Today I watched Food, inc. It’s a documentary about the food industry—more specifically about the dangers of the industrialization of the food industry.

In Brief

Food, inc. was good. It was entertaining and compelling without being too preachy. In fact, exactly what they were preaching was even a bit ambiguous (I mean, they cast Walmart in a positive light!). They did a good job of not being completely biased. Food, inc is a movie that I think all Americans should see, whether they agree or disagree.

In Full

Food is an incredibly intimate part of our lives. There isn’t anything else that we literally take and make a part of our very bodies. Where our food comes from deserves our attention and consideration. All of life is a matter of risk analysis, but the major food industry would like its consumers to believe that our decision making is risk free. It is personally irresponsible for us not to weigh out our risks when making our choices and it’s even more dubious for an industry to deliberately get in the way of that.

For me, I found Food to be really compelling—and convincing. The major companies dominating the food industry are too big and their pockets too deep not to fall under scrutiny.

We’re not talking about products we use to vacuum our floors, or get us to work. We’re talking about products we literally consume and digest. These are products which ought to be handled and produced with the utmost of care and concern for where exactly they will end up.

Food, inc was divided up into eight or nine short segments dealing with the major problems/dangers of our current food industry. From cattle sanitation, poultry production, employee treatment, corn, soy and more.

Now, I’m not among those who think that biological engineering is necessarily a bad thing in food production. Or even that chemical intervention is necessarily a bad thing. But only when done responsibly and with a real and honest concern for the people who will be consuming the food. Food, inc went a long way, I think, to reveal that this is not the practice of these corporations. Perhaps this scale of food production is too new for the problems to have worked themselves out. But we don’t need to way another 100 years for that to happen.

Food, inc also highlighted the major problems with employee treatment. Many of the ground floor employees are illegal immigrants. Rather than the companies being raided for their hiring practices, they’re sheltered from that devastation by turning over the individuals who pay personally. Illegal immigration is a big problem and these companies are making it much worse.

Food, inc delved into the topic of corn and soy subsidies. It told of how our subsidies are increasing foreign poverty by taking away local farmer’s abilities to grow crops for themselves. They also have the affect of creating a dangerous imbalance in food availability. Two hundred years ago, the wealthy were plump and fat. Today, the poor are overweight. Because the cheapest food is all made from subsidized crops. And none of it is especially good for us.

There’s no doubt that Food, inc has some propaganda-like elements, and so it should be watched discerningly. However, we would be fools to disregard it because it isn’t purely unbiased. (after all, what is?). There are facts floating around out there and they will matter to us one day, whether we consider them today or not. And they will matter to our children.

I think we would be wise to carefully consider and research the claims made in Food, inc and decide for ourselves whether the risk is right for us or not.

I’m not big on the cliché of New Years resolutions. I almost feel like setting something up as a New Years resolution is kind of sealing your fate before you even begin.

However, my compulsive nature loves the idea of attempting something I want to do in nice even increments. For example setting my mind to do something from January 1st through December 31st. An even 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, 31,5… ok, so maybe not even number increments. But in our time measurement, it’s satisfyingly complete.

So, this year, I’m going to attempt to take advantage of the nice even time increments and I’m going to attempt to accomplish something for myself.

Vegetarianism… sort of.

Yeah, you read it right. I’m going to attempt to be a vegetarian in the year 2010. While I’m not crazy about the way the food industry goes about acquiring meat, to some people’s dismay, animal treatment has nothing to do with my vegetarian endeavor. And, in the traditional sense of the word, I’m what most vegetarians would consider a poser. I’m alright with that.

I will be cutting out chicken, beef and pork in it’s whole form from my diet. What does that mean? It means I’ll still be eating fish (and some seafood), dairy, eggs and broths. With such a lax form of vegetarianism you might wonder why I’d decide to do it in the first place.

1. Health. Not that eating meat is particularly unhealthy, but the portions I choose, and are often offered to me, are unreasonable. And, being that I am an all-or-nothing kind of guy, I will have far more difficulty ordering a three piece chicken strips meal, than simply not ordering them at all.

2. Discipline. I believe discipline is contagious. Being disciplined in one area helps develop disciplines in other areas. I have had great success in my discipline of scripture study, but very poor discipline in areas of food consumption and exercise. Being that I’m getting older and my metabolism is no longer on my side, my eating habits must change. I foresee that a clear, across-the-board discipline in my eating habits is likely to stabilize the way I choose to eat.

3. Health, again. Having a specific set of ingredients that I choose not to eat will also force me to think more carefully about what I’m about to consume. This forethought is likely to have positive effects on the kinds of food I choose to eat in general. (i.e., fewer things from fast-food restaurants).

Video Blogging

This one is admittedly a bit more ambiguous in it’s intention.

For over two years now I have been blogging every day on topics that I find meaningful. Some of my posts have had more of my heart in them than others. But, the practice and the discipline has been good for me in a lot of different ways. This year, I intend to add video blogging to that regimen.

The plan, at least initially, will be to publish a new video each weekend in 2010. Thus far, the topics are unknown. The format is unknown. Just about everything is unknown. In fact, initially, It may just be me in front of my MacBook. This is all yet to be seen.

This is probably another resolve one might scratch their head at.

1. Unmet dreams. Call it a cliché,  but there are quite a lot of things that are very close my my heart, which I have failed yet to achieve. In fact, for various reason, I have failed to even pursue them. While video blogging on YouTube isn’t really even close to where I want to be, it is within the genre. I owe it to myself to do something and video blogging seems to be the most financially and personally accessible at the moment.

2. Hope. Much of the reason I have yet failed to pursue my true passions is a disillusionment with my own abilities and a fear of failing at my endeavors. By making a decision to do something, however simple it may be, I bolster hope that I might one day get to where I want to be.

In Conclusion.

With discipline, persistence, and of course, God’s grace, I hope to become a better person in 2010. Not only in a spiritual and social sense, but in my health and personal endeavors. I think these two resolves will help pave the way to seeing that hope realized.

Gone are the days of a forgiving metabolism that allows me to eat and eat and eat and never gain a pound. Instead, I’ve reached the unfortunate 20-something age of denial, in which I tell myself a 1:00am trip to McDonalds isn’t going to matter one way or the other. Unfortunately, I’ve only just begun to grieve.

The 34 my waste has been seeing since high school has started to flirt with a 36. Button up shirts I was lookin’ so slick in two years ago are threatening to start pulling. And, for the first time in my life I have a gym membership…that I actually feel guilty for not using.

But see, here’s the problem. You see, this is America and it’s my patriotic duty to eat (constantly) until I’m about to vomit, at which point a short break is necessary before returning to my patriotism. So how do I do my patriotic duty without slipping over the edge into greasy morbid obesity? Let’s keep in mind here that I haven’t found a woman with who’s judgment will slip long enough for her to enter a committed relationship with me.

These questions are of the utmost importance. It seems from my perspective that there are two major options:

1. Eat less. Pfft. What? Sounds like treason to me. The founding fathers would be rolling over in their graves if they could hear that!

2. Get some exercise. At first, this looks like a pretty good option. But then again, if food is ‘fuel’ for the human body and I’m gaining weight, it must mean that I’m simply eating ‘too much’. My daily activities simply don’t require as much fuel as I’m giving them.

But wait, let’s say that out loud. “I’m eating too much”. Will you listen to yourself. That’s crazy talk.

Oh well, looks like it’s back to the drawing board… right after dinner.

I never stopped to think much about the fact that Jesus commanded his disciples to gather up the leftover pieces of bread and fish after he’d multiplied them for the five thousand.

John 6:12:

“…Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, "Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”

It seems like, if there were ever a time where wasting food didn’t matter, it would be this one. I mean, they started with some barley loaves and two fish and Jesus turned it into enough to feed thousands, then still had twelve baskets of food left over.

Jesus created food out of thin air, then determined that it was crucial that none be wasted.

I’m sure there’s a lot to think about here. But my own first thought was about stewardship. Especially as Americans. We really are, in some ways, in a kind of Jesus-feeding-the-five-thousand scenario. This little fledgling country in just a few hundred years exploded into one of the most powerful, prosperous countries on the planet.

But now, in so many ways (from portion sizes, to the number of cars on the road), as a nation we’re really not treating the prosperity with the kind of reverence that Jesus treated the miracle.

It really makes you think. Waste, even when it doesn’t hurt anyone, isn’t something to be proud of.

My father made a trip to the wholesale club today. It’s something that he does every couple months to buy the things that get used up frequently—toilet paper, dish detergent, flour—mostly stuff like that.

Well, I happened to be around when he returned with a car load of groceries. After helping bring them into the house, I took the initiative to unload everything into their pantry.

A lot of it was bulky and difficult to nestle into tight spaces. At the frustration of moving thing around, I let out a frustrated sigh. Immediately I noticed how crazy that really was.

You know you live in a rich country when there’s so much food, it’s frustrating to find a place to put it all.

This is a weird place we live—but I’m grateful for it.

One of my family’s favorite dinners is orange chicken. It’s a recipe I discovered some time ago and now we get together to have it a few times a year.

As I was preparing it today, it got me thinking about my habit of procrastinating. Not on really big stuff, on trivial things that tend to add up and make for a real stressful time.

See, the trick to the orange chicken that everyone seems to love is getting everything prepped and ready to go before actually cooking anything. Get all the chopping and frying done, and the actual cooking portion of the meal only takes about 3-4 minutes.

I think this is kind of how life goes too. I guess if I could live my life like I cook my food, I could spend a lot less time stressed out.

Oh well, I guess not everything can turn out this awesome:

Okay, possibly one of the strangest-uninteresting things I’ve been inspired to write about here, but it’s where my gut is taking me, so it’s where I’m going.

I seem to be in a time of rediscovery. Coming across things I once dismissed for one reason or another and realizing that I love it now. I think it started with Macintosh computers. Then web & graphic design. Now, it’s Subway.

Not the subway, as in the series of interconnected underground railways. I mean the international chain of sandwich shops that hit the scene in 1965.

Years ago I dismissed Subway because they had this bad habit of being really stingy with the meat. Plus, it always seemed like I ended up spending $7 or $8. Frankly, it was just too much for what I was getting. Plus, I’ve always had this hesitation about buying subs since they’re so easy to make at home. So needless to say, I walked out and decided I’d stick to other quick-cuisine options.

Several weeks ago however, some friends and I discovered a Subway shop in Gambrills Maryland that’s open 24 hours a day. A small Asian man always arms the station at night time. He works slowly, but accurately and never uses too much mayo—unless you ask him to.

They seem to have corrected their meat portions problem and now that all the basic sandwiches are just five bucks, it’s really an excellent (and tasty) deal.

(You know, I should really be getting paid for writing crap like this).

Anyways, thanks for wasting a few minutes reading about my rediscovery of Subway restaurants. If you hit up a Subway, try out the Oven Roasted Chicken on Honey Oat bread, toasted, with Southwest Chipotle sauce. You won’t be disappointed. It’ll cost you $5.30 in Maryland. Enjoy.