This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land

I try to watch at least one documentary during my holiday break. It's an unwritten rule for myself. I have a long list of 'must-watch' documentaries I've kept in a book over the past 20 years. Everytime I hear something great about a documentary, I jot it down. And this time, I watched 'Food Inc.' directed by Robert Kenner. A very powerful critique on the Food Industry. Kenner interviewed Eric Schlosser, the author of Food Nation, and Michael Pollan, one of the biggest consumer advocate and author of the Omnivore's Dilemma. If I have time, I would like to get to know and read their work because it's fascinating!

The documentary opened up my eyes, and closed them too. In fact, I couldn't watch the scene when the hogs were squealing on a 'death' floor and lowered down to the slaughterhouse, and I couldn't watch the chickens put into a funnel then their necks sliced. It was right in front of my eyes and I realized I eat these poor animals! The film made a lot of compelling and convincing points particularly one that will change me (I just know it will). It is that the whole system of food is controlled by big companies and the food we eat are scientifically and technologically manipulated to meet the cheapest means to produce food which result in food that is NOT really natural. To hear food discussed in the point of view of the farmers was so profound that I realized I have forgotten about the farmer. The food system we DO see everyday is the 'veil' of marketing strategies - commercials, boxes - in the supermarkets which covers up what is really behind the 'kitchen.'

What I come away from the documentary is that farmers today are marginalized and operate very differently than the past. Most of them are controlled by big companies and the land and the planet are neglected in the process. The part that relates to everyone is that we have to make a conscious choice everyday on our 3 meals. Do we support the food companies who abuse and neglect animals, people (their employees) and the planet OR do we support those who respect all of the above? If we the consumer push for organic, naturally grown and grass-fed cattle, the food system would surely take a hit. I think it's time I wake up.

At the end of the film, I heard Bruce Springsteen's version of 'This Land is My Land, This Land is Your Land' and I watched that part 3X and really took into my consciousness the last words on the screen. I won't write them down here, because I strongly encourage people to watch 'Food Inc.' I don't always make the best choice in food but from now on, I think it is crucial and critical that I do. And, we should become more educated on the food system and understand its wheels of power that care more about the economics of food, and not necessarily our health.

Below is the audio of 'This Land is Your Land'. Sometimes we don't always see a piece of land for its value - but only for its monetary worth. But a piece of land is entirely spiritual with a life force. It sustains us by giving us a crop of food so that we can live. I think a piece of land only becomes complicated when we manipulate and abuse its original design and control it as our own. At the end, food production must go back to its basic form according to the documentary, where the farmers, the land and the consumer (us) are respected and seen as a holistic cycel of life. This message has to be heard more loudly and I'm grateful to receive it this Easter Holiday.