December 8, 2008 by Stacy McDonald
The Future of Food
“There is a revolution going on in the farm fields and on the dinner tables of America, a revolution that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat. THE FUTURE OF FOOD offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade.”
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I thought this movie was very good.
Add “King Corn” to the list of movies to watch, also!
It is good that more people are becoming aware of this very evil problem.
When you couple this corporate evil with the government’s oppressive regulations on small farmers, then this evil problem is magnified enormously. For instance, I can sell eggs if you come to me and buy them. But it is illegal for me to bring eggs to my neighbor’s house or to Grandma’s house. I would then need to get a permit (translation = permission) from the government, and by so doing I open up my property and everything I do to the government.
In my state I cannot raise one broiler (meat chicken) and sell it to my neighbor without permission and inspections from the state’s Department of Agriculture. If I sell more than 1,000 broilers (which is nothing!) then I’d need 100,000′s of dollars in infrastructure such as a dedicated septic system, dedicated water supply, dedicated showers and bathrooms for “employees”, handicapped parking, and on and on. This virtually guarantees that no small family farmers will ever be able to compete against Cargill, Tysons, Archer Daniel Midlands, etc. What family could afford to invest that kind of money just to sell 1,001 broilers? That is only 5 batches of 200 broilers each! Polyface Farm (family owned and family operated in Virginia) raised, butchered, and sold 20,000 broilers during the summer of 2007. Their state has no limit and it then defaults to the Federal limit of 20,000. So, 1,001 broilers is really nothing.
I just read an article a few days ago about this same situation being forced on the Iraqi agriculture. This is evil in the extreme. You can read the article here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_1867.cfm (And we thought that our troops were there for WMDs. Or was it terrorists? Oil? – I think we’re there for money.)
If we would all vote with our dollars and purchase food from small local farmers and not from the grocery store shelves, then this problem could possibly go away. But not likely, the corporations and the government have too much power and money. But it is worth trying. If we all purchased from our neighbors down the road it would do at least four things: 1) you’d know the quality of your food, 2) you’d be voting “no” to the giant corporations, GMOs, and oppressive government regulations, 3) you’d be supporting a local farming family, and 4) we would once again get to know people in our community which would enable us to share our testimony for Christ with them.
There is much more to all this and are books that should be read. Here are some (all can be bought from Amazon):
“Everything I Want to Do is Illegal” by Joel Salatin
“Family Friendly Farming” by Joel Salatin
“The Unsettling of America” by Wendell Berry
“Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon
Because of the oppression on small farmers, a lot of farmers are hard to find. But here are some web sites that will get people started in the right direction when searching for good food:
http://www.eatwild.com/
http://www.realmilk.com/
Take care and God bless,
Linda
I’m currently revising my historical/drama/biopic screenplay that tells the history of Harvey Wiley and his fight for the Pure Food and Drug Law of 1906. Dr. Wiley is a forgotten figure of American history that saw the dangers of some of the ideas coming out of the Industrial Revolution (food adulteration, etc.) and tried to encourage people to go back to small, local farming/food production for the health of the nation.
My mother discovered the story a few years ago when she came across some of his books that are now out of print. It’s a fascinating story (I’m surprised no one has made a movie about it yet) and it gives a behind the scenes look at the schemes that caused the FDA problems we face today.
My website for my script project is http://www.thecrusadingchemist.com.
My mom also writes a lot about this topic at http://www.fairhillsfarm.com/weblog.
~Amanda~