Food, Inc.

I watched the movie Food, Inc. recently. It is a terrific account of the current state of the food industry here in the United States. The movie documents the highly mechanized food industry which is now controlled by just a handful of corporations. The films argues that these few corporations are mostly unregulated. It also argues that these corporations are greatly contributing to our growing obesity epidemic and exposing our population to food born illnesses.

The movie features interviews by experts Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan. I would definitely recommend Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma - its a terrific read. 

After watching the movie, I visited the official movie's website.

The website goes on to list educational information on important issues as well as lists 10 simple things you can do to change our food system.

I am very proud of our current government. In the past few weeks, 3 extremely important pieces of legislature has been or will be passed.

1. Meat, poultry to have nutrition labels by 2012
2. President to Sign Landmark Child Nutrition Bill
3. Obama to Sign Bill to Improve U.S. Food Safety

This is amazing. We now have:

• new legislation that gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration unprecedented powers to keep the nation's food supply safe
• a bill which sets nutritional standards for all food sold in schools, and mandates an increase in the meal reimbursement rate for the first time in over three decades and also expands enrollment of already-qualified students in federal meal programs, provides funding for farm-to-school programs, and expands access to breakfast programs.
• labels will be mandatory on 40 popular cuts of meat and poultry products beginning in 2012, a measure that will make it easier for consumers to understand the content of the foods they buy

All three of these issues were specifically discussed in the movie.

This is terrific news for all Americans and will hopefully lead to a healthier and better informed consumer.