Yesterday was the longest day ever!  After we last “spoke,” I went to class, prepared for my discussion section, had discussion section (went really well for the first time yesterday woo!), went to class again, met with a professor, worked on the demographic forecast from hell and went to see Food Fight!

Ok, let me tell you a bit about Food Fight.

It was an interesting documentary about local/slow food.  The documentary centered largely around the local food movement started by Alice Waters in Berkeley.  Watching the documentary was sort of exciting since a lot of it took place in Berkeley and a lot of the interviews were done in Chez Panisse (remember when I went in January?).

Basically, the documentary critiqued the federal government for promoting industrialized agriculture through the use of agricultural subsidies for specific products and consequently degrading the quality of our produce.

I thought this was really interesting.  It really got me thinking about who to “blame.”  I know some people don’t agree with this, but I have a hard time blaming the federal government or specific people for things.  I think things need to be looked at in the context of a larger system.  While this film promoted local farming, which I agree is great, I was torn because I understand the rationale for industrial agriculture.

In economic terms, I understand that industrial agriculture creates economies of scale which are more efficient.  However, there is a disregard for quality.

I guess what I took from this documentary was nothing particularly new: our food production system needs to change.

For me, the larger understanding I gained is that it’s easy to assign blame to the federal government or particular people (yesterday in my discussion section, a girl said she “hates Earl Butz,” which I think is a little crazy), but I think it’s important to understand the underlying assumptions and motivations to what people do.  I understand that lobbyists are an important part of this mix, and I’m not saying that this is okay.

Local food is a little elitist and expensive.  A lot of chefs in the documentary admitted it, which I thought was quite refreshing.  While they talked a bit about poverty and accessibility, I would like to see an entire documentary on access to good food by the poor.  Local and organic isn’t cheap, I’d be interested to know how we can change that.  Is “voting with your fork” enough?

Anyway, I recommend the documentary.  Unlike, Food Inc. and other documentaries on local/sustainable food, this documentary is centered on the idea of good tasting food, as in eat local/organic because it tastes good.  I thought this was an interesting approach.

Have you heard of Food Fight?  Any interests or thoughts?

Have a fantastic day!!