The Future of Food

Tonight I watched the film above, The Future of Food. You can watch the whole thing, for free, on Hulu. (Or here on my blog if you so chose) You can learn more about how corporations are trying to run [ruin] the food supply at The Future of Food website.

Another great movie covering more of the food supply is Food, Inc.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist. But in my lifetime I’ve witnessed major food related issues among so many people I know. Too many. For years I’ve heard about this stuff and thought– what a bunch of whacko’s. But the more you learn, the more those whacko’s make sense.

As I wrote about a few weeks ago, Kristen and I are making a serious commitment to change both the food we eat and the way we get it. Our hope is to reduce our food waste by 25% by composting, buy most of our vegetables and fruit locally buy belonging to a CSA and shopping at a farmers market, and planting our own organic garden. (see the pictures of our garden)

So far, we’ve kept those commitments. And it hasn’t been hard at all. We’ve enjoyed tons of our own fruit from the yard and last week we started an abundant harvest of fresh lettuce. Today, Paul and I went out and bought a few more veggies, so we have tomatoes, herbs, and jalepenos coming in the next couple months. (And our compost worms are hard at work 24 hours a day eating our food waste!)

Our next steps involve increasing the percentage of food we buy from local producers, working out a local free range source of meats and fish, and finding a local bakery who is committed to non-GMO grains.

Maybe this all sounds a bit nuts? The truth is, it’s a lot of fun! We love starting a garden. We love the discipline of spending less at the monster mega-supermarket. And we love seeing what sorts of crazy things appear in our CSA box each week. Even more crazy is that I don’t think its costing us any more money per month.

There’s something so enjoyable about developing a more intimate connection between what we eat and the people who produce it.

Oh faithful reader: What are steps you are taking to be more socially responsible about the food you eat?

Comments

2 responses to “The Future of Food”

  1. Bethany Avatar

    Great post–and amazing garden photos! I live in Minnesota, so I’ve been starting to plan my garden–although I’m a little jealous of your climate because the fruits of my garden won’t be ready until April or May.

    This year, I’m also going to increase my composting efforts and try canning and freezing food for the (long!) winter. I’ve also been buying more local and organic food and creating meal plans to reduce food waste.

    I’m definitely inspired by “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” and doubt I’ll ever be able to live that locally–but any small step is a move in the right direction. And thanks again for sharing your efforts!

  2. adam mclane Avatar

    You’re about the third person who has said they live in MN but want to have year round access to local stuff. Hopefully, an entrepreneur is paying attention. A market wants something and is willing to pay for the privilege? Yeah- you’d think supply/demand would take care of this.

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