“The industry doesn’t want you to know the truth about what you’re eating – because if you knew, you might not want to eat it.”

That’s how the documentary Food, Inc. opens, providing two-hours of hard-hitting facts about American food industry and how fast food and corporations are completely changing our diets – and our bodies. It covers everything from seed patenting to slaughterhouses, human rights abuses to severe illness – we often wonder how this happens, but it’s all because of big business. The corporations that farmers contract to care about their bottom line – and whether or not their bottom line leaves us healthy is of no concern to them.

Even as a political junkie, I didn’t think that my eating habits could change the world, stop corruption, lessen global conflict, and even save lives. We can choose organic. We can choose locally grown. We can choose free-range and grass-fed. We can tell corporations we don’t want antibiotics, steroids, or genetically modified food.

It can be done.

It’s true – and you probably want to put down that fast food until you see the latest film by Robert Kenner, Food, Inc.

Things you probably didn’t know:

• The way we eat has changed more in the past 50 years than it has in the past 2000.
• 90% of the food you eat contains some form of a rearranged corn or soy product.
• Corporations can patent genes.
• E-Coli can be prevented if we feed cows their natural diet – grass- instead of highly subsidized corn.

Want to know more? Check out the Food, Inc. screening at Bottletree Café running September 5th & 6th. Tickets for the showings on Saturday night are $7, the Sunday showing tickets are $18 and include a panel discussion and a Sunday supper with locally grown food. All proceeds benefit the Greater Birmingham Community Food Partners

I cannot recommend this movie enough to everyone. Please go see it – the way you eat CAN change the world.

Resources:

Official Food, Inc. website

Slow Food Birmingham

Greater Birmingham Community Food Partners

Pepper Place Farmer’s Market

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