The shows (Bones and CSI: Miami) aren’t intended to be in-depth examinations of contemporary food production. But the stories include some good information about the ills of industrial ag – and we’re always glad when these issues percolate into the public consciousness.
Naturally, after viewing both programs, I felt compelled to pin them head-to-head in an epic showdown for the Best Industrial-Ag-Themed Cop Show Episode of 2009 Award.
Tags: food films
It was through my friendship with Kim O’Donnel, who I met through my freelance work with the Eat Well Guide, that I began to really think hard about the virtues of cooking, and its very necessary role in what my colleagues and I have been working toward — major change in the way we eat. Some who focus on food politics (and many who don’t) have pooh-poohed others’ focus on culinary niceties, often slamming such groups as Slow Food as elitist, over-indulgent gastronomists. But, if we are to celebrate “real food” and lack the funds to dine out nightly at the restaurants that serve it, and we are to encourage people to eat more fresh vegetables, well, they’re not going to cook themselves.
Tags: food films
Food, Inc. exposes the dark side of the American diet in a compelling–and surprisingly entertaining–way. Will you lose your appetite for factory farmed foods after you’ve seen it? I hope so. But its stated goal is to leave you “hungry for change,” the kind of change that’s transforming the way we think about how–and where–our food is grown.
Tags: food films
Food, Inc. and FRESH both feature Joel Salatin, the Virginia farmer profiled in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, and Pollan himself appears in both films as well. But despite the apparent overlap, the two films are very different.
Each provides a much-needed public service, but where Food, Inc. airs a laundry list of factory farming’s dirty secrets, Fresh makes a beeline past the manure lagoons, veal crates, contaminated food and monoculture madness to land us in truly greener pastures, whether it’s in rural Virginia with Salatin or in urban Milwaukee at McArthur genius Will Allen’s farm, Growing Power.
Tags: events · food films
