“ I liked the venue because the evening did not center around us eating food for a change. We chatted before & after the film. I got to meet Eileen again with her "Vegetable Mafia" T-shirt (you rock!), and Vivek, Al and David...all interesting guys with alot on their minds to save this world of meat-eaters from themselves (okay, that last part was me talking, they didn't actually say that). Jennifer was there as bubbly as ever, meeting, greeting, introducing people to each other and had the foresight to bring vegetarian info/recipes from COK to hand out afterwards.
The theatre was packed. There wasn't one seat left!
The film was so absorbing & fact-filled that sitting in the darkness, among so many like-minded people, became almost a nirvana of its own sort. As in the scene in "Close Encounters" where we are all waiting to see the aliens arrive at night in the mountains! We all know about the issues, only when the celluloid brings it all together,as though in a neat saran-wrapped package, we knew it is the real stuff. Say, what was in that popcorn?...I'm hallucinating.The bottom line-the film showed the detrimental impact on our health and planet brought on by the giant food companies. I make the analogy of that scene where we see a cow has a hole put in its side so a farmer can reach in and pull out the excess toxic, e-coli laden, fiberous material- to that of us over-consuming what Monsanto has put before us and doctors reaching in to pull out cancers,etc.
Go see this film! ”
2 comments:
First of all – I think it was worth watching and thanks for organizing the show.
Food Inc. is a documentary with commercial as well as awareness motives. With the trend of people’s interest in paying for documentaries that raise burning issues, the producers know there is a sizeable segment of population that would pay and they would more than recover the cost of production/distribution and at the same time create awareness. It has been successful in its objectives.
The movie is not an attempt to promote vegetarianism/veganism (as many of us fellow vegans/vegetarians would like) because then the commercial success would have been questionable.
It is basically a collection of what we have been hearing/watching/reading over the last ten years in one single format (very powerful medium – film of about 90 minutes), which will get wider audience and has the ability to spread the message across the world (like “The inconvenient truth” or “Sicko”) and raise awareness. A side-effect of this movie might be more interest in plant based diets among Americans (because of the gruesome scenes of animal slaughter), which is an increasing and a welcome trend.
If you are interested in going deeper into the subject and issues raised by Food Inc. and want to have wider perspective than this movie, here are some great links
Video from a conference video held in 11/24/2003 at UC Berkeley
(There are many other related videos on this page)
The New Food Wars: Globalization GMOs and Biofuels
India and Monsanto seeds (there were many suicides by farmers)
Signs of Change - How the public interest in Food Safety is making an impact, New FDA commissioner (07/01)
Thank you Vivek for these great comments and links. One is better than the next!
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