Food Inc.

It had to happen, someone had to make a documentary based on two of the most influential recent publications on food, Fast Food Nation (Eric Schlosser), and the wonderful tale told by Michael Pollan in The Omnivores Dilemma (www.michaelpollan.com).

My brief conclusion is simple: SEE THIS MOVIE and get others to see it.

It is compelling, worrying and mostly convincing. The way we produce and consume our food in the industrial agriculture economy should have us signing up at the local vegetarian society.

One of the most compelling aspects of the movie was its attempt to take us inside a chicken farm. Apart from one brave farmer, no farmer would allow the cameras into the darkened chicken sheds. Why? Why the secrecy? It is nearly impossible to get cameras into these animal factories. The farmers that I know all welcome visitors to their farms. They take time to explain what is going on. They answer questions, even when ignorant city folk haven't a clue about how food is actually produced. But the doors of the big factory farms are shut tighter than North Korea's democracy movement. I am suspicious.

So suspicious that I will not eat chicken or pig, or beef because I don't trust where it comes from. I do not wish to participate in the ritual abuse of other species. I don't believe it is wrong to eat other species. But how we have turned them into mere protein machines is ethically wrong. Don't buy chicken unless you know that it has been raised free range, or organically.

The film offers a powerful indictment of the marriage of corporate capitalism with mass industrialisation. We need industrialisation to feed the growing world, but we must limit the cruelty and abuse of workers that occurs in these industries. The only way we can get the message through is to NOT BUY THIS STUFF. Buy from farmers markets where possible. Eat less meat (it won't kill you, despite the fears of some people that I know!).

But the film is not perfect. It did say we should eat only organic, but this is problematic for many people in the world. I am not convinced that organic is the only way, nor the only ethical way, to produce our food. Nothing wrong with it, and the idea is appealing, but I don't think it is the magic bullet it sometimes is sold as. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (May 12, 2010) published a review of over 98 thousand articles to assess the health affects of organic food vs non-organic. Only 12 articles were considered relevant and the authors concluded that: "
From a systematic review of the currently available published literature, evidence is lacking for
nutrition-related health effects that result from the consumption of organically produced foodstuffs". They did not conclude that there are no health differences, but just that the research cannot substantiate this yet, given the paucity of data.

There were some other issues I thought confused the message of the movie, such as the strong link between large corporations and poor labour laws and abuse of workers. The cause of this is not being a large corporation, but lax legislation and enforcement, and of course the power that large economic entities can exert. This is a powerful reason for ethical shareholders to hold these companies accountable, and demand strong environmental, social and ethical economic practices. Sustainable businesses need to make a profit to sustain themselves, but they need to do it within an system of ethical practice.

Please see this movie, if you haven't, and change the way you eat, if you need to.

Distractions

I love life. More particularly, I love my life. I feel lucky and life feels good. But that isn't really why I love my life. No, it is more that there are such possibilities in existence, such untapped capacity to go deeper and deeper into life, being, or essence. I certainly am not thinking of the Nike type of possibilities, to 'just do it', to go harder and faster and take on more things. While I understand the attraction of new additions to our lives, to travel and creating a bucket list to aim for, or edgy sports, I sometime wonder if all this novelty is not much more than a distraction.

Distractions take our attention away from something, they literally distract us so we don't see. The more interesting question is what we see when we are not distracted. When we are very present to our selves, our physical being, our minds, our thinking. It is these times that allow us to move deeper into our being, that experience of our self, the inner 'I'.

I was recently in South Africa at a conference, and took some time after to go on a Safari in the Kruger National Park. This was quite an extraordinary time, not just for all the magnificent creatures I saw, or the savannah, but for the other times when we were not out in the vehicle or walking (it was called Africa on Foot). This small camp was too remote for power lines and so we lived by gas hot water and paraffin lamps at night. It also meant that there was no television, no internet, no blog, no cell phone, no rugby results and no email. There was just searching for animals, looking at the stars, and then, after meals, reading and sleeping. We couldn't go walking off into the bush as it was potentially too dangerous. There was just rest, reading and being. No distractions. That was the best part, just silence (though I didn't hear the lions walking outside my hut one night; their tracks gave them away!). I can't recall ever feeling so refreshed, even with 5am starts each morning.

When I finally got back to Johannesburg for one night before flying out, I stayed in this cheap hotel near the airport. It was raining. So I ended up watching some rugby on TV, then channel surfing, watching three movies simultaneously, while all my 'being' said, 'go to bed and read a book'. Well, I finally got to bed, tired and late. And I thought this is such a stupid thing to do, fritter away my time with crappy TV programmes. It did nothing for my mind, my health, my well-being. It was such a contrast to the beautiful time in Kruger.

This Johannesburg syndrome was all about distraction and habits. I am not opposed to TV, well, not entirely, and it does have a place, but it can so easily suck our time and energy, and simply lure us away from our selves. Silence is a gift in which we can visit our selves, getting in touch and listening. The great gift of Kruger for me was this reminder to recognise the nature of distractions, not turn the TV on and take time to think, read, sit quietly with myself. That is enough and it is beautiful.

That's why I love life!

Back on Earth

Well, I am back again. Lost my old blog sometime in the last few months. It was probably something I did to offend the gods of binary script; I shall offer a sacrifice to propitiate those vain deities. I will not yell hatefully at windows when it next crashes (probably tomorrow). Windows won't crash at home because I am enlightened (i.e., use a Mac).

I will try to retrieve some of my old ramblings so I can admire my earlier thought processes. Or not, as the case may be.

Back soon.

SOE