The future of food
I don’t usually get to watch movies. Ever. In fact, the only television I ever watch is American Idol — and I only get to watch the little clips of the performances after the show airs because I’m in class. Anyway, I digress.
My husband sent me a link to this movie on Hulu called The Future of Food. Sullivan was napping today and I was cutting fabric so I watched it. Wow. If you have the time, go watch the movie. For me, this is like a horror movie.
Food is something that’s super important to my family — and farmers are at the heart of everything we eat. My family is vegetarian. Sullivan has been a vegetarian since birth. I have been a vegetarian for years. My husband has been a vegetarian for a year and half now (I think). We actually have a website where we share vegetarian resources in our community (it’s called WayneCountyVeg.org — if you happen to be a vegetarian in Wayne County, Indiana).
We’re lucky to live in a community where there are progressive food-related events and groups popping up. A few weeks ago I was part of a panel on urban gardening speaking to a group of seminarians. There is a 100-mile potluck every month and talks about community gardens. There are several CSA programs and we have a few farmers markets in the summer months that are really fabulous.
Still, the GMO stuff does scare me. In 2001 I was one of those people who had experienced a severe allergic reaction because of GMO corn in tortillas. I don’t want my kids to be guniea pigs for GMO foods and I’d prefer to know whether or not what I’m feeding them in good faith has been created in a laboratory by a company whose business ethics I do not agree with at all.
One of the things that we do is garden. And I am a seed-saver myself. Our garden is pretty small scale — just three four-by-four foot plots in our back yard. We have some other garden-patches where we grow random veggies and herbs, but mostly we grow pretty standard stuf — lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, beans. Stuff we like to eat. Stuff we eat every day. Stuff that I think I know is safe. But is it?
As we embark on our garden this year, I’ll take pictures and post our progress for you. Because of our hectic school schedules, we haven’t gotten much done — only two of the plots are planted (and our garlic, of course). All the photos in this post are of our garden last year.
I don’t know what the answer is to the GMO thing. I don’t know how we can win against big companies that want to control our dollars so badly they’re willing to hurt our children. I think that if everyone planted just a little garden like ours though — and did so by purchasing their seeds from safe sources — that might be someplace to start.
