I’ve been quietly ruminating over my impressions of Food Inc. for a little while now.
The more I try to collect my thoughts, the angrier I find myself getting. Actually, perhaps that’s not quite the right word. Indignant is probably closer to the mark.
The movie itself is brilliantly made, and walks the fine line between eye-opening/educational and graphic/sensationalism rather successfully. It’s an important movie, and one that I hope will get a more widespread release, because I think it’s something that people need to see. Here in Canada, (according to tribute.ca) it is only being screened at 2 theatres; one in Toronto and one in Montreal. I’m somewhat surprised that nobody bothered to get it into a major urban market like Vancouver, but maybe the powers that be think (like I sometimes do) that they’re a bit ahead of the curve when it comes to getting back to “real” food, anyway.
In light of that, I thought this would be the perfect platform to discuss what I consider to be essential reading/viewing material for those interested in the SOLE food movement. Some of these may not exclusively focus on SOLE, but in the instances where the overall message meshes nicely with those ideals, I have chosen to include them on the list, anyway.
So without further adieu…
1 – The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan - When I first picked up a copy of Michael Pollan’s seminal work, I thought it was quite a novel idea. The thought of tracing one’s food back to it’s source was entertaining, in a wouldn’t that be nice to know kind of way. I was never a big fast food/junk food supporter in the first place, but after reading this book, I found my opinions changed in ways I hadn’t expected, specifically pertaining to organics and the skewed view we all have of them. I’ve yet to meet a person who’s read the book and not had their food philosophy altered. If you’re interested in re-evaluating your relationship with food, this book is a great place to start.
