Thrifty Thursdays: What Are You Eating?

I just read a review of a movie called Food Inc. I haven’t seen it yet, but word is that it’s scarier than most horror movies (Halloween? Eat your heart out, Rob Zombie!). If you haven’t heard about it yet, the documentary, by Robert Kenner, delves into our nation’s food industry.

The picture, reportedly, isn’t pretty. Kenner exposes some unsettling facts about what we are eating and how our food is produced and controlled by a few powerful food companies. There’s the requisite undercover footage of the shocking way animals are raised for food. The revelation that much of what we eat and what the animals we eat are fed has been unrecognizably altered -- and rendered unhealthier -- by the infusion of cheap corn products. That even if we don't choose fast food for our families, we are, in fact, still eating food that could be classified as junk food.

This is somewhat familiar ground, covered recently by similar films like Supersize Me and Fast Food Nation and Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I, for one, have been paying attention to the food I put on my table since I became pregnant with my son nine years ago. The idea that I may have to spend a fortune buying exclusively organic or grow my own produce and livestock if I want to be completely free of food that’s been tinkered with, is, to put it mildly, appalling.

But I know my family is lucky to be able to make any food choices at all. Food Inc. reportedly features a low-income family that has no option but to buy fast food because it is cheaper and more filling than produce. That says it all about how wrongheaded our food system has become.

Have you ever had to stretch your food budget by choosing foods that you knew were less healthy? What do you think is the answer to making needed changes in the way we grow and produce the food we eat?

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