One night while working at the Cleveland International Film Festival, I started talking with a guy about local foods. He was asking about local restaurants that have good food and use local ingredients. I recommended a couple that are right downtown, like The Greenhouse Tavern and Crop as they were both close to Tower City. Turns out he was from Portland, our old stomping grounds. We commiserated over the state of the food production system in America and how it is has been directed toward producing cheap food, rather than quality foods. We agreed on so many aspects of the local food movement. Then he asked me about the movie Ingredients. I had wanted to see this film, but it was full at every screening. Then he mentioned his name was Brian Kimmel of Optic Nerve Productions, the makers of the film. We talked about his opening at my old favorite, the Bagdad in Portland, the success of other showings, and the coming release of the DVD. Then he slipped me a DVD of the film.
When we lived in Portland, it was expensive. I was also very spoiled. I worked in a great natural food store chain and was always able to get organic produce that was ripe and ready to eat for dinner that day. On my days off, there were plenty of options with even big chains like Safeway for organics or local foods. Then we moved to Cleveland. We were so thrilled to buy near the West Side Market, but we soon learned that when it comes to produce, most of what was being offered was the same mass produced fruits and vegetables from far away. Chilean, Mexican and New Zealand produce all abound, even during the heart of the growing season. That is why I have become such a supporter of Cleveland’s Farmers markets. That is why I am striving this year to see just how much food I can produce on my own.
The complexities of farming and food production in the US can be pretty daunting. We have pushed the overall system to the point where quality is far less important than price. This system makes us unaware of what food really can mean to us. We spend less time and money on the things that we put into our bodies and more on things like video games and computers. We spend more time on our computers than we do feeding ourselves. That is why we have so many health issues in this country. I can say from my experience of watching our pennies so closely this year, is that cheap food has more preservatives, more sodium, more fat, more calories and less nutrition. At the same time, we are teaching our children that mediocrity in food is the best you can hope for and if you are poor, you cannot eat well. What we could be teaching them is a different story. We could be teaching them to grow their own foods, to be spending more money on vegetables than on chips. More on foods and less on video games. These are the feelings that I have developed on my own over the last few years.
So, I was finally able to sit down and watch this great movie, Ingredients. It was a reinforcement of all the things that I already knew, but it as more than that. It was filled with information of the state of the food system that we have. Some of the things that really hit home for me were that for the first time ever, the young generation is so full of processed foods that they are the first generation that can expect to have a shorter lifespan than their parents. One person in the film mentioned that we ignored all the problems we have with food, until we have a major pet food recall. We had multiple recalls on beef, spinach and the like and we were not concerned in the least. But a pet food recall and we were up in arms…. Why do we care more about our pets than our children?
The effects of fossil fuel pricing, mono cultures and bio diversity, urban growth, and economics are all issues that are raised and addressed in this film. If you get the chance to see this film, do it. Our current system is broken and needs to be repaired. Start by educating yourself about the current state of affairs by watching this film.
“No country in the world spends less money on food and more on medicine than the United States. It is clear, we can give the money to the farmer or the doctor.”
