tricks & treats

part 1: tricks
i made it to the very last showing of Food, Inc in the triangle last night. allie and i made the pilgrimage to cary together to see it, and couldn’t stop talking about it all the way home! what a thought-provoking, informative, and interesting movie.

compared with films like fast food nation or supersize me, it was less about food, and more about the trickery and deceit that the few enormous companies in charge of essentially ALL of our nation’s food supply employ, and how these practices trickle down to the consumer in the forms of lame-o quality products, e. coli outbreaks, and obesity.

since everyone seems to ask this first, i’ll address it up front: no, the movie did not make me want to be vegan (or even vegetarian). atilla is right: i love food too much! and i mean, i was aware that eating meat — say, some chicken — means that a bird was sacrificed. obvi.

however, what i did NOT know was that the same meat suppliers that produce mcdonalds hamburgers are responsible for stocking all of the supermarket shelves as well. and while i had an inkling, i did not grasp the disgusting enormousnous of the meat processing plants, or exactly how environmentally devastating (and politically favored!) the cattle/pig/poultry indusries are.

the segments on the corn and soybean industries were also very interesting. i understand that there may be benefits to some of the genetic engineering that is used on plants; we’ve got a big world to feed, after all. however, the proprietary nature — large companies ‘owning’ their strains and pretty much shutting everything else out — is dangerous. i fear that a complete lack of genetic diversity will come around to bite us in the ass at some point.

the movie produced a thought that i have at times at my job, which is:

just because we can doesn’t mean we should.

ie, we have gotten to a point in society where the availablility of technology has far outrun our abilities to determine exactly when and how it should be used to benefit rather than harm us.

but i digress. so how will this movie affect what i do as a consumer?

■ i already shop at whole foods (pretty much exclusively) for food, but i think i need to be more discerning while i am there. i am going to look into whether their meat comes from the same places. i am thinking — and hoping! — not, but i admit i haven’t read the fine print.

■ i will think twice before ordering meat in a restaurant unless i know where it came from.

■ i will be better about reading ingredient lists of snacks and other packaged foods, and i’ll try to go less packaged when possible

■ i will look for organic and/or local products when possible

■ i will make a point to go to the farmer’s market — starting this weekend!

seeing an inconvenient truth back in 2006 sent me into a depressive and hopeless state for weeks (seriously). food, inc didn’t set itself up as quite the harbinger of doom and actually left me feeling somewhat empowered to make a small impact as consumer. i highly recommend the movie (duh) and would love to hear your thoughts as well!

part 2: treats

a big thank you to molly from POM for sending me some coffee to sample! i tried some yesterday morning (NEEDING a morning pick-me-up). now, in line with what i wrote above, here’s the ingredient list:

reduced-fat milk, brewed rainfoest alliance certified coffe, POM extract, organic cane sugar, natural caffeine.

decent, and not too long. knowing what i know now, i would have preferred that the milk was organic, but i do appreciate the lack of high fructose corn syrup and other mysterious additives.

nutritionally, this sweetened drink is more of a treat than a health food. of course, i am okay with morning treats every so often, but i think it needs to be acknowledged as such! the hard data: 170 calories, 3 grams total fat (2 saturated), 20 grams sugars, 7 grams protein. it does contain 25% of the RDA of calcium, something that i definitely should be taking more of.

the taste? i tried the cafe au lait flavor, and it was creamy and mild. it was less sweet and cleaner tasting than a bottled starbucks frappuccino, but still felt like dessert. to be completely honest, i probably wouldn’t buy this product because i like other treats better and i like my coffee BLACK the best, but i did enjoy it.

thank you, POM!

i was going to write more about the treats — mostly non-edible — that i have planned for this weekend, but i’m out of time. i’ll just finish with:

LAST DAY OF NICU!! HOLLA!

——————————————————————

8.27.09

workout: 4 miles before work. i don’t know the pace because i need to change the battery in my polar! probably ~8:45?

doin’ time: nope. hmm, i wonder what martha thought of Food, Inc?

reading: NO! AHHHH! although one might argue that the educational experience of the movie was enough.