Food, Inc.

I recently watched the documentary Food, Inc. and am still processing it and how I want my family to eat and view food differently.

I was shocked and appalled by it while watching. However, after thinking about it for awhile, I've decided that while the truth of it is disturbing, the movie itself is fairly alarmist and meant to be shocking. If you have not seen it, you should! It is important for us to think about how our food is produced and processed, particularly since we are so far removed from the process, unless you are raising your own meat and growing your own vegetables.

One of the particular evils that is being committed is our reliance on corn. Corn by-products are in so many processed foods! Corn is heavily subsidized by our federal government and therefore cheap to produce. Because of its low cost, it is also put in many processed foods instead of sugar or other natural sweeteners (read: high fructose corn syrup). Corn is also fed to chickens, cattle, pigs to fatten them up more quickly for slaughter. So, if corn is being used to fatten up animals, what is this reliance on corn in our food supply doing to us? Fattening US up.

Since corn is just about the only crop we produce and we produce it so cheaply because of these government subsidies, we basically control the world's food supply since other countries cannot compete with us in corn, so they end up importing it from us. This, in turn, makes them vulnerable to oil shocks, due to the cost of shipping the corn overseas, which we saw when oil spiked to $4/gallon, which it is also forecasted to hit again this summer. There were food riots around the world because of the shortages. So, we continue to get fatter while the rest of the world starves.

So, what this means for our family is me trying to cut the corn syrup and other by-products out of our diet. I've been making my own sandwich bread and significantly cutting down on our snack foods and making substitutions, for example -- instead of pretzels and chips, snacking on nuts. If we want cookies or other treats, I'm making them from scratch. I'm blessed with a son who loves vegetables and accepts those as a substitute. I'm reading the labels -- not perfectly since shopping with 2 children isn't the most efficient way to shop. I don't want to be crazy about it, but I think this is a good next step for us to take as far as healthier eating.

Anyone else seen Food, Inc.? thoughts?

the elderly & immigration

My grandmother recently fractured her pelvis as a result of a fall. She couldn't walk and is in a lot of pain, but seems to be recovering. She's in a rehabilitation center/nursing home for anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks, and while she's unhappy there and would rather be home, she seems to be getting good care from attentive and kind staff.

I went to visit her this past weekend and while I was walking through the antiseptic corridors, I couldn't help but think that: (1) getting old is hard; (2) I'm going to have to go through this, or something akin to it, in about 25-30 years; (3) the effects of modern medicine on our society; and (4) who is paying for all of this?

In regards to thought (3), I recently watched a Frontline episode on this man who traveled to Germany to commit assisted suicide. He was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease that had left him a paraplegic. He still had full presence of mind, but his body was failing and he did not want to end up with a mind fully intact and a body that was not. To his detractors, he made the point that if not for modern medicine, he would already be dead as the only way he was currently alive was because of the respirator that he was on day and night. While I disagree with the decision he made to end his own life, I do wonder about modern medicine and how God sees it. I think that in many, if not most, ways modern medicine is a miracle that God has allowed to happen. There have been countless numbers of people whose lives have been saved because of modern medicine. There are many people's lives who depend on prescription drugs in order to stay alive and those numbers swell as people get older.

Because we can keep people alive longer (which is a good thing! I have all 4 of my grandparents and am so blessed to have them), our population is aging at an alarming rate. I was recently listening to Robert Reich in a segment on Marketplace (one of my favorite NPR shows) and was incredulous to learn that 30 years ago, there were 5 workers for every retiree. In a few decades, there will be 2 workers for every retiree. Though it's not in the article, there are currently 3 workers for every retiree.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that this is unsustainable. His solution? Get immigrants paying into social security. Immigrants tend to be young and have many children, which will get more workers paying into the system.

I personally have never seen the social security taxes that were taken out of my paycheck as something for me -- I've always seen them as something for those currently retired. I don't honestly expect to see any of that money in my elderly years. I'm glad that my grandparents have it and that my parents, most likely will. I think I need to plan on having lots of kids to take care of me in my old age (that and careful retirement planning now)!