Film: Food Inc.: I’d Be Scared To Be A Kid These Days.
7July 7, 2009 by Citizen192
With one jarring statistic, Food Inc. sent me home questioning the food distribution system in the US. From the film, “one in three children born after the year 2000 will be diagnosed with early-onset diabetes. 1 out of 2 minority children born after the year 2000 will be diagnosed with early-onset diabetes.” How’s that for an epidemic?
Basically, we’re sweetening up our children a little too much these days. And though Robert Kenner’s documentary — about the way food is produced, distributed and sold in America — vilifies slaughterhouses and meat packing distributors, the movie also investigates the problem of having major corporations subsidized, specifically corn farmers, allowing the market to justify the sale of a 2L of Coca-Cola to ring up cheaper than a head of broccoli, or a handful of carrots and potatoes.
One scene follows a Latino family who blatantly states that it’s cheaper to feed their daughters hamburgers when a head of broccoli is $1.29 a pound. And it makes sense. It’s hardly ignorance when people’s pockets are guiding them. Let’s see: save for your child’s dentist appointment and buy a “Happy Meal” or splurge on carrots, Organic greens and $4 Organic milk and diss the savings? It’s a tough question millions of families have to answer each day.
Peep the clip below, watch the flick and, if you’re a rebellious farmer, watch out for Big Brother’s private investigators.
Category Mexico City | Tags: Film, Food Inc., Movies, Video
And then you ate a burger …
Yup. I went to Dinosaur BBQ in Downtown Rochester the next day and ordered a medium burger with Cheddar cheese (though they put American, bleh), some fries and Cajun corn.
Oso and I saw that the day it came out. I had a problem with the scene you mention. I don’t think it’s 100% true that it’s cheaper to feed your kids crap. Part of it is just laziness on the part of the parents, part of it is education, and part of it is access.
In that scene, they show the daughters putting pears on the scale, which are posted as 99 cents/pound; the older daughter puts them on the scale and tells the sister: “see we could only get 3 of them.” Um, three pears for $1? That’s cheap! Then they flash to the soda which is 4 2 liters for $5. How is that a better value than the pears?
As for that head of broccoli, 2 lbs of broccoli ($2.60), a bag of whole wheat pasta ($1.50 at most) and a can of tomatoes (can’t be more than $2) will get you a full meal for less than it costs you to buy fast food hamburgers for the family. I happen to make that meal all the time and love it. In fact, I had it for dinner and lunch on Sunday and Monday. So, I have to say that a lot of this could be helped if the parents put a bit more energy into the search.
A bigger problem than the cost is the fact that you can’t find real grocery stores in the ghetto:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1365/is_12_29/ai_55100689/
so kids end up eating cool ranch doritos from the 7-11 instead of real food. They may not even know what real food looks like. This is where education comes in. It’s critically important for kids to know what’s good for them. A lot of us take that for granted, but it was brought home to me when I was at the grocery store in New Orleans buying a head of broccoli and the cashier asked the woman next to her: “What this is?” Grammar issues aside, SHE WORKED AT A GROCERY STORE AND DIDN’T KNOW WHAT BROCCOLI WAS. Now, maybe it was her first day, but really.
I also think those parents in the clip could benefit from the same knowledge. I bet it’d be easier for them to go to the grocery store and put together a healthy meal if they were armed with more knowledge than just what advertisers had thrown at them.
I need to see this film. I agree with Catherine that education and access also play a huge role in the choices people make about food, in addition to price. Food is much cheaper in the US than in most other countries and people generally need to spend a much smaller percentage of their income to eat then in the rest of the world. So their is a degree of choice about what we are willing to invest in healthy food, and its sad if the fast food industry and cheaper, less nutritious foods have convinced us that we should be willing to spend so little on such an important thing as what we put into our bodies!
Childhood obesity in Mexico is competing with the US for the worst in the world, and you really can see how education and access play a role. The government-run, cheap grocery store in my neighborhood doesn’t even have a fresh produce section; you have to go to the fancier (and more expensive, Wal-Mart owned) Superama for that. However, people could buy veggies at the tiangis for much less, but somehow fried meat and tortillas still dominate every meal for most people. One of our researchers is planning to implement a project here in Mexico that would offer food education to primary school kids’ parents, along with weigh-ins and incentives that include giving them access to healthier foods for free or subsidized. I hope we get it going, it should be fascinating!
Do you remember those commercials with the toddler asking for “some more diabetes” as she asks for some sugary snack? Those always had the wrong effect on me. I read the articles and know the statistics, but those commercials just made me laugh.
Since I’ve started making an effort to eat healthier, I don’t think the $1 cheeseburger is much of a deal in the long run. Catherine is right, you can buy some fairly low-cost and nutritious food. In season produce sets me back about $7 a week at a small Mexican grocery on the westside (usually a couple of bell peppers, 3 cucumbers, 3-4 tomatoes, a couple onions, a few apples/plums/peaches/nectarines, 2-3 calabazas, head of lettuce, and 1 aguacate).
Did you hear about the recent ban on building more fast food franchises in South Central?
Cindylu, I did hear about the fast food ban. More info here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/12/AR2008071201557_pf.html
Not sure if it’s ultimately the right approach; banning fast food doesn’t mean nutritious food is going to become more abundant in these neighborhoods. I still think people first need to be empowered to make the right choices, and once they demand access to better food, the market will follow. Maybe there’s a community-organizing aspect along these lines that could be added to the sort of program Anna describes?
$7 for all that?! That’s impressive. I think produce is generally cheaper in CA (you guys don’t know how good you have it!), but I was proud of myself for getting: a pint of blueberries, a cucumber, a head of broccoli, a bunch of swiss chard, scallions and beets for $13 at the farmer’s market yesterday. Not bad!
Catherine,
Yeah, I love it. Actually, buying the produce makes me feel guilty for not eating it. I really don’t want things to go to waste, so it makes me stay home and cook something up rather than go out and buy something. I think the South Central Farmers did make an effort to empower themselves and their community by growing their own fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, they were evicted by the landowner.