Bigger-breasted chickens, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, tomatoes that won't go bad.. FOOD INC

[RedEarth]

Tonight April 21, 2010, on PBS





Check the broadcast schedule » at the link below


In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli — the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser ("Fast Food Nation"), Michael Pollan ("The Omnivore's Dilemma") along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farms' Gary Hirschberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising — and often shocking truths — about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

Food, Inc. will be accompanied by Notes on Milk, a short variation of the 2007 feature documentary Milk in the Land: Ballad of an American Drink. Ariana Gerstein and Monteith McCollum, whose Hybrid aired on POV in 2002, take a quirky and poetic look at some lesser-known aspects of America’s favorite drink: the industry’s spiritual underpinnings, politics and the struggle of independent farmers.

Read the full film description »

http://www.pbs.org/pov/foodinc /

[Iggo]

1. It ain't just the chickens, know'm say'n?

[ensho]

2. I've given up hope on every buying a real tomato again

either they can sit on the kitchen for ever and not ripen or rot

or when you slice one open it is mottled white inside showing it has been gassed to ripen it when it had been picked green

they don't smell right or taste right

(I know I could find real tomato seeds and grow my own but I have no sunny place to do it.)

[david_vincent]

6. They're really easy to grow, so

if you can't grow 'em yourself, find someone who is growing them and there's your source. And you don't necessarily have to buy them -- you could barter for whatever: a mix disc, a cake/pie, etc. You could try putting up a "toms wanted" sign at a church or co-op or someplace like that.

[ensho]

13. the problem is I live on the last island out -140 + miles from mainland

if I could find a local grower I would.

[RedEarth]

16. I was going to suggest a farmers market, but it almost sounds like

that's also not available. Prior to growing my own, that's what I relied on for real tomatoes. Good luck.......

[sammytko]

27. i've already harvested a couple of tomatoes!

As god is my witness, I will never eat another store purchased tomato again!

My goal is to keep them growing through the winter. My brother does it, so I know I can also.

today i might pick a cucumber. 1st one is almost ready.

[Luminous Animal]

3. The segment on Joel Salatin's Polyface Farms is fantastic.

This is a great documentary and I urge DUers to watch it.

[godai]

5. Agree but...$15 a pound for boneless chicken breasts at Polyface

I checked the Polyface site and this was the price. And, they were sold out, so someone is willing to pay that price. I've seen Food Inc and was disgusted by the conditions for chickens and cattle. But, my conclusion is there must be something between $1.99 and $15 boneless breasts. A while back, I bought 99 cents a pound normal size bone in breasts which came from a smaller farm in Delaware. Maybe buying from smaller farms is part of the solution to improving conditions without very high prices.

In Food Inc, they point out that more than 10% flavored water can be injected into chicken breasts, for flavor. You end up paying for water!

[Luminous Animal]

8. Link? I just checked their site and I couldn't find the price anywhere.

[godai]

9. Here...not hard to find at all (now $13 a pound)

http://www.polyfaceyum.com//index.php?main_page=index&cPath=65&zenid=7c2d8fbbfc87eaf81523d955976f4f1e

[Luminous Animal]

12. A whole chicken is $3.25 a pound.

At my house, that would be 2 meals for 3 people plus chicken stock. At Safeway, factory farmed "organic" boneless skinless chicken breasts sell for $9.00 a lb.

[ixion]

4. they don't 'often' put profit first, they ALWAYS put profit first, no matter

how many people it may kill or injure along the way.

Big Food needs to die.

Food, Inc. and King Corn are two movies that will change the way you view food.

[godai]

7. Tomatoes picked green, turned to red by ethylene gas.

Ethylene is a naturally occurring, odorless, tasteless gas produced by many types of produce, including tomatoes. Mature green tomatoes exhibit accelerated ripening in the presence of ethylene. In commercial practice, mature green tomatoes are exposed to supplemental ethylene treatment to hasten ripening and to ensure uniform ripening throughout a lot. Tomatoes may be exposed to an ethylene concentration of 100 to 150 ppm for 24 to 48 hours at a temperature of 70 degrees to 75 degrees F and 90 percent relative humidity. Immature tomatoes may be ripened with the application of ethylene, but the resulting fruit will not be of good quality. Likewise, fruit beyond the breaker stage will not benefit from the application of ethylene since the process has been initiated already by the tomato's own ethylene. However, there is some evidence that additional ethylene may speed the ripening process.

http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/publicat/postharv/tomatoes/tomat.html

[GoneOffShore]

10. For everyone who talks about "food regulations" and "nanny states"

this is an important movie to watch.

And those who support GMO's and Monsanto and claim the mantle of science - watch this movie and get back to me.

[Newest Reality]

11. Now ....

apply the food paradigm as a metaphor for the media, and other aspects of our culture.

The control, distortion and manipulation of information, IMO, works in a similar fashion. It is no longer a product of paranoia or extremism to wake up and clearly see the social and cultural restructuring that can be carried out in stages when enough money and influence is held by the megalithic, growing conglomerations known as US and foreign multinational corporations.

As they flex their muscles and eliminate barriers to their overwhelming impact on every aspect of life on this planet, we will see the reshaping of the world in their image to extreme degrees. If that process is left unhindered at this critical stage, then the future goes from a the current kleptocracy to a techno-Fascist interment of our species. Genocide, for instance, will be even more about the numbers, the bottom line, the profit motive. Profit as motive has no other meaning implied. We, (the other class(es)) are livestock and you know how that goes. In that sense, capitalism is a major stepping stone.

[yellowcanine]

14. insecticide-resistant soybean seeds? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

insect-resistant soybean seeds or herbicide-resistant soybean seeds would make sense.

[Gormy Cuss]

17. Insecticide resistance would mean that the grower can spray the product without damage to the crop

but I agree that herbicide-resistant soybeans is what was meant since Monsanto is one of the targets of the filmmakers.

[yellowcanine]

19. The term is not used that way by crop scientists. "Resistance" is a phenotype

that relates to a specific genotype in an organism.

[Gormy Cuss]

20. Understood, but that's a difference between an industry/discipline specific use & common definitions

of words --- for example, most people in my discipline don't use the term significant unless they mean statistically significant, because the former is informal shorthand for the latter among peers.

eta: IOW, to someone who isn't in crop science "insecticide resistant" makes sense.

[yellowcanine]

21. It takes away from the credibility of the authors though to use technical terms incorrectly.

It suggests that they may not know the subject all that well.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Luminous Animal]

18. Kick.

[GoneOffShore]

22. A kick for your post

[DainBramaged]

23. MONTHS ago when this film was released, I linked the trailer to it in the lounge

I don't think there was one reply.


The DU bandwagon, always full.

[peekaloo]

24. That guy who equated the smell of chicken shit to the smell of money

and then couldn't comment/allow filming on his "chicken farms" because he was basically ordered not to talk by his corporate master(s) was an eye opener. Especially when the screen tag about how much money they spend vs what the average farmer makes was displayed.

Years ago my late aunt/uncle ran a commercial farm (produce/livestock) which was NOTHING like you see today. I hated spending the summers with them due to the fact I would bond with the critters knowing their ultimate fate but never imagined the industry would turn out to be the cluster fuck it is today. :-(

[Love Bug]

25. I have a cookbook that was first published in 1948

and I was really shocked when I saw the photos that illustrated how to carve a turkey. What a difference -- there was much less breast meat in 1948 than there is now. The change can't all be just because of selective breeding.

What are all of those extra hormones doing to us?

[ensho]

26. they are causing girls to bleed at 9 yrs. give or take, growing breasts

at a much too young age. giving women bigger breasts.

giving men breasts and messing in many ways with their testicles and penis.