Hungry for Change

Last Thursday, my co-workers and I discussed how we would be spending our fourth of July weekends--all the bar-b-ques, boating and fireworks. My particular plans to be out at the lake with Michael and our friends were derailed. The back-up plan? Go see Food, Inc. at the art house cinema, naturally.

Our lives are changed forever.

People often say things like "this is an important film," and apply those tags to Citizen Kane or The Godfather. This is a truly important film, applied to your life, not late night cable. You can get the flavor from this: http://www.foodincmovie.com/.

The movie is a documentary by classification, but as the NPR movie review put it, the movie is really more reminiscent of the Matrix, "the movie where humans find out they're living in a simulacrum, a virtual world they mistake for reality. It's the stuff of the most paranoid science fiction."

Without getting complicated or detailed, I will simply say this: our food industry and our situation as consumers is wrong.

Our goal is to experiment with changes to the way we think about and live with food. Where do we start? What changes are really necessary? What about eating out? Can organic be affordable? What recipes are healthy and tasty? Does a garden make a difference? What is the best meat to be eating (two die-hard carnivores are not giving up meat here)? We're going to try them all and share our experiences--and our results: impacts on our budget, health, environment, friendships. What are the trade-offs? And so on.

We're excited about the positive changes we're about to make.


Our first experiment begins tomorrow. Come back to learn about Meatless Mondays. We'll break down the recipes, the budget, the driving force behind going meatless (for at least 1 day a week) and the impact.

Michael Pollan, bestselling author of Omnivore's Dilemma, has an essay in the guide to Food, Inc. where he quotes Wendell Berry on the topic of the need to change: "Once our personal connection to what is wrong becomes clear, then we have to choose; we can go on as before, recognizing our dishonesty and living with it as best we can, or we can begin the effort to change the way we think and live."

If you haven't seen the movie, go. Now.