Thursday, April 30, 2009

Food Inc...and the death of the family farm




















A the end of this post, is a clip from a new documentary.  I saw this on Cinematical today, and had to share it here.

Food Inc. is a documentary about where our food comes from...and what it means to the health of future generations, not to mention the earth itself.

When I was 18, I moved to Missouri. I'm not talking St. Louis either. I lived in the midst of family farms and family farmers. It's a long story how and why I got there, but the point is, I was there. Between 1976 and 1980, I saw the beginning stages of the corporate takeover. The family farmers going out of business, Monsanto Inc. and others moving in and buying it all up. I didn't really understand what was going on, but when I was 21, I had a pretty intelligent boyfriend. His father was a farmer, and his two brothers were farmers. He, himself, had already seen the future and gone into another business. He tried to explain to me at the time what was going on. He believed it was a conspiracy. Whether it was, or not, the consequences would be huge.

I remember once going home to visit my mother, and taking this boyfriend to the college town where I had grown up. He proceeded to get into an arguement with a couple of "college boys" who insisted that the family farmers were better off then most. They didn't think the government should help them keep their farms. At least they had something to sell, right? My boyfriend calmly told them that the death of the family farm meant you'd be spending three dollars for a loaf of bread, just as an example. They thought it was bullshit.

It all happened so quietly. Really. There were a couple of moans and groans...remember Farm Aid? But, for the most part, the farmers went broke, the corporations moved in and bought up all the land, and now the farmers are sharecroppers. I believe that 's the term I learned in elementary school. Sharecropper? They work the land, but they don't own it. Or if they own it, they don't control it? To tell you the truth, I have been out of the heartland and in the big, bad city for so many years, I have lost touch with any notion of where our food might come from.

This new film is a must see on my list. Although, it may ruin my appetite, it's high time the truth be told. The clip here is actually the opening sequence of the doc. The credits. Very clever, very intriguing. Go and see it. Swine flu? Well, it's much more dramatic isn't it? But, the real story may be the one no one talks about. 
Food Inc. opens June 12th.



2 comments:

Terri said...

My family still farms in that Missouri heartland you refer to. They were telling me that Monsanto has pretty much taken control of all the seed corn, beans, etc that are sold in the world now, and have run all the independents out of business. I'm looking forward to this documentary, if I can find it here in the "heartland".

Hilarywho said...

I'm looking forward to seeing this - if it ever appears anywhere near me.

It's a shame what most people don't know, or don't even really care to know,about their food.