the word.

Other suggestions:

Read the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Read the book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan