Food. There’s plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it?
Because most of what we’re consuming today is not food, and how we’re consuming it — in the car, in front of the TV, and increasingly alone — is not really eating. Instead of food, we’re consuming “edible foodlike substances” — no longer the products of nature but of food science. Many of them come packaged with health claims that should be our first clue they are anything but healthy. In the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by nutrients, and common sense by confusion. The result is what Michael Pollan calls the American paradox: The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we seem to become.
In Defense of Food shows us how, despite the daunting dietary landscape Americans confront in the modern supermarket, we can escape the Western diet and, by doing so, most of the chronic diseases that diet causes. We can relearn which foods are healthy, develop simple ways to moderate our appetites, and return eating to its proper context — out of the car and back to the table. Michael Pollan’s bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.
Food Inc.
Documentary filmmaker Robert Kenner uses reports by Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser and The Omnivore's Dilemma author Michael Pollan as a springboard to exploring where the food we purchase at the grocery store really comes from, and what it means for the health of future generations. By exposing the comfortable relationships between business and government, Kenner gradually shines light on the dark underbelly of the American food industry. The USDA and FDA are supposed to protect the public, so why is it that both government regulatory agencies have been complicit in allowing corporations to put profit ahead of consumer health, the American farmer, worker safety, and even the environment? As chicken breasts get bigger and tomatoes are genetically engineered not to go bad, 73,000 Americans fall ill from powerful new strains of E. coli every year, obesity levels are skyrocketing, and adult diabetes has reached epidemic proportions. Perhaps if the general public knew how corporations use exploited laws and subsidies to create powerful monopolies, the outrage would be enough to make us think more carefully about the food we put into our bodies. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
For students and parents:
The food system and the way we eat has changed a great deal over the years. Also terms placed of food packaging is new to many of us. This movie is a real look into where much of the food we eat in American comes from and explains why our food now has these labels. It does show limited scenes of factory farming which can be upsetting to some students. If this is the case you will allowed to leave the room during those scenes or go to the library during the movie.
For students and parents:
The food system and the way we eat has changed a great deal over the years. Also terms placed of food packaging is new to many of us. This movie is a real look into where much of the food we eat in American comes from and explains why our food now has these labels. It does show limited scenes of factory farming which can be upsetting to some students. If this is the case you will allowed to leave the room during those scenes or go to the library during the movie.
Fed Up
Fed Up shows how the first dietary guidelines issued by the U.S. government 30 years ago overlooked the role of dietary sugar in increasing risks of obesity, diabetes, and associated ill-health outcomes, particularly in children. Since these guidelines effectively condoned unlimited addition of sugar to foods consumed by children, sugar consumption has greatly increased, obesity has skyrocketed, and generations of children have grown up far fatter than their parents. These children face impaired health and shorter lifespans as a result. As the relationship between the high-sugar diet and poor health has emerged, entrenched sugar industry interests with almost unlimited financial lobbying resources have beaten back attempts by parents, schools, states, and in Congress to provide a healthier diet for children.
We all love food. As a society, we devour countless cooking shows, culinary magazines and foodie blogs. So how could we possibly be throwing nearly 50% of it in the trash?Filmmakers and food lovers Jen and Grant dive into the issue of waste from farm, through retail, all the way to the back of their own fridge. After catching a glimpse of the billions of dollars of good food that is tossed each year in North America, they pledge to quit grocery shopping cold turkey and survive only on foods that would otherwise be thrown away. In a nation where one in 10 people is food insecure, the images they capture of squandered groceries are both shocking and strangely compelling. But as Grant’s addictive personality turns full tilt towards food rescue, the ‘thrill of the find’ has unexpected consequences.
Featuring interviews with TED lecturer, author and activist Tristram Stuart and acclaimed author Jonathan Bloom, Just Eat It looks at our systemic obsession with expiry dates, perfect produce and portion sizes, and reveals the core of this seemingly insignificant issue that is having devastating consequences around the globe. Just Eat It brings farmers, retailers, inspiring organizations, and consumers to the table in a cinematic story that is equal parts education and delicious entertainment.
Take the Quiz... http://www.foodwastemovie.com/quiz-js/_
“Some of it is, ‘I don’t want that, do I really want leftovers from last night? Nothing wrong with the food, it’s probably going to taste okay, but I had it last night and so I have to have it again tonight? We’ve got enough money to buy a whole brand new meal,’ so that’s part of it, a wealthy society“ Grant’s brother
“If this was what I had, and there was an hour left in the market, that one bunch of chard would sit there and no one would buy it. But if I had 30 bunches of chard, all bursting out, I’d probably sell, like, 25 of them. So what does that say? People totally impulse shop, and they think if there is one left, then there is something wrong with it.” Delaney Zayac, Farmer, Ice Cap Organics
Featuring interviews with TED lecturer, author and activist Tristram Stuart and acclaimed author Jonathan Bloom, Just Eat It looks at our systemic obsession with expiry dates, perfect produce and portion sizes, and reveals the core of this seemingly insignificant issue that is having devastating consequences around the globe. Just Eat It brings farmers, retailers, inspiring organizations, and consumers to the table in a cinematic story that is equal parts education and delicious entertainment.
Take the Quiz... http://www.foodwastemovie.com/quiz-js/_
“Some of it is, ‘I don’t want that, do I really want leftovers from last night? Nothing wrong with the food, it’s probably going to taste okay, but I had it last night and so I have to have it again tonight? We’ve got enough money to buy a whole brand new meal,’ so that’s part of it, a wealthy society“ Grant’s brother
“If this was what I had, and there was an hour left in the market, that one bunch of chard would sit there and no one would buy it. But if I had 30 bunches of chard, all bursting out, I’d probably sell, like, 25 of them. So what does that say? People totally impulse shop, and they think if there is one left, then there is something wrong with it.” Delaney Zayac, Farmer, Ice Cap Organics