Wednesday, January 13, 2010

my little tree-hugger


He makes his mama proud. =) Seriously though... Sam seems like quite the outdoorsy type. He adores feeding YaYa's goats, exploring fields with a stick, and feeling bugs. Now we just need to work on being able to cope with different temperatures/landscapes. Both the snow and the ocean totally freaked him out.

"FOOD, Inc."

I finally saw this film, and am so glad I did! It is free for internet download on netflix if you have access and interest.

Several months ago, I read part of Pollan's book,"The Omnivores Dilemma." I didn't have time to invest in reading it, but was disappointed to put it down because the information was fascinating. I was delighted to find that he was interviewed for this film! Joe pointed out to me recently that I'm an Italian at heart, and he's right. I firmly believe that the process of creating food ought to be enjoyed from start to finish! Pollan seems to agree. In the past 50 yrs, we have become so disconnected from our food. This film exposes how this has happened and what we can do about it. I'm so happy to see people flooding farmers markets where they buy LOCAL and in SEASON. I'm also thrilled to see more people interested in the art of cooking, thanks to the Food network.

I was challenged by this film to once again rethink my approach to food. The film ends by saying how much power we have as consumers. We can gradually change things by the choices we make in the grocery aisle. In our home, the first step is to incorporate even more vegetarian dishes. We will buy chicken only once weekly, so we can afford to buy organic. In the next few months, I want to learn more about cooking real meat (with bones and skin!) so that I can order from polyface farms. (They are interviewed in the film and happen to be local to us!) I'm also making an effort to buy organic milk and yogurt, even if we have less of it. (I've learned that rice milk is a good replacement in certain things.)I'm making granola bars and cookies from scratch. Now the only major thing I have to figure out is what to do about lunchmeat! We all really like it, and it's hard to find convenient replacements. I'll keep working on that...