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.

A few Mexico City expats attended my friend’s short film screening at the Jewish Film Festival in Mexico City last night. Judy Mam (above) screened her film “Close Relations“, which has premiered in Italy and Palm Springs, to a packed theater. The film has also been shown in Park Slope and will be shown in Mexico City throughout the week.

The shorts program also included “39 Pounds Of Love.” It’s the story of “Ami”, a 34-year-old sufferer of muscular dystrophy who was given six years to live at the age of one. He enjoys whiskey, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, animation and anything else that invigorates his life with passion. After considerable dissapproval from his mother, Ami sets off on a quest to find the doctor who notified his mother 33 years earlier that Ami would live only until the age of six. He sets off for America from Tel Aviv, Israel and his entire journey is documented.

Trips to the States from Mexico City mean one thing: shopping sprees. The quality of products, from bed sheets to electronics, is laughable compared to the competitive power of the American market. In Mexico City, an All-In-One printer in it’s second-year of production will run about 1,180 pesos ($118 at 10-1). At Best Buy, I can get an Epson All-In-One for $70. In Mexico City, 300 thread, 100% cotton sheets will run about $100. All I need is a Macy’s sale to get some 600 thread for $50.

But I don’t think about traveling to New York City or Los Angeles to purchase sheets. Polaroid 600 film is usually the top item on my shopping list. Production is set to cease on the film in August of 2009, unless supplies is already depleted to extinction. I’m sure that won’t happen considering the cost of ten photos runs around $16.99. And the price is going up.

So when my good friend Rochelle emailed me a link to Poladroid, I went berserk. Not because the application is fun, but because I just spent over $100 on a few packs of Polaroid film that I’ve stocked in my fridge. Why am I spending all of this money when there’s an application turning any photo I want into authentic looking Polaroids? Even the sepia-toned distortion is applied in the picture above! I usually need to wait for my film to expire for that to happen! But I love it.

Now I’m flummoxed as to what to do with all of this Polaroid film. Maybe I can sell it on eBay for a hefty profit when production comes to a halt. Or, I could keep shooting real Polaroids, stick my schnoz in the air and call myself a purist.