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October 2, 2009 Economic Illiteracy

Another reason why teaching at the university level is so delightful … I never need to come up with new lecture material – it shows up like a gift every single day!

A summary of the movie:
Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of e coli–the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farm’s Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms’ Joe Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising — and often shocking truths — about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here. Co-sponsored with Grassroots and Gender and Women’s Studies Department.”

I will not comment too much. Count me in for being psyched that companies are hoping to make profits by trying to persuade me to eat the food they grow and process. They sure ain’t gonna feed me better because they love me. Also nice to see the Biology Department and Economics Departments getting behind this event.

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