Our food

About a month ago, maybe more, I watched a documentary called Food Inc. It was great, as far as documentaries go, and I felt they laid out the information quite well. Food Inc. is about the America food industry today; I believe it was made this year or in 2009, so it's pretty relevant. The basic message is: we as consumers have no idea where our food is coming from or what is in it. Neither do we band together and rise up to demand this info, we're all just kind of okay with our more-fat, worse-tasting foods we are being given. I could go on, but I will stop there.

Funny thing is that this completely coincides with a book I started reading over the summer called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which is a great non-fiction book about a family's quest to eat local and grow their own food. Again, similar facts are presented about the food industry and how bad it has become in such a short time.

Well, I stumbled upon this article this evening and just had to post it. I loved it. I always like reading the posts that this guy writes. He is the author of the "Eat This, Not That" books and, although I am one of few who should eat "that" not "this", I still love reading these articles.

And what do you know, the first thing he writes about is the beef industry, which was a topic in Food Inc., which said the same thing: the beef you get at your supermarket, most likely, is actually made of many different cows. (Ew. I'm SO glad we buy part of a steer locally... now to find someone who has chickens...anyways...)

But the main reason I'm posting this is because of a bit of irony (or happenstance, or what have you.) The next thing he talks about is BacO's, those "bacon bits" that are somehow more like cereal than bacon pieces. Less than an hour ago, I was putting the cheese back in the fridge, and I saw our "Real Bacon Pieces" and thought to myself 'I wonder what those other, weird, bad bacon pieces are actually made of? It can't be bacon.' Now I have my answer.

Next bit of weirdness is that earlier tonight we played Fact or Crap and one of the questions was about the fat in avocados. I didn't realize they were so fatty! Anyhoo, the next thing he talks about in the article is avocado dips and how UN-avocadoey they are. Funny, because I thought that too last time mom got one for me (for a Mexican lunch thing at work) and I had her take it back because it A, looked gross, and B, avocado was one of the last ingredients on the list. That just didn't sound right.

So... in conclusion: go read that article, and if you're interest is peaked, as mine was, about this food-deception that seems to be happening, check out a book or documentary about it too. There's some definite shadiness going on, and I'm enjoying learning about it. You just have to be prepared for some things you might not want to know, because you WILL get grossed out at some point.