OH MY GOD!!! Anyone who has watched this documentary will know exactly what I mean. There just aren’t words. They’re right when they say “you’ll never look at dinner the same way”. This has changed me for life!
FOOD, INC. is a documentary I watched over my holidays after reading about it online and I have to say, it was most definitely an eye opener to the food industry in America. I got quite emotional when watching some parts and I even turned away in others because I couldn’t watch.
Below is some information from their website that obviously relates to America. But that doesn’t mean the underlying messages aren’t applicable to us here in Australia.
10 SIMPLE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO CHANGE OUR FOOD SYSTEM
1. Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages.
You can lose 25 lbs in a year by replacing one 20 oz soda a day with a no calorie beverage (preferably water).
2. Eat at home instead of eating out.
Children consume almost twice (1.8 times) as many calories when eating food prepared outside the home.
3. Bring food labelling into the 21st Century.
Half of the leading chain restaurants provide no nutritional information to their customers.
4. Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food and sports drinks.
Over the last two decades, rates of obesity have tripled in children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years.
5. Meatless Mondays – Go without meat one day a week.
An estimated 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to farm animals.
6. Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides.
According to the EPA, over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in the U.S.
7. Protect family farms; visit your local farmer’s market.
Farmer’s markets allow farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer.
8. Make a point to know where your food comes from – READ LABELS.
The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to your dinner plate.
9. Tell Congress that food safety is important to you.
Each year, contaminated food causes millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths in the U.S.
10. Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections.
Poverty among farm workers is more than twice that of all wage and salary employees.
If you’ve seen it, what are your thoughts on it?
