Food Inc - has it changed your shopping/cooking?

I saw the movie Food Inc last weekend and it was pretty interesting and informative. For those that have watched it, has it changed the way you shop or cook?

http://www.foodincmovie.com/

I haven't seen it, but is it much different from the others in this genre - i.e. Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser's stuff?

Hi- I was not sure whether to put this here, or in shopping and cooking. I just watched the rerun of Food 101 on Oprah this morning, and they are running a special on the documentary, Food, inc. on Amazon.com through this Monday 8/16/10. They are selling it for $9.99.

BTW- They are going to run this show with Michael Pollan, at 11:05pm this evening 8/11 on channel 7. Hope this helps, Nancy

Hi- I missed this post when it came out. I do not think that Food, inc. has changed my shopping/cooking habits much since I saw it on PBS back in April. I have a really strong history of colon cancer in my family, so I never buy red meat in the store. About once a year, I will get a big mac, and I had a bratwurst recently at a family reunion.

I do eat salmon fairly regularly, and I eat a lot of vegetarian dishes. When I buy chicken at the store, I always buy my chicken at Whole Foods. I do admit, that I do buy frozen dinners on occasion when they are on sale really cheap, such as Healthy Choice, and they do not use free range chickens in their dinners.

One thing that I love is Oberweis milk, and I used to buy it all the time. I think that it tastes far superior to Deans and the store brands at Dominick's and Jewel, but it is too expensive, and now I only buy it when it is on sale at Jewel.

BTW-I noticed that milk has gone up at both Dominick's and Jewel. The dairy farmers were not making any money because it was so cheap. Now at both Dominick's and Jewel, they seem to have three grades of milk. They still have the Deans and the Fieldcrest at Jewel for more money. At both Dominick's and Jewel they seem to have another grade of milk, that is about the same price as what milk used to be, but is definitely lower in quality. I bought some of the cheap milk at Dominick's a month ago, and I could definitely tell the difference.

Hope this helps, Nancy

Hi I thought the documentary was very good, although the director could not get Monsanto, Purdue, Tyson, Smithfield Farms, or any of the other factory farms to appear on the film. When I read the comments on NPR after it was shown there, most of the comments were favorable, but a few farmers thought that it portrayed them in a bad light.

There was one poultry grower that sold her chickens to Tyson, and she finally agreed to appear in the film, because she figured she had nothing to lose. She had had it with Tyson, and did not care if they dropped her contract, which they did. She had some sort of disagreement with them over the amount of light her chickens received. As I remember she wanted to raise her chickens more humanely, and they told her that she could not. Apparently the big poultry houses, dictate what their growers can and cannot do, and they charge them thousands of dollars for the buildings they construct for them to house the poultry,and supplies. Because the poultry farmers owe all this money to Purdue and Tyson, they cannot get out of their contract with them. Hope this helps, Nancy

I saw the documentary and while it had an obvious bias, I thought that it was done very well. I think that many people would be more receptive to the message if there wasn't such a wide disparity in cost between eating mass produced food and organic food. For example, Nature's Best had extra large Dutch farm eggs for $1.19 a dozen while the large organic eggs were selling for $4.39. Guess which ones were selling in this economy?

Hi- That Mexican family that was in Food, inc. really got to me. He was spending $75 a month on meds. for his diabetes, but he did not have enough money to buy broccoli. That is one of the reasons health care is so expensive right now.

Like Michael Pollan said yesterday on Oprah, we give too many subsidies to corn and soybean growers, and not enough to farmers that grow fruits and vegetables.

Concerning the price of eggs, the solution is to eat less eggs. I am not a big egg lover, and I have found out that I can substitute 1 heaping tablespoon of soy flour and 1 tablespoon of water for one egg. I do this all the time when I make pancakes and cobbler.

Thanks to Oprah, Food, inc. is the #1 DVD on Amazon right now, and Michael Pollan's book, Food Rules is #9.

Hope this helps, Nancy

Muttster wrote:I saw the documentary and while it had an obvious bias, I thought that it was done very well. I think that many people would be more receptive to the message if there wasn't such a wide disparity in cost between eating mass produced food and organic food. For example, Nature's Best had extra large Dutch farm eggs for $1.19 a dozen while the large organic eggs were selling for $4.39. Guess which ones were selling in this economy?

That comes to 73 cents for two eggs. Seems very cheap to me. Are there many other sources of protein that are that cheap?

Darren72 wrote:

Muttster wrote:I saw the documentary and while it had an obvious bias, I thought that it was done very well. I think that many people would be more receptive to the message if there wasn't such a wide disparity in cost between eating mass produced food and organic food. For example, Nature's Best had extra large Dutch farm eggs for $1.19 a dozen while the large organic eggs were selling for $4.39. Guess which ones were selling in this economy?

That comes to 73 cents for two eggs. Seems very cheap to me. Are there many other sources of protein that are that cheap?

On a limited budget 2 eggs for 20 cents trumps 2 for 73 cents every time. Considering that you get exactly the same protein and nutrition for less than 1/3 of the cost, price beats ideals nearly every time. I can afford to overspend for groceries, but there are many, many people who don't have $3 to spare for an organic tax on eggs.

spinynorman99 wrote:

Darren72 wrote:

Muttster wrote:I saw the documentary and while it had an obvious bias, I thought that it was done very well. I think that many people would be more receptive to the message if there wasn't such a wide disparity in cost between eating mass produced food and organic food. For example, Nature's Best had extra large Dutch farm eggs for $1.19 a dozen while the large organic eggs were selling for $4.39. Guess which ones were selling in this economy?

That comes to 73 cents for two eggs. Seems very cheap to me. Are there many other sources of protein that are that cheap?

On a limited budget 2 eggs for 20 cents trumps 2 for 73 cents every time. Considering that you get exactly the same protein and nutrition for less than 1/3 of the cost, price beats ideals nearly every time. I can afford to overspend for groceries, but there are many, many people who don't have $3 to spare for an organic tax on eggs.

I think you missed the point. If someone wants to live up to certain "ideals," as you put it, you can do so quite cheaply. No one is making the obviously stupid argument that people living on minimal incomes would spend more for organic eggs. But go ahead and attack that argument, and beat down those mysterious "localvoires" who insist you only eat food grown within six inches of your house, while you are at it.

Hi- You asked if there were any protein sources cheaper than 73 cents. Beans are cheaper than that. I also have a tendency to waste eggs because I do not care for them that much. The only thing I care for is a broccoli potato frittata or quiche.

Thanks, Nancy

removed.

Darren72 wrote:

Muttster wrote:I saw the documentary and while it had an obvious bias, I thought that it was done very well. I think that many people would be more receptive to the message if there wasn't such a wide disparity in cost between eating mass produced food and organic food. For example, Nature's Best had extra large Dutch farm eggs for $1.19 a dozen while the large organic eggs were selling for $4.39. Guess which ones were selling in this economy?

That comes to 73 cents for two eggs. Seems very cheap to me. Are there many other sources of protein that are that cheap?

I don't think that people go into a grocery store and view 2 eggs for 73 cents or even 20 cents as a cheap source of protein. Rather, they see eggs on sale for 99 cents and thinks that its cheap and pick up an extra dozen at that price.

For many people, the perceived benefits of organic food does not outweigh the cost differential. For those that it does, more and more outlets are becoming available to buy local and organic products. When there is only a 50-100% cost differential between mass market and organic production, I think you will see a significant rise in organic and local food purchasing and consumption.

Hi- This is to remind people that today 8/15 is the last day you can purchase Food, inc. on Amazon.com for $9.99.

Hope this helps, Nancy

Hi- Food, inc. is still on sale for $9.99 at Amazon, and you can download it on demand for 99 cents. Hope this helps, Nancy

Darren72 wrote:I haven't seen it, but is it much different from the others in this genre - i.e. Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser's stuff?

I borrowed Food, Inc. from the library and watched it tonight. It's one of the most vapid (until the extremely hokey ending) documentaries I've seen in a long time. Schlosser and Pollan make their requisite appearances. The documentary was basically a mash-up of their stuff with some King Corn and Super Size Me thrown in. I didn't learn anything new, so, no, it's not going to change how I shop or cook.