Aahzz
Habanero Evangelist
So this movie's been mentioned in a couple threads lately. I think it's worthy of its own thread, particularly given our tendencies toward food in this forum.
Have you seen it? If so, has it caused you to make any changes in your food buying habits? Would you recommend that others watch it?
Now that the questions are out, I'll give my take.
First, I hate being propagandized, even if I agree with the message. The movie did have that kind of manipulative, propaganda feel in parts, and I had to get past my own knee-jerk reaction to immediately be oppositional to mainpulative tactics. In this case, I am already somewhat familiar with the works of Michael Pollan (mainly through Mrs Aahzz), and I knew I was in agreement with the message, so I was able to filter the movie and pull out the parts that I feel are relevant and true.
First, I really was horrified by the treatment of the chickens in particular. Absolutely inhumane. I can understand why most of the chicken growers were unwilling to allow the cameras into their henhouses.
I was also appalled by the feedlots with the cows, and founf the info on corn feeding highly useful. I was distinctly disturbed by the Holy Cow they used to show the digestive process of the cows....
Where Smithfield and pork were concerned, I found it interesting that they showed the slaughterhouse, but not really the pork raising techniques. I was wondering, are the pigs treated better, so they didn't bother showing the farms? Or, was it a case of time, and they felt the slaughterhouse was more effective? Either way, the pork section had the least impact on me. I don't really think any slaughterhouse is going to be a happy smiling place.
Lastly, Monsanto and GMO crops. I've been avoiding them for years anyway, but I did find their tactics against the farmers to be despicable. I know I'm only hearing one side of the story, and would certainly be open to hearing from Monsanto, but I've heard reports of their behavior before, and they do have a lot of evidence to overcome to convince me that they're not assholes.
OK, that being said, what has changed? In Mrs Aahzz's and my case, they were largely preaching to the choir, so we were headed in this direction anyway, but...we're buying as much meat as we can at farmer's markets, where we can get good, grrass fed beef, pastured chicken, and quality pork. We've been buying non-gmo produce, and now that it's seasonal, we're getting as much of that from farmer's markets as well. We're considerinbg buying a 1/4 cow to keep in the freezer, to get a stockpile of quality meat. We're eating out less and less.
How about you? If you haven't seen it, it's available for streaming from netflix...
Have you seen it? If so, has it caused you to make any changes in your food buying habits? Would you recommend that others watch it?
Now that the questions are out, I'll give my take.
First, I hate being propagandized, even if I agree with the message. The movie did have that kind of manipulative, propaganda feel in parts, and I had to get past my own knee-jerk reaction to immediately be oppositional to mainpulative tactics. In this case, I am already somewhat familiar with the works of Michael Pollan (mainly through Mrs Aahzz), and I knew I was in agreement with the message, so I was able to filter the movie and pull out the parts that I feel are relevant and true.
First, I really was horrified by the treatment of the chickens in particular. Absolutely inhumane. I can understand why most of the chicken growers were unwilling to allow the cameras into their henhouses.
I was also appalled by the feedlots with the cows, and founf the info on corn feeding highly useful. I was distinctly disturbed by the Holy Cow they used to show the digestive process of the cows....
Where Smithfield and pork were concerned, I found it interesting that they showed the slaughterhouse, but not really the pork raising techniques. I was wondering, are the pigs treated better, so they didn't bother showing the farms? Or, was it a case of time, and they felt the slaughterhouse was more effective? Either way, the pork section had the least impact on me. I don't really think any slaughterhouse is going to be a happy smiling place.
Lastly, Monsanto and GMO crops. I've been avoiding them for years anyway, but I did find their tactics against the farmers to be despicable. I know I'm only hearing one side of the story, and would certainly be open to hearing from Monsanto, but I've heard reports of their behavior before, and they do have a lot of evidence to overcome to convince me that they're not assholes.
OK, that being said, what has changed? In Mrs Aahzz's and my case, they were largely preaching to the choir, so we were headed in this direction anyway, but...we're buying as much meat as we can at farmer's markets, where we can get good, grrass fed beef, pastured chicken, and quality pork. We've been buying non-gmo produce, and now that it's seasonal, we're getting as much of that from farmer's markets as well. We're considerinbg buying a 1/4 cow to keep in the freezer, to get a stockpile of quality meat. We're eating out less and less.
How about you? If you haven't seen it, it's available for streaming from netflix...