Pajiba

Ummm, delicious lard sandwiches.

As someone who really does buy into the organic hoopla (and affordably so with my veggie box share from a local farm), I have to say I laughed out loud on Sunday when I read a piece in the NYT from a guy who has been re-evaluating his expenditures because of a pay-cut. Apparently, he used to think nothing of spending $14 per gallon of milk and $57 on a chicken from his local Farmer's Market. WTF???

This doc sounds a lot like those stupid anti smoking ads.

It's stuff like this that makes me not want to tell people I'm vegetarian. They always want to discuss (i.e. fight) this with me and I don't care. Survival of the fittest. That's what I say.

What was I meaning to say, oh yeah? There was an article in my local paper about a lady who every two months does a "master cleanse" where she eats nothing for 10 days. What she does do is drink water, maple syrup and laxitive tea for that 10 days. The article reported that health officials say this is very unhealthy, but the lady SWEARS it helps her loose weight. I almost burst my spleen laughing.

Nicely done Prisco. I, for one, don't but into the whole organic label since the regulation really isn't there. I have a lot of organic farmers in my municipality and, quite frankly, they're full of shit. For example: Farmer 1 buys seed from Farmer 2. Farmer 2 is not organic and never has been. Farmer one then either grows and sells or just sells said grain as organic. (after an appropriate mark-up)

Totally legal.

Of course it helps her loose weight. She's friggin' starving. I'd be surprised if she didn't loose weight. It was the way the article was written, like she discovered this fantastic diet that really works.

Oy, I hope this doesn't reignite the fray when this book was reviewed. New thing to fuss over: it's LOSE weight, not LOOSE weight. People want to lose weight so their clothes will be loose. I tell my ninth graders to remember it's one "o" because you don't want to lose something twice. If you're going to make fun of someone doing a Master Cleanse, at least spell shit correctly!

BWeaves, I have a friend who "cleanses" regularly. She describes it as a spiritual experience, and frequently goes longer than the ten days because, she says, she feels sooo good doing it that she doesn't "need" to eat. She is also in a cult, with a Supreme Master and everything. Not that there is any connection.

As a yoga teacher and a general health-foodie, I'm reluctant to get into the discussion because you're all going to think I'm the one hiding your hamburger.

I will say this though: if you don't know the food you eat is shit, it's your own damn fault. It's like the smoker who whines to his congressman that the evil tobacco companies brainwashed him, when they've only been putting warning labels on cigarette cartons for the past, what, thirty years, and not to mention he wakes up every morning and coughs half a carton of malignant lung tissue into his bathroom sink.

Point being, when you eat good food regularly you can taste the chemicals in the other kind of food. You don't have to be a vegetarian or vegan or a raw foodist or a fruitarian or whatever. Just eat less of better quality. You'll learn to avoid the mass-produced corporate soylent green because you recognize it tastes of chemicals (and people).

I've cleansed a couple of times -- it seemed like a good idea knowing about all the leftover dreck hanging around my colon. First, it's not that bad of an experience. You just get a little hungry. Second, you feel great after, and you definitely lose weight. Third, whatever you eat after you go off the cleanse tastes twice as good as you can imagine (even if you can imagine quiet a bit).

Fourth, to anyone who talks about wishing to get into shape or eat healthier or whatever while they're chowing down a double chili cheese whopper with extra fries, you can casually and pointedly mention that by the way, you once went half a month without eating. No need to smirk or be smug. You can just bask in the self-apparent glow of your own inarguable superiority.

Of course, if you don't also do yoga you're still living in a world of self-delusion. Loser.

I, uh, also just finished a cleanse and I'm going back for more. Just so you know how judgmental to be, I did the mild stuff - where you take herbal caplets, drink metric fucktons of water, and eat food, just a bit less and of higher quality.

After, I felt pretty damn good. The hard part is just preparing the good stuff (wasn't too bad price-wise but I live in Hippieland) and drinking the water. I won't be doing the 'Secret Starvation Cleanse' mentioned above though. That's for assholes with nothing better to do than lounge around and watch their BM's. (Ew.)

I am gonna go full tilt because I found a serious gut buster plan for free online, and it makes sense and includes plenty of food so I figured why not? Small investment in longevity and fighting the middle age spread and hormonal wack-a-doo I'm going through.

And the food I do eat now tastes unreal. So good! And me and my brother both modeled in the Kraft Dinner Kids campaign as kids. I know the allure, but I'm ready to move on.

While I don't totally disagree that the movie is preaching to the choir and does not offer much new information to those familiar with the subject, I think your review does it a real disservice. Reading your review, one gets the impression that the film is basically a self righteous lecture on why you should eat organic and local food. In fact, it explores the political, economic, and agribusiness forces behing modern day food production.

Yes, if you've read Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore's Dilemma, you might find parts of the film repetitive. But I think many people would be surprised to learn that certain companies actively recruit in Mexico because they are so hard pressed to find employees for their slaughterhouses. The government turns a blind eye to these hiring pracitices and in exchange, the company turns over a percentage of the illegal immigrants it employs.

What about the fact that in 1996, Monsanto introduced Round-Up Ready soybeans that were genetically modified to be able to survive when Round-Up was sprayed over crops. The Supreme Court, in a decision written by Clarence Thomas, a former Monsanto attorney, upheld Monsanto’s patent of these soybeans. Now 90% of the soybeans in the US are these GMO Round-Up Ready Monsanto seeds. Monsanto aggressively sues other small farmers for “cleaning their own seeds.” They are not only put out of business, but blacklisted in their community.

Or what about the fact that government subsidies artifically drive down the cost of fast food, and lower income families choose to eat it even though they have desire to eat better but can't afford it? I'm not talking about buying organic or local, I'm talking about buying pears from the supermarket. When they're 99 cents a pound and you have $11 to feed four people, you're going to choose something that's cheap and fills you up. Children born after the year 2000 (no Conan jokes, please) have a one in three chance of developing type 2 diabetes. In minorities, the risk jumps to one in two. 50%! A 50% chance of developing a preventable, dangerous disease. It's unreal that that's the state of our society, and it's all our own doing.

So forgive me for disagreeing that the message of the movie is pointless just because "nothing's actually being done." Yeah, it will take a lot for change to happen, and when it does, it will be driven by consumer demand (as in the case of the WalMart example you mentioned). And how do you generate consumer demand? With awareness, which is the goal of this movie. Just my two cents- I think it would be a shame to pass up this informative, interesting movie because it's been portrayed as food for self righteous, $5 dollar tomato buying hippies.

It's kind of a serious problem to my mind, ed newman, when it looks like about 80% of our food is genemod at this point. I might not know that for fact, but what information is available is more than a little upsetting.

None of these companies are in the business of nutrition - they are in the business of shelf life. It's just fine if you don't care, but if you do - there's a legal wall a million miles high that will prevent you from even knowing what you've bought and what its quality is. We're pretty mad at China's missteps, why not our own agriculture business?

They still sell cigarettes, but they have labels. Your low-quality, overheated, enzyme free, snout-inclusive foods can't be labeled, according to law.

No, it's a valid point. And I do agree that food should and needs to be labeled as to where it's coming from and what it contains. And I find seed patenting ridiculous. But the point I've been making with the review is that, we already know this. Or if you didn't, well now you do, and it's still not going to alter your opinion on the matter. I'm not saying that people shouldn't be aware of the way the system works against us. I'm saying that we know the system is fucked up, making a movie that's only going to be seen by a select few people -- people who are already against the system -- isn't going to advocate change. It's worse than preaching to the choir, it's preaching to the choir practice.

And, ed newman, I'm on your side on this, but the fact of the matter is, the big corporations are the ones fucking this stuff up. Monsanto patented a seed, and is now using it's massive amounts of dollars to force farmers to use their patented seeds. When the seeds naturally disperse and spread, the patented seeds end up mixed in on farms where farmers never intended them to grow. And now, Monsanto can sue them for using their "patented product". It's totally bullshit. But it's also old news. They've been doing this for decades.

In the documentary, they point out that most of the politicians who are responsible for policing the industry are former -- or in some instances future -- executives at the big corporations. Thomas was a Monsanto attorney, and then he wrote the brief on the decision to defend the patent case. It's shady and suspicious, and one of the better parts of the doc.

I read a book with a similar message to this movie a few years ago. I've been a vegetarian ever since and never looked back. If you aren't swayed by the stories of tremendous animal cruelty and bioengineering, then perhaps you would be swayed by the terrible working conditions most low-wage factory employees are subjected to. It's an absolutely revolting and dangerous way to make a living. I know that removing myself from the factory farming system is a minor impact on their profits, but since I've been able to influence a few others to do the same, perhaps one day it will snowball into something they'll notice; a major loss in revenue, even with their abusive cost-cuts.

I like your opinion. Really, there's no need for information or enlightenment. Because it's just a boring endless and bugging repetion of what we want to ignore.

We don't want to know, and we don't want to see.

The best of it is, the Americans are killing themselves.
I absolutely love it this way. Keep on going.